My first discovery about country gardening was the seemingly unlimited variety of native plants, which most people call weeds here. Weeds or not, many of them were captivating to me. First came the wild rose with its' variety of pink shades in small flowers that open wide for the sun and its' remarkable adaptability to bloom under any circumstances. I have seen wild rose blooms high in the treetops, opening from a single winding stalk along the trunk and I have seen them bloom less than an inch off the ground, forced by a mower to open low yet looking happily upward. Just as delightful were the dark purple blooms of vetch. Although I work hard to keep it out of the yard because it gets big, tall and abundant, I let it go crazy in the fields because there is nothing quite as fine as the sweet smell of vetch coming in on a cool summer breeze. I also discovered a little white star flower that first year that I have yet to identify, honeysuckle in pink, anemone in white and the fall joy of wild cucumber vine when its' seedpods pop-pop-pop, providing listening pleasure around the fire. It was impossible for me to pick a favourite until late that first summer when the prairie coneflowers opened up. All along the roadside, in the ditches and fields, miniature sunny yellow coneflowers with long, dark, detailed cones appeared suddenly and everywhere. Sunny, smiley and optimistic is how they make me feel. I have tried to domesticate many of these wild plants. I move wild rose that comes up in the road to the lawn edge and attempt to get it to climb the bush. Wild rose tolerates everything well but being moved. You can mow it down and it will come up over and over but if you dig it, it sulks. I move the pretty little star flowers from deep inside the bush to the edge where their blooms poke out from behind and between other plants as little white twinkles. I move vetch from the yard to the field edge. Only prairie coneflower has been awarded a spot inside the garden proper though. Last year, I got to the field before the thresher and moved four plants into my garden. They are opening now and all I can think is that the patch needs to be about twice the size it is now. If I am going to beat the thresher this year to remedy that, I better get out to the field tomorrow because the fields are ready to hay now. Since I am never good with garden deadlines, I may just have to cross my fingers that these four produce a good amount of seed!
