Wildflower Wednesday 2011 Roundup!

Hypericum frondosum is still hypercolored and River Oats is still golden.

Welcome to the Wildflower Wednesday December Roundup!  There's still color in the garden and we thank the St Johns wort and River Oats for brightening the gray days.  Gardening in the Middle South is a treat, we have four seasons, but our winter is  mercifully short and spring and autumn make up for the steamy hot summer weather.  Soon the  earliest ephemerals will bud and then the gloriously long  bloom of  wildflowers will begin.

Without further ado here are the best and brightest of Clay and Limestone's 2011 wildflowers.

January~The Toothworts

Cardamine concatenata~ Cutleaf Toothwort

 I love this charming member of the mustard family! All flowers of this family have 4  petals and the fruit is often in a capsule form.

February~The Cliff Dwellers:Heucheras

Heuchera americana

Heucheras are an international favorite thanks to a exciting new cultivars  that have been introduced  during the last 15 or so years. If you garden in the south you might want to look for any with H villosa in the parentage, they can take heat and humidity.  The key to success with any coral bell is drainage. They can be grown in almost anywhere, just give them good drainage and they'll be in your garden for a long time.


March~Yellowroot 

Xanthorhiza simplicissima

I love the tiny, delicate purplish flowers that bloom in the spring and the foliage that has been described as resembling both astilbes and celery. But, good looks was only one of the reasons it came to live in my garden.  It has high wildlife value and can take the difficult conditions.

 April~A Week Long Wildflower Celebration April is a happy blooming month. My garden is alive with so many wildflowers, bulbs and a few well chosen exotics. Cumberland Rosemary,  Geranium maculatum 'Espresso', Senecio aureus,  Phlox divaricata are a few of the ones I highlighted this past year. .

Hypoxis hirsuta

  May~Favorite Colonizing Wildflowers

Oenothera fruticosa is just one of the many colonizing wildflowers

 Colonizing wildflowers are just what I love.  If you aren't afraid of ground covering beauties than try a few from this post.

June~Pollinators and Their Friends

Doesn't this picture say it all! For more bees and butterflies  follow the link.

July~Phloxy Ladies and Gents (Summer Phlox)

It's possible that there may be a photo of PPPP in this one!


August~Partridge Pea

I did find a seed source for this colonizer!Hoping it will get established here!  I've got a few  places that need dramatic foliage and bright flowers.

September~Plant More Natives

Salvia azurea with a bee-lining carpenter bee

 That's my rallying cry!

October~Porteranthus stipulatus

Porteranthus stipulatus

One of my favorite of the fall pretties!

 November~A Week Long Celebration

Hamamelis virginiana

Thank goodness for the last of the ex-asters, the native grasses and witch hazels or our fall gardens would be pretty shades of brown!

My dear friends, Thank you for planting more wildflowers, thank you for taking care of the bees and all the  pollinators, thank you for tolerating pesky wildlife,  and thank you for another year of your friendship, visits, comments and joining me in celebrating wildflowers all over this great big wonderful world. You are the best and having you in my life has enriched it beyond measure.


xxoogail


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Gail Eichelberger is a gardener and therapist in Middle Tennessee. She loves wildflowers and native plants and thoroughly enjoys writing about the ones she grows at Clay and Limestone."