Wildflower Wednesday: Deer-tongue Grass

I have an abundance of several lesser known native grasses growing in my garden. Until recently they've been considered weeds and even now you can find articles on how to rid your lawn of them.

Danthonia spicata summer color

One is Danthonia spicata, a sweet cool season native grass that I am crazy about. Poverty Oat Grass is a perfect name for a grass that grows in the most inhospitable of "lawn" spaces: Dry upland woods and forests, upland prairies, glades, tops of bluffs, old fields, eroded pastures, roadsides and dry disturbed areas. But, don't look for it among the ornamental grasses offered by most nurseries. It isn't a big sexy grass with showy inflorescence, but, it has much to offer for gardeners who love native plants. It also has good wildlife value for critters.

Panicled seedheads

Another unusual and lesser known grass and the real star of Wildflower Wednesday is Dichanthelium clandestinum. Deer-tongue Grass is one of the various panic or witch grasses that I've discovered growing in damp spots in the garden. The unbranched leaves of early spring caught my eye and I was determined to identify it.

What I discovered was that most of the witch grasses/panic grasses are members of the Panicum or Dichanthelium genus and impossible for me to tell apart. Their panicled seedheads make them easily identifiable as panic grasses, but that's as far as I have gotten with most of them.

source: Kansas Native Plants

Deer-tongue grass is a native grass that occurs in the eastern half of the US. It prefers damp soil, so look for it in marshy ground, thickets, woody edges, stream banks, roadsides, and even near the shore.

It's most attractive in the early spring when the silver flower heads shimmer in the slightest breeze. The clasping leaves give the plant a bamboo like appearance and the foliage turns yellow-brown in autumn. It's attractive and has good wildlife value....so it's a keeper!  Under the right conditions it can be an aggressive spreader, but, so far, that hasn't happened here. 

The tiny flowers are produced on open, airy clusters called panicles and are nearly impossible to photograph

The particulars

Botanical name: Dichanthelium clandestinum
Grass family (Poaceae)
Common name: Deer tongue grass
Perennial warm season grass
Wildlife Value: Dozens of birds eat the seeds, at least 5 different skipper larva feed on it and dozens of other beetles, and other insects feed on the leaves. When left standing in winter it provides shelter for birds and small mammals. Is grazed by mammals.
Inflorescence: Panicle
Leaf: Green
Size: 24"
Bloom Time: May through Sept
Partial sun/shade (4-6 hrs light daily)
Hardiness Zones: Zone 4 to Zone 9
Soil Preference: Clay, loam, sand
Pollination: Early flowers are wind pollinated, later ones are self pollinating
Landscape Uses: Massing, Natural garden, used to re-vegetate disturbed areas with infertile soils
Comments: It's most attractive in the early spring when the silver flower heads shimmer in the slightest breeze. The clasping leaves give the plant a bamboo like appearance and the foliage turns yellow-brown in autumn. It's attractive and has good wildlife value. In the right conditions this grass can spread aggressively.

My dear readers, you might consider allowing some of these native grasses to grow in your garden or even in your lawn. Think of all the good you'll do for skippers and other critters. Seeds can be found online, so give them a try!

xoxogail

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!



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.

2015 Wildflower Wednesday Roundup

Welcome to the 2015 Wildflower Wednesday Roundup! 

Wildflower Wednesday is about sharing wildflowers no matter where you garden~the USA, the UK, Europe, Australia, Africa, South America, India or the coldest reaches of Canada. 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!

Without further ado, here are the best and brightest of Clay and Limestone's 2015 wildflowers.

January: Crossvine

 Bignonia capreolata is a vigorous, vine that climbs by branched tendrils and has attractive trumpet shaped flowers in early spring and summer. In my neck of the woods, it is more often seen scrambling 30 to 50 feet up the trunk of a canopy tree on its way to the top and sunshine. You might not notice it during the summer, it has deep green leaves that get lost, but, if you see a trumpet shaped flower lying on a path~stop and look up, the flowers will be blooming at the top of the tree. blooms in the early summer at the tops of the trees in my garden.

It  has much to show for itself all winter long when the evergreen leaves take on a reddish to deep burgundy hue that brightens up a mostly brown winter garden.

 February: 5th anniversary for Wildflower Wednesday

It's hard to believe that 5 years have passed since the first Wildflower Wednesday meme post. I want to thank each of you for joining me on my continuing journey to create the best wildlife garden possible and for sharing your posts with me. At first I wasn't sure what I wanted to do to celebrate this special anniversary and then it occurred to me that I could share that first official Wildflower Wednesday post with some updated text and photos. So that's what I've done.

 March: Spicebush
 Lindera benzoin is one of the earliest blooming trees in my garden. I love how the sulphur yellow flowers  light up the dark corners of the woodland. It's a wonderful small understory tree and you'll find it on my list of perfect native plants. Lindera benzoin ought to be in more gardens. It's easy to care for, good looking and has great wildlife value...Don't go looking for fancy cultivars, as far as I know there are none. Seriously, a tree like this doesn't need to be "improved", it's already perfect!

April: Dogwood

Flowering dogwood is the most popular understory tree in my part of the gardening world! I have several in my front garden and my favorite grows in the shade of a Bur oak and several Shagbark hickories. It has the most appealing and graceful tiered and horizontal branching and the lower limbs tickle the Golden ragwort and Mayapples growing beneath it. If you're going to add one to your garden don't plant it in the middle of the lawn, instead, plant them in the shade of a taller canopy tree to give them the dappled light they prefer. Let those lower limbs alone and smother the lawn with newspapers covered with decomposing leaves (or pinestraw). Then plant spring ephemerals and other shade loving wildflowers. Voila, just like that, you have a woodland wildflower garden. All from one understory tree!

May: Goat's Rue

It's Tephrosia virginiana also known as Goat's Rue and it's our Wildflower Wednesday star of the month. It has fuchsia pink, creamy white and yellow blooms that resemble sweet peas and are striking against the silvery stems and leaves. I am delighted and surprised that it is blooming in my garden. It is said to prefer sandy, loamy, acidic soil and as you all know that is no where near a good description of the soil at Clay and Limestone! It's been  growing nicely for the last two years on the rocky edge of the Susan's Garden and the asphalt driveway. A taprooted plant, it's anchored itself firmly into the ground, so I must be doing something right to make this beauty happy!

June: Embrace imperfection!

When you commit to a pesticide free garden you have to be prepared for chewed on petals and foliage. Are you ready to embrace imperfection? You won't be sorry when you do. Bees, butterflies, skippers, beetles and hoverflies will move into your garden. It will be alive with critters. Your garden will not be magazine perfect, but, pollinators don't care if your flower petals are chewed on. Pollinators 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.

 July: Summer Phlox

I count on the different species of Phlox for several seasons of delightful color starting in early spring. 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. 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.

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

I decide every year to plan more Phloxes! This summer I did!

 August: A cool, cool season native grass lesson

I love my cool season grasses, especially Danthonia spicata. They're the first grasses to green up and by the time the warm season grasses are knee high they've begun to set seed! It's a puzzle to me why they're still overlooked, underestimated, unappreciated and in some cases still unknown. On the whole they're easy peasy plants that would grow well in many of our garden settings.

Most cool season grasses don't make as big a show as our handsome warm season native grasses, but, they play an important ecological role in plant communities by providing food (forage and seed) and cover early in the growing season when most other plants are just waking up! That's a lot of coolness!

 September: Autumn Equinox in Flower

I wasn't sure which of the glorious wildflowers of the Autumn Equinox to showcase for Wildflower Wednesday! September has a number of beauties! Salvia azurea was first! Pitcher sage is not only beautiful, it's a favorite of bees. The bumbles are the primary pollinator of this Salvia~they fit perfectly into the lipped flowers. The Carpenter bee, although another frequent visitor, is not a pollinator. It's too large, instead it slits open the corolla and robs the nectar while avoiding contact with the pollen. The stinkers!

Occasionally, butterflies visit, but, I've not captured any photos this year...It's a sweet flower that's native to North Carolina south to Florida; west to Texas; north to Nebraska and Minnesota. It's happy in full sun or partial sun as long as it gets good drainage.


October: Rhus aromatica

 The species Fragrant sumac is a woody plant that can grow 6 to 12 feet. That's entirely too large for my garden (and most of yours), so I planted 'Gro-Low'. It was selected by growers for its dwarf habit, making it very attractive for my garden. It will grow in poor, dry soil in full sun or deep shade. It requires only good drainage. At two to three feet tall and with a 4 foot spread it's a delightful groundcover under my Rusty Blackhaw. The spreading branches root where they touch the ground and that helps it form a dense weed suppressing mat.

Leaves and twigs are aromatic when bruised giving rise to its name~Fragrant sumac. The smaller leaves do have a slight resemblance to those of its relative poison ivy (Rhus radicans), however this fragrant sumac is a totally non-poisonous plant.

It blooms in spring and the nectar and pollen attract small bees, flies and even some larger carpenter bees.   Small clusters of hairy, red berries which may persist into winter replace the female flowers. The ripe fruits are a treat for birds and small mammals.


November: Thankful for wildflowers and you

I am thankful for wildflowers. They have brought me so much joy. When I stop and think about it I have wildflowers to thank for helping me gain new knowledge, for great adventures and for meeting new people. Without wildflowers I wouldn't have met my first garden mentor, Paul Moore. I wouldn't know Mike Berkley and Terri Barnes of GroWild. Without wildflowers I might not have been drawn to the Tennessee Naturalist Program or volunteered at Owl's Hill.

Wildflowers led me to blogging and searching the internet to learn all I could about native plants. That's when I stumbled upon Pam Penick's blog Digging and read about Garden Bloggers Fling. I've gone to many Flings and met bloggers who have become some of my dearest friends~I cannot mention everyone for fear I will forget some. I count myself fortunate indeed to have made friends with folks from all over this country,  Canada and the UK....Some of them are even as wild about wildflowers as I am.

My love for wildflowers opened my eyes to pollinators and their importance to our gardens, to agriculture and to the earth. I came to love wildflowers so much that I wanted others to appreciate them. That's why I started the Wildflower Wednesday monthly meme.

Which brings me to today's Wildflower Wednesday post about thankfulness.

I want to thank the best ever group of bloggers who join me on the fourth Wednesday of each month to celebrate wildflowers from all over this great big beautiful world. Diana, Donna, Rose, Sue, Alison, Janet, Kathy, Lea, Carol, Cindy, Ann, Dee, Frances, Hannah, Greggo, Aaron, Jason, Shirley and Beth, you are all the very best.* I am honored that you join me as often as you can. Thank you for caring about wildflowers, for taking the time to share your gardens and your knowledge with all of us. You rock.

My dear friends, Thank you for planting more wildflowers. Thank you for taking care of the bees and all the other pollinators that visit and live in your gardens. Thank you for tolerating what others consider pesky wildlife. Thank you for another year of your friendship, visits, comments and for joining me in celebrating wildflowers all over this great big wonderful world. 

You are the best and having you in my life has enriched it beyond measure.
See you next year!
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.

Wildflower Wednesday: Thankful for wildflowers and you

The flowers are gone from the garden, except a few blooms of the last to bloom ex-asters, one or two tiny fleabanes hidden beneath fallen leaves, a Blanketflower and Verbesina virginica's marvelous and magical frost flowers.

 I never tire of seeing the frost flowers blooming in my garden. All it takes is a warm winter day followed by a cold winter night. During the day, Verbesina virginica's roots draw water up into the stem and later that night freezing temperatures force the sap from the stems where they freeze into sculptural ice candy flower curls. I love finding them on an early morning walk, they remind me that magic is still happening and that the garden is just resting.

Amsonia's curlie cues are magical in the autumn sun

 In the mid-south the garden and gardener rest for a short time. Dreaming and planning don't stop.

 I walk the leaf covered paths and assess what worked and didn't. I notice that the Hypericum frondosum is moving toward its hyper-colored late fall look and that something has been snacking on its leaves. The Illicium parviflorum 'Florida Sunshine' that I've been trialing is doing okay despite a very dry summer. I like it enough that I added two more. They look good massed but, I am using them as specimen plants. This is a very green garden in mid summer and needs color where ever I can add it.

The Oakleaf hydrangeas are still brilliantly colored and their seeds heads are gorgeous.

The seedheads will stay put until late winter.

 I am so glad they're a part of the shrub layer in this garden, they add drama, color and texture.

  I noticed the native annuals and biennials have germinated.

Western Daisy

I've two annual natives that I am crazy about. Astranthium integrifolium/Entireleaf Western Daisy which I found naturally growing in the weedy back lawn almost 30 years ago and Collinsia verna/Blue-eyed Mary, which I added many years ago. They've both made a home for themselves in the shade of the taller rough and tumble wildflowers in the sunny Susans bed and as long as they are always allowed to go to seed they will thrive. One little plant can make a dozen offspring before you know it.

I hope you're fortunate enough to have a biennial like Phacelia bipinnatifida. The second year Phacelia rosettes are everywhere and that means early next spring will be dressed in gorgeous purple flowers covered with Mason bees. When I added Phacelia to the garden I was lucky enough to have first and second year rosettes.  I've had blooms every year since. Biennials are adept self-seeders and can be in your garden forever if you let them be!

The garden is a sea of browning leaves and seedheads. I think  they're beautiful. The promise of spring is in every one of those seeds. It's everywhere if you look carefully. Take a close look at your native shrubs. Dogwoods and Viburnums show their flower buds at the tips of their stems and the buds of late winter blooming witch hazels and spring blooming Spicebush line the stems.

Under my feet and hiding in the leaves are the acorns that keep the squirrels and chipmunks busy. I wonder when the deer will stop by to get their favorite bur oak acorns and I remembered to pick up a few to send to an OKC friend who wants to grow them in his garden. It will be beautiful by his lake!

Panicum virgatum

The panicum and phlox cultivars that I planted this summer were delightful. More will be added...That means plants like Verbena hastata that need wetter soil might need to be moved to a container near a faucet. They're too pretty to not have in the garden, but, they just aren't happy in the shallow soil.

Phlox in fall color

This year after irregular rains that verged on a drought, I am especially thankful for my rough and tumble take care of themselves wildflower beauties~Thank you Rudbeckia, Coreopsis, Pycnanthemum, Phlox, Penstemon, Eutrochium, and grasses, Danthonia spicata, Panicum virgatum and Schizachyrium scoparium~You make it worthwhile to garden with difficult conditions.

Schizachyrium scoparium

I am thankful for wildflowers. They have brought me so much joy. When I stop and think about it I have wildflowers to thank for helping me gain new knowledge, for great adventures and for meeting new people. Without wildflowers I wouldn't have met my first garden mentor, Paul Moore. I wouldn't know Mike Berkley and Terri Barnes of GroWild. Without wildflowers I might not have been drawn to the Tennessee Naturalist Program or volunteered at Owl's Hill.

Wildflowers led me to blogging and searching the internet to learn all I could about native plants. That's when I stumbled upon Pam Penick's blog Digging and read about Garden Bloggers Fling. I've gone to many Flings and met bloggers who have become some of my dearest friends~I cannot mention everyone for fear I will forget some. I count myself fortunate indeed to have made friends with folks from all over this country,  Canada and the UK....Some of them are even as wild about wildflowers as I am.

The mailbox from my late sister's garden makes me so happy

My love for wildflowers opened my eyes to pollinators and their importance to our gardens, to agriculture and to the earth.

Still blooming after a freeze, although, this photo was taken before the freeze~this garden is magic

I came to love wildflowers so much that I wanted others to appreciate them. That's why I started the Wildflower Wednesday monthly meme.

Which brings me to today's Wildflower Wednesday post about thankfulness.

I want to thank the best ever group of bloggers who join me on the fourth Wednesday of each month to celebrate wildflowers from all over this great big beautiful world. Diana, Donna, Rose, Sue, Alison, Janet, Kathy, Lea, Carol, Cindy, Ann, Dee, Frances, Hannah, Greggo, Aaron, Jason, Shirley and Beth, you are all the very best.* I am honored that you join me as often as you can. Thank you for caring about wildflowers, for taking the time to share your gardens and your knowledge with all of us. You rock.

Happy Wildflower Wednesday to all of you who visit Clay and Limestone.
xoxogail

Ps. *I hope I haven't forgotten anyone, please forgive me if I have.


If you are so inclined please join us this month with a wildflower post. Just add your name to Mr Linky so others can read your post.


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: A Cool, Cool Season Native Grass Lesson

Poverty Oat Grass early summer 2013

 I love my cool season grasses. They're the first grasses to green up and by the time the warm season grasses are knee high they've begun to set seed! It's a puzzle to me why they're still overlooked, underestimated, unappreciated and in some cases still unknown. On the whole they're easy peasy plants that would grow well in many of our garden settings.

Poverty Oat Grass behind the chair frames late spring 2015

Most cool season grasses don't make as big a show as our handsome warm season native grasses, but, they play an important ecological role in plant communities by providing food (forage and seed) and cover early in the growing season when most other plants are just waking up! That's a lot of coolness!

It was easy for me to be open to its charms,  I never wanted to mow grass when I could have wildflowers

Poverty Oat Grass/Danthonia spicata is a particular favorite of mine. It's a wispy, slender bladed bunch grass that starts growing in the cooler weather of Spring, then flowers and sets seed in the early summer. I find the name is perfect for a grass that grows in the most inhospitable of spaces: dry upland woods and forests, upland prairies, glades, tops of bluffs, old fields, eroded pastures, roadsides and dry disturbed areas. Anywhere the soil is dry and sterile.

Of course, you won't be surprised if I tell you it's naturally occurring in my garden! Parts of this garden are indeed dry and inhospitable, with shallow soil that sits on top of limestone boulders and bedrock. An especially inhospitable spot is sited right next to the Blue Bottle Tree! I can't recall exactly what had been there before, possibly remnants of the previous owner's lawn, some very lovely Lyre Leaf sages and in the shade, beneath the Burr Oak were patches of Danthonia spicata. Traditionally, it was mowed to create a negative space to help balance the exuberance of my wildflowers. I knew that something more could be done with such a charming little grass so I transplanted a dozen small clumps late one fall to that inhospitable, shallow soil! The fall rains arrived and they settled in nicely.

The following spring the grass began to grow. It was wispy and delicate, really quite lovely. In June it began setting seed and the following month there was a sea of silvered foliage as the plant went dormant.

 It was stunning and a success.

Fast forward to summer 2015! Not so good. After a year of neglect (I was out for surgeries) the lawnette was crowded with Susans, Fleabane, Vernonia seedlings, non-native clover and real weeds! It was lovely where the wildflowers hadn't encroached on the Danthonia spicata, but, the large expanse of silvery lawn was absent.

I wondered if the Danthonia experiment was a failure and if not what could be done? After a lot of thought and studying the lawnette, here's what I concluded.

When wildflower experts say "This grass does not tolerate competition from taller growing vegetation." they mean it! Keep out trespassing wildflowers!

When experts say this "grass prefers  dry-mesic to dry conditions" they mean it!  We can't control the weather, but, we can control watering.

There's no such thing as a maintenance free lawnette! Weeding is necessary, since there can be too many Susans; Vernonia and other colonizers will seed every where (seedlings can be transplanted); and clover is too aggressive and just needs to go!

There are plenty of lessons and do overs in a garden!

It's all so much fun!

What makes this experiment a success for me?

It's relatively low maintenance: (no watering, no fertilizer, no pesticides, no mowing, just occasional weeding.

It's sustainable.

Increased biodiversity~natives grasses in general are host plants for many butterflies and skippers.

It's charming.

It's lovely.

The seed is viable in the soil for decades~it will replenish itself.

It was fun.

Isn't learning new information, having fun and creating a garden that feeds one's soul while taking care of wildlife what wildflower gardening is all about?

Happy wildflower gardening my friends.
xoxogail


The Particulars:

Poverty oat grass is a cool season, bunch grass (no stolens or rhizomes) that is best suited for poor, dry, rocky soils where it forms dense clumps of curly basal growth. It does not tolerate competition from taller  plants. Remove fallen leaves in a woodland setting. Easily grown from seed, germinates quickly.

Range:  Native to Middle Tennessee, it can be found almost everywhere in the US and Canada. (Zone 3 to 8)

Exposure: Full Sun/Shade/Partial Shade

Soil: Dry and poor

Flowering: June, sets seed and then goes dormant. The inflorescence is small and delicate

Wildlife value: Food, shelter, host plant for several skippers, moths and some grasshoppers

Plants are available locally from GroWild Nursery and you can order seeds from Prairie Moon Nursery.

Thank you for stopping by and welcome to Clay and Limestone's Wildflower Wednesday celebration. WW is 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 they are in bloom or not; and, it doesn't matter if we all share the same plants. It's all about celebrating wildflowers. 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.

Wildflower Wednesday 2012 Roundup

Verbesina virginica

Welcome to Clay and Limestone's 2012 Wildflower Wednesday December Roundup!  

Wildflower Wednesday is about sharing wildflowers/natives/naturally occurring plants no matter where you garden~the UK, tropical Florida, Europe, Australia, Africa, South America, India or the coldest reaches of Canada. 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!
 
Without further ado,  here are the best and brightest of Clay and Limestone's 2011 wildflowers.

 January's Bee-Witching Flowers

Hamamelis vernalis

Hamamelis vernalis is a lovely native shrub that blooms when you have just about given up hope that winter will end and warmth will return to the world...Unless, you live in my Middle Tennessee garden and you're wondering where the heck winter has gone! 


February's Poverty Oat Grass

Danthonia spicata won't be found among the ornamental grasses offered by most nurseries.  It isn't a big sexy grass with showy inflorescence, but, it has much to offer for gardeners who love native plants.  It will grow on dry, rocky and poor soils, has attractive twisted beige winter foliage, great  wildlife value and is delightful when allowed to grow and set seed. Trust me, it's a wonderful lawn alternative for tough spots!

March's Passalong Plant~Collinsea verna

One look at those bicolored flowers and you'll know why I walk the garden looking for seedlings of Collinsea verna in late winter and early spring.  Don't you think the blue and white petals are a perfect match for a spring sky. Sigh.  It's a sweet little annual that deserves to be sown in many more gardens... 

April's Never Fail Wildflower Favorites

Tradescantia virginiana

Spiderwort, Entireleaf Western Daisy, Practically Perfect Pink Phlox pilosa, Penstamin X are just a few of the mainstays of my Spring garden. They are a part of the Rough and Tumble wildflowers that make Clay and Limestone the garden it is today.

May's The Dragons At The Bottom Of The Garden

Green Dragon (Arisaema dracontium) is a  marvelous woodland wildflower that is happiest in dappled sunlight and a moist, rich woodland soil and yet, it's tolerant of our wet winters and dry summers. If it's happy you'll have a nice colony that disappears mid-summer leaving behind the red/orange ripened seed head that topples to the ground and spills seeds everywhere. 

June's Fill Your Garden With Native Plants

You'll never be sorry if you fill your garden with plants native to your part of the gardening world. I know I'm not...My garden is a Central Basin plant community with plants native to cedar glades and the adjacent oak-hickory-red cedar forests. Anyone who has gardened near here knows we have heavy, nearly neutral clay soils that sit atop a limestone bedrock.  It's shallow and sticky wet all winter and dry as concrete all summer.  It took me awhile, but, I eventually figured out, that in order to have a garden that was beautiful and thrived, I was going to have to plant natives. Tough natives!
 
July's The Joes

I'm talking about the Joe-Pye-Weeds, aka as Eupatorium dubium, E. fistulosum, E. maculatum, E. purpureum and E dubium (aka Eutrochium). What all the Joe-Pyes have in common are great big mauve/lavender-pink flower heads that are magnets for butterflies, Bumbles and other pollinators. Can't you tell those beautiful flower heads are the perfect feeding and perching stations for nectar seeking butterflies.

August's Two Native Verbenas

I love Verbenas...and the purple flowers of Verbena hastata and Verbena/Glandularia canadensis 'Homestead Purple' are a treat to the eyes when all the Susans are in bloom!

September's Asteraceaes Rock

Here in Tennessee we have 320 different species (world wide there are over 23,000 recognized asteraceae species).  One could say that from Spring through fall they rock my garden.  In fact, I wouldn't have a garden without them.

October's Little Asters Everywhere

I fell head over heals in love with the blue and lilac flowers that were all over the yard and covered with bees and butterflies when we moved into this house 26 years ago. They so captured my heart, that I built the garden around them. These ex-asters look fantastic when they are allowed to plant themselves with abandon throughout the garden. If you can go with the flow you'll be rewarded with a blue cloud of shimmering flowers that bloom until frost...But, if you need more order, they are magnificent in mixed borders.

November's Hypercolored Hypericum Heaven

Hoky smokes gardeners! Tear out your Burning Bush, rip out your Barberry and trash your Nandinas and replace them with Hypericum frondosum!  You will love its  hyper-colored fall display, the exfoliating bark, the blue green summer foliage, and the pollinator magnet golden sunburst flowers.

My dear friends, Thank you for planting more wildflowers, thank you for taking care of the bees and all the  pollinators, thank you for tolerating pesky wildlife, and, thank you for another year of your friendship, visits, comments and joining me in celebrating wildflowers all over this great big wonderful world. You are the best and having you in my life has enriched it beyond measure.

xoxogail

Add  your Wildflower Wednesday link to Mr Linky and leave 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.