Getting my seeds organized for planting this week. What host plant works best for A. tenuifolia (Slender false foxglove)? I didn't see any specific recs on prairie moon's website.

I have Carex muehlenbergii (sand bracted sedge), Erafrostis spectabilis (purple love grass), Tridens flavus (purple top), Boutela curtipendula (side-oats grama), S. scoparium (little blue stem), and a few more sedges that I haven't found in the pile yet.

ETA: suggestions also helpful for Pedicularis canadensis, Wood Betony

Thank you!

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    parent

  • The host plants for flowers in this family are hard to pin down, they're generalists and will take from lots of different hosts, and their habitat preferences are just as important.

    For Agalinis it seems graminoids (sedges and grasses) are their main hosts, and they also prefer full sunlight. So open woodlands or grassy wetlands/meadows are where you'd find them in the wild, any of the plants you mentioned will work as hosts as long as they're in a sunny spot and have well-established roots already.

    Pedicularis can grow in prairies and open woodlands, but also in more densely forested environments, and can apparently tap into the trees as hosts along with other plants in the understory. If any of the grasses/sedges you mentioned are growing in the mulch and partial shade of a native tree, that'd be the ideal spot.

    parent

    Thank you so much!! I looked for this type of answer but couldn't find anything on my Google search.

    I put some Agalinis in with a sedge, some with grass. My front yard has few trees and is pretty much full sun, whereas my backyard has many trees and shade. I've planted many understory trees and shrubs as well.

    I was planning on putting the Agalinis up front and the Pedicularis in the back. That's really cool to know about them tapping into the trees - hopefully they do well and I can get more seeds to propagate.

    Thank you!!

    parent root

  • For both of those I just mixed them with some common sedges that I had available. I planted them this year so it's too early to know how it worked.

    Some I mixed with seeds and others I mixed in with existing root systems

    parent

    Thanks! I mixed some with sedges, some with grasses. Hopefully something works!

    parent root

  • I found some Agalinis tenuifolia locally last week that had grown in a dry open woodland with Muhlenbergia capillaris, and an assortment of short native grasses and sedges. Purple lovegrass would look quite nice.

    I think so long as it's a native clump-forming graminoid the Agalinis will be able to host on its roots.

    parent
  • parent

    I've been waiting to buy this seed for years and bit the bullet. I have 4,000 seeds down so if I get just one plant, I'll be happy 😂. I do love the subtle pop of pink.

    parent root

    My $$ is on you'll get more than that! Sprinkle some seeds around wherever there's a gap in some plants. Eventually something will take. It's an annual that re-seeds, so if it's sown in a grouping of plants, where there's an opening, seems to be a common theme in the photos I have seen.

    parent root

    Thanks for the encouragement! I've got 88 species of seeds to plant but this one is the one I'm most excited for!

    I wish I could quit my job and focus on the yard 😂

    parent root