D Tucholske

Having some moderate success, so far. I am starting to realize that my plant ID app is no longer doing much of anything useful, though, so it's making IDs a bit harder. I do know that several wild grasses I put out are doing remarkably well in my woods. I'm also leaning strongly towards the possibility that I may have found some Fringed Bleeding Heart, Cardinal Flower & Black Cohosh, but am starting to realize that a lot of plants I put out here may strongly resemble things that were already here before they bloom- several wildflowers I put out happen to resemble goldenrod, violets, wild ginger & even Great White Trillium could have some serious crossover & American spikenard leaves strongly resemble basswood.

Anyways here are some pics of what I think I found.

Depending on how big those knotweeds are, there's likely not going to be a whole lot of anything coming up from underneath them, once you cut it. I'd suggest being careful, because it's taken almost a full year of constant observation to make 100% sure I got completely rid of the first patch of knotweed I pulled out. After starting the patch last spring, I only just guaranteed within the past two months that it's completely cleared out.

Once it's gone though, things that might grow well there (and quickly) include:

Trees:
Eastern Redbud, Pawpaw, Carolina Buckthorn, Black Elderberry, Chokecherry

Shrubs:
Highbush Blueberry, Blackhaw Viburnum, Eastern Sweetshrub, Goose Plum, Beautyberry (if you're pretty much right on the southern border of the state, but you might be ale to get away with it?), Clove Currant, Illinois Rose or Swamp Rose, Black Raspberry/ wild Blackberry/ dewberry

Groundcover:
Partridgeberry, Jewelweed, any number of other Native wildflowers or grasses, Eastern Yampah

Best ways I've landed on for adding vegetables to your diet by making plenty of the more bitter ones more palatable include:

Stir fry:
When done right, you end up with vegetables that are very firm & crunchy, yet all their natural bitterness is gone, leaving them much easier to stomach. Unfortunately, between me & someone else who agrees, neither one of us can figure out what we're missing. We know you are supposed to blanche them, then toss them in a hot wok with oil, but don't know what else we aren't getting to get that top knotch Chinese restaurant quality.

Succotash:
Cutting up green peppers into very small pieces & cooking them with corn, for whatever reason, takes all the natural bitterness out of the peppers, and so succotash is probably the best, if not one of the best, possible ways to eat them.

Salsa:
Homemade salsa, for whatever bizarre reason, has a completely different flavor than store bought altogether & it is frigging delicious. I also have discovered a fun trick to enhance the flavor of tomatoes, if they are getting tasteless- marjoram. I don't know why, but adding some dried marjoram to anything tomato based fully rejuvenates & brings out tomato flavor that was lacking.

Haven't tried too many wild veggies so far, but I imagine several of these tricks are doable with them.

I just got a chance to try some wild black Cherries & they are actually pretty bitter when raw. Not anywhere near as bad as Chokecherries can be, but still noticeably bitter. Their fruit isn't as large or as firm as domesticated Cherries, either. They have a tendency to want to burst all over. Like, it was squirting juice out of the stem hole when I picked it.

I don't know if any of that has anything to do with why they wouldn't be compatible with one another, but I'd understand if it did. They are extremely closely related species, so it might not be be like having one species of tree growing out of another, but like all one tree, and if that's the case, it might just end up not being capable of producing completely different kinds of Cherries from the same tree? I'm curious now, though.

You may want to try some Madrone, too. Or look into some spruce type trees/ shrubs from your area that don't get too big. Or native hollies.

I'm not super familiar with the area, so my help is kind of limited.

Yeah, you may have taken a picture of the wrong thing.

Prune them back. Those things are pretty resilient & most plants in that species stop giving fruit if a single plant gets too big. Plus, they can start passing diseases between each other. It isn't going to cause enough of a problem. You can consider every place they root to the ground as it's own plant, honestly & attacking one stalk will do absolutely nothing to the other stalks of the same plant.

The only thing I know for sure that ants do around here is help sow several species of woodland wildflowers (which makes it twice as perplexing why so few of the ones I've sown seem to be showing up, here). They gather the seeds in their dens, eat the outer layer then throw out the excess to grow. Not sure about any trees, or fruit. I'd imagine they're good for strawberries, given how those work.

I don't keep bees, myself. Up here, in Ohio, I've been seeing a decent amount & variety of Native bees, though. All through the past two months, the woods have been full of them, but I don't see very many out in the open.  

With the Beeches, I did soak them as soon as I got them, but I wasn't able to plant them until afternoon the following day. It's been raining often enough & I try to get water to the ones out in the open if it goes above 80°, but this is one of two I put in the woods. It has not once dried out back there enough for it to be a problem for young plants this spring. Based on how it has been in recent years, it probably won't until July-August.

Not sure what to make of it. I got these a few months ago & put them out. They don't seem to be dead, but none of them have Leaved out, yet. Every other of my bare roots that survived are fully leaved out, but these ones are all being stubborn. Only one showed signs of being about to try, but even that one never did.

I guess, if they're still alive, I shouldn't be too worried, but I am confused.