Finding the plants that winter was hiding

I am really enjoying the adventure of walking the property and finding native plants. Some of them I’ve already shown here. There are so many I’ve never seen before that I take tons of pictures and then have to search for similar images. It also makes it easier once they have bloomed.

The native Mayapple are blooming

I am so impressed by their height

Prairie Trillium

Beautiful ruby blooms

Adding a Butterfly Garden

My first big project at the house was to start a butterfly garden. I was anxious to start, but the hubby kept insisting we wait to see what bloomed when spring arrived. He was right about that with the wildflowers along the edges of the property. For the butterflies (and bees and hummingbirds), I had my heart set on the sunniest spot…next to the garage. Finally the verdict was in….lots of weeds, hostas, lily of the valley and some tulips. I win! The west half of the area is mine!

We went to the Lake County Forest Preserves plant sale to get some sun loving natives over mother’s day weekend! Here’s what it looked like. I added some seeds to the empty spots to see what would happen. With all this rain and crazy weather not much is happening, but hopefully I will have some more growing soon.