It's Your Garden

Plant what ever you want.

But, would you please plan(t) for all the critters that live and visit your garden?

Coreopsis 'Redshift'

You'll never bee sorry! They'll thank you for it by hanging around pollinating your flowers and vegetables/fruits and raising offspring that will gobble up harmful insects.

It's your garden, plant what ever you want, but, plant knowing that the more you plant for critters...crawling, flying and even digging ones, the healthier and more diverse your garden will be.

Plant what ever you want, but consider that you might be part of something big going on in your neighborhood.

  Your garden might be a neighborhood haven for all kinds of critters in the midst of a sea of lawns.  

Rudbeckia triloba

Yours might be one of the few gardens that offers pollinating critters nectar and pollen from late winter until late fall; a place for all kinds of critters to raise their offspring; or a stopping off place for water and food (seeds and berries) to migrating birds.

Viburnum rufidulum

It's your garden, plant what ever you want, just take some time to figure out what makes sense for your garden conditions.

 Identifying what grows naturally in your yard, neighborhood or local natural area is a good place to start.

 Notice which plants attract the most pollinators and which ones are just a pretty face.

 Watch to see which seed heads the birds eat first and which ones they never touch.

The Emerald Wavy Lined moth cat (Synchlora aerata) disguised as a decaying petal

Look closely at all the plants to see if any of the flowering plants are hosting a caterpillar or two! Don't forget to check out the trees and shrubs, you might be surprised to learn that many of the woodies are far more important to insects then many other plants.

Invest in a good wildflower book, a field guide to birds and if you're really ready to get to know the critters  your garden could host, purchase a good field guide to butterfly and caterpillars.

It's your garden, plant what ever you want, but, just in case you find yourself standing in the middle of a local nursery and you're wondering what to get, try my favorite trick~ stop and look around, then head straight over to any plants that are being visited by bees, skippers or butterflies.

Ruellia humilis

I know it's your garden and you should plant what ever you want, but, I sure hope you consider planting more native plants.

Verbesina virginica

There's just one other thing I need to say before I go, what ever you plant, your garden will be healthier if you never, ever, ever, ever, ever use pesticides. I mean never!

xoxogail

In case you want to read earlier pollinator posts~

Now Is The Time To Bee-gin Thinking About Bees ( here)
This Is The Place To Bee ( here)
If You Could Plant Only One Plant In Your Garden~Don't (here)
Must Bee The Season of The Witch (here)
Go Bare In Your Garden (here)
We can't All Be Pretty Pollinators (here)
Eye, Eye Skipper, Big Eyed Pollinators (here)
What's In Your Garden (here)
Royalty In The Garden~Monarch Butterfly (here)
Carpenter Bees (here)
Got Wildflowers?(here)
It's Spring and A Gardener's Thoughts Are On Pollinators (here)
The Wildflower and The Bee (here)
A Few Good Reasons To Plant Milkweek (here)
Got Shade? You Can Have Pollinators ( (here)
A Pollinator friendly Shrub (here)
Big Goings On at C and L (here)
Where Have All My Pollinators Gone (here)

Other bee posts you might want to read~

Count Yourself Lucky To Have Hoverflies ( here)
Bumblebee Hotel (here)
Still Taking Care Of Bzzness (here)
My Sweet Embraceable You (here)


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.

Coreopsis~Shift To Red!

early summer 2013

I've been thinking about how much I like Coreopsis. I mean really like them. They're dependable, have a long bloom period, are easy to grow and are usually trouble free and who doesn't like their colorful, daisy like flowers? 

Goldfinches enjoy Coreopsis tripteris seeds

Apparently, I didn't! At least for a while! I'm not exactly sure why I stopped planting them at Clay and Limestone. Maybe, it was that "too much of a yellow thing" I have going on with all the yellow composite flowers or it could have been that I thought they needed more sun and better drainage. Whatever! I reversed course and want more in the garden.

My favorite right now is Coreopsis 'Redshift'. The name is apt, the first blooms in early summer are a lovely buttery yellow that shifts to red as the summer turns into Autumn and the evenings cool. 'Redshift' is a hybrid (a complicated hybrid with many crosses)* and I appreciate the work that has gone into making this pretty flower that has survived the drought and deluge that is the hallmark of my Middle Tennessee garden.

Green metallic bee

 'Redshift' will rebloom all summer, often till the first frost, if regularly deadheaded. It forms a nice clump with its daisy flower dancing on sturdy stems above the foliage.

Bumbles visit it, too

'Redshift' was the first hybrid Coreopsis I added to my garden and I've been pleased with its performance for the past several years. Although, not a host plant for critters native to my garden, it does provide nectar to the many that visit it. (Go here for a post about this: The Flower and The Bee)

  But, seriously, I am loving the color change and almost constant bloom.

No two flowers are identical

'Redshift' has been such a success that I decided to try another Coreopsis hybrid.

Meet Coreopsis 'Garnet', a low-growing mounding plant (10 in. by 20 in.) with garnet-colored flowers.

Doesn't that color make your heart beat faster! So far the small bees love it.Keep your fingers crossed that it likes my garden, too.

xoxogail

*Coreopsis, 'Redshift' is also the result of 8 years of intensive breeding work and the crossing of 8 species of Coreopsis by hybridizer Darrell Probst. 

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 Flower and the Bee

The relationship between a flower and a pollinator is intricate.

It is a beautiful dance between attractor and attracted...

Based upon things seen and unseen.

The flower's fragrance, its color and even its shape are the attractors; pollen and nectar are the rewards for the bee and pollination is the reward for the flower.

Flowers bloom and the pollinators visit. It's a simple dance played out again and again in a garden, but, it never fails to amaze and delight me.

Amazed and delighted was exactly how I felt when I spotted this Bumble nectaring on the barely opened  Coreopsis 'Redshift'. Little bees love this flower, but, it's never been visited by the larger bees. 

What was different? Did the bee catch a bit of sweetness in the air? Was the shape reminiscent of those complicated crawl up into them to get the nectar 'bee flowers' that Bumbles adore? Was the yellow just right?

Who knows! It's part of the dance, it's part of the magic, but, I hope the Bumbles continue to find this flower rewarding.

xxoogail


A few of my favorite posts on pollinators

If You Could Plant Only One Plant In Your Garden~Don't (here)
Go Bare In Your Garden (here)
Got Wildflowers?(here)
The Wildflower and The Bee (here)
A Few Good Reasons To Plant Milkweek (here)
Got Shade? You Can Have Pollinators ( (here)
Where Have All My Pollinators Gone (here)

You didn't really think I would let this opportunity go by without admonishing you to never, ever, ever use pesticides! You knew I couldn't.

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.

Cultivars in A Wildflower Garden~GBBD

Gaillardia x grandiflora

I almost always choose species plants when adding wildflowers to the garden. They're of hardier stock and can take the tough conditions dished out by Clay and Limestone!

 I've noticed that the the vigor that I value in Echinacea purpurea and E tennesseensis seems to be bred out of so many of the newer cultivars...But, as I shared in an earlier posting, worry for my resident pollinators sent me to a local IGC where I bought a dozen Echinacea cultivars. I chose the hardiest of the cultivars with a proven track record and know that most were seed grown. The mix included~  'Magnus',  'Prairie Splendor', 'Ruby Star' (Rubinstern) and E tennesseensis 'Rocky Top'. (Ya Gotta Love This Coneflower)

What I didn't tell you was that three Coreopsis  BIG BANG™ 'Redshift' and one Eupatorium dubium 'Little Joe' came home with me that day. 

it's a magnet for the little pollinators 

Thank you Darrell Probst  for this fantastic cross of threadleaf and grandiflora coreopsis!  It took you 8 years of intensive breeding and the crossing of 8 species of Coreopsis to get 'Redshift', but, it only took me one season to fall head over heals in love with it! 


I can't sing its praises enough. It's been blooming since summer abruptly replaced spring and it just made sense to add more.  

A perfect plant for a large or small garden

Even the drought didn't stop it!  It needs full sun, good drainage and daily deadheading of spent flowers.  Granted, two of those are hard to get at C and L; so I planted it in a container, in the best draining soil, in the sunniest spot in the Susan's border! It rocks out there!

the petals began to redden when the temperatures dropped to the 70s this past week

But, that's not all. In my garden it was lovely buttery yellow with a hint of red during the hottest weather, but, when the rain moved in and the temperatures dipped to the 70s it shifted to a deeper red.  The name, 'Redshift' sure makes sense!  

That leaves the Joe-Pye!  Just look at that budding beauty! Who could turn that face down! The pollinators won't either!

xxoogail

Inspired by the words of Elizabeth Lawrence, “We can have flowers nearly every month of the year,” Carol of May Dreams Gardens started Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. On the 15th of every month, garden bloggers from all over the world share their garden blooms. So head over to Carol's to take the Mr Linky magic carpet ride to more gardens than you can imagine visiting in one day!  This is my July 2012 contribution.

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.