I usually wait until later in the summer to start drying things to help supplement winter feeding my young tortoises. But recently I realized that I was missing out on the spring plants and blooms that disapere as summer goes on. I wish I had thought about it sooner because all the early chick weeds are gone. I started with the opuntia blooms which come and go pretty quick , which I had never collected before. I have been collecting tender mulberry and grape leaves before they get mature and a little tough. narrow leaf plantain, dandelion, a couple types of of thistle leaves, blooms from yuccas and my rose of sharon just started blooming with very large blooms that as time goes on and we get dry spells the blooms get smaller so now is the time to collect them. raspberry leaves too. Here's a couple pics of my hi-tech drying system that works great an simple to do.Her is one ROS showing the blooms