Wildflower Wednesday: Early Summer Pollinator Magnets

It's National Pollinator Week and Wildflower Wednesday. Could there be a better time than now to showcase my favorite wildflower pollinator magnets while discussing pollinator gardening?

Coreopsis attracts small and large bees

As a wildflower loving, native plant fan who gardens for wildlife, the plants in my garden need to be more than just pretty faces, they must be helpful for the critters that visit and live here. The Wildflower Wednesday stars of the month fit that description to a T~they have pretty faces and great wildlife value.

"Cedar Lane' Lonicera sempervivens is a hummingbird magnet

I am often asked to help friends plan their garden. The first thing I do when anyone asks me what they should plant in their garden is to share my gardening philosophy, then I say this: "It's your garden, you can plant what ever you want, but, please remember to plan for all the critters that live and visit your garden."

 Asclepias tuberosa is a magnet for bees and butterflies

I tell them that they will never be sorry! Pollinators will thank them by hanging around pollinating flowers and vegetables/fruits; beneficial insects will raise offspring that will gobble up harmful insects; and songbirds and spiders will keep the insects in check. The more you plan and plant for critters...crawling, flying and even digging ones, the healthier and more diverse your garden will be.

Eastern Bluebirds eat insects

 I tell them that it's important that anything they put as much work and effort into as they put into a garden should bring joy and that gardening for critters adds to that joy.

Hypericum frondosum attracts small and large bee.

We've been convinced by advertising that a garden should be perfect and that insects are harmful and must be eliminated or they will damage our flowering plants and make them ugly. I encourage anyone who asks for my help to reconsider beauty and to begin to appreciate the insect damaged plant as providing food for a critter that may in turn be food for a spider, another insect or a song bird.  See bluebird photo above.

Assassin bug waiting on a coreopsis

I encourage these gardeners to look at their plants very closely to find insects that might be living on them.  A friend told me she use to pull the caterpillars off her fennel before she knew they were Swallowtail butterfly cats. New gardeners need to make sure ugly bugs aren't beneficial insects before you pluck them off or squish them. Some of the "good bugs" include lacewings, lady beetles, minute pirate bug, soldier bugs, assassin bugs, braconid wasps, tachinid flies, flower flies and aphid mites.

 Insect  nibbled petals of Echinacea purpurea don't deter pollinators

I ask them to consider the bigger picture, that their garden might be an oasis of food and shelter in a sea of over fertilized and pesticide treated lawns.

Liatris spicata attracts small and large bees and butterflies

 I garden in a sea of lawns and know how important a wildlife friendly garden is to pollinators and other critters.

Monarda fistulosa is a magnet for bees, hummingbird moths and hummers

 My personal goal is to make a lovely garden that provides nectar and pollen for bees and butterflies from late winter until late fall. Clay and Limestone is a garden for all critters to find food and shelter and to raise their offspring. It's also a stopping off place for water and food (seeds and berries) to migrating birds. When I say all critters, that includes pesky rodents and mammals.

Phlox paniculata and nectar robbing Carpenter Bee

If you're a new gardener and want to create a pollinator friendly garden or want to add more pollinator friendly plants to your garden, I urge you to take time to figure out what plants make sense for your garden conditions. Invest in a good wildflower identification guide for your part of the country, join a native plant society and visit your local botanical garden and arboretum. If you are lucky enough to have garden centers that sell native plants shop there and not big box stores.

Echinacea tennesseensis is endemic to Central Basin cedar glades

It took me years to figure out that gardening would be a lot more fun and successful if I gardened with Middle Tennnessee/ Central Basin natives, after all they evolved with our wet winters and dry summers. Now they are my go to plants.

'Solar Eclipse' and 'Cherry Brandy' are two Rudbeckia hirta cultivars that attract pollinators to an early summer garden

Native annuals/short lived perennials like Rudbeckia hirta cultivars are wonderful additions to a pollinator garden. Lavender, sweet alyssum and herbs are also good additions to a pollinator friendly garden. Beneficial insects love many of them and we want beneficials in our gardens.

Hydrangea arborescens is a pollinator friendly native shrub

When you're creating your beautiful pollinator garden, be sure to include trees and shrubs, you might be surprised to learn that many of the woodies are far more important to insects than flowering plants.

Elymus hystrix is a host for the caterpillars of the Northern Pearly Eye butterfly and several moths

When you think about ornamental grasses, and I know you will, please consider planting one of our fine native grasses. Grasses like early blooming Bottle Brush grass fill the garden with movement and beauty all year long, while providing food and shelter for visiting mammals, birds and insects.

 Stokesia laevis is a major butterfly, Bumblebee, hoverfly and beetle attractor

 Fill your garden with native plants that are pollinator magnets! You'll never be sorry.

Pycnanthemum muticum attracts bees, wasps, flies, small butterflies, and beetles

Here's the nitty gritty for creating a pollinator friendly garden.

• plant a lot of nectar and pollen producing plants, lots and lots; swathes work, so does repetition (Central Basin natives make sense in a Middle Tennessee garden)
• don't forget trees, shrubs and grasses in your garden plan
• plant host plants~so the offspring of butterfly, beetles and other pollinators can feed
• plan for bloom from late spring to early winter
• include water for bees
• provide nesting sites near your garden for a variety of visitors: Build a pollinator condo, leave some bare ground for earth nesting bees and pile decaying logs for beetles who like to tunnel.
• practice peaceful coexistence. Bees sometimes choose to nest in inconvenient places. Rather than exterminating them, think of it as an opportunity to watch and learn about them up close.
• take the pledge to never, ever, ever use pesticides in your garden.  I really do mean never!  

Phlox 'Wanda'

If this post helps you have as much fun as I have gardening for pollinators and other wildlife then I will consider myself successful.

Happy Wildflower Wednesday.
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. Please leave a comment when you add your url to Mr Linky.

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.

Pollinator of the Week!

 Our pollinator of the week goes by several names~Pennsylvania soldier beetle, Goldenrod soldier beetle or Pennsylvania leatherwing. They're a common beetle in the eastern US and they're found in a staggering number on wildflowers in late summer/early fall, where they feed on pollen and meet a mate. Because of their frequent contact with flowers, soldier beetles are important pollinators. (above:Verbesina)

Feeding on Wild garlic

In my garden the adults are commonly seen on my favorite fall blooming  rough and tumble wildflowers~ Solidago, Verbesina, Stokesia, Heleniums and even alliums. They're harmless to humans and the flowers they visit, but, the number of visitors per flower may worry new or inexperienced gardeners. Please leave them be, they're beneficial garden critters.

'Peachie's Pick' Stokesia with Soldier Beetle

Pollination is incidental, soldier beetles are there to feed and mate. It's their larvae that do the most "beneficial" work for our garden systems, feeding on soft bodied critters in the soil. We're unlikely to see the larvae, which have been described as looking like tiny alligators, they're hidden in the leaf litter munching on grasshopper eggs and other soft bodied insects that might harm our garden plants. (Please note, here's another good reason to leave the leaves in place, many beneficial insects over winter in fallen leaves.)

Feeding on Helenium

If your goal is to have a pesticide free garden then you want to attract as many beneficial insects as possible to your garden. If you want soldier beetles, then plant pollen rich wildflowers like goldenrods, Verbesinas and other asteraceas that bloom in the late summer or early fall.

Happy pollinator gardening.
xoxogail

Name:    Chauliognathus pensylvanicus
Family:  Cantharidae
Size:       5/8-inch long
Color:     orange beetles, with two prominent brown-black spots on the elytra
Seen:       August and September in the middle south, July in the upper midwest
Roll:        Beneficial insect: Adult pollinates flowers and the larvae predates on grasshopper eggs and soft 
                bodied bugs

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.

Peachie's Pick Stokesia

Although, Stokesia laevis is not native to the Central Basin or for that matter to Tennessee, it is one of my favorite wildflowers. I fell in love with 'Peachie's Pick' the first time I saw the fluffy lilac blue flowers in full bloom and it's by far the best Stokes aster for good looks.

It's blooming in my garden right now, just in time to mingle with the day lilies and the phloxes.

Peachie's Pick' Stokesia is an evergreen perennial with a luscious lavender-blue cornflower like flower, that blooms for a long time and mixes well with other wildflowers.

It is also a great plant to attract pollinators and other beneficial insects to your native garden. Studies have shown that Stokes Aster attracted 4 times the number of honeybees; bumblebees; native bees (including Halictid bees); flies; butterflies, moths & skippers; beetles and wasps than other native plants. That's great news for gardeners in Southeastern states who are committed to creating a habitat for native pollinators. It's good news for any of us who are committed to providing a habitat for pollinators and other wildlife. I find that studies like this one conducted in Georgia reinforce how important native plants are to habitat restoration and creation.

 I don't mind mixing a few plants from other regions to the Central mix at Clay and Limestone. Stokesia, unlike some exotics that are merely pretty faces in a garden, is a major butterfly, Bumblebee, hoverfly and beetle attractor.

Skippers love Stokesia!

My dear readers, you don't have to garden in the Southeastern US to grow 'Peachie's Pick'. It will be happy in your Zone5 to Zone9 gardens if you treat it right! Just remember, it needs good drainage, even moisture and a decent amount of sun. Don't even think about planting it in heavy clay soil that hasn't been amended to improve drainage or it will disappear on you in a season. Those of you further north be sure to mulch it for the winter...but remember, wet winters and poor drainage are the kiss of death for this pretty. Trust me, I've lost many a stokesia to winter drowning.

In my book, it's another practically perfect plant for your garden.

xoxogail

PS This beauty was originally found growing in Peachie Saxon's Mississippi garden many years ago and she generously shared it with the gardening world!

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.

Wildflower Wednesday: Fill Your Garden With Native Plants

You'll never be sorry! Especially, if you're experiencing a challenging summer like we're having here in Middle Tennessee. 

Echinaceas never fails to attract pollinators

My garden is a Central Basin plant community with plants native to cedar glades and the adjacent oak-hickory-red cedar forests. Anyone who has gardened near here knows we have heavy, nearly neutral clay soils that sit atop a limestone bedrock.  It's shallow and sticky wet all winter and dry as concrete all summer.  It took me awhile, but, I eventually figured out, that in order to have a garden that was beautiful and thrived, I was going to have to plant natives. Tough natives!

Sure, they have to be tough, but we like them good-looking and useful, too.

Pycnanthemum muticum is not native to the Central Basin, but, it's a pollinator magnet 

Plants that come to live at C and L need to contribute to a habitat for birds, butterflies and other wildlife. (Gardening For Wildlife)

natives greet visitors as they walk the path to the front porch.

Plants like Phlox paniculata and Panicum virgatum 'Northwind' fit the bill. Bonus points are awarded because they can take a half day of sun.

If you think you can't grow colorful natives in the shade, give species phlox a try. 

Summer phlox is my go to native plant for colorful blooms in the shade. Although, there are still a few modern cultivars in the garden, most has long reverted to the species. It might not bloom as floriferously as those full sun cultivars and hybrids, but, you won't be disappointed by its lovely flowers.  If you allow some to go to seed, you'll be rewarded with offspring that shows some very interesting variations.  Just check out the very charming offspring of P paniculata 'David' and P paniculata sps. (above photo). They are drought tolerant but, happier with weekly rain.

Although, I almost always choose the species when adding plants to my garden, I really flipped for 'Peachie's Pick' stokesia. Unfortunately, some hybrids and cultivars have lost their wildflower vigor and hardiness on the way to being made more beautiful, but, that's not the case with this stokesia. She's a tough beauty. The skippers, small butterflies and little bees love Peachie, too.  (I pinky swear I don't mind that she needs supplemental watering this summer and to be perfectly honest, every summer!)

The dry searing heat and no rain for two months has been especially hard on even the toughest natives growing in shallow soil in full sun!

 But, the Gaillardia is not bothered by the heat.

something loves to nibble on the petals Echinacea tennesseensis

Neither are the Tennessee coneflowers or their offspring.  They are summer troopers. They ask only for sunshine and sharp drainage. Established plantings can survive in a cedar glade with temperatures near 110F, so my garden is no challenge to them!

The heat and drought are a challenge to this gardener.  I worry about my garden and the effects a long term drought will have on it.  Even the toughest drought tolerant native plants need occasional rain!  No matter what, I'll continue to plant Central Basin natives because it makes sense. They have the best survival chances in the long run: they've adapted to a climate of extremes, tolerate our shallow clay soil and support wildlife.  

They make me happy, too.


xoxogail

Welcome to Clay and Limestone's Wildflower Wednesday celebration. 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. Please leave a comment when you add your url to Mr Linky.



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.