September 2013 GBBD: I love the rough and tumble wildflowers of early Autumn!

 

It's rough and tumble wildflower time in my garden. The take care of themselves Autumn beauties are beginning to shine.

Verbesina virginica

Rough and tumble wildflowers are simple wildflowers most with no known pedigree, that bloom their hearts out and require the easiest of care.

Helenium autumnale

 Some even resent fertile, rich soil and many aren't even on a list to be hybridized, even if they should be!

unknown Solidago

Familiarity has never bred contempt when it comes to wildflowers. In fact, the more I see them, the more I appreciate their charms.

Vernonia altissima

But, they are so much more than pretty faces. 

Salvia azurea

Each one of these darlings provides more pollen and nectar return on investment than many other flowers combined.

Conoclinium coelestinum

My rough and tumble natives are landing pads of deliciousness for butterflies, bees, wasps and moths.

Symphyotrichum novae-angliae

Common plants like the Ex-asters bloom just in time for the late arriving pollinators which are making a mad dash to collect as much nectar and pollen for their last brood.

Coreopsis tripteris

Rough and tumble wildflowers are late blooming magnets for all kinds of insects, including some insects that are themselves food for spiders, birds and other insect eating critters.

Lobelia cardinalis

The provide food for migrating birds and they all make me smile.

Physostegia virginiana

 I have a special place in my heart for these wild and rough looking beauties that are often found growing in meadows, prairies and roadside ditches. I appreciate plants that haven't had their best characteristics bred out of them. They're beautiful, they're doing the job nature intended them to do, make a lot of nectar and pollen and bloom for a long time, exactly when the critters need both.

Lobelia siphilitica

They're perfect for this time of year, perfect for the resident critters and perfect for this garden.

xoxogail


It's September 15 and you know what that means! Garden bloggers all over the blogasphere are celebrating Bloom Day. You can see more gardens then you can imagine in one day if you stop by Carol's blog, May Dreams Gardens to take the linky magic carpet ride.

First flower is Ex-aster S patens

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.