Rough and Tumble Cup plant

 Cup plant is one of my must have rough and tumble wildflowers. 

"What's a rough and tumble wildflower?"you might be wondering. They're beautiful and  charming plants that  haven't had their best characteristics bred out of them. There are no cultivars or hybrids~That means they have not been crossed or genetically altered by human hand to be shorter, more floriferous, double flowered, disease resistant, sterile or what ever else is the going fad. I am pretty sure you can't improve on what nature has already done~creating plants that dance beautifully and gracefully with their pollinator and wildlife partners.

Cup Plant is a native of tall grass prairies where it grows in moderately rich, moist well drained neutral to alkaline soil. Expect it to make itself at home in your garden by setting down a central taproot and shallow rooted rhizomes. First year seedlings are easily transplantable from where you don't want them to where you do. It can and will spread vegetatively (and by seed) to form a large and tall colony that makes a striking statement in the back of a garden. Plant it with other prairie forbs and grasses to create a pocket prairie. 

You just can't beat the composite flowers when it comes to wildlife value, but, there's something especially wonderful about Cup Plant. Once the flowers open the pollinators descend upon the garden and they stay until the last petal falls from the plant and then the birds eat the seeds. But, even before it blooms, the wasps, Bumble bees, flies and small birds stop by to drink the rain and dew that has collected in the fused leaves that form a cup around the plants square stems. It's a very cool plant.

 What you can expect:

A big plant presence,
good looking flowers,
spreads assertively,
a rough and tumble wildflower,
tons of happy pollinators,
great wildlife value...

A tattered beauty in the garden July 22, 2014

 I never have to worry about this one disappearing from the garden ;)

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: In Praise of a Rather Tall Wildflower!

Silphium perfoliatum is one tall wildflower!

Some would say that this beauty is a beast of a plant and I might have agreed several years ago when it stood 9 feet tall and 3 foot wide in my little sunny Susan's Bed! I've since learned to cut it back at the same time I clip the ex-asters. I suggest you do the same, because banning this beauty from your garden because it's tall and colonizing would be a shame.

You just can't beat the composite flowers when it comes to wildlife value, but, there's something especially wonderful about Cup Plant. Once the flowers open the pollinators descend upon the garden and they stay until the last petal falls from the plant and then the birds eat the seeds. But, even before it blooms, the wasps, Bumble bees, flies and small birds stop by to drink the rain and dew that has collected in the fused leaves that form a cup around the plants square stems. It's a very cool plant.

Cup Plant is a native of tall grass prairies where it grows in moderately rich, moist well drained neutral to alkaline soil. Expect it to make itself at home in your garden by setting down a central taproot and shallow rooted rhizomes. First year seedlings are easily transplantable from where you don't want them to where you do. It can and will spread vegetatively (and by seed) to form a large and tall colony that makes a striking statement in the back of a garden. Plant it with other prairie forbs and grasses to create a pocket prairie. 

Big plant,
good looking flowers,
spreads assertively,
a rough and tumble wildflower,
tons of happy pollinators,
great wildlife value...

A tattered beauty in the garden July 22, 2014

Only you can decide if this beauty is a beast!

xoxogail

Some particulars you might want to know about Cup Plant!
Asteraceae family
Perennial
Growth: Can grow to as much as 9 ft. tall by 3 ft. wide...I am not kidding!
Bloom Color: Yellow
Bloom Time: Jul, Aug, Sep
Distribution USA: AL , AR , CT , GA , IA , IL , IN , KS , KY , LA , MA , MD , ME , MI , MN , MO , MS , NC , ND , NE , NJ , NY , OH , OK , PA , SD , TN , VA , VT , WI , WV Canada: ON Native Distribution: S. Ont. to NC, w. to e. Great Plains
Native Habitat: Moist woods; prairies; low ground
Growing Conditions: Wet to mesic soils. Will tolerate clay soil. It grows in my garden, it will grow in yours!
Comments: Unstoppable urge to reproduce, they will pop up everywhere; very little care needed. (source)

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: Rough and Tumble Cup Plant

Silphium perfoliatum is beginning to bloom and not a moment too soon! The butterflies and bees have been waiting for its first flowers to open..they've been busy visiting ever since.

Cup plant is one of my must have rough and tumble wildflowers. 

"What's a rough and tumble wildflower?"you might be wondering. They're beautiful and charming plants that are usually found growing in meadows, prairies and roadside ditches and they haven't had their best characteristics bred out of them. There are no cultivars or hybrids~That means they have not been crossed or genetically altered by human hand to be shorter, more floriferous, double flowered, disease resistant, sterile or what ever else is the going fad. I am pretty sure you can't improve on what nature has already done~creating plants that dance beautifully and gracefully with their pollinator and wildlife partners.

Rough and tumble plants seem more beautiful to me then many classic garden flowers.

I decided long ago that a plant had to have more than a pretty face to be invited to the Clay and Limestone wildflower party. Rough and tumble plants must also have excellent wildlife value and need no coddling.

critters drink the rain and dew that collects in the cups 

Cup plant more than fits the easy care/good wildlife value bill. Plant it where you want it to grow and then watch. Before it even blooms, there are wasps, flies, beetles, bees and birds stopping by to drink from the plant's "cups". The cup plant gets its common name from the large sandpaper rough leaves that are opposite and fused to form a cup around the square stem.

Once it blooms there are dozens of bumblebees, carpenter bees, honeybees and butterflies stopping by to feed on the nectar and pollen that the daisy like flowers produce from late July till early fall. Come fall the seed heads are a tasty treat for Goldfinches. 

Cup plant wants to be big and tall

 Cup Plant is a native wildflower of tall grass prairies where it grows in moderately rich, moist well drained neutral to alkaline soil. Expect it to make itself at home in your garden by setting down a central taproot and shallow rooted rhizomes. Site it carefully, once that tap root is settled in there's no moving it! It can and will spread vegetatively (and by seed) to form a large and tall colony that makes a striking statement in the back of a garden. Plant it with other prairie forbs and grasses to create a pocket prairie. 

It's almost too big for my small Susan's bed, so, I cut it back in late spring/early summer but, it's still over 7 feet tall by mid-July.  I am not complaining, I love it and it's a great companion for the taller  New York iron weed and Joe-Pye weed. 

However you decide to use Cup plant know that you are inviting a magnificent and assertive plant into your garden! It has good wildlife value and will provide a shady spot for critters to rest, to find water and food. It's practically perfect!

xoxogail

PS Some particulars you might want to know about Cup Plant! 
Perennial
Growth: Can grow to as much as 9 ft. tall by 3 ft. wide
Bloom Color: Yellow 
Bloom Time: Jul, Aug, Sep 
Distribution USA: AL , AR , CT , GA , IA , IL , IN , KS , KY , LA , MA , MD , ME , MI , MN , MO , MS , NC , ND , NE , NJ , NY , OH , OK , PA , SD , TN , VA , VT , WI , WV Canada: ON Native Distribution: S. Ont. to NC, w. to e. Great Plains 
Native Habitat: Moist woods; prairies; low ground  
Growing Conditions: Wet to mesic soils. Will tolerate clay soil. 
Comments: Unstoppable urge to reproduce, they will pop up everywhere; very little care needed. (source)



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.

Wordless Wednesday: Cup Plant Keeps On Keeping On

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.

Bees Don't Care If A Flower Is Beautiful

Not at all!

Take Verbesina virginica, it's a rather rough and tumble looking white flower with a petal here and a petal there, but, that matters not to a bee.

They're in it for the nectar and pollen payoff and this asteraceae family member has quite a payoff. Wasps, bees, beetles, butterflies, skippers, and flies all adore it.

 I do, too.

 Flowers need to pack more than beauty to be invited to have a big presence in my garden.  Blooming along with Frostweed are several  other flowers that fit that big bill!

Vernonia altissima

Ironweed and Cup Plant also have stature, beauty and substance. They're both pollen and nectar producers for bees, moths, skippers, butterflies, flies, etc, and bloom for a long time.  Cup Plant seeds are attractive to Goldfinches and they've been known to drink from the water captured in the cupped leaves.

an under-appreciated native wildflower or a ditch weed?

I have a special place in my heart for these wild and rough looking beauties that are usually found growing in meadows, prairies and roadside ditches. 

That's their pedigree~purebred by nature.

I really like plants that haven't had their best characteristics bred out of them.

Silphium perfoliatum, Vernonia altissima and Verbesina virginica are three plants that have no cultivars. Which means they have not been crossed or genetically altered by human hand to be shorter, more floriferous,  double flowered, disease resistant, sterile or what ever else is the going fad.  

Maybe someone, somewhere, is working in their greenhouse to improve them, but, I sure hope not...

After all, how do you improve on perfect?

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.

xoxogail

Perhaps, this would be a good time to remind you that if you want to attract pollinators you must never, ever, ever, ever use pesticides in your garden. 

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.