Second Growing Season for Native Plants

 I recently planted my 37 wildflowers into the ground in my backyard which I was raising all summer long. I got the plants from a native plant sale at the Marianist Environmental Education Center (MEEC). I had interned at this center in summer 2022, and learned how to identify trees, wildflowers, and butterflies. That summer in 2022, I raised 12 species including butterfly weed, short's aster, bluestem goldenrod, royal catchfly, and black eye susan. The species were very successful, due to their natural ability to grow in many soils and with little care. The following summer (this summer '23), I chose to increase my plants and chose more difficult ones to grow. Some of these include, foxglove beardtongue, grays goldenrod, blue mistflower, hoary vervain, ironweed, milkweed, blue false indigo. The overall growth from when they were purchased to when they were put in the ground was significantly less than last years selection. There are several factors which could contribute to the lack of growth: soil type, sunlight, watering. I may have used soil with too much nitrogen, due to a heavy percentage of the mix being cow manure and compost. There might not have been enough topsoil/regular dirt, and too much store bought material. I will create a better ratio; 2:2:1 of dirt, compost, and rice hulls next time to see what the results are. Or I will use different combinations to see what is closest to the local soil. I also may have had the pots in a location which didn't receive enough afternoon sun. The sun is most intense around 11am- 2pm, and the plants were shaded for most of this portion of time during the summer. My neighborhood has lots of trees, which I did not factor in at first, especially since last year's plants thrived in this location. Lastly, I had talked to other plant growers and they noted that this summer has been particularly difficult for plant growth. The spring and summer were seemingly a month delayed, and this caused problems with plants sprouting and development. Overall, only 2 of the 37 species died, both of which were milkweed. This is saddening, because milkweed is the host plant which monarch butteflys lay their eggs on. I was hoping to invite more monarchs to the neighborhood, but will have to try again next summer. The reason for planting around this time of year is to allow the plants to grow in their pots as saplings with no local competition from weeds in the ground and other plants. This way the new plants can establish strong roots in their own pots before going into the ground. Planting in the fall a couple weeks or a month before the frost allows the roots to establish in their new soil just before going dormant for the winter. Then in the spring the plant will return with strength and beauty! I cannot wait to see which plants will return in the spring and become inspired by the resiliency of these small little green guys.