GBBD July 2018

Welcome to the July Garden Blogger Bloom Day at Clay and Limestone. It's hot and humid and while many flowers thrive in these conditions, it's a challenge for others. I am hoping the Phloxes will last a bit longer, but, if they fade away we will have the Rudbeckias to celebrate later this month.

Without further chatter, here are some of the blooming natives in the garden.

Liatris spicata the dense blazing star or prairie gay feather, the blossoms begin opening from the top of the spike downward. Bees and butterfly love it. I plan to add even more, especially the fall blooming Liatris that are also native to middle Tennessee.

Echinacea purpurea 'Ruby Star' with a bee friend.  I love purple Coneflowers and wish I could get a huge stand of them...There's not enough sun and winter drainage is a problem, but, I do keep planting them.

Lonicera sempervirens 'Major Wheeler' has been blooming since early April...The hummers stop by everyday, but first they visit the Monarda!

 Bee balm/Monarda didyma 'Jacob Cline' ...I wish I had a hummer to show you here, but they visit when I am working in the garden and not when I am photographing it!

Cup plant/Silphium perfoliatum is one tall wildflower! This just opened and there were no bees visiting the morning I took this photo! This is a great plant for naturalizing; for a screen or the back of the border.

Phyla lanceolata/Lanceleaf fogfruit, a cutie pie relative of Verbena was the June Wildflower Wednesday star and is still blooming.

Helenium ‘Marti Gras’ — Yellow flowers aging to orange, rich chocolate brown centers, 3 – 4’ tall. Keep the soil moist and spent flowers deadheaded for long bloom. I love Sneezeweed, unfortunately some of the best cultivars never make it to the Nashville nurseries.

Phlox paniculata 'Jeana'. This cultivar was discovered growing along the Harpeth River near Nashville, Tennessee and named after its discoverer, Jeana Prewitt. It's a butterfly magnet and does not mildew!

Coreopsis rosea, a sweet flower that will bloom most of the summer if deadheaded or cut back. I find it's easier to keep it happy in a container than planted in my too dry clay summer soil. The little bees love it.

Phlox paniculata, let's just call it a seedling of a cultivar! Carpenter bees are notorious nectar robbers. That big body makes it hard to fit into many flowers and they will drill or cut into the corolla of a plant to get at the nectar. Not to worry, there are plenty of other visitors to pollinate them.

Chamaecrista fasciculata/Partridge pea, is an annual and a bumble bee magnet. Readily self-seeds in medium to dry soils, growing to 2’ in height. It's the host plant for Cloudless sulfur butterfly caterpillar. I expect to always have it in my garden. One plant in the Susan's bed is now 10! The leaves close up/fold up at dusk.

 Phlox 'Jeana' again...The Swallowtail butterfly love her. The plant that's budding next to 'Jeana' is Rudbeckia subtomentosa 'Henry Eilers'.

Non natives in the garden blooming this month

Hemerocallis 'Autumn Minaret' introduced in 1951 by Stout. It continues to be popular because it blooms late; is extremely tall (up to 66 inches); and, is fragrant. I love all that, but, appreciate the simple flower shape. I hope it reblooms and that the deer don't discover it.

 African Blue Basil is a hybrid of two different basil plants that has inherited a camphor flavor from one of its parents. Although, edible, some say it makes a tasty pesto,  I grow it because it's a bee magnet and flowers all summer.

Happy Bloom Day my dears,  now take the magic carpet ride to May Dreams Gardens where host extraordinaire Carol links to gardens all over this great big beautiful world.

xoxogail

PS If you want to grow beautiful plants that attract pollinators to your garden you must never, ever, ever, ever, ever use pesticides. I really do mean never!

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.

Pollinator Watch

I've been watching for pollinators on the Camassia and so has this crab spider. Flowers spiders, as crab spiders are also known, have short, wide, flat bodies with two pairs of over sized front legs for grabbing and holding their prey, and small venomous fangs for injecting a paralyzing poison.

That fast acting venom means they can catch grasshoppers and butterflies. As hunters they wait  patiently for an unsuspecting bee or fly to land near their hiding spot and then grab them. They are quick and like crabs can move backwards, forwards and sideways with ease. Masters of camouflage, they can change colors to match the flower they are hiding on.

Carpenter bee and Blue Orchard Mason bee early spring 2015

Although, they eat beloved pollinators, they are considered beneficial in the garden and also prey upon flies, mosquitoes, moths, and other insect pests. Crab spiders are not immune to being preyed upon, they're often a tasty dish for wasps, ants, large spiders, lizards, birds and shrews.

The food chain in a garden is so dramatic. It's better than most TV shows!

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: Asarum canadense

Welcome to Clay and Limestone where we're celebrating our Wildflower Wednesday star of the month!

Asarum canadense is poking out of the soil in my garden. The heart/kidney shaped leaves are velvety soft and an attractive deep green.

The delicate bell shaped flowers are also up, but, hidden beneath the leaves at the base of the plants.

Wild ginger is found in rich, moist forests in Eastern N. America - Manitoba to New Brunswick, south to N. Carolina and west to Kansas. It's an early bloomer here in middle Tennessee and the delicate bells shaped flowers are already beckoning pollinators. In cooler climates look for them in early April.

The flower of Wild Ginger is a fuzzy little beauty, but, you'll have to get on your hands and knees to see it. The flower has no fragrance, but, it's unusual shape should be seen up close to appreciate. What looks like petals are really part of the calyx and have pointy ends that add to its attractiveness. The flowers fade fast, but, the leaves are green all season, making Wild Ginger an important ingredient for a woodland garden.

Asarum canadence is made for the shade. It’s a beautiful ground covering wildflower when grown in loose, rich, organic soil (spreads by rhizomes). Needless to say, it doesn’t spread wildly or fast in my heavy clay soil, instead it intermingles with other wildflowers. Because it remains green all season, it's a lovely addition to any woodland/shade garden that emphasizes leaf shapes, textures and variations on greens. I can see it planted along a path edge, massed or interplanted with clumping  Christmas Ferns, or any number of other shade dwelling beauties. In my garden it plays well with False dragonhead, Phlox divaricata, Christmas Ferns, Blue eyed Mary, Phacelia and Spigelia.

Wild ginger is a fuzzy little beauty, but you'll have to get on your hands and knees to see it.

When a flower is at ground level it only makes sense that it's inviting ground dwelling insects to either pollinate or disperse its seeds. That's the case with Wild Ginger, it's pollinated by flies and beetles and the seeds are attractive to ants.

Seed dispersal by ants is called Myrmecochory. This beneficial partnership between ants and plants is amazing: The ant gets a lipid (fat) rich meal from the elaiosome covered seeds and the plants benefit from the ant dispersing the seed far from the parent plant (thereby eliminating competition). Scientists also think that ants have a role in protecting seeds from seed predators when they carry the seeds away and by increasing germination rates when they eliminate the elaiosome surrounding the seed.

Nature never ceases to amaze me.

I love knowing that ants have moved wild ginger uphill in my garden. I sure didn't recall planting it there! This gives me an even better appreciation of ants, their midens (trash depositories) and their place in nature! I must thank them for planting it near the Christmas fern and wild Phlox!

Oh, in case you wondered, the leaves and rhizomes of Wild Ginger do give off a pleasant gingery fragrance when broken, but, this is not why I grow it. Not only is it lovely to look at, it's not palatable to deer and it's an important food source for the larva of the Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly. The caterpillar eats the leaves and thereby ingests aristolochic acid which makes it poisonous to birds.

Pipevine Swallowtail on Ruellia strepens

The particulars

Asarum canadense
Common Name: Wild Ginger
Family: Aristolochiaceae
Type: Herbaceous perennial
Family: Aristolochiaceae
Native Range: Eastern N. America - Manitoba to New Brunswick, south to N. Carolina and west to Kansas
Zone: 4 to 6
Size: Height: 0.50 to 1.00 feet and Spread: 1.00 to 1.50 feet
Bloom Time: Late March/April to May
Bloom Description: Maroon/brown
Water Use: Medium
Light Requirement: Part Shade , Shade
Soil Moisture: Moist (can take some dryness, but, it will fade fast in a drought)
Soil pH: Acidic (pH<6.8) , Circumneutral (pH 6.8-7.2)
Sun: Part shade to full shade
Maintenance: Low
Suggested Use: Ground Cover, Naturalize, Rain Garden
Tolerate: Deer, Heavy Shade
Faunal Associations: The reddish brown flowers  attract flies and beetles. The seeds attract ants because of their fleshy appendages; these insects help to disperse the seeds.
***an important food source for the Pipevine swallowtail Butterfly.
Comments: Doesn't grow in the high summer heat of Zone 8.
Companion planting: This plant is a wonderful companion for most wildflowers that like moist soil Consider using them with Wild columbine/Aquilegia canadensis, Celandine poppy/Stylophorum diphyllum, Christmas Fern/Polystichum acrostichoides, Lady Fern/Athyrium filix-femina,
Woodland Phlox (Phlox divaricata, Indian pink/Spigelia marilandica, Carex species, Fothergilla gardenii, Uvularia sessilifolia, Jeffersonia diphylla, Maianthemum stellatum, Polystichum acrostichoides, Pachysandra procumbens and other woodland wildflowers.

xoxogail

Welcome to Wildflower Wednesday and thank you for stopping by to see our March star. It's been in my garden for a long time and once again I ask myself how this workhouse in the woodland got overlooked. Thanks 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.

It's time for Burning Bush to be extinguished.

This beautiful red leaved shrub is not a Burning Bush, it's Hypericum frondosum and it will take care of your late fall/early winter color needs while being a wildlife friendly shrub.

Hypericum frondosum

Euonymus alatus, known as winged spindle, winged Euonymus or burning bush, is a species of flowering plant that's neither native nor wildlife worthy.

Brilliant red late fall/early winter color on Hypericum frondosum

Whenever a friend waxes poetically about the fall beauty of Burning Bush, I agree with them that it does have lovely fall color, then, use the opportunity to gently educate that not all plants sold in local nurseries (Dear Nursery Owners) or seen in our neighbors' yards are native or good for the ecosystem. 

I tell them "the problem with Burning bush shrubs and some non-natives is how easily they can become invasive. Birds eat the seeds and then poop them in woodlands, forests and neighboring yards; once established they can sucker (spread from roots) like crazy creating a dense thicket that out competes natives."

Education is one of the best tools we have to encourage neighbors and friends to avoid invasives and plant more natives. Sometimes, they listen and for that I am grateful.

 The Hypercolored Hypericums in my garden in mid-December have wowed many a gardener away from Burning Bush.

It isn't just a one season wonder like Burning Bush. Add pollen rich golden flowers that are a magnet for pollinators, blue-green summer foliage, reddish-brown seed heads, exfoliating winter bark, excellent wildlife value to its fall hypercolored show  and you have a year round beauty.

If you haven't already extinguished Burning Bush from your garden, now is a good time to plant critter friendly shrubs like Hypericum frondosum. But, you don't have to take my word for it, let my garden do the talking, you're welcome to stop by to check it out!

When the deepest freeze finally ends its blazing glory, this is what I see most of the winter.

xoxogail 

PS Other natives that make wonderful alternatives to BB are: Oakleaf hydrangea/Hydrangea quercifolia, Arrowwood Viburnum/Viburnum dentatum, Virginia sweetspire/Itea virginica,  blueberry/Vacciniums, witch-alder/Fothergilla gardenii.


Thanks for stopping by, now pop over to May Dreams Gardens  to see other Garden Blogger Bloom Day posts! After that stop by Pam/Digging for Foliage Followup.


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: Desmodium paniculatum

Panicledleaf Tick trefoil is a sprawling member of the pea family that is native to most of Eastern North America. It's truly a plant of the woodlands or wilder areas in our gardens. Somehow, it has comfortably established itself in my garden....It's especially happy in the wayback Garden of Benign Neglect. Honestly, it's taken awhile for me to open my heart to them, but, after a half dozen years, we are getting along fine.

©David J White

I can't promise you that this dainty flower will wow your human garden visitors, but it will make the many critters that live in or visit your garden happy.

It's a host plant for one of the sweetest little butterflies to visit our gardens...the Eastern Tailed Blue. But that's not all.  According to Illinois Wildflowers: Bumbles, and other long tongued bees like leaf-cutting bees and long-horned bees feed on the pollen. The caterpillars of Hoary Edge skipper, Silver-Spotted Skipper, Southern Cloudywing skipper and Northern Cloudywing skipper feed on the leaves and the caterpillars of the Gray Hairstreak butterfly eat the flowers and developing seedpods. Other insects include: many kinds of beetles, and some species of thrips, aphids, moth caterpillars, and stinkbugs. The seeds are eaten by some upland gamebirds (Bobwhite Quail, Wild Turkey) and small rodents (White-Footed Mouse, Deer Mouse), while the foliage is readily eaten by White-Tailed Deer and other hoofed mammalian herbivores. The Cottontail Rabbit also consumes the foliage. 
 

Photo ©David G Smith

Even if you've never noticed the sprawling plant covered with dainty pink flowers, I bet you've spent time pulling it or another Desmodium's velcro seeds off your socks and pants after a hike in the woods or through a field.

If you want seeds, just let me know! I've already gotten a good head start on collecting them.

©David J White

I look forward to the dainty blooms at the end of the summer. Dainty is the operative word; the flowers are about 1/4 of an inch and they bloom in a panicle at the end of the stalk. They open bottom to top and it's not unusual to have buds, blooms and seedpods all at once. Desmodium paniculatum is a pioneer plant, which accounts for the abundance of seeds it produces. If you have one plant, then you'll soon have more.

The origin of the word Desmodium is Greek and means "long branch or chain", which makes perfect sense when you look at the fruit/pod. Those sticky seedpods (loments) cling to the fur of animals and the clothing of humans and are carried far from the parent plant. I am pretty sure that's how they landed in my garden.

I've come to appreciate the masses of tiny flowers, the cool looking seedpods and the enormous wildlife value they bring to my garden. But, would I recommend you add them to your space?

©David J White

I think you need to figure that out for yourselves. I will be glad to supply seeds.
xoxogail

The particulars

Fabaceae (Pea Family)
Range: native to eastern and southern North America
Common Names: Panicled leaf tick trefoil, Narrowleaf tick trefoil 
Duration: Perennial
Bloom Time: Summer
Flower: pink pea like flower about 1/4 inches
Fruit: Pod. Their fruit are loments, meaning each seed is dispersed individually enclosed in its segment. The leaflets of this species have hairs which will slightly cling to clothing or fabric
Height: 24” to 48”
Spacing: 15” to 18”
Light: Full Sun to shade
Habitat - Thickets, dry upland woods, rich woods, ravines, prairies, glades, ridges, moist ground, roadsides, railroads.Woodlands
Soil Moisture: Medium to Dry
USDA Zone: 4a-8b
Wildlife value: See above!
Comments: Panicledleaf Ticktrefoil enriches the soil through nitrogen fixation. Desmodium paniculatum is a pioneer species (first species that grows in an area after a disturbance). So, you're likely to see it in areas that have been cleared by fire, flooding, logging or construction. The roots of Tick Trefoils have been used medicinally in the past by the Houma Indians. It has more
Landscape use: Massed in a native plant garden. Plant with grasses (Panicums, Chasmanthium) for support. It makes a nice ground cover in a wilder area of the garden.

Thoreau wrote in his journals "I can hardly clamber along one of our cliffs in September in search of grapes without getting my clothes covered with Desmodium ticks. Though you were running for your life, they would have time to catch and cling to you -- often the whole row of pods, like a piece of a very narrow saw blade with four or five great teeth. They will even fasten to your hand. They cling by the same instinct as babes to the mother’s breast, craving a virgin soil -- eager to descry new lands and seek their fortune in foreign parts; they steal a passage somewhere aboard of you, knowing that you will not put back into the same port."

 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! Add your link and comment below!



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.

What's wrong with Goldenrod?

Absolutely nothing! 

Goldenrods put on a beautiful flower show in early autumn and any insect that needs pollen and nectar is sure to be found visiting. That's why I refer to them as landing pads of deliciousness.


Let's get the objections over with first! 

Goldenrods have a bad reputation for two reasons.

*They have been misidentified as the cause of hayfever suffering. They are not responsible for any allergy symptoms you or I are having this fall. The tiny grains of wind blown pollen from ragweed is the culprit. Goldenrod is insect pollinated and the pollen grains are too big to be blown about. Pass that along please!

*They can be aggressive spreaders. Goldenrods are rugged and adaptable. They grow were many wildflowers cannot survive and they can spread quickly where there is no other native plant competition. Those that have been problematic propagate by a rhizomatous/spreading root system that can quickly take over a small garden. If you want to plant them, but fear their nature, look for clump forming cultivated beauties like  Solidago 'Solar Cascade', Solidago caesia/Bluestem Goldenrod, Solidago odora, Solidago rugosa 'Fireworks'.  My favorite clump former for shade is Solidago flexicaulis/Zigzag Goldenrod.

Zigzag Goldenrod

Long time readers know I have a love affair with rough and tumble, take care of themselves, colonizing wildflowers. If you stop by my garden today, you'll see Tall goldenrod/Solidago altissima duking it out with New England ex-aster/Symphyotrichum novae-angliae in the sunnier parts of the garden.

Next to oak trees, goldenrods may be the best wildflower for hundreds of insects

You'll see pollinators, especially bumbles, dancing from aster to aster, goldenrod to goldenrod and back to their nests. All day long.

Lichen moth

Although, it was the bumbles that led me to wildflowers and gardening for wildlife; it is the hundreds of other critters that visit and live in my garden that keep me committed to planting native wildflowers. Even when those flowers are thuggish! 

Ambush bug waiting for unsuspecting critters

Bumbles, song birds, spiders, flies, beetles, hoverflies, moths, butterfly and ambush bugs will always have Goldenrods to feed on at Clay and Limestone. Our native bees rely heavily on collected pollen and nectar found in Goldenrods 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 don't scare me! I hope that I've been able to show you that there's much more good than bad in these golden beauties that light up our fall gardens and provide for critters.
xoxogail

PS If you want to provide for fall pollinators you must plant landing pads of deliciousness like Goldenrods and you must never, ever, ever, ever, ever use pesticides in your garden. I mean never!



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.