Notes from the National Meeting

by Ed Schmidt The national annual meeting of Wild Ones was held at the national headquarters in Neenah, Wisconsin. The drive up takes about seven hours , so we left St. Louis at 6 a.m., arriving around 3, in time for introductions before the start of the formal annual meeting at…

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Missouri Numbers

Percentage of US landmass 2 Rank in number of native species 21 Major natural communities 16 Distinctive natural communities 85 Forest communities 15 Woodland communities 18 Annual value of wood harvesting & processing 3,000,000,000

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Milkweed caution

I want to share a cautionary tale from my mother, who is a native plant gardener and Wild Ones member in Kentucky.  Earlier this week, she cut some tropical milkweed (Asclepias curassavica).  Shortly afterwards, her eyes began to burn, and her vision gradually got blurry.  By the time she went…

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Butterfly Gardening in Wisconsin

Editor Note: Now, while we are adding to or otherwise improving our garden, here are some ideas on how to improve it for the fauna. From the Southern Wisconsin Butterfly Association (edited) Butterfly gardening adds beauty to your yard and provides habitat for butterflies. Much critical butterfly habitat has been…

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Uncommon Ground

By Betty Struckhoff Sarah Stein’s wonderful book, Noah’s Garden, is a must-read for anyone interested in native landscaping. One of her suggestions for suburban yards is to create hedgerows of native plants near the back property lines. Once neighbors pick up the idea, a connected series of these yards can…

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