#botney

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Blanket flowers (Gaillardia) are colorful, drought-tolerant wildflowers known for their daisy-like blooms, often with red centers and yellow tips, resembling Native American blankets. These sun-loving perennials thrive in full sun and well-drained soil, making them excellent for rock gardens, containers, and pollinator gardens, attracting butterflies and bees. They are low-maintenance, heat-tolerant, and deer-resistant, providing continuous color from summer to fall, especially with deadheading.

*edit this is a cultivated blanket flower not a wild one

[philosophyinateacup]

Common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) is a native North American perennial known as the essential host plant for monarch butterfly caterpillars, which feed exclusively on its leaves. It features fragrant, pinkish-purple flowers in summer and large seed pods that release seeds on silky parachutes in the fall, thriving in sunny, disturbed areas like roadsides and fields. While it spreads aggressively via underground runners, making it ideal for meadows, it's also edible when cooked and provides nectar for many pollinators.

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Blue vervain (Verbena hastata) is a tall, native North American perennial known for its spiky, bluish-purple flowers that bloom from summer to fall, attracting pollinators like bees, butterflies, and birds. It thrives in moist to wet soils, making it ideal for rain gardens, pond edges, and meadows, and is valued for its wildlife benefits, ornamental value, and traditional medicinal uses for anxiety, headaches, and coughs.

It is a host for the common Buckeye butterfly and verbena moth, its also deer resistant due to its bitter taste. The seeds are eaten by birds like Cardinals, sparrows and juncos

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The Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta) is a cheerful, daisy-like wildflower known for its bright yellow petals and dark brown center, thriving in full sun and well-drained soil. A popular native plant, it attracts pollinators like bees and butterflies, provides seeds for birds, and is deer-resistant, making it a low-maintenance and valuable addition to gardens, wildflower meadows, and prairies. It's a short-lived perennial or biennial that readily self-seeds, and can be managed by deadheading spent flowers or dividing the plant.

[philosophyinateacup]

Hoary alyssum, an invasive species from the mustard family, unfortunately its toxic to horses, and can be hard to manage, it can be useful in certain certain circumstances, like its a hardy cover for poor, dry or gravely soil, and is a good pollinator for bees and butterflies. It dosnt have any herble uses, historically it was used to treat rabies (unsuccessfully of course) and was sometimes used for mild discomforts like coughs but was probably just a placebo and dosnt work. Its also known as madwort or heal-bite in some places, its found all over Eurasia and Europe and is invasive to north America.

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White clover, the lucky clover 🍀 finding a 4 leaf clover is considered good luck, they are in the legume family and are sometimes used to replace grass on lawns, they put nitrogen back into the soil, provide food for livestock and also a great pollinator, the flowers can be used to make tea and you can cook the leaves to make them edible. (We got a little pineapple weed sneaking in for the 2nd picture)

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Yellow sweet clover its part of the legume family, the flowers, when mowed or crushed produce a sweet vanilla like smell. As a legum it put nitrogen into the soil and is a good cover crop for depleted soil, though it can be invasive and degrading to native grases by shading them out. Its a great pollinator and very beneficial to bees and other pollinators. While livestock can eat it, it can develop a toxic mold that can cause a fatal bleeding disorder called sweetclover poisoning

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Bird-footed Trefoil a low growing perennial plant that's in the pea family. Named that because the flowers look like birds feet. Its also known as "eggs and bacon" or "butter and eggs" due to the color of its flowers. Its good at keeping erosion at bay, and food for foraging livestock, but toxic to humans if ingested in large quantities. Its a great nitrogen producer to keep the soil rich in nutrients, but can get out of control and overtake other plants. Its also a great source of pollin for bees and other insects, and makes great food for many species of caterpillars