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Avatar for Chillybean
Sep 16, 2015 10:26 AM CST
Thread OP
Name: Kim
Iowa (Zone 5a)
I kill ornamentals... on purpose.
Enjoys or suffers cold winters Spiders! Critters Allowed Birds Houseplants I helped beta test the first seed swap
Region: Nebraska Keeper of Poultry Rabbit Keeper Celebrating Gardening: 2015 Garden Procrastinator Garden Ideas: Level 2
I was looking at a thistle here in the database and checked its native status. It is native.
http://plants.usda.gov/core/pr...

Yet, it's deemed invasive. Are the Dept. of Agriculture and other entities basing their judgements on a farming experience or true invasiveness? I know a native plant can be aggressive outside its historical range. In Iowa the whole genus Cirsium is deemed noxious, even if they are well behaved and belong here.

I have thought of sowing native thistle in our pasture, but figure the next owners will just dump chemicals on it. Which likely they will do anyway, unless they care about habitat. From the little we know about the history of our place, the area we call "pasture" has never been used for row crops because of the drainage. It was used by the previous owner for his horses.

I do not think I posted the link on this site of an article I enjoyed. I sure would like the bumper sticker someone mentioned in a comment. :)
http://prairieecologist.com/20...
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Sep 16, 2015 2:14 PM CST
Moderator
Name: josephine
Arlington, Texas (Zone 8a)
Hi Everybody!! Let us talk native.
Native Plants and Wildflowers Organic Gardener Million Pollinator Garden Challenge Butterflies Garden Ideas: Master Level Forum moderator
I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database! I helped plan and beta test the plant database. Charter ATP Member Plant Identifier Birds Cat Lover
I like Thistles and of course so do the Butterflies and Bees, I usually leave some in my garden. Smiling
Wildflowers are the Smiles of Nature.
Gardening with Texas Native Plants and Wildflowers.
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Sep 16, 2015 2:38 PM CST
central Illinois
Charter ATP Member I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database! Hosted a Not-A-Raffle-Raffle Million Pollinator Garden Challenge Plant Identifier Garden Ideas: Level 2
Celebrating Gardening: 2015 Avid Green Pages Reviewer Photo Contest Winner: 2014 Photo Contest Winner: 2017
Under-rated, but fantastic flower. Definitely a pollinator lure..
Nothing that's been done can ever be changed.
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Sep 16, 2015 3:49 PM CST
Moderator
Name: josephine
Arlington, Texas (Zone 8a)
Hi Everybody!! Let us talk native.
Native Plants and Wildflowers Organic Gardener Million Pollinator Garden Challenge Butterflies Garden Ideas: Master Level Forum moderator
I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database! I helped plan and beta test the plant database. Charter ATP Member Plant Identifier Birds Cat Lover
That is a gorgeous picture Jay. Smiling
Wildflowers are the Smiles of Nature.
Gardening with Texas Native Plants and Wildflowers.
Image
Sep 16, 2015 4:42 PM CST
central Illinois
Charter ATP Member I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database! Hosted a Not-A-Raffle-Raffle Million Pollinator Garden Challenge Plant Identifier Garden Ideas: Level 2
Celebrating Gardening: 2015 Avid Green Pages Reviewer Photo Contest Winner: 2014 Photo Contest Winner: 2017
Thanks
Nothing that's been done can ever be changed.
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Sep 25, 2015 4:25 AM CST
Name: Melanie
Lutz, Florida (Zone 9b)
Butterflies Enjoys or suffers hot summers Hummingbirder Birds Bee Lover Bookworm
Region: Florida Celebrating Gardening: 2015 Bromeliad Native Plants and Wildflowers Plant Identifier Salvias
I took this photo last September in Louisa, KY where I was attending a genealogy conference (and doing some butterfly watching during the breaks). It is very rare for me to ever get photos of more than one butterfly on a flower. This is one my favorite pictures ever. Oh, and that's a Great Spangled Fritillary and a Monarch for those who don't know butterflies.

Thumb of 2015-09-25/mellielong/0b8dad
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Sep 25, 2015 5:24 AM CST
Name: Cinda
Indiana Zone 5b
Dances with Dirt
Beekeeper Bee Lover Overwinters Tender Plants Indoors Cottage Gardener Herbs Wild Plant Hunter
Hummingbirder Butterflies Birds Lover of wildlife (Raccoon badge) Organic Gardener Vegetable Grower
I use to have a horse that would curl his lips back and eat the flowers off the big purple thistles. He had plenty pasture so all I could think he found them sweet enough to tough out the prickliness.
Our pasture here does not have any thistles (goats)
But they come up in the landscape . I leave them to flower but cut them before dispersing seed.I am often barefooted and do not like them in the lawn. Rolling my eyes.
..a balanced life is worth pursuit.
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Sep 25, 2015 5:46 AM CST
Moderator
Name: josephine
Arlington, Texas (Zone 8a)
Hi Everybody!! Let us talk native.
Native Plants and Wildflowers Organic Gardener Million Pollinator Garden Challenge Butterflies Garden Ideas: Master Level Forum moderator
I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database! I helped plan and beta test the plant database. Charter ATP Member Plant Identifier Birds Cat Lover
Gorgeous picture Melanie. Smiling
Wildflowers are the Smiles of Nature.
Gardening with Texas Native Plants and Wildflowers.
Image
Sep 25, 2015 6:19 AM CST
Name: Melanie
Lutz, Florida (Zone 9b)
Butterflies Enjoys or suffers hot summers Hummingbirder Birds Bee Lover Bookworm
Region: Florida Celebrating Gardening: 2015 Bromeliad Native Plants and Wildflowers Plant Identifier Salvias
Thanks, I was trying really hard to get a photo before one or both flew away!
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Sep 30, 2015 9:33 AM CST
Moderator
Name: Christine
North East Texas (Zone 7b)
Shine Your Light!
Heirlooms Native Plants and Wildflowers Organic Gardener Hummingbirder Bee Lover Herbs
Butterflies Dragonflies Birds Cat Lover Dog Lover Garden Photography
I'm with you, Kim! I thought an invasive species would only be defined as a non-native species, usually one that has a negative effect on the environment. I too wonder if it's according to farming experiences; still 'invasive' doesn't seem correct, the term 'Noxious' might be more accurate.

If the pollinators like them, so do I. Thistles are especially loved by bees and butterflies and the seeds enjoyed by many birds. We get lots of those huge Bull thistles (cirsium horridulum) here, and I let them grow as much as possible... even though dh will mow them down.
May your life be like a wildflower, growing freely in the beauty and joy of each day --Native American Proverb

Avatar for Chillybean
Sep 30, 2015 10:11 AM CST
Thread OP
Name: Kim
Iowa (Zone 5a)
I kill ornamentals... on purpose.
Enjoys or suffers cold winters Spiders! Critters Allowed Birds Houseplants I helped beta test the first seed swap
Region: Nebraska Keeper of Poultry Rabbit Keeper Celebrating Gardening: 2015 Garden Procrastinator Garden Ideas: Level 2
I tend to lean more that it's based on farming... think of the name "US Dept. of Agriculture". It is only after I became interested in natives that I realize how messed up our government is. And I am not thinking of politics so much, though it might play into this. But how the different entities must be fighting against each other to get what they want done. There's those related to development and agriculture and those related to conservation that would seem butt heads with each other.

Now the Road people plant native seeds in areas they've cleared in the ditches. But today... grrr... there they were spraying the ditches, likely with glyphosate. Why do they do that when there is a wind from the east? I ran out and doused the natives in my yard that might have gotten the chemical drift. And they went by so fast, I cannot believe they were very selective.

Look at the Legal Status of the Common Milkweed on the USDA site!
http://plants.usda.gov/core/pr...

In some areas the Common is what grows the easiest, which is ideal for the Monarchs, yet teaching people it is a weed is not helping anything. I guess moving out here changed my view of farming quite a bit, much of it negatively. But I was encouraged earlier this year when two farmers we know actually said they were leaving the Common Milkweed alone. There is hope that change will occur, even if slower and in a different way than I'd like.
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Sep 30, 2015 10:31 AM CST
Name: Melanie
Lutz, Florida (Zone 9b)
Butterflies Enjoys or suffers hot summers Hummingbirder Birds Bee Lover Bookworm
Region: Florida Celebrating Gardening: 2015 Bromeliad Native Plants and Wildflowers Plant Identifier Salvias
Kim, you could not be more right about different entities of government not working together. I used to work for my local county government. I was in accounting, but I worked in payroll for a while so I got to know a lot of people. One of those was the person who ran the Invasive Species Task Force in the Parks Department. Well, our paper ran a little gardening page each Sunday where the County Extension Service recommended things to plant at this time. And I saw that they were listing Bauhinia (Orchid Tree). Since that was on the list of invasive plants here in Florida, I emailed both departments asking why one department is telling people to plant something another department is trying to eradicate. I don't think I made too many friends at the Extension Service, but I noticed they dropped it from the list. So even at the local level, things are kind of a mess.
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