Some of my favorite wildflowers are pasture weeds

Take Ironweed for instance, the University of Tennessee even has a fact sheet and refers to this leggy beauty as a troublesome weed. It seems that it's not tasty to cows and if it's growing in a pasture the cows must spend more time looking for grass and that means less grazing! Of course there's a term for this~~grazing inefficiency.

Naturally they recommend using herbicides to eradicate it.

Goldenrod, Callirhoe involucrata, common evening primrose, Tradescantia ohiensis, violets, 
Eupatorium capillifolium and Salvia lyrata are also on the weed list. They're all rough and tumble wildflowers favorites at Clay and Limestone.

 
I have a special place in my heart for these wild and rough looking beauties that are frequently found growing in meadows, prairies, roadside ditches and pastures. I appreciate plants that haven't had their best characteristics bred out of them. 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.

Stay tuned for more late summer/fall rough and tumble beauties, the season is just beginning.

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.

September 2013 GBBD: I love the rough and tumble wildflowers of early Autumn!

 

It's rough and tumble wildflower time in my garden. The take care of themselves Autumn beauties are beginning to shine.

Verbesina virginica

Rough and tumble wildflowers are simple wildflowers most with no known pedigree, that bloom their hearts out and require the easiest of care.

Helenium autumnale

 Some even resent fertile, rich soil and many aren't even on a list to be hybridized, even if they should be!

unknown Solidago

Familiarity has never bred contempt when it comes to wildflowers. In fact, the more I see them, the more I appreciate their charms.

Vernonia altissima

But, they are so much more than pretty faces. 

Salvia azurea

Each one of these darlings provides more pollen and nectar return on investment than many other flowers combined.

Conoclinium coelestinum

My rough and tumble natives are landing pads of deliciousness for butterflies, bees, wasps and moths.

Symphyotrichum novae-angliae

Common plants like the Ex-asters bloom just in time for the late arriving pollinators which are making a mad dash to collect as much nectar and pollen for their last brood.

Coreopsis tripteris

Rough and tumble wildflowers are late blooming magnets for all kinds of insects, including some insects that are themselves food for spiders, birds and other insect eating critters.

Lobelia cardinalis

The provide food for migrating birds and they all make me smile.

Physostegia virginiana

 I have a special place in my heart for these wild and rough looking beauties that are often found growing in meadows, prairies and roadside ditches. I appreciate plants that haven't had their best characteristics bred out of them. 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.

Lobelia siphilitica

They're perfect for this time of year, perfect for the resident critters and perfect for this garden.

xoxogail


It's September 15 and you know what that means! Garden bloggers all over the blogasphere are celebrating Bloom Day. You can see more gardens then you can imagine in one day if you stop by Carol's blog, May Dreams Gardens to take the linky magic carpet ride.

First flower is Ex-aster S patens

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.