Wildflower Wednesday: Spiderwort

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.

Spiderworts 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.

Spiderwort is ephemeral - its flowers stay open only one day.

Tradescantia  virginiana like all members of the dayflower/Commelinaceae family is ephemeral - its flowers stay open only one day (half day if sited in full sun), but, it continues blooming for a long time. The leaves are strappy, with pointed tips. Each has a channel (which looks like the perfect place to fold it) and is bright green with a dark green midvein and visible parallel veins.

Cultivars are now offered with, blue-green, chartreuse, or yellow leaves. I love the species plants and usually prefer them to cultivars, but, in this case, I say, go ahead and add whatever spiderwort cultivars you want to your garden. They all attract pollinators and for me, that's important...but, so is beauty! Just take a look a 'Kate' in the photo below. She's a beauty in chartreuse leaves and those purple flower pops against them.

'Kate' a cultivar same flowers prettier leaves

In my garden, spiderwort's arching stems are usually 2 to 3 foot tall and the clumps are never wider than 2 feet. The plant hasn't spread aggressively beyond their original plantings, but then C and L doesn't have rich, moist soil, which would encourage it to misbehave. They are known to spread by seed and if any seeds sprout where you don't want them,  they're best dug out when young, before a thick, fibrous root can develop in the middle of one of your prize ornamental plants.

There seem to be two explanations of the origin of the common name: either from the sticky secretion exuded from cut or broken stems, which hardens into web-like threads or from from the angular placements of its leaves, which suggests a sitting spider. The sitting spider is a new one to me, but certainly got me on my hands and knees checking out the flowers.

It's a fabulous garden worthy plant, but it is not without its detractors!

striking purplish blue flowers with three petals, 6 yellow stamens and the most exquisite spidery violet hairs.

Perhaps it those detractors and their negative reviews of spiderwort that keep it from being in more wildflower gardens. I have often been asked to recommend plants for native/wildflower gardens and when I suggest Spiderwort, I inevitably hear, a list of negative statements. "It's too weedy." It's unruly. "It's aggressive." "It's too floppy and messy."

It can be unruly in the right circumstances and once the big bloom period passes, it is a whole lot of plant and no flower!

In my eyes it's still a garden worthy plant. I garden for wildlife and this plant always has bumbles and smaller critters visiting it. I appreciate the delicate flowers in vibrant purples, blues, pinks and even white. They are delightful in a shady garden. When the narrow, strap like leaves start to look ratty, and they do by July, I cut them back. I am rewarded with fresh growth and occasionally more blooms. Cutting back spiderwort will also curb rampant reseeding.

a white flower  from several years ago with a visiting hoverfly

Spiderworts might not belong in a formal garden, but, they are certainly at their best in a woodland or cottage garden where they mingle nicely with native geraniums, Carex, Heucheras and foamflowers. I like to let them duke it out with colonizing plants like River oats and false dragonhead. Btw, False dragonhead is winning.

Geranium maculatum 'Espresso' with 'Kate'

Spiderworts are pollinated by bumbles and that makes me really happy. Beautiful and unique flowers that are not terribly temperamental about soil; that come in a kaleidoscopic palette of sumptuous colors; bushy plant that helps fill bare areas and mixes well in layered plantings; and, easy care, make this plant attractive to me.

If you can deal with a thuggish, tall, strappy, grass like plant when out of bloom; that is more plant than blooms, and; one that declines in the heat of summer; then, this is a plant for you. If you don't want to plant it in the garden, why not plant it in a container. You can move it out of the way when it stops blooming, cut the floppy stems back and wait to bring it back out when the cooler fall weather brings on the second flush of blooms.

I hope I've made a good case for Tradescantia virginiana! I want to be honest and not mislead you! Let me know what your experiences have been.

Thanks,
gailxoxo

The particulars

Tradescantia virginiana aka Spiderwort
Type: Perennial
Size: Usually around 2 feet tall, may get taller
Leaf: Green, blue green. Cultivars offer more color including lime green.
Bloom Color: Blue, purple, pinks and white. Cultivars may cross and create a lovely palette of colors
Bloom Time: March through June. May rebloom in fall.
Native Distribution: A Central basin native plant. Eastern half of the US and Canada. W. CT to WI, s. to GA, TN & e. MO 
Native Habitat: Meadows; open woods; limestone outcrops
Water Use: Low when established, prefers moist soil
Light Requirement: Sun, Part Shade, Shade
Soil  Description: Very adaptable plant prefers humus-rich soil, but will grow in a wide range of soils: moist/dry, clay/sand, acid/alkaline.
Wildlife: Attracts bees. Pollinated by bumblebees.  Butterfly nectar source.
Comments: Juglones tolerant. POISONOUS PARTS: Leaves. A good ornamental in the garden. Attractive seasonal color for a shady or sunny area. Plant looks good with Heucheras, foam flowers and other native plants. Probably best in naturalistic plantings, woodland and shady gardens. To keep plants looking healthy, cut them back in late summer (or when they appear to stop blooming). Spiderwort spreads easily, but if kept under control, it can be used as a border plant. It is striking in mass when in bloom.



Welcome to Wildflower Wednesday and thank you for stopping by to see Tradescantia virginiana, a sweet wildflower that I think has gotten a bad rap! Thanks also, for joining in and if you are new to Wildflower Wednesday, it's 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 your wildflower is in bloom or not and, it doesn't matter if we all share the same plants. 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.

Wordless Wednesday: The Autumn Dance Begins

Physostegia virginiana/False Dragonhead and Chasmanthium latifolium/River Oats,

When you let two rough and tumble wildflowers duke it out in the garden, they make beautiful music together.

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.

I'm crazy about a good colonizing plant like Physostegia virginiana

If you like a well behaved plant that never, ever trespasses into another plant's space then forget about Physostegia virginiana, aka, False dragonhead, its colonizing ways will make you crazy.**

 the big late summer show from several seasons past

Of course, you could consider some other pretty lavender-pink late blooming flowers, but, you will miss the dramatic show and the cool bottom up bloom.

With colonizers you get free offspring and a dramatic show

 I didn't edit last year or this spring (hand surgery) and the result is a marvelous mass planting, much larger than usual. It makes me happy every time I step into the garden.  Surely this won't surprise any of you! My mostly native garden has its fair share of colonizers. I let them duke it out all summer and sit back to enjoy the fall show. It never disappoints me.

I garden for wildlife and grow False dragonhead because it's a magnet for pollinators, especially bumbles, carpenter bees and small bees and because it makes a wonderful and dramatic late summer/early fall show in the garden.

The purplish pink tubular flowers are perfect for plump little bumblebee bodies to slip inside and sup on the nectar and collect a little pollen.

 When you watch bees work these plants~ they move in and out, up and down and all around the flower head a mass planting makes sense.  When they're finished with one, they quickly move onto the next False dragonhead plant not a plant in a different genus. I've read that a planting of the same flower should be at least 4 foot wide...the key for me is "at least".  This planting is much larger~maybe 10 feet by 4 feet. This fall they'll have a whole lot of the same plant in one spot! That's what makes colonizing plants so attractive to me, they reproduce to create a nice sized planting for pollinators....and it's free plants. (I will have plants to share with others this fall.)

Bumbles are the primary pollinator~not the chubby carpenter bee~It's too large.

The entire flower head is striking, but, let's take a closer look at the individual flower. Do you suppose the dots, stripes and dots act like nectar guides to draw bees on to the perfect central lower lip landing pad? They're certainly colorful. When you get close you can see how perfectly designed the tubular flowers are for a bumblebee! It's a perfect relationship between bee and flower~ the bee gets food and the flower gets pollinated. We get to enjoy the beautiful flowers and watch the delightful critters.

A perfect flower for bumbles...ahhhh, the Pollination Syndrome at work!

Nature amazes me, every single day!

there's plenty of room for smaller bees

xoxogail

PS. In case you need a reminder, please make the pledge to never, ever, ever, ever use pesticides in your garden.

** Please don't call native plants invasive. They may be thugs, they may be aggressive, but, what they are is highly competitive plants that you must edit or decide not to plant in your gardens!

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: Fifth Anniversary!

 I can hardly 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.

Verbesina virginica

 At first I wasn't sure what I wanted to do to celebrate this 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. If you like you can link back to earlier Wildflower Wednesday posts by clicking on the plant name.

Panicum virgatum

Here it is~a trip back in time to February 2010, with a bit a lot of tweaking!

Rusty Blackhaw/Viburnum rufidulum

Almost thirty years ago we moved to what has since been christened Clay and Limestone Garden. Long time readers know that the relationship between gardener and garden has been a passionate affair, filled with moments of deep love and equally deep despair.

Hamamelis vernalis

It was a long time before I was able to accept the limitations and gifts of the shallow, clay soil that is as dry as concrete most summers and wet and sticky all winter. (here for more of the story)

Mistflower

Even in the face of over whelming evidence that wildflowers naturally occurred and thrived here, I tried to create an English cottage garden, a Mediterranean garden and a New England woodland. They were failures and I despaired that there would ever be a garden.

Tradescantia virginiana

In my haste to create these idealized dream gardens I had over looked the native ex-asters, mistflower, columbines, trout lilies, trilliums, mayapples, downy woodmint, Blue-eyed grass, False garlic, penstemons, dicentras and a host of other beauties that were already growing here.

Green Dragon/Arisaema dracontium

It was a wonderful day when I stumbled upon Thomas Hemmerly's Wildflowers Of The Central South.

 Harbinger of spring

I've never had the honor of meeting Dr Hemmerly*, but, he became my garden mentor and helped me  understand and appreciate the special native plants that grow in Middle Tennessee. He introduced me to concepts that were important to know if I were to have any success at gardening. I learned that Middle Tennessee was part of the Central Basin, that it has very interesting wildflowers that grew nowhere else, and that the rock in my garden is an Ordovician limestone bedrock overlain with thin soil. I finally understood that plants have to be rugged to survive in my garden and that planting native wildflowers made the most sense, after all, they had evolved and adapted to our wet winters and dry summers.

Golden Ragwort

Once my eyes were opened, it was easy to see that on the edges of the garden, beyond, the weedy lawn, were wonderful wildflowers and abundant wildlife.

Ex-aster

My head and heart were quickly filled with all things wildflower. I devoured articles about native plants, visited cedar glades, read botany articles and every book I could lay my hands on that discussed gardening in the Central Basin.

Joe-pye weed

Before long, it became clear to me and my gardening friends, that wildflowers had become my garden soul mates. Of course, when you have a relationship like that you want to share it with the world!

False Dragonhead/Physostegia virginiana

Wildflower Wednesday started out as a regular post to celebrate the wildflowers in my garden. I was hoping that there were other gardeners who also felt that wildflowers were special and wanted to share them. There are and you're all delightful.

Danthonia spicata and Asimina triloba two garden experiments

Many years later~I've met wonderful gardeners, made new friends, learned to write a little bit better, and have learned a few valuable gardening lessons. If there's one thing I would like to pass along to new gardeners, it's this: What ever you do, don't fight your garden's unique characteristics or ignore its plant communities. Embrace them. If your garden is rocky, sandy, slow draining, fast draining, acidic or alkaline, a desert, a cold climate or even tropical, what ever climate, where ever in the world, there are native wildflowers, shrubs and trees that will be perfect for your garden. They will not only survive, they will thrive. Trust me, you will be a happier person and have greater success at gardening.

Practically Perfect Pink Phlox Pilosa

Finally, here's my promise to you~ If you plant wildflowers the critters will come! Your garden will be filled with buzzing bees, singing birds, fascinating insects and spiders and fluttering butterflies. You'll also be a host to snakes, raccoons, squirrels, turtles, chipmunks, hawks, owls, and rascally rabbits and who knows what else!

Native wildflowers are good for the earth and good for its inhabitants. Now kick up your heels and dance with The Dancing Tree! Happy anniversary to all of you and let's continue celebrating our wildflowers.

xoxogail

Wildflower Wednesday 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.

I hope you join the celebration..It's always the fourth Wednesday of the month!

*BTW, I have finally gotten to meet Dr Hemmerly!



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: Some Plants Like to Challenge the Boundaries!

At Clay and Limestone we call several of them good friends.

Physostegia virginiana, aka, False dragonhead is a good friend of my garden. It's one of the rough and tumble wildflowers that makes gardening on my shallow, often dry garden soil worth the effort!

It's an enthusiastic grower, but, I decided years ago that a lovely lilac river of spiky flowers that attracts bumbles, small bees, skippers and hummers was worth having to pull out a few errant plants. (go here for more on this plant)

This mint can get a root hold in your moist, rich garden soil

Successful colonizers like False dragonhead do create work for gardeners. I've even heard several gardenblogging friends say they've banned them from their gardens! My dear friends, it's your garden plant what ever you want, but, please, don't call them invasive! They're colonizers! They're thug. They're highly competitive, but, they are not invasive species. Let's not scare off gardeners who may be considering planting more natives!

the first flowers open from the bottom

As many of you may know, my mostly native garden has its fair share of colonizers. I let them duke it out all summer and I am never disappointed by the fall show!

I do have to step into the fray occasionally to stop some of the more highly competitive plants like the  Solidagos from taking over. Goldenrods are the king of colonizing wildflowers, some more than others! Don't let that stop you from adding them to your garden, they are quite possibly the best wildflowers for critters and there are many delightful cultivars that are NOT thugs!

A Locust borer stops by for a snack

Goldenrods have great wildlife value. Native bees rely heavily on Goldenrods for both pollen and nectar to provide food for the winter brood's survival. Migrating butterflies stop by for the nectar to help them on their long flight and the seeds are needed by chickadees, finches and pine siskins during the winter. Goldenrods are also important attractors of beneficial insects like soldier beetles, hoverflies and pirate beetles.

We need those predators in our organic gardens....so plant goldenrods! Trust me, there's a perfect one for your garden!

This is the famous Frostweed in flower. It's a favorite of bumbles.

Verbesina virginica is another assertive native plant! Seedlings have germinated far from the parent plants thanks to wind and birds! That doesn't mean I would ban it from the garden, but, I am ruthless about removing seedlings of this biennial!

Buckeye butterfly visiting Verbesina

Verbesina is another good wildlife value plant. Bumbles, carpenter bees, beetles, butterflies and moths are frequent visitors. It's also the host plant for the caterpillars of the Silvery Checkerspot butterfly.

Symphyotrichum novae-angliae is another healthy colonizer, for which I am very grateful! After a long summer of Black-eyed Susan's I am ready for a big show!

New England aster with Helianthus salicifolius 'First Light'

A big lavender show is exactly what I have...This ex-aster spreads by seed, but this gardener is the one who has transplanted it to a dozen spots in my small sunny border! It's the perfect purple! It looks beautiful from across the garden and it is the perfect partner for one of my favorite late summer blooming asteraceas, Helianthus salicifolius 'First Light'.

You'lllove this flower massed in the garden

The same applies to this fantastic mist flower! If you have the space and temperament to let this plant go, please do. Conoclinium coelestinum is a plant that looks its best when allowed to naturalize. Cut it back in mid summer to keep it looking bushy and beautiful, and then let it do its beautiful thing. (go here for more on this wildflower)

Butterflies, skippers and bees are drawn to the nectar-rich flowers, while birds eat the seeds. If you want more, and once you see it massed you will, it's easily propagated from seeds or divisions. It can spread quickly if happy, but is pulled out just as easily. It grows in any soil except extremely dry. If you want easy care this is a great wildflower.

Thanks so much for stopping by to help me celebrate a few of my favorite boundary challenging native wildflowers! I've used words like colonizing, aggressive, thuggish, assertive, highly competitive, naturalizing, rhizome spread, and rough and tumble to describe them. But, don't let that scare you, colonizing plants make good garden friends.

Trust me, I'm a gardener!
xoxogail

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: False Dragonhead

Earlier this month False Dragonhead began it's charming bottom up bloom. It didn't take long for the Bumbles to arrive on the scene.

The plump bee bodies just scoot down into the tubular flowers

Mother Nature designed Physostegia virginiana, aka, False Dragonhead with bumblebees in mind. The tubular flowers are perfect for plump little bee bodies to slip right in to find the sweet spots of nectar and while pollinating the flowers.

Nectar robbing carpenter bees do not pollinate False Dragonhead flowers

Although, Bumbles are the primary pollinators of False Dragonheads, many other pollinators stop by to visit. Swallowtail Butterflies and Silver spotted skippers with long proboscis can reach far into the corolla for nectar and Carpenter bees, although, much too large to fit into the corolla, cleverly drill directly into the flower side to get at the nectar.

I was introduced to Physostegia virginiana years ago as False Dragonhead and the name has stuck with me. I have since learned that many people know it by Obedient plant, a misnomer if I've ever heard one! This plant is anything but obedient, but, I digress and will get back to that topic a little later. It's called Obedient Plant because flowers, when pushed from their normal position, are supposed to remain for a while where they have been turned. The common name dragonhead alludes to the open mouth of the corolla which was thought to resemble the fabled beasts of yore!

 the lower lip is divided into 3 lobes – the larger central one functioning as a landing pad for insects

False Dragonhead is a clump-forming North American native perennial that is found in fields, prairies, thickets, woodland openings and borders, along rivers and streams and lakesides in much of the eastern and central United States, as well as eastern Canada.  In other words, it prefers a moist spot in full sun or part shade! This member of the mint family typically grows 2-4' tall on stiff, square stems and features spikes of pinkish, tubular, lipped, snapdragon-like flowers which bloom in my garden during September and early October, just in time for late arriving pollinators which are making a mad dash to collect as much nectar and pollen for their last brood.

this striking plant needs to be massed for the best color effect...

False Dragonhead or dis-Obedient plant has a reputation for being an aggressive spreader in a garden setting. That is true, but, I don't mind its colonizing manner, it's a plant that looks better massed and what better way to get a large planting then to have it cooperate so well. I find they divide easily and there are plenty of plants for other spots in the garden or to share with friends. If you find it too aggressive you can plant it in a dryer garden spot or cut the flowers off before it goes to seed. You might even get a second flush of blooms, too.

Bumbles are the primary pollinators of Obedient plant

 Despite it's colonizing tendency, False Dragonhead is an immensely popular garden flower and several cultivars have been developed, some with variegated foliage and others are said to be less aggressive. It's really an outstanding plant that lights up the garden and looks especially gorgeous with grasses, sedges,  ex-asters, late blooming phlox, boltonia and goldenrods.

The flowers have no scent, but look smashing in a fall garden

Don't be put off by Physostegia virginiana's reputation as an aggressive plant. Yes, it's quite the colonizer in moist situations, but, it's well worth a little weeding and pulling out extra plants. It's a beauty and "a wonderful plant to add luminous rosy lavender late season color to the bronze golds and yellows of a moist meadow" or garden (source) and something that's becoming increasingly important to many of us, it's not a preferred deer food!

xoxogail

Attracts: Butterflies, Hummingbirds, Bees

Hardy in zones 3 to 7
Prefers moist, slightly acid to acid, well draining soil
Full sun to partial shade
Weed suppressing quality (it's a mint family member)
Divide in the spring, prune to reduce height and control floppiness in  early summer
Narrow, toothed leaves
2 to 4 foot tall, clumps and spreads

Hybridized for height, color and variegation (P 'Vivid', P 'Miss Manners' and P 'Variegata')

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. Wildflower Wednesday participants, 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.