Our Missouri Yard – September 2025

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There are parts of my yard that I am enjoying even with the prospect of the big landscaping change that is coming (which hopefully will not impact any of the plants in this post):

The Missouri Evening Primrose is thriving by my mailbox (there is a tiny remnant of a prickly pear cactus underneath it that I discovered when I cleaned out the weeds earlier this summer…its growing too!) and a crape myrtle that seems healthier than in previous years.

The Virginia Creeper is crowing on the front steps and onto the bricks. I’ll enjoy it a bit longer than pull it down – relegate it to the horizontal surface of the front flower bed.

The chives are thriving in several places in the back yard. They were started from seeds harvested from my mother’s garden. They don’t seem to care if they are in the sun or shade!

The American spikenard – one of my first native plant purchases – is larger each year. There are violets under it (and a small pokeweed in the foreground). The fruit is beginning to turn purple. I’ll harvest some and try to sprout them indoors to plant outdoors next year.

There are a variety of things in the garden where a pine tree once grew. The iris leaves look a little burnt on the ends, but the pokeweed is full of berries that the birds will eat as they ripen. I am still watching developments…not sure of everything there although I like the surprises discovering the naked lady lilies blooming in August and the beautyberry that I planted…glad that has survived.

The area under the short leaf pine is full of pokeweed – mostly. As the season changes, I will enjoy its red foliage…then cut it down and clear out anything else growing under the tree….except the redbud (perhaps).

New Plants (in my yard)

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I added 4 new native plants to my yard recently: a red buckeye, another American Spikenard (the first is almost 2 years old and is doing so well that I wanted a second plant for another shady place), and two (eastern red) columbines.

The red buckeye was in the largest pot and I planted it first – on the east side of my house with violets growing almost all around it. I put some wood ships from mt daughter’s tree trimmers around the base. Right now the American Spikenard that is nearby is taller than the buckeye but that won’t be for too long. I hope it gets a good start this year and will – in years to come – attract hummingbirds when it blooms and shade the violets and spikenard through the hottest part of the summers.

I took a break from planting and trimmed the small branches that were at too narrow angles from the main trunk on the two young redbuds that came up in my yard…and that I am letting  grow.

I had the two columbines and the American spikenard still to go.

The spikenard’s new home is on one end of the hosta garden. The area is between hollies and a eastern white pine….shady all the time. I propagated the hostas from dense beds that were planted before we bought the house and now there will be an American Spikenard there too. It will be towering over the hostas by next year!

I planted the two columbines in an area I had planted some milkweed last fall…but it didn’t come up. So now there are two columbine plants there…with mulch around them. The area is sunny for most of the afternoon.

There is a shortleaf pine nearby and I noticed some spring developments on that tree as I gather up my tools and the emptied bin from the wood chip mulch.

The yard is changing – little by little – into the yard I want…less grass and more variety of plants and animals!

Our Yard – March 2025

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The crocus and maple are in bloom! The first blooms of spring 2025.

The daffodils and irises are up – but there are no bud stalks yet.

The rhododendron is full of buds that seemingly made it unscathed through the very low temperatures we had in February.

The shortleaf pine is beginning to drop some cones. I’ll pick them up to avoid mowing over them…and take them to my sister to use for craft projects with her grandson.

Our big wind chime tells us that it is windy outside most of the time – typical for March. It is large enough to sound like distant church bells.

The hens and chicks seem to have grown over the winter. I need to clean up the debris around them…maybe take out more rocks so they can expand more easily.

The only yard work I’ve done so far is cutting some ‘trash trees’ that were growing up into the holly, beginning to trim the yew hedge to make mulch for areas I don’t want grass to grow, and transplanted an eastern redcedar that came up too near our patio to a place where there is enough room for it to grow and provide privacy to the patio as I take remove non-native Japanese barberry bushes.

There is still plenty to do in the yard but I am doing it in sessions of less than an hour…building up for when I start mowing!

Phelps Grove Park

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Last week the Identifying Woody Plants class walked to Phelps Grove Park to add more trees to our list. I used my point-and-shoot (Canon Powershot SX730 HS) to capture some features of the additional trees (plus some trees already on our list). The temperaature was in the 70s…perfect for the hike…but the leaves are beginning to fall on many of the trees. Identification will get harder.

Serviceberry – Amelanchier arborea – Rosaceae: stripped bark, multiple trunks, small trees, two toned pointy buds, leaves simple and alternate

Crabapple – Malus – Rosaceae: pome without grit, twigs hairy, leaves (lobed, simple, entire)

Hawthorne – Crataegus – Rosaceae: thorns, pome, leaves round, bark pealing and patchy, the one we saw was infested with apple cedar rust (i.e. not a healthy tree)

Fig (just for interest…not added to list)

Flowering dogwood (not new) – Cornus florida - Cornaceae

White oak – Quercus alba – Fagaceae: leaves (rounded lobes, smooth, lighter underneath), acorns dark with bumpy cups and often sprout in fall

Hemlock (not new) – Tsuga canadensis - Pinaceae

Black cherry – Prunus serotina – Rosaceae: observed bark…branches too high to see more

Osage orange – Maclura pomifera – Moraceae: bark shaggy and orange in parts, leaves (tapering tip, entire, alternate, simple, size varies), the one we saw was male so no fruit

Red mulberry  - Morus rubra – Moraceae: milky sap, leaves (toothed, shiny, falling)


Shortleaf pine (note new) – Pinus echinate – Pinaceae

Hackberry – Celtis occidentalis – Cannabaceae: drupe that can taste like a dry raisin, leaves (3 veins, asymmetric, rough), the one we saw had galls, bark rough and gray, large tree

Shingle oak – Quercus imbricaria – Fagaceae: acorn small, leaves (no lobes, long and narrow, soft hair underneath), multiple buds at tend of twigs, bark grayish

Previous posts about my experiences in the Identifying Woody Plants class at Missouri State University