#milkweed at home

[sg-the-mag-by]

I am literally a week late but Mother’s Day is every day for those who have loving mothers/mother figures in their lives.

And as you see, Bellflower Bat is just that, not only to her two biological sons Milkweed(green bat baby) and Caidan “Caddy”(purple caterpillar baby), bet it’s difficult to figure out these boys’ dad😉😆 but to Howdy’s nephews Howdo and Youdo(still don’t know which is which) and also @dollpuppets adorable OC Allie Sweetie they see Bellflower as an aunt.

Bellflower is so happy to have hugs from some of her favorite kids in the Neighborhood and they are all happy to have her in their lives too.

So to all the mothers, aunts, grandmothers, potential mothers, and “mothers” to their pets I wish you all a lovely day today.

Howdo and Youdo-@partycoffin

Allie Sweetie-@dollpuppets

Bellflower Bat, Caidan and Milkweed-Me

[anipgarden]

Hey fellow milkweed nerds of Tumblr I have a question.

So. Swamp milkweed. It's pink! That's pretty cool. I wanna know how pink.

Because whenever I google Swamp Milkweed, whether its to look for seeds or plants for sale or just to show other people, the flowers look like this.

[ID: Three pictures of swamp milkweed, all a very very bright vivid hot pink with white middles.]

Thats Fucking Hot Pink. This bright ass pink is what drew me to the plant in the first place. If I were to find my Dream Swamp Milkweed, it would be this pink.

However, a lot of the times, I end up finding swamp milkweed that looks more like this.

[ID: Two pictures of swamp milkweed, both from the same plant. The flowers are a light, nearly white, light pink.]

Its a much lighter, more of a strawberry-milk pink. These are pictures I took from my own swamp milkweed plant, but from the pictures I've seen in my gardening server, a lot of them have plants in a color similar to this.

So what I'm curious about is. If you grow swamp milkweed, or have seen it growing in the wild, have you ever seen it as pink in the first example? Or is it just Photoshop magic? And if you do have it that pink... do you have any seeds you'd be willing to share?

[solarpunkani]

Saw your tags on that post about swamp milkweed about having trouble getting it started--you may already know this, but milkweed seeds need light to germinate! They only need a light dusting of soil on top of them (and putting them somewhere with a lot of light helps!); if you can't see the seed through the soil, it's buried a little too deep. They basically want to be laying flat on the surface of the soil rather than poked down into it, with just enough soil on top to help them retain moisture. Yes this does make it kind of annoying to manage moisture because you don't really want them drying out either (sorry 😭) but I hope this helps!! I mention it because this is the most common issue I see with people trying to grow milkweeds from seed. They also want 4 weeks of cold stratification (cool temperatures like in a fridge while also being in contact with moist soil; you can plant your seeds, pop the whole pot in a ziplock/cover it with cling wrap, and just refrigerate it for a few weeks) so don't forget to do that!

You know

it's really funny

because i like to call myself the self-proclaimed milkweed queen of tumblr (at least on my gardening blog but still)

And yet

I

constantly fucking forget about the light thing

IDK if that'll fix all my problems (the soil at my house is pretty sandy so I think that's the problem when it comes to transplanting at least) but regarding getting those little shits to germinate??? that might be the ticket

(one of the other problems I face sometimes is the seeds deciding to mold when they're in the fridge cold stratifying, i lost a good chunk of seeds to that last year but i don't see any signs of it happening yet this year so fingers crossed everyone)

[indigo-flightly-falls]

fuck it. I have a six and a half hour long playlist for the Wilted Milkweed AU, i'm putting it to use.

Songs that fit each character before & after the school year.

Bdubs- The Family Jewels - MARINA -> Tell Your Story - Derivakat

Hels- Parents - Youngblood -> Honey I'm Home - GHOST

Grain- I/Me/Myself - Will Wood -> Dead Girl Walking - Heathers: the musical

Etho- Blame it on the kids - AViVA -> Welcome to the Black Parade - MCR

Skizz- Brother - Kodaline -> We Want Out - Dagames

Grian- Michael in The Bathroom (Be More Chill) -> Sippy Cup - Melanie Martinez Tango- CWJBHN - Jake Scott -> Good For You - Dear Even Hansen

[sams-soupy-art]

2 new bug boy ocs‼️‼️ this is sunspot camel based on a camel spider! And stag scara based on a stag beetle! 💕💕

They’re so silly‼️‼️💕💕

These are also welcome home ocs!! Stag n sunspot are good friends with howdy and barnaby! They like to pull pranks on the neighbors!

[faguscarolinensis]

Phyciodes tharos on Asclepias tuberosa / Pearl Crescent on Butterfly Weed

[autisticbabayaga]

Today on Farm News: Local Queer Farmers Sneak Into Corn Field to Steal Milkweed.

[mydetroitshit]

080623

sunday brought more bathroom improvements i decided to tear up the sticky floor. and underneath the tile looks rly good!

maybe its helpful to focus on one room in my house at a time…..

[wiisagi-maiingan]

I bought a state-specific wildflower seed mix that I sprinkled in my garden this year and the sprouts are everywhere. I am extremely excited to get my milkweed in there too; sprouts have onlt just started emerging for it.

I want to flood my home with bugs and plants and birds and all other critters that people think of as pests. I want my yard to have life.

[headspace-hotel]

some times i see people talking about the Earth and climate change saying things like "now i know it is difficult to deal with utter hopelessness, terror, and visiting the thoughts of death"

and it's like wow I am so deeply sorry about the suffering. but...concern. Concern. Tell me, am I missing something important? Why do I feel a sense of hope for our planet? Am I a lonely fool? Have I been consumed by naïveté and misguided optimism?

That would be weird. It feels weird. It feels like I would be well suited to despair. My natural temperament is Mortal Terror making my body crushed for a thousand years at the bottom of the deepest trenches of the ocean. I've thought before "I can't live any more. This exceeds the tensile strength of the human spirit."

And then? After irreversible catastrophic failure of the soul, there is...what?

We try to imagine the future where we fight to save our home and it is very painful. The resistance feels so small and the machine of death feels so vast. But something's missing.

Everyone else is missing—the plants, trees, bugs, beasts, and creatures. Hello? Are the other humans seeing this? Nature wants you to know that she is not a princess in a tower. Look! Look at the chaos moving through every cell! Iterating! Adapting! Becoming! Thriving! Watch the pollinators tirelessly at work, observe the mycorrhizal network in the forest floor distributing the rich fruits of decay and photosynthesis for every inhabitant! Pay attention! We belong here too. They feed and shelter us, give us the very air we breathe, and in return we plant and propagate, cull, thin, and burn, shape, trample, till, shepherd and sprout seeds. Our species can look toward the future, to the world of our descendants. We can call every plant and animal by name and teach our children to use and care for them responsibly. We can feel this anger, pain, and grief on behalf of the family of Life, OUR family, and we can love the smallest beetle and the humblest moss.

Look at it! This thing is nothing like me, it does not benefit me, it has no use or purpose for me, but LOOK at it! Look at its intricate structure! Look at the marvelousness of its behaviors and biological functions! Look at its uniqueness throughout the whole universe! Look at it, and see its infinite value!

I saved a baby tree from the scorching hot gravel of a parking lot. I watched it grow and thrive in the hands of its caretaker. Many more followed, trees and herbs and flowers, rescued and carefully placed in cups and old tubs that once held yogurt and sour cream. This is so strange, I thought. They're everywhere, offering themselves for free, and no one thinks to take them. Everyone thinks transplanting a tree is hard and that nothing grows on the edge of the pavement but weeds. But it's so easy??? This is weird. Plant Nurseries Hate Her: Get Free Plants With This One Weird Trick.

I protected an old barren garden patch where nothing had thrived from being mowed and weed-whacked, and transplanted little plants that I found. I marveled at the bees that came. Chicory bloomed, then asters and goldenrod. I shed actual tears over a spicebush swallowtail. I ordered some milkweed from the internet, and the monarchs came for them. Less then twenty-five bucks for a divine experience like this. Wow, everyone else really needs to know!

I started volunteering at a nature center, and was allowed to transplant flowers where they sprouted in inopportune locations. I collected tons of seeds all fall and winter long.

There is much, much more, all of it bigger than I ever would have imagined. But this spring there were more birds, in number and in species, than I'd ever seen in my back yard before. Chickadees, swallows, finches, nuthatches, jays, cardinals, warblers, sparrows, woodpeckers of every kind...I remembered just a couple years prior when all I ever saw out there was a couple grackles or starlings or robins, with the occasional sparrow. Those birds come in flocks rather than couples now. And then the bumblebee arrived. An American bumblebee, endangered now, a queen. For a few days she was always out there, would fly out and buzz around me when I came out to tend to my now-innumerable plants. It's nesting time for them. She chose this place I was creating. She saw that this place would take care of her.

A week ago, I discovered wild strawberries growing in my Mamaw's driveway. I found lyreleaf sage growing beside a gravel road. I've become a master of transplanting; I took several of each home. Yesterday, I saw a tiny, metallic blue bee, an Osmia mason bee. Today, I saw an oriole and a strange, very fancy fly. I see something new almost every day. Every day I am being irreversibly changed as a person. How did I ever fail to see how much this matters?

I said I feel hope...do I feel it? I don't think it's a feeling, I think it's a practice. It's being part of our communities and our ecosystems. Nature's interconnectedness is both reality and example: to survive, we take care of one another. And when one member of the community helps another thrive, it creates a cascade that increases the thriving of all. Just by existing, you help us all survive.

You can only take care of so many plants before you have to give some away. You can only hold so much knowledge before you have to give it away. I gave seeds to a dozen different flowers to my next-door neighbor and she invited me inside and wouldn't let me leave without food, and we talked about plants and trees. A family friend lets me have goats' milk and heirloom vegetables in exchange for help around the farm, and I listen to him talk about trees, bugs, and soil and learn so much I feel like I'm about to explode from knowledge.

Being a caretaker is unavoidably a community-oriented, community-forming thing. You can't grow plants all by yourself. Your garden will make too many tomatoes. Share them. Your milkweed will make hundreds and hundreds of seeds. Spread them. Wild blackberries invite you to take and eat. Your lonely retired neighbor invites you to talk and keep her company. Once you grow delicious fruits or little oak trees, you always have a reason to greet someone and say, "Look, it is a gift!"

We're not alone. We are not separate. We take care of each other. Every species, every individual. A single action of caretaking creates a cascade effect of thriving. A single unapologetic love for a creature creates a blossom of curiosity and fascination in everyone surrounding. It's so powerful.

As my chemical romance says "I am not afraid to keep on living"

[sweethomeallegra]

Monarch in the milkweed

[homeflower]

A small section of our Common Milkweed.  

[anipgarden]

Oh yeah quick question

So my new swamp milkweeds have little brown spots??? Theyve had them since I got them from the store but I feel like the Spot Density is increasing (or I might be crazy) would anyone know what the deal is?

[fatehbaz]

Headline by: Ryan Burns. “Ground Has Been Broken on Klamath River Restoration, the World’s Largest-Ever Dam-Removal Project.” Lost Coast Outpost. 23 March 2023.

---

The world’s largest dam removal in history is slated for 2023. Led by Indigenous tribes in partnership with organizations, lawyers, scientists and activists, the project will remove four dams, clearing the way for the lower Klamath River to flow freely for the first time in more than a century.

Headline and italicized text excerpt by: Malia Russ. “The Science of Saving Salmon as Klamath Dams Come Down.” UC Davis - Blogs - Climate. 24 February 2023.

---

Headline by: Jackson Guilfoil. “Klamath dam removals, habitat restoration, begins.” The Mercury News. 25 March 2023.

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Headline by: Kale Williams. “‘The salmon are coming home’: Work begins on Klamath River dam removal.” KGW8. 27 March 2023.

---

Iron Gate is a sinuous, skinny reservoir tucked into the folds of the Siskiyou Mountains. Draining it will expose about 900 acres of wet mud. “It’s our job to make sure it’s revegetated. We want that to be revegetated with a healthy native plant ecosystem,” says Joshua Chenoweth, Senior Riparian Ecologist for the Yurok Tribe who is leading the replanting effort. [...] Last fall, they seeded the strip with a mix of native grasses and flowering plants; now, they’re installing young shrubs and trees: buckbrush, serviceberry, and Oregon ash, along with the Klamath plum. Collectively, these plants will create a “wall of green,” taking up space that would have otherwise been overrun by non-native plants [...]. The revegetation of the Klamath River has been called the largest river restoration project in American history. Collecting, propagating, and growing enough seeds and plants to populate the reservoir footprints -- approximately 2,200 acres in all -- is a staggering task. [...] Their planting design includes 96 different species: culturally significant plants like yampah and lomatium, important pollinator species like milkweed, and tens of thousands of oak trees. [...] What will a restored, wild Klamath River look like? Imagine it. Stand at the Wanaka Springs boat launch and picture Iron Gate reservoir drained. The river has found its channel at the base of its original canyon. Willows flank the banks. Much of the reservoir footprint is flush with upland vegetation -- oak copses; thickets of buckbrush and Klamath plum; blooming rose and lupine.

---

Headline, images, captions, screenshot, and italicized text excerpt from: Juliet Grable. “After the dams: Restoring the Klamath River will take billions of native seeds.” Jefferson Public Radio. 13 March 2023.

[in-the-multiverse]

hug!

(extra stuff under the cut)

I realized halfway through line art that BigB’s face would be covered up so here he is :> and the hidden eyes!

I chose the border flowers (pink ones are swamp milkweed and the yellow ones are black-eyed susan) mainly because they can be found in frog habitats but they also symbolize freedom and encouragement

In double life they weren't satisfied with their soulbound, to say the least. The universe tied them to certain people and they ended up against it. In limited life, they were free to choose alliances again. They chose eachother when they noticed that the rest of the server already found their groups. Every session, every hour mattered and they kept choosing each other. You're free to come along with me. You're free to share this home with me

They encouraged each other throughout the season, each problem felt easier to deal with when they were side by side. Pearl welcomed him with open arms. At last, here was someone to laugh with, and create schemes with again. Together, they could face anything. And Pearl's confidence in BigB’s abilities helped strengthen that belief in himself, that he could stand against Jimmy and win. He could win these brutal death games. Doesn't matter if every odd is staring at you, you can change the game in the next second

You can do it, I believe in you

[textless]

There doesn't seem to be an official Top Five event for 2023, but it's Gray-Card Memorial Top Five season anyway.

Since there are no rules, not that there were many rules before, I'm doing two sets this year. These are five of my favorite photos from around home (Cochise County, Arizona) that were posted in 2023.

Tailed Orange (I think) with rabbitbrush

Junior the cat in a sunbeam

Flower crab spider with milkweed vine

Black swallowtail caterpillar

Orb weaver and marigold

Happy new year, all, and good wishes for 2024.