Gardening memories and a celebration of late spring blooms

I finally got to meet one of my garden mentors, Dr Thomas Hemmerly. He was a hike leader at the annual Cedar Glade celebration at the Cedars of Lebanon state park a few weekend ago.

Dr Hemmerly in the blue hat

I first "met" Dr Hemmerly about twenty-five years ago in the pages of his book Wildflowers of the Central South. He introduced me to concepts that were important to know if I were to have any success at gardening in my yard. I learned about Middle Tennessee  microclimates and about the unique wildflowers that grew only in the cedar glades.  His book helped me figure out that my garden was a xeric oak-hickory forest plant community with areas of extremely shallow soil and exposed limestone. The shallow, nearly neutral clay soil is hard as concrete during our dry summers and wet and sticky during our rainy winters.

No wonder everything I planted had died!

I mulled over what I learned and found myself thinking this: "Gail, your garden isn't a failure, but, trying to make it something that it isn't is the true failure. Take a look at what's already growing here. Appreciate and celebrate what you have."

So I did. I decided to watch my yard throughout the growing season. I say yard because it really wasn't much of a garden back then.

False garlic early in May

 Early the next spring I noticed wildflowers everywhere.

Golden ragwort

There were Columbines, Trillium, Spring beauties, Toothwort, False Garlic, Golden Ragwort and Phlox divaricata.

In May, I found dozens of Penstemon calycosus growing in the wayback backyard in both the dry shade and in the the wet weather spring. I fell instantly in love and transplanted it everywhere!

It's a foundation plant for my spring garden and a food source for many pollinators.

Poverty Oatgrass/Danthonia spicata

In the lawn I noticed sedges, Poverty oatgrass and 

Lyre leafed sage/Salvia lyrata~a delightful wildflower that honeybees visit.

Lyre-leaf sage.

Blue-eyed grass

Also growing in the lawn were Blue-eyed grasses, Downy Woodmint, the cutest little panicums and a tiny daisy with lavender hints that wasn't even in my wildflower guide.

Astranthium integrifolium/Entireleaf western daisy

That sweet little daisy is Entireleaf Western Daisy a Middle Tennessee native (annual) that I have allowed to spread where ever it is happy.

it's perfect for a lawn

It's happy in sun or shade.

Green Dragon/Arisaema dracontium

Later that spring the old world irises that were planted by the former owner bloomed and the Green Dragon dramatically unfurled. Summer brought the Phlox paniculata into bloom and later that fall I noticed that the yard was a blue sea of native woodland asters with pops of golden colored Goldenrod.

Oenothera speciosa

With new eyes, it was easy to see that my difficult garden was a treasure. There was a forest of native trees,  thriving wildflowers and abundant wildlife. In other words, the makings of a perfect wildlife garden.

After months of struggling to figure out what was going on, I finally understood that plants have to be rugged to survive in my garden and that planting native wildflowers made sense. After all, they had evolved and adapted to our wet winters and dry summers.

Columbine/Aquilegia canadensis

It didn’t take me long to find just the right plants for my garden and it wasn’t long before I fell head over heels in love with wildflowers. You might say they became my passion.

Thank you Dr Hemmerly for all your help on my journey to the garden of my heart.

xoxogail

PS This is also my Garden Bloggers Bloom Day contribution. Please stop by Carol's blog, May Dreams Gardens, to see more flowering gardens then you can imagine.

Bluestar/Amsonia illustis

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. She reminds all that the words and images are the property of the author and cannot be used without written permission.