Wildflower Wednesday: Liatris spicata

Liatris spicata is a delightful exclamation point in my June meadowish habitat. Bumblebees, butterfly and hoverflies are the most frequent visitors to the purple flower wands.

 It has grass-like foliage and blooms in June (my garden) for about 3 weeks. The common name blazing star or even dense blazing star makes sense when you look closely at the clusters of tiny purple to pink, star shaped flowers atop the wands/terminal spikes. Blazing star is often described as low maintenance and if you have average to moist, well-drained soils then you're in luck. Blazing star's natural habitat is wet depressions in prairies and meadows. Long time readers know the conditions in this garden do not meet that description.

The soil at Clay and Limestone is shallow and sits over limestone rocks and boulders. It dries out fast  when the summer temps arrive and drains slowly during the winter. I've had the best luck growing L spicata in a container. 

Why containers? They're perfect for any plants that need good drainage or consistently moist soil. Winter loss is a huge problem with Blazing Stars because too much moisture over winter will rot the corms. Planting in containers with well draining soils has been a good solution for stopping winter rot and keeping blazing star happy.

I have seven containers that are sited in the sunniest part of my garden. The flowery wands top out at between 2 and 3 feet tall. Of course I wish I had deep soil so I could mass them and see them growing 5 foot tall and waving in the breeze. They would look like the statuesque beauties I've seen in wet prairie gardens! But, then this garden wouldn't be Clay and Limestone, would it! 

 Liatris is a member of the Asteraceae family and there are roughly 50 species of Liatris native to North America including many cultivars and hybrids from Mexico to Canada and from the Atlantic Ocean to the Rocky Mountains. L spicata has grass like basal leaves and non daisy like flower spikes (the flower heads have disc florets and no ray florets) that are a delightful rosy purple. They also come in white, but, I prefer the rich rosy purple. The blossoms begin opening from the top of the spike downward and according to one source they have a slight vanilla scent when the seedheads are dried. They would make a beautiful bouquet with other wildflowers, but I don't grow a cutting garden, I grow plants for the bees, butterflies and other pollinator and insect visitors. It’s a magnet for monarchs and tiger swallowtails, and also attractive to silver-spotted skippers, red admirals, painted ladies and sulphurs. Hummingbirds are known to visit and I've been on the look out for them. I never deadhead them even though I've read they might rebloom. I prefer to leave the spent flowers to provide vertical interest long after their color has faded and for thethat  indigo bunting, goldfinches, and other seed-eating birds feed on the seeds.

I love seeing them massed with grasses and other prairie plants. That's the community they thrive in and the grasses and taller forbs provide support and keep them from flopping. I think they look especially lovely with  yellow flowers. For my garden that means Rudbeckias, Hypericums and Partridge peas. They also look spectacular with Purple coneflowers/Echinacea and Phlox paniculata. It can be planted in drifts or groups for a big display of color, or individually as an accent in a more formal setting. There are numerous possibilities with this beautiful plant that make it a great choice for any garden.

Blazing stars are tough plants and most of the Liatris genus are quite drought tolerant. L spicata is the most wet tolerant of all the species, but none of them like a wet winter. In fact, that's a guaranteed way to rot the corms. I've planted them in a good mixture of soil, soil conditioner and expanded shale to give them the drainage they require.

I want more blazing star!

Why grow Liatris?  

It checks a lot of boxes!

• Pollinator magnet: It attracts bees, butterflies, and birds!     
• Four seasons of interest, exceptional ornamental value
• Adaptable and easy to grow.
  
• The dried flower heads provide seeds for birds
• Once established it's fairly drought and heat tolerant  
  
• Interesting flowers, great for cut flower arrangements     
• Deer resistant
  
• Grows well in average to poor soils, but prefers moist soil
  

 

 

The flower heads have disc florets,  but no ray florets.

The Particulars

Botanical Name: Liatris spicata 

Family: Asteraceae 

Common Name: Blazing star, dense blazing star, gayfeather

Plant Type: Herbaceous, perennial

Hardiness Zones: 3–9 (USDA) 

 

Native Area: native to the eastern United States

 Mature Size: 2–5 ft. tall, 9–18 in. wide 

Sun Exposure: Full or light shade

Soil Type: Well-drained 

Soil pH: Acidic, neutral 

Bloom Time: Summer/June in my mid-south garden

Flower: Liatris flowers are clusters of many small, individual florets located on one composite head. The flower heads have disc florets and no ray florets.

Leaves: grass like leaves are narrow

Color: Rosy lavender/Purple, white 

Propagation: Plant corms in the spring. The corms should be planted 1-2" deep and spaced 12-18" apart. After planting, water well. The flowers usually bloom about 90 days after planting.

Wildlife value: Liatris species are host plants for the flower moths Schinia gloriosa and Schinia sanguinea, both of which feed exclusively on the genus. L. pilosa, L. scariosa, L. aspera, L. pychnostachya, L. spicata and L. punctata are amongst the species that are recommended as monarch nectar sources by the Xerces Society.

Comments: While not commonly grown in containers go ahead and plant them there. They would be beautiful on your  full sun balcony planted with other natives that love the same growing conditions. The important thing is to make sure the soil is well draining. It is attractive in mass plantings in a pollinator garden, rain garden, perennial border, native plant garden, or a cottage garden. I've seen photos of a mixture of white and purple liatris and I must admit they do look beautiful. 

Deer resistance: Visiting deer have browsed on Phlox and a few other plants, but so far they've left the Liatris alone. I appreciate each and every bloom that survives what the deer and bunnies think of as the Clay and Limestone all you can eat buffet.

The Genus: There are 8 different species of Liatris in Tennessee and I have hankered after all of them. Most require full sun and dry, but fast draining sandy or rocky soils. Both L aspera or L squarrulosa are native to Davidson county, TN and available from a local native plant nursery. Thinking about trying them!

My goal has been to have as many in containers in order to make a big rosy purple presence. I'll keep you in touch with my successes or failures with the genus.xoxogail

 Welcome to Clay and Limestone and Wildflower Wednesday.  This day is about sharing wildflowers and other native plants no matter where one gardens~the UK, tropical Florida, Europe, Australia, Africa, South America, India or the coldest reaches of Canada. It doesn't matter if we sometimes share the same plants. How they grow and thrive in your garden is what matters most.

 

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: June Blooms and Their Pollinator Visitors

  I appreciate all the pollinators at Clay and Limestone, but, my favorite has always been Bumbles.

We moved into this house in early fall 3 dozen years ago. The yard was a mess and there were no real garden beds, but the Summer Phlox and blue wood aster were still blooming. I was captivated by the Bumbles who were actively working the flowers as much as I was by the flowers. Those bumbles stole my heart. Over the years I noticed how hard they worked in the garden. They were the first pollinators up and about each morning and the last to leave each night. I found them sleeping on flowers on cool mornings and watched them nectaring and gathering pollen on the last of the latest blooming ex-asters in November. They were a joy to watch and I wanted to learn all about them. (from earlier post) 

Many years later and Bumbles still make me smile, but, so do a dozen other pollinators. To celebrate June Wildflower Wednesday and Pollinator Week here are more wildflowers and their pollinator visitors.

Phlox paniculata and a Carpenter bee

 

 Although, Bumbles are hard workers, they are not the only active garden visitors. When the Bumbles are slow to arrive Eastern Carpenter bees are out and about visiting some of the earlier flowers.  They are generalist foragers and are known to pollinate garden crops and garden plants. Who could not love these giant beauties. The menacing/dive bombing carpenter bee you encounter is only protecting a nest. It's a male drone and he's all buzz and no sting! In the photo above you can see them "nectar robbing" Phlox.

The first Phloxes in this garden were here when I arrived. They were the offspring of whatever the previous gardeners might have planted 30+ years ago and were all wonderful magenta flowered beauties. They are still here, well, the offspring of the offspring are still here and after years of letting species and cultivars go to seed, real treasures have been produced in the crossings of the crossings.

 Butterflies, moths (including Hummingbird and Sphinx moths) and skippers are the primary pollinators of phlox. Their proboscis are long enough to reach the nectar at the base of the narrow phlox corolla and pollen is carried to the next flower. In fact, Phlox has all the characteristics of a classic butterfly nectar flower.

• clustered flowers with a landing platform
• brightly colored
• open during the day
• ample nectar producer 
• nectar deeply hidden in corolla

 Silvery Checkerspot on Gloriosa Daisy. 

 

The Gloriosas have most of the characteristics of their Rudbeckia hirta parent, except the flowers are three times as large and their colors are mixtures of pure yellow or bicolored, many with dark mahogany red splotches at the base of the petals. Yes, I do love the many colorful varieties and  the big flowers, but I also love that they're all rough and tumble flowers that can take the heat and humidity of our Middle South summers and continue to bloom until frost (deadhead them).  Gloriosa Daisies do very well.  

Butterflies, bees of all sizes, wasps, beetles and even little loper caterpillars rely on the many Susans for food, and shelter.  Plant them in your garden and sit back and watch the pollinators. I've already seen small Carpenter Bees, Green Metallic bees, Bumbles and skippers visiting the flowers to feed and/or gather pollen.  Above photo: Silvery checkerspots which can be seen in meadows and forest openings.

  Partridge Pea  and Bumbles

First, cool thing: Those cool flowers, that the bumbles make a mad dash for every morning, have no nectar, only pollen. The bees are attracted to the food pollen on the purple anthers, and get dusted with the reproductive pollen from the yellow anthers. Nature is amazing and plant reproduction is so cool. Second, cool thing: Partridge Peas are not nectarless. Nectar is produced at the base of the leaf in tiny, reddish-orange glands called nectares. Ants visit them regularly. Third cool thing: These are annuals and they will always be in your garden because they seed about so beautifully. Fourth cool thing: They're the larval host for  Cloudless giant sulphur, Orange sulphur, Sleepy orange butterflies. See photo of Sulphur on Coneflower later in post.

 Mountain Mint and a fly

 The flowers of Pycnanthemum muticum might be small, but they are mighty!

The researchers at Penn State's The Pollinator Trial  found that Clustered Mountain Mint was the best plant for flowering longevity; for pollinator visitor diversity; for sheer number of insect visitors (78); and, for sheer number of bee and syrphid visitors. 

...and yes, it's a mint so be prepared for it to move across your garden!

 

Ruellia strepens and a butterfly

 

Much to my sorrow, I have never, ever seen pollinators on a blooming flower, but, I've read that long tongued bees, miner bees, carpenter bees and parasitic bees are its primary pollinators. Apparently, fertilization has been very successful in my garden, because the progeny is all over. Maybe, the pollinators are sneaking visits when I am inside. But, it's more likely as Researchers at a college in Missouri, discovered: flowers of R strepens open during the early morning dark hours, allowing pollination by moth species. That's good to know. According to another source the lavender-blue trumpets attract hummingbirds and butterflies, too. Here's a link to a site with a bee foraging on the flower! Let me tell you, I was thrilled to find it!

 

Asclepias speciosa bumble and Eastern Tiger swallowtail

  "Common milkweed is Nature's mega food market for insects. Over 450 insects are known to feed on some portion of the plant. Numerous insects are attracted to the nectar-laden flowers and it is not at all uncommon to see flies, beetles, ants, bees, wasps, and butterflies on the flowers at the same time. Occasionally hummingbirds will try, unsuccessfully, to extract nectar. Its sap, leaves and flowers also provide food. In the northeast and midwest, it is among the most important food plants for monarch caterpillars (Danaus plexippus). Other common feeders are the colorful (red with black dots) red milkweed beetle (Tetraopes tetraophthalmus), the milkweed tussock caterpillar (Euchaetes egle) and the large (Oncopeltus fasciatus) and the small (Lygaeus kalmia) red and black milkweed bugs. The latter two are particularly destructive as both the adults and nymphs are seed predators. They can destroy 80 to 90 percent of a colony's seed crop. The red (or orange-red) and black coloration of most of these insects is known as aposematic coloration; that is, the colors advertise the fact that the organism is not good to eat." Source

...and yes, this is an aggressive plant, so plant it where it can move around all it wants/can.

 

Spiderwort  and a bumble

 

I love my garden in the early morning. Once the sun has made it past the trees, it begins to spot light the shadier garden nooks. Tradescantia look their best in that cool morning sun. The sun light makes those feathery violet hairs glow. Later in the day they're washed out by the hot, bright light, but that is the case for many delicate flowers. Spiderworts are pollinated by bumbles and that makes me really happy. Beautiful and unique flowers that are not terribly temperamental about soil. They come in a kaleidoscopic palette of sumptuous colors. If tamed with a cutting back the plants can bush out and possibly rebloom.

...and yes, some can be aggressive. I don't care, I adore them.

 Hydrangea arborescens and a bumble

 I love watching the Bumbles work a Hydrangea arborescens flower. They move so fast it's nearly impossible to get a good photo.  Hydrangea arborescens, commonly known as smooth hydrangea or wild hydrangea, is a gangly limbed deciduous shrub with large, opposite, toothed leaves and grayish stems. The dome shaped flower head is composed of sterile and fertile flowers that begin to bloom in June in my garden. It's native to woodland slopes, hillsides and stream banks in the Eastern US. I adore it.

Most of you know I garden for wildlife, so the wildlife value of plants I bring into the garden are important. Wild hydrangeas have pretty good wildlife value: they're pollinated by many species of native bees and beetles and it's a host plant for two moths, Darapsa versicolor/Hydrangea Sphinx Moth and Olethreutes ferriferana/Hydrangea leaf-tier moth. I love that little carpenter bees (Ceratina spp.), Halictid bees, masked bees (Hylaeus spp.), miscellaneous wasps, mosquitoes, Syrphid flies, thick-headed flies, Muscid flies, dance flies (Empis spp.), tumbling flower beetles, and long-horned beetles (source) visit the flowers, but, watching a bumble bee race back and forth is fabulous.

Echinacea purpurea: Imperfection doesn't stop a pollinator

Not one of these critters is bothered by the imperfect chewed on petals.

The Cloudless Sulphur butterfly still sips nectar and bumbles collect pollen even on damaged flowers.

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 everyone 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. 

 A friend told me she use to pull the caterpillars off her fennel before she knew they were Swallowtail butterfly cats. I told her what they were! 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. Their larva aren't always attractive!

So embrace imperfection in your garden!

• You can help create a paradigm shift that redefines garden beauty to include imperfection.
• You can refuse to be shamed or swayed by the judgement of perfection worshipers.
• You can say no to pesticides that poison flowers and kill our important garden visitors.
• You can let nursery managers know that you don't need or expect them to offer "perfect plants" that have pre-treated with insecticides (often neonicotinoids).
  
• You just have to do it!
  

 Your garden will not be magazine perfect, but, pollinators don't care if your flower petals are chewed on.  They need flowers bursting with pollen and nectar. Your garden will be teeming with life. Spiders will build webs; the beneficial insects will keep aphids in check; pollinators will pollinate; and, birds will hunt the insects.

It will be a beautiful imperfect garden, just as it's supposed to be.

When you let go of pesticides and embrace imperfection you become the change our world needs.

 

I am so glad you stopped by. xoxogail

 

 

Want pollinators?~~Here's what we can do:

• Plant many different flowers that bloom over the entire growing season to encourage different native bees to move into your garden.
  
• Plant flowers in drifts....It increases pollinator efficiency and looks prettier!
• Plant the pollinator power house wildflowers for your neck of the woods.
  
• Plant night blooming and fragrant flowers.
• Make peace with weedy lawn natives.
  
• Let our gardens be a little messy, so that there are nesting places and shelter.
• If you want to encourage a diversity of pollinators~~ you will need to provide open areas (e.g. bare earth, large stones) where butterflies, may bask, and moist soil from which they may get needed minerals. 
• Accept that not all pollinators are pretty and not all are well behaved; Wasps! Beneficial insect larva.
  
• Accept that when we invite pollinators into the garden, plants will get eaten and look ratty for awhile.
• Remember birds and bats! Leave the insects alone.
• Provide a water source with easy access for pollinators.
• Plant oaks and other trees that support a lot of pollinators.
  
• NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER, EVER USE PESTICIDES. I MEAN NEVER!
  

Welcome to Wildflower Wednesday. It's the fourth Wednesday of each month and time to celebrate wildflowers from all over this great big, beautiful world. I am always glad when you stop by and I so appreciate when you make a comment.

 

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.

Baptisia and the Skipper

Silver Spotted Skipper nectaring on Baptisia sphaerocarpa.

Rita Veneble calls this skipper a Music City butterfly because it has guitars on the wings! I have to agree with her description~Just check out those bright white patches on the hindwings!

Legumes are its host plant, in fact you might find cats on any number of members of the Fabaceae family.  Females lay pumpkin shaped green eggs near host plant leaf tops and the hatched cats have to find their way to the host plant! Young caterpillars live inside of folded leaves, as they age they make a nest of silked together leaves. Chrysalids hibernate and emerge in the spring.

Adults perch upside down on the underside of leaves at night and on hot days

Silver Spotted Skippers aren't the only butterflies in my garden~But, they and other skippers might just be my favorites. Who could be immune to the charms of these big eyed critters that visit our gardens all summer and into the fall. Certainly not me! Skipper is the perfect name for these fast, agile, erratic fliers that seem to skip from flower to flower.

They look more like moths than butterflies, but, they are indeed butterflies. Skippers are small to medium, usually orange, brown, black, white, or gray. Some are brighter or iridescent colored. They all have those large eyes (even their caterpillar has a large head), short antennae (often with hooked clubs), stout bodies, and three pairs of walking legs. Adults of most species have a long proboscis and feed on floral nectar.

Skippers are members of the Superfamily Hesperioidea. We have about 275 in North America, where I live in Middle Tennessee, we have approximately 50 different skippers. I am thrilled to be able to identify three of them!

I'm not too concerned about not being able to identify them. I do know, that I want them in my garden. They are important plant pollinators (although, pollination is incidental); they are part of the garden food chain, as consumers and food; and, because of their sensitivity to environmental toxins they are an important indicator species of ecosystem health. If you have an abundance of skippers and butterflies~you probably have a healthy garden habitat.

Now, I am going to the garden to inspect the legumes for folded leaves and check for cats!

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.

Little Ex-Asters Everywhere

Ex-aster time is the best time to be in the garden. The days are warm and Autumn angle of the sun makes everything glow.

Leaves from the oak and hickory canopy have begun to fall and the sunlight that gets blocked all summer is now able to reach the woodland floor where it warms up the garden and spotlights these little beauties.

Even on cool mornings the sunny spots are alive with bees and other pollinators. You have to be very patient to capture a photo of the Bumbles, they're very busy in their mad dash to collect pollen and nectar to fortify their nests for the winter.

 Later in the day the skippers and Sulphurs can be seen flitting from flower to flower.

 Bee mimics, like the fly above are busy nectaring, too.

Green metallic bees are all over the little ex-asters.

 Although, the Bumbles are my favorites, I am pretty crazy about all the critters that visit and live in this garden. The little bees make me smile, they always travel in a pack. If you see one step back and look around and you'll see dozens of them.

 The ex-asters introduced me to the Bumbles and we've been friends ever since...

Asters (as they were once known) and other Central Basin natives grew with happy abandon in the forested woodland where this garden now stands. Sixty years ago a neighborhood was carved from the woodland and a house was built. Homeowners came and went, while the asters grew quietly on the woodland  edge. Thirty years ago almost to the day, my husband I bought this garden and this brand new gardener fell head over heals in love with the blue clouds of flowers that were covered with bees and butterflies.

 I built my garden around the flowers. I've allowed them to root and seed themselves with abandon.

They've spilled into the paths, crept into the wildflower beds and cozied up to the benches all over Clay and Limestone.

Each fall I wait with anticipation for those first blooms. With them come the pollinators. It's not that there aren't pollinators during the spring or summer, it's knowing that these will be the last until next spring that makes my heart soar and finds me dashing to the garden first thing in the morning.

What a beautiful dance. Swaying flower stalks and busy bees.

It's been a happy and successful relationship, if I do say so myself!

xoxogail

PS All the pollinators~ Bumble Bees, honeybees, Green metallic bees, hover flies, Miner bees, and large Leaf-Cutting bees, bee flies, beetles, butterflies, and skippers that visit the flowers for nectar and/or pollen are essential for cross pollination. So never, ever, ever, ever use pesticides if you want pollinators to pollinate your ex-asters and other plants!

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.

Goldenrods

Possibly Fall's best landing pads of deliciousness

Bumbles

Skippers

 Locust Borer (Megacyllene robiniae)

Green Sweat Bee

More Bumbles

Honeybee from neighbor's hive

They might all want to watch out for this Ambush bug (subfamily Phymatinae), which waits to prey on all of the Goldenrod visitors!

Goldenrods provide a big flower show each year and any insect that needs pollen and nectar is sure to be found visiting.Today after a week of rain I stood in the garden and could see hundreds of insects stopping by their golden blooms! You can't ask for a better wildlife valuable plant when it comes to fall wildflowers and when you combine them with the ex-asters, you get beauty and happy pollinators.

xoxogil

 PS If you want to provide for fall pollinators you must plant landing pads of deliciousness like Goldenrods and other wildflowers and you must never, ever, ever, ever, use pesticides in your garden. I mean never!

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.