Wildflower Wednesday: Asarum canadense

Welcome to Clay and Limestone where we're celebrating our Wildflower Wednesday star of the month!

Asarum canadense is poking out of the soil in my garden. The heart/kidney shaped leaves are velvety soft and an attractive deep green.

The delicate bell shaped flowers are also up, but, hidden beneath the leaves at the base of the plants.

Wild ginger is found in rich, moist forests in Eastern N. America - Manitoba to New Brunswick, south to N. Carolina and west to Kansas. It's an early bloomer here in middle Tennessee and the delicate bells shaped flowers are already beckoning pollinators. In cooler climates look for them in early April.

The flower of Wild Ginger is a fuzzy little beauty, but, you'll have to get on your hands and knees to see it. The flower has no fragrance, but, it's unusual shape should be seen up close to appreciate. What looks like petals are really part of the calyx and have pointy ends that add to its attractiveness. The flowers fade fast, but, the leaves are green all season, making Wild Ginger an important ingredient for a woodland garden.

Asarum canadence is made for the shade. It’s a beautiful ground covering wildflower when grown in loose, rich, organic soil (spreads by rhizomes). Needless to say, it doesn’t spread wildly or fast in my heavy clay soil, instead it intermingles with other wildflowers. Because it remains green all season, it's a lovely addition to any woodland/shade garden that emphasizes leaf shapes, textures and variations on greens. I can see it planted along a path edge, massed or interplanted with clumping  Christmas Ferns, or any number of other shade dwelling beauties. In my garden it plays well with False dragonhead, Phlox divaricata, Christmas Ferns, Blue eyed Mary, Phacelia and Spigelia.

Wild ginger is a fuzzy little beauty, but you'll have to get on your hands and knees to see it.

When a flower is at ground level it only makes sense that it's inviting ground dwelling insects to either pollinate or disperse its seeds. That's the case with Wild Ginger, it's pollinated by flies and beetles and the seeds are attractive to ants.

Seed dispersal by ants is called Myrmecochory. This beneficial partnership between ants and plants is amazing: The ant gets a lipid (fat) rich meal from the elaiosome covered seeds and the plants benefit from the ant dispersing the seed far from the parent plant (thereby eliminating competition). Scientists also think that ants have a role in protecting seeds from seed predators when they carry the seeds away and by increasing germination rates when they eliminate the elaiosome surrounding the seed.

Nature never ceases to amaze me.

I love knowing that ants have moved wild ginger uphill in my garden. I sure didn't recall planting it there! This gives me an even better appreciation of ants, their midens (trash depositories) and their place in nature! I must thank them for planting it near the Christmas fern and wild Phlox!

Oh, in case you wondered, the leaves and rhizomes of Wild Ginger do give off a pleasant gingery fragrance when broken, but, this is not why I grow it. Not only is it lovely to look at, it's not palatable to deer and it's an important food source for the larva of the Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly. The caterpillar eats the leaves and thereby ingests aristolochic acid which makes it poisonous to birds.

Pipevine Swallowtail on Ruellia strepens

The particulars

Asarum canadense
Common Name: Wild Ginger
Family: Aristolochiaceae
Type: Herbaceous perennial
Family: Aristolochiaceae
Native Range: Eastern N. America - Manitoba to New Brunswick, south to N. Carolina and west to Kansas
Zone: 4 to 6
Size: Height: 0.50 to 1.00 feet and Spread: 1.00 to 1.50 feet
Bloom Time: Late March/April to May
Bloom Description: Maroon/brown
Water Use: Medium
Light Requirement: Part Shade , Shade
Soil Moisture: Moist (can take some dryness, but, it will fade fast in a drought)
Soil pH: Acidic (pH<6.8) , Circumneutral (pH 6.8-7.2)
Sun: Part shade to full shade
Maintenance: Low
Suggested Use: Ground Cover, Naturalize, Rain Garden
Tolerate: Deer, Heavy Shade
Faunal Associations: The reddish brown flowers  attract flies and beetles. The seeds attract ants because of their fleshy appendages; these insects help to disperse the seeds.
***an important food source for the Pipevine swallowtail Butterfly.
Comments: Doesn't grow in the high summer heat of Zone 8.
Companion planting: This plant is a wonderful companion for most wildflowers that like moist soil Consider using them with Wild columbine/Aquilegia canadensis, Celandine poppy/Stylophorum diphyllum, Christmas Fern/Polystichum acrostichoides, Lady Fern/Athyrium filix-femina,
Woodland Phlox (Phlox divaricata, Indian pink/Spigelia marilandica, Carex species, Fothergilla gardenii, Uvularia sessilifolia, Jeffersonia diphylla, Maianthemum stellatum, Polystichum acrostichoides, Pachysandra procumbens and other woodland wildflowers.

xoxogail

Welcome to Wildflower Wednesday and thank you for stopping by to see our March star. It's been in my garden for a long time and once again I ask myself how this workhouse in the woodland got overlooked. Thanks for joining in and if you are new to Wildflower Wednesday, it's 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 your wildflower is in bloom or not and, it doesn't matter if we all share the same plants. 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.

The Pollinator Condo How-To

Pollinator Tower is designed to be attractive housing for a variety of small native bees, beetles and other arthropods...

From the first time I saw a pollinator hotel/insect condo I began planning to build one for my garden. Although, I can't be sure which pollinators will move in, my inner budding entomologist will have a lot of fun observing and documenting what moves in and which accommodations they prefer. 

I am thrilled that you're here to see how it was constructed and I hope you build one for your garden, community center or school. Please share your designs and what you've observed with all of us in the gardening community, so that we can continue to understand and help our native bees and other pollinators.

It really is always the right time to think about pollinators!

small bees like this carpenter bee might move in

Disclaimer: I am not a carpenter. No way, no how, so any of you with real skills can laugh your head off at my right brain construction techniques. What I figured out from doing this was that I really would love a workshop were tools are at the ready, plugs were nearby and I didn't have to spend a lot of time setting up and putting stuff away in a shed in the wayback of my garden. Having said that, let me tell you, that building my pollinator habitat was the most fun I've had in a long time.

I hope the instructions and photos are clear and that you will soon be creating your own habitat.

Construction Narrative:

After looking at dozens of marvelous and creative pollinator habitat designs I decided the simplest design was one that used stacked pallets. They were easy to come by and required absolutely no skills except stacking them so they would not topple over in the wind or snow. I got mine free from a local garden center.  But don't take just any, make sure you find ones stamped HT, that means they were heat treated not shot full of preservatives that could poison pollinators or you!

I wanted this project to be simple to make, easy to reproduce and with easily located materials,. All the materials used were purchased at a home center or recycled from found materials.

Originally, I planned on using full sized pallet, but, decided that  24"x 48" was big enough. I measured, marked the cutting lines, removed the nails that were in the way of the saw blade and then Mr I cut them. (Remember, pallets are not square, level, uniform or plumb, nor are they exactly 4'x4')

I situated the habitat in a semi-sunny spot away from the main garden, but, close enough for pollinators

I placed the first pallet section on concrete blocks that were securely set in the ground. Then, I used three bricks on each corner to hold the next pallet making sure they were steady and secure and continued this process until it looked tall enough...I only needed three.

I liked it, but it lacked a certain pizazz.  Even when I began filing the spaces with pollinator habitat materials it still looked dull. 

It really needed a roof!

roof center board is secured with shims and braces

 Rather than building a heavy frame to hold the roof, I decided to make the roof a sandwich board! A quick trip to the local home center netted 2 pieces of 1/4 inch exterior plywood (24"x40" cut to size), a bundle of cedar roof shingles and several tubes of construction adhesive. (cost under $50)

sample sandwich board roof and center board

 I hinged the roof pieces together with small door hinges and held it upright on the tower with a 20"x 24" center board of 1/2" exterior plywood. The center board is braced between two pieces of oak and then shimmed. The center board, hinges, shims and oak braces are from old projects. 

Not bad looking...

 Now, here comes the fun part~hanging the shingles!

Shingling is not difficult when you're standing on the ground and don't care if it's not perfect.  Just do an internet search and get the basics from one of the excellent videos that's available.  I especially liked this one from Fine Gardening.  

I glued the shingles to the roof and held them in place with staples while they dried.

Here's what I learned from the shingling project!

Shingling is a bottom up project!
The fat edge of the shingles are the bottoms!
When laying the shingles make sure the seams don't line up, this protects the roof from leaking.
I tried many combinations of shingles to avoid having to cut them to size. 
Construction adhesive is marvelous and easier to use than trying to nail into an attached sandwich board roof!
A few staples will hold the shingles in place so the glue can dry.

Every roof needs a ridge cap to cover the joint at the top

You will have to use a power saw again! The last layers of shingles will need to be cut off at the ridge line (see photo above to see why) or individually cut before you attach them to the roof and,
You will need to make a ridge cap to cover the gap between the two sides of the roof.
You can make a fancy over sized ridge cap that does double duty as a ridge cap and the last course of shingles.

You can do what I did, shingle all the way and ask someone comfortable with a power saw to cut off the overhang and then...

secured with clear silicon sealant

Use a small straight tree limb to make a ridge cap. It looks especially festive with a Bur Oak acorn cup to cap it off.

All that's left to do is finish filling the habitat with pollinator friendly materials.

Now go forth and have fun building your own Pollinator Condo!
xoxogail 

PS It bears repeating, if you want pollinators in your garden, you must never, ever, ever, ever use pesticides and think about adding a bee block or condo!

MATERIALS:
2 or 3 pallets~Make sure they are stamped with HT (heat treatment not formaldehyde) each cut into two equal pieces 23"x 48" (approximately, pallets are not square, straight or uniform)  
concrete blocks, paver stones and/or brick(I had all on hand)
1 sheet 4'x4' exterior plywood cut into 2 20"x40" pieces for the roof ($13)
4 small door/cabinet hinges and wood screws    
1- 24"x20" piece of exterior plywood for the center board
2-2"x2" boards 24" long to brace the center board.
1 bundle of cedar shingles (not top grade)  ($25)
2 tubes of construction adhesive ($5)
1 tube of silicon (on hand)
caulking gun  (on hand)
one relatively straight limb for roof ridge and Bur Oak acorn cup 

TOOLS: 
Power circular saw
Screw Driver
Pruning saw
pry bar to remove nails on the pallets
Helpful husband, wife, bf, gf or partner to do the heavy cutting

POLLINATOR ATTRACTIVE MATERIALS:
Wood with different sized holes for cavity nesters
bundles of hollow or pithy stems, paper straws
stacked tree limbs with bark
leaves and straw
left over cedar shingles for critters that like to hide


*Bobbie Peachey lady bug clip art

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.