No freedom for cup plant

Hello cup plant (Silphium perfoliatum), my big native beauty!

You're sort of an early one in my garden, emerging vigorously and almost crowding yourself out.

***

I'm sorry that I must keep you in a cage, behind the cruelly cold welded wire.

I wish I could let you roam free like your children, basking in the sunshine up on the ledge next to the pond...

...where they can even hold hands...

...or play hide-and-seek with the violets in the lawn.

Your offspring from years past have found a temporary home of sorts...

...with me, near the house...

But alas, I just can't let you have your freedom.

You know what will happen if I do.

.