Sometimes envisioning native plants in the home garden or landscape takes some imagination. That’s the case with Sphaeralcea coccinea, also called Desert Mallow, Cowboy’s Delight, and Scarlet Globemallow. This hardy little plant grows along gravel roads, in highway rights of way, and some of the driest habitats Wyoming has to offer, and folks, that is…
Category: Wyoming, general
Rabbitbrush Native Shrub
Chrysothamnus, or Rabbit brush, is a common native shrub of Wyoming and much of the arid western US. Some of the species that I learned as Chrysothamnus are now in the genus Ericameria. The major difference being Ericameria is covered with tomentum, or a felt like covering of tangled hairs. Wyoming has four species of…
UW Hydroponic Greenhouse
University of Wyoming Grad student, Nate Storey, has designed and developed a hydroponic tower system for this greenhouse where fish, herbs, and vegetables are grown. The water circulates from fish tanks through media filled ‘towers’ made of PVC or poly pipe. The water has not been changed for years. “The biology just works,” says Storey….
First Snow
Yesterday we awoke to the first dusting of snow on Casper Mountain. It’s right on time. We usually see our first higher elevation snow by October 15. It heralds the coming of winter, but it won’t be a slow, steady, predictable arrival. In Wyoming the changing of seasons usually happens in fits and starts. I…
Wyoming Fall Colors Include Rhus
The fall colors of Wyoming are subtle, not like the brilliantly brushed hardwood forests of the eastern US. The shades of autumn in the Rockies are more muted with the dark olive evergreens, purple-grey slates, and reddish sandstones providing the back drop for pockets of glowing aspen and roadside ribbons of burning rabbitbrush. The fall…
Busy as a Bee
Late summer brought on that old familiar feeling. Bittersweet. Summer is almost over, and fall is on its way. Autumn may very well be the most beautiful season in Wyoming. The wind quiets down. The nights cool. The skies are brilliantly, painfully, blue. Every sunny day (which is most of our autumn) is one more…
National Public Lands Day
This Saturday, Sept 24, is National Public Lands Day. You can find volunteer activities to support the management of public lands here. Wyoming is about 48% public land, meaning over 46 million acres of Wyoming is ‘owned’ by the citizens of the US and managed by the Bureau of Land Management, the US Forest Service,…
Pricklypear Cactus; Look But Don’t Touch
Lewis probably said it best when he referred to Pricklypear as “one of the beauties as well as the greatest pests of the plains.”1 I usually see it with a pale yellow bloom, so this beautiful apricot colored version caught my attention. Opuntia polyacantha, Prickly Pear cactus, or Plains Pricklypear, is a common plant of…
Glass Eyed Pony
Glass eye Wall eye China eye Clydesdale eye Cotton eye “When horsemen speak of a glass-eyed horse, they refer to an eye that is any color other than normal [brown], but the eye is usually some shade of blue. A ‘china eye’ is blue, a ‘wall eye’ is part blue and part white, and a…
Natural Variation: The Stuff of Plant Breeding
It’s the natural variation already present in native plants which allows plant breeders to offer cultivars, selections, and varieties to the home gardener. When I consider purchasing plants billed as ‘native’ I narrow my choices to selections of species naturally occurring in my area. Generally, a selection is propagated by selecting plants grown from ‘wild’…
Sometimes It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better
It’s true of: 1. Training young horses 2. Training young stock dogs 3. Cleaning the house
Wyoming State Fair
We took the short drive to Douglas, Wyoming to catch the Friday night rodeo at the Wyoming State Fair. The state fair has a small town atmosphere where you feel the permission to slow down, view the displays (AMAZING display of hand made quilts), sample some ‘fair food’ and watch the rodeo. Our night at…
Wyoming Life 