The Springtime Glow of Golden Ragwort

Golden Ragwort blooms
March 15, 2024

While there are many spring wildflowers that are stunningly beautiful when viewed from nearby, there aren't many that put on a bright show from afar.  One that does is Golden Ragwort (Packera aurea).

Golden Ragwort blooms
with Eastern Calligrapher (Syrphid Fly)
March 25, 2024

Viewed from near or far, Golden Ragwort is a shining star.  Or, to be more accurate, Golden Ragwort is a cluster of shining stars, often found in drifts of gold, nestled in clouds of glistening emerald green foliage.

Golden Ragwort winter foliage
February 7, 2025

Let's unpack that last statement....  One of the things that really appeals to me about Golden Ragwort is the richly shining, emerald foliage which is at its best in early spring, a time when I'm craving green.  For most of the year, this plant grows as a basal rosette of rounded leaves which can form a beautiful ground cover in mass.  The rosettes stay evergreen through the cold, ready to start growing rapidly as the days lengthen and the weather warms up.

Flower buds developing above ferny foliage
February 26, 2024

As the springtime cues of longer days and warmer temperatures come, the plants start to get "fuller and fluffier" (as my friend Barbie used to say) and, before long, ferny-looking leaves begin to appear.  The ferny leaves signal that the flower stalks are beginning to grow. 

 

Buds opening on a Golden Ragwort flower cluster
(Very blurry Asian Ladybug on center bud)
March 14, 2024

Soon clusters of green and purple buds are pushing skyward, on stems often suffused with deep purple.  By early-mid March, the buds are breaking open into clear yellowish gold, daisy-shaped flowers that appear in flat-topped clusters held about 12-18" above the ground.

Cluster of Golden Ragworts in bloom
March 15, 2024

A bed of Golden Ragworts in full bloom is breath-taking.  In a woodland setting, clusters of them scattered among trees seem to create their own dappled sunlight in the shade.  Even a single plant in full bloom is a bright accent that inevitably draws the eye.

Which brings me to one of the great characteristics of Golden Ragwort: it grows in a variety of conditions, ranging from full sun to fairly heavy shade, and from moderately dry soil to quite damp conditions.  If you'd ask me where it does best, I'd say moist soil in light shade, but it looks good in a variety of settings. 

 

Two flower stems munched by deer
March 5, 2024

On top of its ease of siting, Golden Ragwort is also easy to transplant and grow.  Best of all, it is fairly resistant to deer and other critters grazing on it.  I've never noticed signs of rabbits munching and the vole damage I've seen seemed to be almost accidental from their runs running nearby.  There is one time of year when the deer seem to snack on it in our yard: that is when the flower stalks are pushing up, before they bloom.  I've hypothesized that the flower stalks must have less of the defensive chemicals than the foliage has overall.  In any event, if we remember to spray deer deterrent on the plants during this relatively brief period of time, the deer seem to leave the plants strictly alone.  If we forget the deer spray?  Well, the plants bloom anyway, just lower and later in the season.

Besides deer, Golden Ragwort can help with other pests in the garden.  In the native plant community, there is a growing awareness that some native plant species can help keep invasive plants at bay.  Golden Ragwort is one of those species.  Several years ago, Nancy Lawson, the Humane Gardener, wrote a post "How to Fight Plants with Plants" describing how she first observed this happening in her own garden, with Golden Ragwort keeping Garlic Mustard from taking over.  In our garden, I find little or no Japanese Stilt Grass, one of the worst invasives in our yard, in the area where Golden Ragwort grows thickly.

Golden Ragwort seeds
April 22, 2024

What are the downsides of Golden Ragwort?  There are always a few downsides, right?  Well, this plant does like to seed itself around a bit.  It's easy to pull out the seedlings - and they make a great source of new plants to increase your own plantings or to gift to friends - but you will probably find some seedlings around.

Because of its strong growth habits, Golden Ragwort is absolutely capable of overpowering a "shy" or slow-growing plant nearby.  I would not, for example, plant it with bloodroot.  It does do well, however, with several of the fall asters and other such strong growers.

Fading Golden Ragwort blooms juxtaposed
with newly opening Viburnum blossoms
April 18, 2024

The last downside is that this plant's "ugly phase", the time period when it's done blooming, it's forming seeds, and its flower spikes are drying up and turning brown, occurs just as the rest of the garden is swinging into full spring bloom.  While that can be a great thing, because the visual focus moves on to other plants, it can also be disconcerting to have "dead blooms" during peak garden bloom time.  If neatness is important to you, you can always cut the spent flower stalks off, disposing of them or putting them on a brush pile where birds would still have access to the seeds.  The basal rosettes will soon plump up nicely and you'll have a pleasing ground cover for the remainder of the year. 

Next comes my favorite part of talking about any native plant - the animal community it belongs to!  Not surprisingly, given that there aren't a lot of perennials blooming at this time of year, a lot of pollinators and other insects are drawn to Golden Ragwort.  A brief look through the photos I've taken over the last two years shows at least 25 different insect species using this plant - and I know I didn't catch photos of all the insects I saw.  Here are a few highlights, chosen to show the variety of insects drawn to Golden Ragwort.....

Three-cornered Alfalfa Hopper
March 12, 2024

Not all insects that use Golden Ragwort are using the flowers.  One of the first insects I saw last spring was this Three-cornered Alfalfa Hopper (Spissistilus festinus), a species of treehopper that is known to feed on a wide variety of plants.  Treehoppers suck sap to feed, but I saw no sign of any damage to the plant from its feeding actions.  This individual probably overwintered as an adult.

Syrphid fly
March 14, 2024

I commonly see syrphid flies of several species feeding at Golden Ragwort blooms or hovering around the plants.  I don't know the exact species of this individual, but it's in the genus Syrphus, one of many syrphid fly groups whose larvae are voracious aphid predators.  Since this individual is not feeding, it may actually be scouting for a site to lay eggs.  A single syrphid fly larva can consume up to 400 aphids as it grows, so these are great "neighbors" to have in your garden.  Syrphid flies tend to overwinter as pupae either on plants, in the leaf litter, or in the soil.

Syrphid fly laying an egg next to aphids
on Golden Ragwort
March 15, 2024

This syrphid fly, also a Syrphus sp., is almost assuredly laying eggs.  I have a sequence of photos of this individual which I love because, if you zoom in really close, you can see several (green) aphids just to the left of the tip of her abdomen.  Mom's making sure her babies will have their meals served fresh upon their arrival!

Cellophane Bee
March 25, 2024

This photo just makes me smile.  Can you imagine visiting restaurants so replete with food that you end up literally coated with it as you eat?  Well, when I phrase it that way, it sounds rather gross...but this bee looks like she's whole-heartedly enjoying her meal.  This is a cellophane bee (Collettes sp.), one of the native bees that builds a solitary nest in the ground.   Cellophane bees coat the walls of their nests with a polyester secretion to protect their developing young, hence the name cellophane bee.

Blueberry Digger Bee
March 16, 2024

Another native bee I always love to see each spring is the Blueberry Digger Bee (Habropoda laboriosa), a.k.a. the Southeastern Blueberry Bee, which looks like a small bumble bee.  This powerhouse ia a buzz pollinator and a specialist in pollinating blueberry blossoms.  It may, however, nectar at other flowers, as this one is doing.  According to Bugguide, in her adult lifetime, a single female Blueberry Digger Bee may visit around 50,000 blueberry flowers, producing over 6000 blueberries by her actions.  These bees only fly for a few weeks in the spring; their adulthood is timed to coincide with the bloom season of blueberries.  As is common for many of the solitary bees, there is only one generation each year.  Not surprisingly, given their name, this species nests in the ground.

Damselfly, March 20, 2024

Where flowers attract pollinators and other insects, predators will follow.  This damselfly is a good example.  Dragonflies and damselflies have excellent eyesight and can be hard to sneak up on to photograph...which is another way of saying that I'm sorry for the poor quality of this photo!

Greater Bee Fly
March 31, 2023

This cute little teddy-bear of an insect is a bee fly, specifically a Greater Bee Fly (Bombylius major).  Don't let its cute looks deceive you:  bee flies are parasitoids on solitary bee species.  The female Greater Bee Fly flicks her eggs into the nest openings of ground-nesting solitary bees or lays her eggs on the flowers she visits.  When the eggs hatch, the larvae are mobile and either hitch a ride back to the nest on the female bee, or move into the nest from where the egg was laid near the entrance.  Once inside the bee's burrow, the bee fly larvae eat up the stores of pollen and nectar that the mother bee has stored for her larvae, as well as feeding on the bee larvae themselves.  The bee fly then pupates in the bee's nest and emerges in the spring.  This is an example of one of nature's feedback loops that helps keep species in balance with each other and with plant resources.

 

Path of Phyllocnistis insignis, a leafminer moth, 
on the upper surface of a Golden Ragwort leaf
June 25, 2023

You will frequently see the tracery of a leafminer mine on one of the Golden Ragwort leaves.  Leafminers, which may be tiny moths, flies, or wasps, are very host specific and are often associated with only one or a few species of plants.  Phyllocnistis insignis, a tiny moth with no common name, is the leafminer that uses Golden Ragwort leaves.   It does not harm the plant at all.  If you look closely at the winter foliage photo near the beginning of this post, you'll also see a leafminer mine on one of the leaves.

Although I'm always tempted to bore folks to tears by showing photos of ALL the insects I've seen using a particular plant, I think I'll close with just one more.

Camouflaged Looper
April 5, 2024

Camouflaged Loopers, the caterpillar of the Wavy-lined Emerald (Synchlora aerata), are common in our yard from spring through fall.  They are masters of disguise, covering themselves with bits of petal from the flowers they are eating.  The adult moth is a beautiful light green with delicate white markings, although I see the adults much less frequently than I see the caterpillars.  While these caterpillars do eat petals, they're relatively small and they do only cosmetic damage.  Honestly, I love finding them - I always feel like I've found a little treasure.

Speaking of treasures, that's what I consider Golden Ragwort in my garden.  

Where can you find this beauty if you want to add some to your garden?  Well, I've never seen it at a standard nursery or big box store, but I do see it regularly at native plant nurseries, native plant sales, and online in the inventory of native plant companies.  Because Golden Ragwort reseeds nicely, it may be available at local Master Gardener sales, too.  In fact, if you're really lucky, a friend may share some with you...or you may find a clump growing naturally in your yard.  That's how I got introduced to this plant here in SE Virginia!

Whether you choose to grow this plant in your garden or to just admire it when you see it growing wild, you'll know what a great native plant those golden blooms are signaling when their sunshiny glow catches your eye.

Acceptable and Unacceptable Changes to the Neighborhood Landscape

At the beginning of June, we will have lived in this house for 3 years, although I didn't start gardening in the yard until the fall of that first year.

This is what the front yard looked like in mid April, 6 weeks before we moved in....

While the yard was neatly trimmed and mowed back then, I found it sterile and boring.  Naturally, when I began gardening, I started adding native plants and removing non-natives.  As usual, I had more of a general idea of what I wanted the garden and yard to be, rather than any firm plan.  Most of all I just wanted my yard to be a small wildlife refuge in the midst of suburbia.  And I wanted it to be pretty, too, if at all possible.

I kept the huge canopy trees, a southern magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora) and a laurel oak (Quercus laurifolia).  They are both native and, while I probably wouldn't have chosen either species to put in their spots, they add gravitas and presence to the yard.  Besides 3 dwarf yaupons (Ilex vomitoria) and a few of the lawn weeds, they were also the only native plants growing in the front.

Since those first days, I've added a laundry list of natives to the front gardens, including shrubs (oakleaf hydrangeas, Virginia sweetspire, sweet pepperbush, dwarf Florida dogwood, wax myrtle, Darrow's blueberry, and a deciduous holly), ferns (southern shield fern, leatherleaf fern, and southern woodfern), perennials (columbine, blue eyed grass, golden ragwort, little brown jug, lyreleaf sage, Indian pinks, Walter's violets, woodland phlox, downy phlox, garden phlox, green and gold, Louisiana iris, mouse-ear coreopsis one, mouse ear coreopsis two, spiderwort, Gaillardia, Florida scrub skullcap, golden zizia, bluestem goldenrod, showy goldenrod, regal catchfly, powderpuff mimosa, dense blazingstar, native lantana, white Baptisia, butterfly milkweed, and fogfruit), and even a grass (Elliott's lovegrass).  I'll spare you all the scientific names - this time!

Here's a recent photo of the front yard....

Only now are the garden beds beginning to show up and look like gardens.  "A year to sleep, a year to creep, a year to leap."  The old maxim holds true yet again.

Having added such a wide variety and large number of plants, it's odd to me what people notice and comment about in my front gardens.  I had a neighbor tell me how much she liked the "yellow flower", golden ragwort (Packera aurea), shortly after I planted it next to the sidewalk, under the magnolia. 

Ironically, I love the foliage of this plant, which is low, dark green, shiny, and rich looking to my eye...but I don't particularly care for the flowers.  I do love their cheerful presence early in the growing season, though.  Golden ragwort are the first native flowers to bloom in my garden. 

Recently, a woman who came by to pick up wild strawberry plants I was giving away commented how much she liked my columbine and blue eyed grass.  That made my day!  She even knew the names!

Here's one clump of the blue-eyed grass (Sisyrinchium angustifolium) she was admiring, by the front porch, ...

...and a closeup of blue-eyed grass blossoms in the shade nearby.

Then here's a picture of the other species she was admiring, eastern red columbine (Aquilegia canadensis), taken a couple weeks ago when it was first starting to bloom.

As much as I love blue-eyed grass and columbine, I am surprised that no one has ever mentioned my downy phlox (Phlox pilosa), which I think is beautiful.  A tidy mound of cotton candy pink at the front of the flower bed, this classy little plant blooms nonstop from December through to the end of May and even into June.  Perhaps to most eyes it just looks like a standard annual bedding plant?

The spiderwort (Tradescantia ohiensis), which is spectacular right now, doesn't get much mention either - although another neighbor has started telling me when he sees it popping up in wild areas around the neighborhood, encouraging me to go dig it up and add it to my gardens.  Since he lives 2 doors down from me, I figure he must like it at least a little or he wouldn't be encouraging me to plant more.

In particular, though, one plant has caused unexpected reactions:  powderpuff mimosa (Mimosa strigillosa), a relative of catclaw sensitive briar, for those of my friends who garden in the prairie.  Greg loves groundcovers, so we thought we'd try putting this low growing plant, with its pretty foliage and its blooms that look like sparkling pink pompoms, up front.  We are encouraging it to spread out and fill in the hell strip between the sidewalk and the street.  To our eyes, it's prettier than weedy grass any day! 

Ironically, no one seems to notice the blossoms (which are, in my opinion, very cute and very hard to miss), but the foliage makes people uncomfortable - superficially it looks too similar to chamberbitter (Phyllanthus urinaria), a.k.a. gripeweed, a common lawn weed down here.

Unfortunately, I inadvertently played into this concern by planting the first two powderpuffs at the base of a newly planted wax myrtle.  I didn't take the time to clear a large, carefully delineated "bed" for the powderpuff to spread into.  I've done my best to keep the grass weeded out of the spreading groundcover, and the powderpuffs have filled in marvelously well...but there isn't a defined edge to help people "read" this part of the landscape easily.  That was a mistake on my part.

I'm going to keep working on the powderpuff, but another element I added to our front landscape is slated for removal:  the small brush pile under the big laurel oak - at the base of its trunk in the photo below. 

Living in such a high humidity environment, many woody branches are covered with fascinating, feathery mini-gardens of lichen.  When several small branches ornamented in lichen "lace" fell in the front yard, I couldn't bear to put them out for the city to pick up.  Instead I used them to construct a small brush pile towards the back of the bed.  Here is a photo of a branch covered in lichen that fell in our yard...

...and here is a closeup of that lichen.

Several people have asked why I'm leaving "that pile" there and I've taken the time to tell them about the benefits of brush piles, but I've decided to move the pile around to the backyard where it's nobody's business but ours.  The pile's been growing a little faster than I was planning, anyway, as more branches have fallen out of the oak.  I still can't bring myself to send those gorgeous lichens off with the city dump trucks!

Despite my occasional misstep, the plants I've put in the front gardens are taking hold and growing well, getting taller and broader, blooming more fully.  I'm far from the world's best landscape or garden designer, so my color and form combinations are rather haphazard, but I get a buzz of pleasure now when I drive up to our house or walk outside.  For example, when I left the house this morning, I noticed a towhee foraging among the skullcaps by the sidewalk, and there are almost always at least a few butterflies, native bees, or honeybees diligently working the flowers.  Little brown skinks commonly rustle through the leaf mulch and green anoles prowl the shrubs and perennials, males puffing out their salmon-colored throats in displays of pride and power during these lengthening spring days.

I hope my human neighbors come to enjoy my wilding landscape.  I love that the wildlife is making itself at home outside my house...and it makes this yard home for me now, too. 

Sproing!!! Spring Appears to Be Here.....

Given that Valentine's Day just sailed by, it seems a little early for spring to have arrived, but here in the panhandle of Florida, all signs point in that direction.

For the foreseeable future, the weather guessers have us in the mid-70's each day, with lows in the mid-60's at night.

The humidity has been so high lately that we've been turning on the air conditioner at night just to dry out the air inside.  When we wake up in the morning, the windows are fogged over on the outside from all the humidity, even though the inside of the house is less than 5 degrees cooler than the external air temperature.

Not surprisingly, with the temperatures and humidity this high, plants and wildlife are responding exuberantly.  The early daffodils are in full bloom.

Looking at the blooms, I realized just this spring that all my early daffodils are multi-bloom types.  I find I'm craving some big single blossoms, so that'll be on my list for next fall.

Gail Eichelberger's "practically perfect pink phlox", a.k.a. downy phlox (Phlox pilosa), has been blooming since December, as it seems to do every year here. 

I love this plant, but it's getting a little hard to find even in native plant nurseries these days - I think everyone must be catching on to the joy of having this beauty in their gardens.

Under the front magnolia tree, the golden ragwort (Packera aurea) is blooming.

It has really filled in nicely this year.  By next year, I may even be able to transplant a little to other spots in the yard. 

This summer it should be looking like a particularly attractive dark green groundcover in a garden spot that has been especially hard to cover with anything but leaf mulch until now.  Between the heavy shade and the rampant roots, it can be difficult to garden successfully beneath southern magnolias.

Based on a couple recent blog posts I've made, you know, of course, that some of the blueberries are blooming exuberantly already.  The rabbiteyes (Vaccinium ashei) are still dormant, but the highbush blueberries (V. corymbosum) are in full spate and leafing out rapidly.  In my yard, highbush blueberries definitely seem to outperform their rabbiteye cousins;  if I add more blueberries, they'll probably be the highbushes.

Low, down at ground level, violets are starting to open up, too.  I have 3 species in the yard;  two have started blooming.

One of the blooming violet species is, I believe, the classic common blue violet (Viola sororia), but I'm not sure what the other one is.  This mystery violet has purple blooms and lance-shaped leaves.  It came in with the white baptisia as a pleasant little hitchhiker that I've been enjoying quite a lot.

Speaking of the white baptisia (Baptisia alba), my single specimen of this beauty has leapt out of the ground as if being chased by monsters below the soil.  Baptisia is one of those plants whose shoots spring forth so quickly that I feel like I can see them growing if I stand still and watch for a few minutes.

I didn't notice the baptisia shoots at first, because they were being camouflaged by the spiderwort (Tradescantia ohiensis) seedlings growing up around them.  Some friendly crowding isn't likely to hurt, though.  I haven't seen any fully open spiderwort blossoms yet, but I noticed a little blue peeking forth from one of the buds this morning.  I won't be surprised to see a blossom or two tomorrow.  The blue of spiderwort flowers makes my heart sing....

Have you ever heard spiderwort called bluejacket?  I've never heard the term used at all, except in referring to actual clothing, but according to the USDA Plant Database, that is the official common name of T. ohiensis.  I wonder if it's a regional thing?

Speaking of regions, the Florida panhandle is part of a region that is known more for its non-native blooms than for its native flowers.  Believe it or not, I do have a fair number of non-natives in the yard and gardens, too.  As far as the classic non-native plants go, besides the daffodils, there are still several camellias blooming lustily...

...and the beautiful evergreen azaleas have started opening up their flowers along the west edge of the yard.

With the masses of magenta blossoms mounding throughout the landscape, I have to admit that I love azalea season, .  Those big old southern Indica azaleas are truly spectacular.  They'll be opening up soon and I'm really looking forward to wallowing in their purplish profusion.  Sometimes even this diehard native plant aficionado has to bow down before the overwhelming beauty of certain exotic plants!

Blooms in the Beginning of March

Sometimes a gardener just wants to share some pretties from their garden...and I guess that's where I am tonight.  So here goes....

In early spring, it's always fun to see the bare branches of red buckeye (Aesculus pavia) transform from sticks to feathery fans, highlighted with big, blowsy, red bloom spikes.  Hummingbirds apparently love red buckeye blooms, which are rumored to open just as hummingbird migration begins, but I rarely seem to plant mine where I have an opportunity to watch that interaction.  I've got my hopes up this year, though, as I just found out today that hummers have been spotted along the Gulf Coast in the last few days.

I have no idea which violet (Viola sp.) this next little guy is, but I really enjoy its plucky blooms.  A small group of these came in as "stowaways" in a pot with the white baptisia that is towering over it.  They've done very well.  The diminutive size and long, narrow, arrow-shaped leaves are quite different from most violets I am familiar with.

Not far from the plucky violet is an Ohio spiderwort (Tradescantia ohiensis), whose richly serene, blue blooms are being regularly visited by the little southeastern blueberry bees (Habropoda laboriosa) these days.

How about a perennial that blooms for 2 1/2 months and counting?  The downy phlox (Phlox pilosa) have been blooming since before Christmas and they show no signs of slowing down.  In fact, I'd say they are prettier now than ever. 

I have 4 of these beauties right now - and I'd really like at least another 3 or 4.  In Kansas this plant ran through the beds quite a bit for me and it didn't last very long.  It seems to be acting quite differently here, staying in place and getting stronger, not weaker, as time goes on.  The foliage is nice, too, even when the plant isn't blooming.

Under the large southern magnolia tree out front, next to the sidewalk, was a bare spot that makes the term "dry shade" seem optimistic.  The magnolia roots are so thick in the area that finding pockets of actual soil was a challenge.  I knew the root competition would be fierce, but still I was hoping to find a plant that would give this garden bed a little more "sidewalk appeal".   The golden ragwort (Packera aurea) has really performed like an ace here. 

The flowers aren't, to be truthful, my favorite, but I love the rounded, shiny, dark green leaves that look good throughout the year.  I'm guessing that within 2-3 years, the 6 individual plants will start growing together, giving a more cohesive feel to this patch.

Azaleas are in full blush and the camellias are just finishing up, but the ones in my yard are rather ordinary, to tell the truth, so I'm not going to share them.  Typical foundation plants, the majority of them are placed - literally - about 18" from the foundation and have, in the not too distant past, been pruned into ungraceful, flat-topped boxes.  I haven't decided what to do about them yet, but will probably begin by giving them a "rejuvenating prune" as soon as they're done blooming this spring.  The azaleas, that is.  I don't think camellias can be chopped back like that and survive.

We put in daffodils last fall;  the early ones bloomed nicely, but they're still at the individual bloom stage, so I think I'll pass on sharing those as well.

There is a blue-eyed grass that has been springing up unbidden in the lawn area and I've been leaving the individual clumps to see what they look like.  They've suddenly spread out and started to bloom, allowing me to identify them as annual blue-eyed grass (Sisyrinchium rosulatum), a distinctly not-blue flower. 

Although the dainty little blooms are rather attractive, the plants have started developing yellowing, spotted leaves, so I've decided to root them all up and just dispose of them.  This is not a native species, so it's only causing me a little bit of angst to be so ruthless.

Many gardeners get upset about wildflowers springing up in their lawns, but I'm not one of them.  I actually enjoy seeing what gifts nature provides.  For example, I've been enjoying this little pink blooming oxalis that appeared, as if by magic, under the magnolia in the back yard. 

I'm not sure whether this is the native violet woodsorrel (Oxalis violacea) or the non-native pink woodsorrel (Oxalis debilis);  I haven't figured out how to tell the difference between the two yet - but I'd always prefer to have the native, of course.

With perennials, it's always nice to have some great foliage for visual interest so that you don't have to rely on just blooms throughout the year.  While I was initially attracted to the light blue flower spikes that lyreleaf sage (Salvia lyrata) has, now that I've grown this plant in my yard, it's the red-veined, hairy leaves with their purplish undersides that I'm finding appeal to me most. 

I'm beginning to think of this plant as a hosta replacement, with the twist that it's native and it grows well down here.  In my mind, the occasional seedlings that spring up in the grass are a perk as they transplant readily and allow me to establish new plants elsewhere in the garden beds, giving some cohesion to my newly evolving plantings.  If I ever get tired of them, they uproot easily and will be no problem to simply weed out.

For now I'll leave you with some blueberry blooms (Vaccinium sp.).

I love the rotund, lacy, little pearls that are blueberry blossoms.  Although it doesn't seem like I have very many on my 7 blueberry bushes, I am seeing a pleasing number of blueberries beginning to swell, so I must have more blooms than I realize.  The blueberry bees are keeping busy, for sure!