Wildflower Wednesday: Embrace imperfection in your garden!

That's what I've done!

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.  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.

• 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 pretreated with insecticides.

You just have to do it!

If we all work together, we can become the change our world needs.
xoxogail

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. When I walked around the garden planning for WW, I noticed that several coneflowers had been chewed on by insects. It seemed an opportune time to  encourage my fellow wildflower enthusiasts to embrace the beauty of a pesticide free garden's imperfection. All the coneflowers shown (Echinacea tennesseensis, E purpurea and Echinacea cultivars including 'Ruby Star', 'Magnus', and 'Prairie Splendor') are imperfect beauties. Not only have they been chewed on by critters, their offspring are different looking with their petals poking every which way.  It happens~plants get chewed on and offspring are not true! Happy Wildflower Wednesday!

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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.

A Wheelbarrow Full of Garden Fun

What this garden needed was more blooming plants.

The intense heat of the last month has burned out the bloom of many of the plants that I count on to keep my garden looking good all summer and to provide nectar and pollen for my resident bees and butterflies.

The phloxes are looking ragged, the agastache and gaura have been deadheaded and the Susans haven't come into bloom quite yet. It's also brought some of the  usually late blooming wildflowers like Joe-Pye weed, ex-asters and Ironweed into early bloom and they may not be with us for long if this drought continues.

So, I've bought dozens of echinaceas.

You heard me right!  In the middle of a drought, with temperatures over 100F, I've bought dozens of plants.

No, I'm not worried that they will die. I've planted them in my largest containers, in fantastic soil and they are already settling in.

In fact, the pollinators were plenty ready for new food sources; the plants weren't even out of the back of my Subaru before the skippers and a pretty Vanessa virginiensis showed up to nectar.

Soon after the Bumbles and and the small sweat bees arrived.

I couldn't be happier that it's working out so well, even if I've had to plant some of them in my wheelbarrow!

xoxogail

PS  The plants are a mixture of Echinacea purpurea 'Magnus' and  E purpurea  'Ruby Star' (Rubinstern) and will all be planted in the garden once the rains return this fall! 

 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.