Several little purplish-brown stems emerge from the ground with sprays of narrow, creased green leaves at their tops, almost looking a little palm-like. Nearby are round violet leaves and grass-like blades. The soil is littered with dry leaves and bits of bark and other plant matter, rather than being fully covered in mulch.

Recently I shared a picture of last year’s tall coreopsis (Coreopsis tripteris) standing tall above me before I cut back the stems. Today I noticed this year’s tall coreopsis, not being quite tall just yet. So that’s today’s picture!

#2026photos #nativeplants #virginianativeplants

Several small trees and shrubs in various stages of leafing out for spring are corralled in a small section of dark green scalloped wire fencing. In front of them a small tree grows from the ground, and behind them a wall of white aluminum siding can be seen.

Today’s photo is me being very pleased with myself. Or rather, it’s the reason for my being that way.

In the midst of a spiral of connected problems brought about by my decision to plant the hazelnut yesterday…

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#2026photos #nativeplants #virginianativeplants

I could have planted something else there instead, but I wanted it to be a hazelnut because some of them have buds that are really coming along, & because I read something last year about plum/hazelnut thickets. (Need to read more on that.)

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#nativeplants #virginianativeplants #backyardforest

Vivid dark pink flowers with open upper petals and scooping lower petals emerge from short, reddish-pink stems on the otherwise bare brownish branches of a tree. The main branch cuts sideways across the picture, and in the background are a portion of a screened porch to the right and a light blue house beyond, with other buildings vaguely visible in the distance.

In today’s picture, after looking to be on the absolute verge of it for most of 2 weeks now, the redbud (Cercis canadensis) by our back porch finally began to open up its blooms today!

It’s spring now, everyone can get started blooming.

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…juuuuuuust beginning to look like something that could turn out to be leaves.

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#virginianativeplants #backyardforest

The other day we hacked up an Aucuba that was in the middle of it that we didn’t want to keep. Next to that there’s a little serviceberry growing, and I want to transplant the other baby serviceberries there to make a little thicket.

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#nativeplants #virginianativeplants #backyardforest

White snakeroot is *very enthusiastic.* So every year it grows up through the blueberry bushes & completely shades them out.

But every year they green out & bloom & try again.

I need to figure out how to help them…

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#virginianativeplants

A small flower with six rounded white petals and a bright yellow-green center appears beneath bright green leaves with toothed edges, and nestled among dry leaves. To the right a sidewalk runs, and edging of flat stones placed upright holds the plant into its bed. Some of the picture is in bright sunlight and some in shadow.

In today’s photo… strawberry season is here! (Fragaria virginiana)

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We already had pawpaw seedlings from the Dept. of Forestry, & chinquapin seeds too, but there’s no guarantee either will grow, so we thought it would be nice to have some that already got a start. Maybe more genetic diversity this way, too?

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The camera looks up from below at two pale, dry stalks reaching straight upwards and branching near their tops like candelabras, with the tips of each branch holding seedheads. A third stalk is partly visible slightly behind, and all are seen against a blue sky with rows of thin but fluffy white clouds.

Today’s photo is some of last year’s tall coreopsis (Coreopsis tripteris) catching the sun from *well* over my head, just before I cut these old stalks. I think these were about 8’ tall.

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#2026photos #nativeplants #virginianativeplants

I first planted woodbine probably five years ago, and it really struggled at first. But in the last couple of years it’s really taken off, & last year it climbed a lot of things. One of this year’s projects needs to be redirecting it to the fence.

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#virginianativeplants

Love the scope of this program! Virginia has a similar one through @forestryva.bsky.social, currently for Bradford/callery pear only. (See replies!) I’d love to see it expand!

If not in PA or VA, check your state - you might have one too!

#nativeplants #virginianativeplants #invasiveplants

A large, elongated, slightly curved open seed pod shows a creamy pale orange color with a shiny texture, while the backs of neighboring seed pods have a gray, hairy, roughened appearance. They sit on the ground among dried grasses and stems, in bright sunlight. In the foreground a few green blades of grass lean left and right.

For today’s picture, one of last year’s common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) seed pods lies on the ground like a little boat in the sunlight. Can’t wait to smell these blooming again!

#2026photos #nativeplants #virginianativeplants

Dense clusters of small leaves, slightly shiny, in various shades of light and medium green grow along slender reddish-brown stems, with more stems behind them and a layer of leaf litter underneath, and to the left a small section of concrete sidewalk.

In today’s photo is the narrowleaf meadowsweet (Spiraea alba) by our front walk, which decided to come out with green leaves all over all at once in the last couple days!

…which means I have once again failed to trim it back in time.

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#2026photos #nativeplants #virginianativeplants

Winter sowing update: I currently have 3 tiny baby yellow giant hyssops and 2 tiny baby ninebarks. 🥰

#wintersowing #nativeplants #virginianativeplants

The veins of a dry leaf remain where most of the connecting material has fallen away, though pieces of it are still there. The leaf’s remains are a pale clay color, and it rests in loose, medium brown soil.

For today’s photo, another ghost sighting! This one was I think a black cherry leaf (Prunus serotina). Found while clearing a new bed & regrettably covered up by accident when moving soil around. Oh well. It’ll do some good in there.

#2026photos #nativeplants #virginianativeplants #backyardforest

A patch of bright green, low-growing plants spreads out under the edge of a brush pile, with dry winter lawn grass in front of it.

Who else has a native plant they can’t stand & always pull? For today’s photo, here’s mine… catchweed, aka bedstraw, cleavers, sticky willy (Galium aparine), already trying to get ahead of me!

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#2026photos #nativeplants #virginianativeplants

Deep pink clusters of flower buds appear along one slender branch pointing toward the camera and others pointing in various directions. Beneath it the ground is covered in white gravel and leaf litter, and behind it are the white trim of a screened porch and several orange ribbons marking other small trees.

Today’s photo is the redbud (Cercis canadensis) behind our back porch getting ready to bloom. It’s bloomed about the last 3 years and as the largest one we have I’m pretty sure it’s responsible for the million baby redbuds we had last year!

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#2026photos #nativeplants #virginianativeplants

Coming home from the Shenandoah Valley Plant Symposium so very motivated to get outside and get to work!

But like, after this wind stops.

#nativeplants #virginianativeplants #waynesboro #WaynesboroVa

A close up of a cut-open two liter clear plastic bottle with blue tape wrapped around it and filled with wet potting soil. In the back is a white plastic sign with AGASTACHE NEPETOIDES written in grease pencil, and at left is a very tiny light green shoot with two very small leaves poking up out of the soil.

For today’s photo we have LOOOOOOOOK YOU GUYYYSSSSSS…

#2026photos #nativeplants #virginianativeplants #wintersowing

A half-opened bud shows shades of pinkish red on its outer parts and bright chartreuse on the inner portions, though those are tipped in pink. It grows from the end of a slender branch with a frosty appearance and smaller dark buds unopened along it. In the background, out of focus, are a dormant flowerbed, a sidewalk, and a residential street with a dark red Honda Elementary parked at the curb.

Today’s picture plans have been preempted by this black chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa) that has decided spring is here! (The others agreed with it.) Look at these colors! Such a bold choice.

#2026photos #nativeplants #virginianativeplants

The skeletal tracery of a piece of bulbous plant matter, very pale grayish beige, with ribs slightly thicker than the rest of the remaining structure, and generally shaped like a kind of fat pepper, is seen resting on loose grayish-brown dirt.

For today’s photo, the ghost of a ground-cherry! Probably longleaf ground-cherry (Physalis longifolia). Lovely little things - they look like paper lanterns when they’re growing. Found while clearing a bit for a path in the #backyardforest.

#2026photos #nativeplants #virginianativeplants

An almost neon yellow-green leaf bud emerges from a thorny reddish stem pointed at the camera, on a spindly plant in a black plastic pot. A variety of other plants in similar pots surround it, all sitting on the vinyl floor of an enclosed porch, with white beadboard behind them.

The little green buds on this pasture rose (Rosa carolina) that overwintered on our sunporch have been poking out more & more by the day! That makes me think I should hurry & get it in the ground, but there are a few nights of low-mid 20s temps coming.

#nativeplants #virginianativeplants

A line of roughly 6-inch rocks, variously shaped and mostly shades of light gray or brown, curve in a line to the right of a concrete sidewalk that itself curves to the left toward the front step of a brick house. Between the two curves is a planting bed mostly showing dark soil and leaf litter, with scattered bits of green and standing dry stems. To the right is dry winter lawn grass, with three loose stones and a pile of sod and dirt. At back is a small pile of decaying branches and bark, and in the distance the wall of a light blue house with neatly tended, dark green shrubs. The scene is shown in dim early evening light.

Today’s photo is a picture of our project for today, edging and expanding the bed by the front door that I spent some time clearing grass from yesterday! Common blue violets (Viola soraria) & nodding onion (Allium cernuum) grow here.

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#2026photos #nativeplants #virginianativeplants

This little native geranium is one of the first things to come out for me each year. It’s beautiful when it flowers, but even more striking *after* it flowers!

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Two black plastic seed starting trays and several cut-open two-liter bottles filled with potting soil are arranged on a silvery gray tarp. At right beneath the tarp is a glimpse of a dark brown wooden floor, and at left is some porch screen and a section of white framing covered in green algae.

Today’s picture had to wait while I rushed around bringing my winter sowing onto the porch & cutting open containers for the warm days ahead. So that ended up being my picture as well.

Not a bit of green in all that, & I’m a bit discouraged.

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#2026photos #nativeplants #virginianativeplants

A brown stem with a whitish-gray cloudy coating on it in places points straight upward, topped with a pale, slender bud with slightly curved pieces on either side. In the background, out of focus, are tall grasses and piles of brush, a light brown lattice, and the side of a brick house.

I walked around the garden in a soft rain for a while today, looking for (native) green things, but most of our garden is still in waiting mode. So today’s picture is a bud on our blackhaw viburnum (Viburnum prunifolium).

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#2026photos #nativeplants #virginianativeplants #backyardforest

A clump of leaves roughly the shape of hearts or of English ivy leaves are tangled together and colored a dark but muted red, with small bright green leaves showing underneath. Around it are bits of dry grass, soft green moss, and dark bare soil.

In today’s photo, a clump of heart-leaved foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia) in the bed I worked on the other day is still wearing its winter red, but some new green leaves are starting to show through!

This is just a great plant.

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#2026photos #nativeplants #virginianativeplants

Small bundles of tiny seedling trees are laid neatly in a row on partially snow-covered ground, with the roots pointing toward the viewer. The bundles are bound with green twine and/or plastic tags, which read from left to right (some of them upside down): Hazelnut; Am. Plum; [unreadable orange tag]; Persimmon; Black Gum; Oak, Black; Oak, Chestnut; Paw Paw; Oak, Chinkapin; White Oak; Gray Dogwood.

Today’s picture shows *almost* 60 trees!

When I unwrapped them to get a look at them & get them situated to wait for planting, I found that the bur oaks (Quercus macrocarpa) had accidentally been forgotten.

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Hope to end up with some of these one day! Once we make a better habitat for them…

#backyardforest #nativeplants #virginianativeplants