Thimbleweed

I was at the Anita Gorman Discovery Center earlier this summer and saw these flowers blooming in the woodland garden.

I knew immediately what they were because I recognized....the leaves (sometimes I am so good!).

It's thimbleweed (Anemone virginiana), a native wildflower named for the "fruit" which sort of resemble thimbles (big emphasis on "sort of").

I thought this plant was soooo pretty so I went to a nursery and bought four of them. And of course, after doing that, I started seeing them just about everywhere on my land in Kansas.

They were growing at the edge of the woods...

By the creek in the sun...

They were lining a path deep in the woods (in clumps!)...

They grew covered with gravel dust by the side of the gravel road...

I even found them growing near dogs.

A couple weeks ago I planted them in the area I cleared and thought that finally I had planted something that would thrive because I had seen this plant growing in every sun, moisture and dirt condition on my property.

On Sunday I returned to water what I had planted in that area (even though it rained that day) and found this:

Every single leaf stem had been cut and allowed to fall where it was going to fall.

Oh, I recognized what had happened just hours before I arrived. Michael Ray and Cathy Jean have done the exact same thing to hostas! They will walk in a circle and take a bite out of every stem so that each leaf falls to the ground ending up looking somewhat like a mandala. Eat any part of the plant? Heck no. Taking down a hosta is strictly for fun. Errrrgh.

And just like my turtles, this one learned to recognize the plant that held his/her attention for such a long time. I had planted three of the thimbleweeds together but the other one was planted near where Aussie is sitting in one of the above photos. That turtle took that one down too. It wasn't even within sight of the others. It was behind the tree (!).

Can't I have just one plant that doesn't have its life sabotaged by some hungry, clumsy or bored varmint? Just one???

Dang. I was looking forward to less gardening with turtles, not more. You know? :-/