Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day June 2016

 Welcome to Bloom Day at Clay and Limestone. It's still green time in my garden. That's the time between spring's extravagant display and summer's rough and tumble wildflower show, but there are some blooms to make a gardener and visitor smile.

Coreopsis 'Mercury Rising'

C 'Mercury Rising' and a dwarf Coreopsis grandiflora

Asclepias tuberosa

Arisaema dracontium and Autumn Fern

Echinacea tennesseensis 

Tradescantia virginiana

Gaura lindheimeri 'Siskiyou Pink'

Oenothera speciosa

Echinacea purpurea 'Magnus'

Rudbeckia hirta 'Chim Chiminee'

Elymus hystrix

Phlox x 'Wanda'

Crocosmia x cocosmiflora 'Orange Lucifer'

 Now make this garden blogger smile and pop over to May Dreams Gardens, where our delightful hostess, Carol, has set up the Mr Linky magic carpet ride to take you to more Bloom Day posts than you can imagine.

Happy Bloom Day to you all.
Gailxoxo

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: Oenothera fruticosa

I love this little beauty. Love that it has spread around the garden and flowers just where a spot of golden yellow is needed in late spring. It doesn't mind my shallow soil, in fact, in nature it is often found growing on shallow, rocky soil. That makes it a perfect wildflower for Clay and Limestone. It's blooming and it's our May, Wildflower Wednesday star.

Oenothera fruticosa or Sundrops, is a spreading perennial wildflower with reddish evergreen winter rosettes.

Flowers are borne in racemes of 3-10 at the tips of the branches.

In mid-spring the rosettes send up slender reddish stems with narrow leaves that herald the arrival of the red flower buds. In late May the buds open to reveal lovely bright yellow saucer shaped flowers. Each flower has one day in the sun and fades by the late afternoon. Luckily for this gardener, the pretty yellow flower show lasts for several weeks, which more than makes up for its daily flower fading. 

An individual flower is about 1-2 in (2.5-5 cm) across.

I do love sunny yellow flowers.

Have you noticed that each flower has four sepals at the end of a slender tube, orange stamens and a conspicuous 4-branched stigma that forms a cross or what always looks to me like a great big X?

In fact, members of the Onagraceae or evening primrose family are easily recognized by that X. They're the only flower with sepals that are conspicuously reflexed downward at the base of the flower or fruit capsule forming an X.

small carpenter bee visiting Sundrop

That X-marks the spot where native bees, beetles, butterflies, skippers and honeybees land to sup on the nectar and/or pollen of the Oenothera fruticosa flowers; where caterpillars of several moths feed on the foliage; and, where hummingbirds visit for nectar and to feed on small insects. By the time the Eastern goldfinch, mourning dove and other songbirds eat the seed, the X is gone, but, Oenothera fruticosa has done its job providing for wildlife.

Sundrops dancing with Echinacea pallida and Asclepias tuberosa

Plant Sundrops with Asclepias tuberosa, Coreopsis major, Monarda punctata, Liatris microcephala, Glandularia canadensis and Phlox pilosa.

They're perfect massed or allowed to roam~which ever style makes you happy. Just seeing their bright sunny yellow flowers makes me happy.

The particulars

Common Name: Sundrops, narrow leaf primrose
Herbaceous perennial 
Onagraceae Family
Growing Zone: 4 to 8
Native: Occurs from Quebec to Nova Scotia and Florida and west to Manitoba, Michigan, Missouri and Louisiana.

Size: 1.00 to 1.50 feet tall by 1.00 to 2.00 feet spread.
Bloom: Late May to June
Bloom color: Bright yellow
Light: Full sun to light shade
Water: Dry to medium
Maintenance: Low
Propagation: Collect and sow seeds in autumn or by divide the stoloniferous roots. Can also make stem tip cuttings in spring. If you bend the stems and cover with soil, they will root.
Tolerates drought, dry, rocky soil, shallow soil. But, would appreciate richer soil.
Comments: Let it naturalize in your wildflower, cottage or meadow planting
Attracts Wildlife: Butterflies, Songbirds, Pollinators and Hummingbirds
Deer, bunny and rodent resistant: So far!

Thanks for stopping by to help celebrate Wildflower Wednesday.

Wildflower Wednesday is about sharing wildflowers all over this great big beautiful world. It doesn't matter if we sometimes show the same plants, how they grow and thrive in your garden is what matters most. I hope you join the celebration...It's always the fourth Wednesday of the month!
xoxogail 


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.

Garden Update: It's raining. Again.

 Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining, just shaking my head with wonder and disbelief! It's August and we've had more rain than I can remember ever having during a Middle Tennessee summer. The Joe-Pye weed, Cup plant and Susans are thrilled. So is the moisture loving Cardinal flower and the new Hibiscus coccineus (planted last year). Even the plants that are in deepest shade under the Oak and Hickory canopy are thriving.

I've nothing to complain about, last year in the midst of the drought the entire garden needed extra watering to survive. By August the drought and the extreme heat brought the summer garden season to an early end. It went out with a whimper (or was that me) of crispness.

This year the moisture loving plants like the Joes are in their element, but, I've lost Asclepias tuberosa and Echinacea pallida, both plants that have been in my garden for years. They're tap rooted plants that need well draining soil and they rotted from the clay that has been sopping wet all summer. Consequently, I've been doing the Central Basin what should I plant dance since I pulled them out of the garden.

Traditionally,  this is a dance that one does while standing in the middle of the nursery aisles surrounded by plants in full bloom and enticingly beautiful. You take two steps forward and one step back while singing, "Will these xeric plants survive this winter or will I have to water the moisture lovers all summer?" This summer, I had to add another verse to the song, "Baby, we never know what next summer will bring, let's be smart about it..." Cha-cha-cha!

I'm a fairly smart Central Basin gardener and generally stick to tried and true natives and native friendly exotics, but, that doesn't mean I don't fall for a plant that needs more coddling than my rough and tumble wildflowers usually require.

H coccineus, a marsh loving plant that I hope can survive our usually dry summer

Take the Scarlet rosemallow that was added last fall. It's a marsh resident in most of the Southeastern states (not a Tennessee native) that has thrived with our steady winter, spring and summer rains. I'm crossing my fingers that it gets well established and continues to be happy at Clay and Limestone. That rose flower has me smitten! Isn't is wonderful!

Usually, by this time of the summer my energy is spent and I am lounging around inside trying to keep cool and away from the skeeters. This year, the weather has not only been wetter, it's been cooler. We've had fewer than 5 days with temperatures above 90F. Gardening has been a treat and even the mosquitoes haven't been able to keep most of us out of the garden.

I know, it's amazing!

So when I say it's raining again, please know that I really am appreciative of this amazing gift after years of drought and plant loss.
 

xoxogail

PS   To read more about our feature flower, the Joe-Pye weed ~Wildflower Wednesday: The Joes
       To read more about Rough and Tumble wildflowers~ Rough and Tumble Wildflowers
       To read more about gardening in the Central Basin~The Central Basin
       To read more about planting in Middle Tennessee~Not The Climate For Xeric
       To read more about why I plant natives~Plant More Natives

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.

"How many plants do you have in your garden?"

Asked Mr I.

 I paused, wondering if it was a trick question, then replied, "It looks like a lot of plants and I suppose there are, but, really, what you are seeing is a lot of the same dozen or so plants."

"Seriously?" he said with just a hint of disbelief.

"Well, maybe!" I said coyly.

Asclepias tuberosa, Echinace pallida 'Hula Dancer' and Oenothera fruticosa

How many plants do I have in my garden? I haven't a clue! Somewhere in my office are several baskets of plant tags of the many plants I've planted in the 28 years I've been gardening here~some have thrived and others have lasted just a season or two~ and I am happy to say that there are more successes than failures.

Rudbeckia hirta, R fulgida and Abelia 'Kalaidascope'

What I can tell you is that my garden is jam packed. It's grown exponentially since we built the front porch in 2003 and moved a small wildflower and day lily garden to the sunny strip along the drive.

Echinacea, Eupatorium, Bottlebrush grass and  Hemerocallis 'Hyperion'

Although, the Susan's Bed (as that sunny strip is called) is a modest size, it's much larger in my imagination and of course I buy way more wildflowers than space to plant them. I end up having to pry them into any bit of available soil.  You could say that the garden has grown larger plant by plant. 

'Little Devil' Ninebark, Asclepias tuberosa, Rudbeckia foliage, 'Ascot Rainbow' Eupatorium and 'Fireworks' Gomphrena

Right now, it's nearly impossible to do any pinching back of the late season ex-asters or to dead head any of the spent day lilies and other plants without stomping on a treasured flower or three. Many a Susan has given its life to keep the garden looking a little tamer and less like clown pants.

Gaura, Lavender and Echinacea

Maybe, it is time to survey the garden to see how many plant families are represented and get a flower head count of the various species and cultivars...I am pretty sure there are more than a "few dozen of the same plants".

Silphium perfoliatum, Hemerocallis, Liatris, Thermopsis villosa, Hibiscus 'Kopper King', Shasta Daisy, Eupatorium dubium, Ratibida pinnata, Rudbeckia maxima and Elymus hystrix

One thing is for sure,  I won't be sharing my findings with Mr I! The other day when I was heading out to a nursery with a friend, he actually said, "Why are you going to the nursery, you have plenty of plants!"

As if that were even possible.

xoxogail

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.