Do you all know that both Lowe’s and Home Depot offer a 1 year guarantee on all of their plants, trees, shrubs, etc? Last year when we were planting our flower beds we bought as much as we could from both of these places because of their guarantees. When I …

I’m really not what you would call a Garden Enthusiast. I’m more like a Gardener or Green Thumb Wannabe (LOL). The other day, my mom asked if I like working in my flower beds. It didn’t take me long to answer, “not really.” I don’t really “enjoy” gardening, however, I …

KINGDOM: Plantae DIVISION: Magnoliophyta (flowering plants) CLASS: Magnoliopsida (Dicotyledons) ORDER: Malpighiales FAMILY: Salicaceae GENUS: Populus SECTION: Aegiros SPECIES: Populus Deltoide SUBSPECIES: Molinifera (Plains Cottonwood) The picture above is one of the several Plains Cottonwood trees in our yard. Last year while we were studying the Westward Expansion, I found an …

The fluffy white seeds produced by female Cottonwood trees during early summer give the tree its name (and cause many people to suffer severe allergies around here, I might add).

Female trees release clouds of cottony or silky white fibers that carry the tiny brown seeds from small green capsules in clusters hanging from the twigs. The subspecies we have, monilifera, describes the linear necklace-like strand of seed pods which I photographed in the picture above.

Some years produce a heavier crop. This is a BUMPER CROP year! Look at all of that cotton! If it were useful for something, we’d be RICH!

Cottonwood leaves brush together and make a distinctive rustling or whispering sound in the eternal south wind of the prairie summer, a sound not unlike the sound of the sea at a distance. Children who grow up on prairie farms always remember the sound of the cottonwoods through their windows …

Cottonwoods are found gropwing where there is wet soild which is usually along around lakes or along riverbanks and irrigation ditches. Ours grow on the banks of a irrigation ditches that border our property. Here is some interesting information on the Cottonwood Tree bark: Though the wood of this tree …

The airborne cottony masses are filaments to carry the seeds on the wind. Can you tell we studied Botany this year? It looks like it’s SNOWING when the cotton is flying. The seeds finally come down for a landing and many of them will take root. We’ve had to pull …

I didn’t know Columbine is the Colorado State flower until Kristine mentioned it on her blog awhile back. Kristine, knowing you only have pink and yellow and that purple is your favorite, I took this picture just for you! Did you know: In 1925, the General Assembly made it the …