Wildflower Wednesday: Appreciative and Thankful For My Garden/Habitat

It's Thanksgiving week and I am feeling appreciative and thankful about the good people, good things, good wildflowers and good garden critters in my life. The last two years have been especially challenging for me as a gardener, so I am working extra hard at appreciating what is revealed to me every day in my garden. This Wildflower Wednesday post is in celebration of the wildflower and native plant beauty in the garden. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I have had in putting it together.

But first a little history to remind myself and long time readers of what this journey has been like! xoxogail

Shagbark hickory

Long before there was a Clay and Limestone this sloped land was a rocky forest of native trees, shrubs, perennials and ephemerals. When my house was built on this rocky soil almost 70 years ago this neighborhood was not part of Nashville. Metro Nashville didn't exist until 1962 when the citizens voted to consolidate the competing and duplicative city and county governments into one. Metro Nashville has thrived and grown ever since, so much so, that many groups are working to make sure that there are some protections for the tree canopy, for pollinators, for birds and for other critters.

 To create this suburban neighborhood developer's bulldozers cut streets through the woodland. They built brick ranch houses that had deep backyards and grassy front yards. They left a few canopy trees, primarily the oaks, hickories and hackberry, but took out most of the understory and planted non native lawns, so that boys and girls could play baseball, kickball and reach for the sky on their backyard swings.

crinkle root (Cardamine diphylla

The rocky, shallow soil was not so good at supporting turf grasses, but, it was excellent at supporting bee friendly lawns that were populated with native plants like Danthonia spicata Poverty Oat Grasses, panic grasses, Ruellia humilis, Viola spp., Sisyrinchium angustifolium/Blue-eyed grass, Nothoscordum bivalve/False garlic, Claytonia virginica/Spring beauty, Downy woodmint, Erythronium americanum/trout lily, fleabane, toothworts, Lyre-leaf sage, Western Daisy and sedges.

Western Daisy is a fabulous native annual and still blooming

But in 1985 when we moved into this house and yard, I had no idea that there were native plant treasures waiting for me to discover. I envisioned a Cottage Garden filled with the palest blues, pinks and whites just like I saw in every book and magazine. I failed at everything I tried until I realized that the shallow clay soil was already home to wonderful native wildflowers!

Today, I look around and celebrate those wildflowers. They have brought me so much joy. When I stop and think about its those wildflowers that I have to thank for helping me gain new knowledge, for great adventures and for meeting new people. Without wildflowers I might never have realized the possibilities for a garden with difficult growing conditions like I have here at Clay and Limestone. I would surely never have met the unique plants and trees that grow in middle Tennessee, I wouldn't have begun blogging and I wouldn't have met wonderful friends like you dear readers or my dear friends from Garden Bloggers Flings. Nor would I have become a Tennessee Naturalist. My love for wildflowers opened my eyes to many things, especially to pollinators and their importance to our gardens, to agriculture and to the earth.

Here's the garden/habitat in November colors.

Right now the garden looks quite flowerless! Most  of the late blooming flowers are gone, except a few of the last to bloom Willowleaf asters. They are a must have plant for me and I recommend that you add them to your garden, too. You need a plant that survives several frosts and deep freezes and this one does. If the temperatures were to rebound to warmer than 60˚ in the next weeks the bees would be back. They aren't so happy with drought, but other than that, they're pretty perfect.

Hamamelis virginiana is also still blooming. The flowers furl when it's cold and unfurl when the day warms up. I can't imagine gardening without this understory tree. On warm days its honey scent wafts around the garden on the slightest breeze. It's been a Wildflower Wednesday star several times, because I love it so. It's growing in a small woodland garden beneath the swaying branches of a shagbark hickory and The Dancing Tree/Ostrya virginiana that I rescued from the strangling wisteria. It's perfect for woodland gardens and generously shares the ground beneath with woodland favorites like Christmas ferns, wild ginger, Phacelia, Trilliums, Dutchman's Breeches and other spring ephemerals.

Of course when I speak of my garden and wildlife value I include shrubs and trees. Now tell me what you think of the  Ostrya virginiana in her fall yellows? Undistinguished yellow in autumn is how MOBOT describes this beauty. I beg to disagree.

Cotinus 'Grace' and Cercis canadensis

 Color in the garden at this time of year is in many shades of yellow, brown and some reds. I believe that this Redbud looks fabulous with Cotinus 'Grace'.

 

Hypericum frondosum

 I love native plants that offer year round beauty and Hypericum frondosum fits the bill. Gorgeous exfoliating winter bark gives way to incredible blue green foliage topped with gorgeous flowers in June. It doesn't stop there...The seedheads are fabulous and then the pièce de ré·sis·tance of late fall and winter is its spectacular hypercolored leaves.

 

Porteranthus stipulatus

 

 

 

 

 

Another fall beauty with equally lovely summer flowers is Western Indian Physic. I am not sure why this plant isn't in more gardens, after all, who needs big showy blooms on every plant when subtle beauty and charm can be found on this lovely native in the summer and when the flowers fade you get leaves that are a golden orange color in the fall.

I love my garden habitat in the fall. There's enough color to make me smile, even after all the damage done by browsing deer and an impossibly long drought. Looking down I notice that the spring blooming biennials and annuals have germinated. Fallen leaves never smother them and I have a lot of leaves.

Phacelia bipinnatifida

The garden becomes a sea of browning leaves and seedheads after the flowers fade. I think they're beautiful. 

Not only are they beautiful in shades of brown, the promise of spring and summer is in every one of those seeds. Those promises are everywhere if you look carefully. Take a close look at your native shrubs and small trees for buds. I remember the first time I saw the little green buds on spice bush.

the buds line the stems of Lindera benzoin

 Understory trees and shrubs like Hydrangeas, witch-hazel, Hypericums add a lot of color to the late fall garden. All have been chosen for their excellent wildlife value.

I am grateful that so many plants happily grow in my shallow, clay soil and that they survive what nature throws at them. Thanks so much for stopping by and helping me celebrate the November Wildflower Wednesday with a tour through my habitat and a look at a little of its history.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all. xoxogail

 

Welcome to Clay and Limestone's Wildflower Wednesday celebration. I am so glad you stopped by. WW is about sharing and celebrating wildflowers from all over this great big, beautiful world. Join us on the fourth Wednesday of each month. Remember, it doesn't matter if they are in bloom or not; and, it doesn't matter if we all share the same plants. It's all about celebrating wildflowers.

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.