Wildflower Wednesday 2025 Posts in Review

I was worried that this might have been the first year that the Hypericums weren't going to put on their hypercolored show for the Wildflower Wednesday Posts in Review Roundup! At the last minute and after two inches of much needed rain their brilliant colors began to brighten my garden. Each fall when I see Hypericum frondosum's brilliant color I wonder why more American gardeners haven't planted them. It's a wonderful Southeastern US native shrub with four seasons of interest and good wildlife value. It's going to have be the first WW star of 2026!

 

 

Gardening in the Middle South is mostly a treat, we have four seasons, but our winter is mercifully short and spring and late autumn make up for the steamy hot summer weather. The last several years have been especially rough with weather extremes of incredible cold, incredible droughts and incredible rains...But we gardeners remain positive knowing that before long the earliest spring ephemerals will break dormancy and the gloriously long bloom of wildflowers will begin.

Here's the Wildflower Wednesday Parade of Stars.  Please follow the links to read about our fabulous wildflowers. 

Seasons Greetings and Happy New Year. xoxogail  

January Wildflower Wednesday: Anemone virginiana

I love this photo of its winter curls...before it goes all fluffy.

I have had a love-hate relationship with a few plants over the years and Tall Thimbleweed was once one of them. It's been so long since I felt that way that I am having trouble remembering exactly why. Perhaps it was its tendency to spread too easily like other Ranunculous/Buttercup family members. But, these days I appreciate all its fine qualities, including its self sowing.

Anemone virginiana aka Tall Thimbleweed has a long flowering period from early to mid-summer. In summer the buds are displayed on slender stems above clusters of attractive lobed leaves that are clustered in a whorl halfway up the stem. The small white spring blooming flowers  have five petal-like sepals and greenish-yellow central stamens around a central dome. Mining bees, small carpenter bees, sweat bees, green sweat bees and yellow faced bee will be found visiting the unique flower. (source)

 

February Wildflower Wednesday: A Winter Blooming Treasure-Hamamelis vernalis

 I am not shy about sharing photos of my blooming Ozark witch hazel. Nor do I shy away from making it a Wildflower Wednesday star every few years. It it deserves the attention. I wish more people grew this beauty instead of the non-native hybrids that most nurseries sell; especially when you consider that it's a host plant to 69 moths and butterflies. 

You'll love its sweet fragrance wafting toward you on a warm winter day (in the 50s). You'll delight in the yellow/orange crepe paper streaming petals that unfurl as the day warms and furl back up when the temperature drops. Walking by this plant in full bloom is a treat with the cool flowers, the wonderful scent and visiting pollinators.

 Hamamelis vernalis is a lovely native shrub/small tree that blooms when you have just about given up hope that winter will end and warmth will return to the world. In my Middle Tennessee garden it often begins blooming in mid January and it's not unusual for it to continue blooming all through February and often into March. 

 

March Wildflower Wednesday: Sweet Betsy Time in the Woodland Garden

I love Trillium cuneatum and revel in its spring emergence every year. It's been years since I showcased this beauty and I think it's a perfect little Wildflower Wednesday star.

It was one of the first native plants that I discovered when we moved here many years ago. Long time readers might remember that I built this garden around the native beauties I found all over the wooded edges of my yard. Sweet Betsy was hiding in the wayback backyard under the oak trees and I transplanted it to my new woodland garden. I remember carefully digging around it to get all the rhizome and roots and gently placing it in the garden. They survived and thrived despite my gardening ignorance.

Trillium cuneatum typically flowers from early March to mid April. It can be found in rich, mostly upland woods, but, it is especially happy growing on Middle Tennessee's Ordovician limestone soils (neutral to basic soil).  Trillium will be happy in your garden, if you give it a rich, moist soil, shade, protect it from browsing critters and keep aggressive perennials from crowding it. They can live for a long time and usually do not flower until they are several years old. It's found growing across Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. Sweet Betsy is a great selection for your shade garden. Plants are hardy, drought-resistant (although they prefer moist soil), somewhat deer proof, and extremely long-lived.  

April Wildflower Wednesday: Maianthemum racemosum 

Maianthemum racemosum (formerly known as Smilacina racemosa) is a colonizer that is spreading very slowly beneath Viburnum rafidulum in my habitat. It mingles delightfully with Green and Gold, Christmas ferns and Purple phacelia. I am very fond of it and appreciate that it is attractive in the garden from early spring to winter frost.

The crooked arching stems and large leaves of early spring are attention grabbers with their slightly zigzag hairy, reddish or green stems between the leaves. The leaves (ovate and alternate) are produced on 1-3 foot, unbranched arching stems that usually last through the summer.

May Wildflower Wednesday: Scutellaria parvula — Small skullcap 

Dear readers,  There are far too many lovely native wildflowers that are underappreciated or overlooked and Scutellaria parvula is one of them. Even its species name "parvula" means very small and insignificant! It may be small but, it's not insignificant. It's a lovely flower and I hope you are as excited about meeting it as I am to introduce you to our Wildflower Wednesday star.

The flowers of this diminutive beauty are best seen and appreciated close up and that means you gotta get down on your knees to see it's pretty flower face. Trust me when I say, it was so worth the dirty pants to get a close look at this sweet flower. While there I could clearly see the square stems and opposite leaves that are hallmarks of a mint family member.

Photo Source 

It stands less than a foot high and its tiny flowers are about 1/3 inch long and are located in the leaf axils in the upper third of the plant. The blue/violet tubular corolla flower has fuse petals that form upper and lower lips. The lower lip with its white patch and blue dots is a perfect landing pad for bees.  

 June Wildflower Wednesday: Dichanthelium clandestinum 

When  I walk the rolling hills of this neighborhood I can still see pollinator friendly lawns in front of the 1950s ranch houses and the woodland remnants in the hills that surround the neighborhood. The lawns come alive in March when Claytonia virginica/Spring beauties bloom, followed by Salvia lyrata/Lyre leaf sage, Ruellia humilis/wild petunia, Carex/sedges, Danthonia spicata/poverty oat grass and other native witch grasses. I hope that enough of these lawns will be safe from the developers who are bull dozing the trees and the 1950 suburban ranches to the ground in order to build houses that fill almost the entire lot. They have replaced the pollinator friendly lawns with sod...Gone are the spring beauties, gone are the other pollinator plants and gone are the lightening bugs. Ignorance of the value of saving native, trees, grasses and plants are destroying the habitat of pollinators, birds, insects and mammals. That breaks my heart.

But, in my wild garden you will find many of those plants, along with our Wildflower Wednesday Star, Dichanthelium clandestinum. Deer-tongue grass is one of the witch/panic grasses that I've discovered happily growing  in damp spots in the garden. The unbranched leaves of early spring caught my eye and made identifying it easier.

Most of the various panic or witch grasses  are members of the Panicum or Dichanthelium genus. Many are hard to identify by this author. Deer-tongue grass is easily identified by its attractive silver flower heads that shimmer in the slightest breeze. The clasping leaves give the plant a bamboo like appearance and the foliage turns yellow-brown in autumn.  After a hard frost kills the fall stems and leaves, they are replaced by low winter rosettes of basal leaves. The winter rosettes of this plant make a good evergreen groundcover. The root system is rhizomatous and can form colonies. It's attractive and has good wildlife value....so it's a keeper! 

 July Wildflower Wednesday Anglepod

 For years I thought the name of this plant was angelpod!  

 

Although angelpod is not its name, I think you'll agree with me that our Wildflower wednesday star,  Gonolobus suberosus, is a cool plant. 

It's called anglepod because it's milkweed like fruiting body has sharp angled edges. Gonolobus suberosus is it's botanical name but it has many common names: anglepod milkvine, anglepod milkweed or angular-fruit milkvine. It has leaves that are heart shaped  and opposite. The stems, petioles and leaf veins may show purplish shading that fades as the plant ages. The greenish-yellow star shaped flowers occur in a cluster near the top of the plant.  It is naturally occurring throughout the southeastern U.S. from Texas to southeastern Kansas to southern Illinois and Indiana to Maryland and southward to Florida. It's a perennial herbaceous vine that prefers habitats like borders, thickets, and open areas within forests. It's native to middle Tennessee and I am not sure how it got in to my garden, but I am glad it's here and gladly accept the gift.

 August Wildflower Wednesday: We celebrate a butterfly and its hostplant, Ptelea trifoliata 

A dozen years ago I saw my first Giant Swallowtail butterfly when it stopped by to nectar on the wildflowers. It superficially resembled an Eastern Swallowtail while gliding about, but once it settled on the Asclepias tuberosa, it was clear that it was not one of my regular garden visitors. The coloring was wrong and it had an unusually large wing span. I was pretty sure it was a Giant Swallowtail and just as I've read, that first sighting was dazzling! 

What a beauty and the 6.3 inch (16cm) wing span makes it the largest North American butterfly.  

Forewing with diagonal band of yellow spots. Tails are edged with black and filled with yellow

The Giant Swallowtail Butterfly/Papilio cresphontes' flight is a graceful series of strong flaps and long glides. It spends its time on the wing, nectaring or patrolling for mates (if male). I waited patiently for it to stop flitting and pose prettily with wings fully spread, but, it was feasting madly. 

It's welcome in most gardens, but, is considered a pest in Florida's citrus growing regions where citrus trees are its chosen host plant. Fortunately there are plenty of parts of the US  and Canada where it is welcome, including here in my garden in middle Tennessee.

Back then I wasn't growing its host plant, but several years ago I bought two Hop Tree/Ptelea trifoliata hoping that the next Giant Swallowtail that visited would find a place to lay eggs.

 They eat and poop and eat and poop ...a lot!

 September: Wildflower Wednesday: Goldenrods

 Fall's best landing pads of deliciousness.

 Goldenrod is a genus of over 120 species of herbaceous perennials in the daisy family (Asteraceae). There are at least 75 native to North America. They thrive in open areas like prairies, meadows, and savannas while some species prefer woodland edges or moist conditions.

 

Goldenrods are luminous with small, bright yellow flowers in dense clusters on top of tall stems. They begin blooming in mid September in my middle Tennessee garden and continue to bloom throughout October. They put on a beautiful flower show and any insect that needs pollen and/or nectar is sure to be found visiting.You can't ask for a better fall blooming wildlife valuable plant and when you combine them with the ex-asters, you get beauty and happy critters.

 

 

Yet gardeners are reluctant to plant them, so 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!
   
• Their tendency to colonize might be one of the main reasons so many gardeners don't plant them in their gardens. Long time readers know I have a love affair with rough and tumble, take care of themselves, colonizing wildflowers and goldenrods are the champion of colonizing wildflowers. Yes, they can be aggressive spreaders, but they 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. So avoid Canada Goldenrod (Solidago canadensis) and Late Goldenrod (Solidago gigantea)  two goldenrod species known for their aggressive spread by rhizomes.  If you want to plant a goldenrod 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.

 

October Wildflower Wednesday: There Are Wildflowers That Like to Challenge the Boundaries!

At Clay and Limestone we call several of them good friends and Conoclinium coelestinum is one of the best!

Conoclinium coelestinum

This rough and tumble wildflower makes gardening on my shallow, too often dry garden soil worth the effort! It's an enthusiastic growers but, I decided years ago that a plant with lovely fuzzy lilac flowers that attracts bumbles, small bees, skippers and was a host plant to several moths was worth my having to pull out a few errant plants.

Yes, given the right conditions it can be an enthusiastic colonizer. It begins blooming in late August (Middle South) and continues through early fall and into October. The fuzzy appearing lilac-blue flowers add a softness to my late summer and fall garden when the Susans, Goldenrods, Cup Plant, Verbesinas, Joe-Pye weeds and Ironweeds are making a large and loud scene. It's especially beautiful when allowed to naturalize and make its own big statement.

November: Wildflower Wednesday: Hamamelis virginiana

 Today I am thankful for family, friends and my wildflower garden. I am thankful for time I spend outdoors, for the critters that live and visit my garden, for the last blooming flowers and for the gnats, flies, moths and bees that are out and about on warm days. 

 I am grateful for all of you who read my Wildflower Wednesday posts and don't mind that I am posting this one on Thanksgiving Day instead of on the fourth Wednesday! 

unfurled crepe papery petals on a very warm November afternoon. 

Today, I celebrate Hamamelis virginiana our Wildflower Wednesday star. Witch-hazel is a fall flowering understory tree with sweetly fragrant small yellow flowers. It is native to woodlands, forest margins and stream banks in eastern North America (including OK and TX)  where it's found growing in moist well drained soil in sunny to partial shade conditions.

That's where it's found in nature and it's a darn shame that it is overlooked by most nurseries in favor of selling the flashier non-native witch-hazels. Dear readers, step away from those Chinese witch-hazels and ask for Hamamelis virginiana! You won't be disappointed and that's a promise.* If you can't find it locally there are good online nurseries that sell seedlings.

Hamamelis virginiana starts blooming in October at Clay and Limestone and blooms for at least a month. In outstanding weather you can expect to find a few flowers in early December! Every branch is covered with fragrant spidery crepe paper flowers that never fail to charm as they furl on cold days and unfurl on warm ones!

 

 

There are so many wonderful wildflowers to celebrate, I hope you have a list of your favorites. Here's my secret, all the plants in my habitat are my favorites, but, these wildflowers are incredible plants and if you can give them the growing conditions they need, then consider adding them to your garden. If you garden in middle Tennessee they may be perfect for yours.

I love when you visit and leave comments, especially when you share something about your garden. I hope to see you in 2026 and may your garden give you the joy that mine has given me. 

xoxogail

Welcome to Clay and Limestone's Wildflower Wednesday celebration. On the fourth Wednesday of each month I share information about wildflowers and other native plants. Please join in if you like. You can write a blog post or share your favorite wildflower on social media. 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.

Gail Eichelberger is a gardener, Tennessee Naturalist and nature writer 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.

2023 Wildflower Wednesday Roundup

Hypericum frondosum's color is still happening in the garden

I love gardening in the Middle South, but, this has been an especially challenging year. Droughts are a regular occurrence in Tennessee’s climate, but, the one we experienced throughout the late summer and fall has been devastating. I fear for shrubs and trees and wonder if I will see the real loss when spring rolls around in 2024. Climatologists have said, "Expect extreme weather patterns." and we've had them. Fortunately we haven't had an extreme Arctic freeze like December 2022. None the less, we are fortunate to have four seasons in the middle south; a mercifully short winter and a delightful spring and autumn which make up for the steamy hot and often too dry summer weather. The days are starting to lengthen and before long the earliest spring ephemerals will break dormancy and the gloriously long bloom of wildflowers will begin. 

Here's the Wildflower Wednesday Roundup.  Please follow the links to read about our glorious wildflower stars. xoxogail 

 January 2023: Hamamelis vernalis and A Wildflower Wednesday Challenge

 

I've decided to continue the WW Challenge into 2023 and beyond. It's a call for doing at least one thing a month to support nature/garden critters/etc. I will include an idea list each month. Long time readers know that I've been an advocate of gardening with native plants and the critters that visit and live in our gardens since my early blogging days. Back then I fell in love with the bumbles that were visiting my garden and wrote many posts about pollinators of all kinds. I also loved sharing posts about the native wildflowers that supported those critters and began Wildflower Wednesday. It's been at least a dozen years since  that first Wildflower Wednesday meme post. I invited others to share their wildflower star of the month and many did. I continue to use the Wildflower Wednesday posts to call attention to our native plants that have co-evolved with critters in a mutually dependent manner. Co-adaptation is easiest to see with insects/pollinators and flowering plants in our gardens. Researchers have found at least three traits that flowering plants have evolved to attract pollinators: (source)

• Distinct visual cues: flowering plants have evolved bright colors, stripes, patterns, size  and colors specific to the pollinator. For example, flowering plants seeking to attract insect pollinators are typically blue an ultraviolet, whereas red and orange are designed to attract birds.     
• Scent: flowering plants use scents as a means of instructing insects as to their location. Since scents become stronger closer to the plant, the insect is able to hone-in and land on that plant to extract its nectar.     
• Some flowers use chemical and tactile means to mimic female insect species to attract the male species.

 

Let's consider our January star with co-evolution in mind.

Hamamelis vernalis is a lovely native shrub/small tree that blooms when you have just about given up hope that winter will end and warmth will return to the world. In my Middle Tennessee garden it began blooming the first week in January. It's not unusual for it to continue blooming into February and sometimes March. 

Ozark witch hazel's flowers are an unusual reddish color with four yellow/orange crepe paper streaming petals that unfurl as the day warms and furl back up when the temperature drops. This is a marvelous adaptive behavior that insures that the spidery blooms will survive the fluctuating winter weather and be in bloom for almost two months. This is super important in ensuring that any pollinating critters that are out and about on warmer days will find their way to the lovely flowers.

 February 2023: Dirca palustris, An Underused/Underappreciated Woodland Beauty

Honestly, I was worried that there would be no flowers on Dirca palustris this year after the December flash freeze. Also, worrisome was a friend's loss of his decade old Leatherwood to a fungus. Long time readers know that I rushed outside to make sure the shrub was okay. Geez Louis, was I relieved that it was doing fine.

In case that has you wondering about the shrub's hardiness, it's a very cold-hardy plant, being able to tolerate temperatures down to around -22°f when fully dormant. The flowers are produced in early spring, however, and are very likely to be damaged when the plant is grown in regions with late frosts. (source)

Despite my worry, it bloomed right on schedule.

 March 2023: A Few Spring Epemerals from Clay and Limestone 

Neither rain nor cold, or even more rain and  then very cold weather could stop the delightful harbingers of springtime that are blooming at Clay and Limestone. The delicate white or pinkish flowers of ephemerals bloom early in spring, set seed, then disappear until the next spring.

 If you had to choose one of the earliest spring ephemerals as a favorite...Would you? Could you?

Claytonia virginica or Spring Beauty

 Would you choose the candy striped Spring Beauty? 

 Claytonia virginica's flowers are about the size of a dime with five petals that spread wide as the sun warms them. From a distance, the flowers appear white, but, each petal is suffused with a delicate network of pastel pink veins. Those pink veins are nectar guides. Spring Beauties are pollinated by over 100 species of insects. That's a lot of bees, flies and other winged creatures relying on nectar and pollen. That makes them an important early food source and extremely important in our garden habitats and near by woodlands. 

Perhaps, you would choose the perfumed flowers of Cardamine concatenata/Cut-leaved toothwort! This is a common plant in Middle Tennessee, but that would never detract from its charm. Like many early blooming spring wildflowers this one is low to the ground (and you can count on getting dirty knees trying to take a decent photo). While you're crawling around you might notice their sweet fragrance. It's especially noticeable on sunny warm days.

Cut-leaved toothwort

 

April 2023:  Monarda bradburiana 

When a plant description reads like this: "Monarda bradburiana is an upright bushy perennial with square green stems" it's hard to get excited! But when you see the plant in flower and read about its wonderful qualities you know you want it in your garden. At least that's what happened to me. 

Monarda bradburiana is an exceptional Monarda and worthy to be in your garden.

• it's a compact clumping perennial wildflower
• plants have gray-green aromatic leaves on strong square stems 
  
• it blooms in mid spring in my middle Tennessee garden
• the stems are topped by showy rounded clusters of pale pink tubular flowers speckled with purple
  
• pollinators flock to the blooms
  
• it will thrive in sunny or partly shaded gardens with average well drained soils.
• no mildew
• it may self seed...that's a plus for me
• not as aggressive as other Monardas
  

 It's lovely and the fact that so many pollinators are attracted to it is a major plus. 

Besides all that...who could resist a plant with purple freckles!

 

 May 2023: There Be Dragons In the Garden

 The Dragons in my garden are the best kind to have. They're dramatic and elegant looking, growing over three foot tall with a two foot "wingspan". 

 

They mingle well with the denizens of Clay and Limestone, preferring the dappled sunlight and a moist, rich woodland soil that I have worked to create. 

 

Green Dragon, aka, Arisaema dracontium is marvelous to behold. The woodland wildflower emerges as one stalk and slowly unfurls its mighty wings. Or, if you prefer leaf! What looks like two leaves is one leaf that forks into leaflets of unequal size and uneven numbers. Go ahead and count them...it's always uneven.

 

June 2023: Clustered Mountain Mint

 Pycnanthemum muticum is quite possibly a perfect pollinator plant.

But you don't have to take my word for this! Just google Mountain Mint and every nursery selling it, State Native Plant Society or blogger who writes about it extols its insect attracting virtues. Trust me and others, this is the best mountain mint species for attracting and supporting pollinating insects! 

Here's more! The researchers at Penn State's The Pollinator Trial found that Clustered Mountain Mint was the best plant for flowering longevity; for pollinator visitor diversity; for sheer number of insect visitors (78); and, for sheer number of bee and syrphid visitors. Wowzer!

 

July 2023:  Elephantopus carolinianus 

 I don't think you would be at all surprised to discover that I've found another wildflower to love! This one is called Elephant's foot. It's a very cool flowering plant with large leaves and tiny flowers. When I say tiny I mean tiny and easily missed unless you're crawling around on the ground in a woodland setting. Yes, I do spend time crawling around on the ground looking at plants and I totally recommend it. 

Although, I've seen Elephant's foot in wooded areas near by none have naturally occurred at Clay and Limestone. But, thanks to my South Carolina gardening friend Janet, I have some in the garden. I planted them in the spring ephemeral bed along the driveway. They've survived and flowered, but not spread aggressively as some gardeners have reported. Maybe, I should be careful about what I wish for, but, I do wish this one would spread about; it would make an attractive ground cover and massing them would highlight the pretty flowers so much better.

On that note, I've discovered three seedlings in the cracks in my asphalt drive; which both amuses and amazes me. Whenever I find any plants growing in sidewalk cracks or grooves I conclude that they're perfect plants for Clay and Limestone! Plants that are able to adapt to harsh environmental conditions like heat, lack of nutrients and not much moisture, truly are treasures. It's looking good that Elephant's foot can survive our summer droughts and shallow soil. It also looks like I will be collecting seeds this fall since propagation appears to be easy! (see The Particulars below)

 

August 2023: Vernonia gigantea, A Rough and Tumble Wildflower

 

Vernonia gigantea is one of my favorite of the late summer rough and tumble wildflowers that make a home in the garden. They make gardening at this time of year a pleasure. Bees, butterflies, skippers, and various bee flies seek out the nectar and pollen. Deer do not browse it.

Ironweed is the common name for this beauty. It's a clump forming perennial with clusters of fluffy magenta-purple petaled flowers in the Asteraceae family. The flower heads consist of  9 to 30 disc flowers that sit atop stiff, upright stems with lance shaped leaves.  It's another native that doesn't mind wet feet and grows at Clay and Limestone despite the dry clay soil each summer. I do make sure it gets a good drink of water during especially droughty times.

 

September 2023:  Rough and Tumble Wildflowers on the Greenway and in My Neighborhood

It's rough and tumble wildflower bloom time in my garden and at the greenway where I walk most mornings. I am delighted to see so many different wildflowers in the sea of invasive honeysuckle, Mimosa, Ailanthus, Euonymous fortunae, Bradford Pears, privet and Rose of Sharon that have almost completely taken over many of our greenways. I love that these rough and tumble wildflowers have survived the invasion and are there for wildlife. 

Several former Wildflower Wednesday stars have a presence on the greenway and you can click on the highlighted plant names to see that post. I will introduce you to several new plants.

Hairy leaf cup/Bear's Foot/Smallanthus uvedalius

 

October 2023: Ex-aster Time is the best time to be in the garden

I've said it before and I'll say it again, ex-aster time is the best time to be in the garden. The days are warm and Autumn angle of the sun makes everything glow.

Symphyotrichum, aka ex-asters, and other Central Basin natives grew with happy abandon in the forested woodland where this garden now stands. Seventy years ago our house was built in a neighborhood carved from the woodland. Homeowners came and went while the asters and wildflowers grew quietly on the woodland edges. Almost 40 years ago this month my husband and I bought our 1955 ranch. There was a canopy of oaks, Hickories and Ashes and a old Cersis canadensis that was declining. Along the asphalt driveway was a Ostrya virginica that was being strangled  by a white Wisteria vine. At the edges of the yard were some ephemerals and other native plants that this new gardener only discovered later. What I did notice was a cloud of blue flowers that were dancing in the breeze. The plants were alive with activity; there were tiny bees, glowing metallic copper and green; flies that looked like bees; wasps of all sizes and many different bumbles. I fell in love with those beautiful blue flowers that I learned were asters and, of course, the humming that turned out to be native bumbles and other little bees.

November 2023 So Thankful for Willowleaf Asters

I love everything about Willowleaf aster.

When I say everything, I mean everything.

• I love that it can survive frosts. 
• I love that it's still providing food for every bee, butterfly, moth, wasp and critter that's still up and about on cooler days. 
• I love that it has survived droughts in my garden even though it's so much happier in moist soil. 
• I love that it's a traveler and moves around the garden via robust rhizomes to form large clonal colonies. 
• Seriously, I don't mind that it makes a big presence, because it's easy to transplant and transplants well.
• I love that Willowleaf aster is THE gathering place for all the bumbles at the end of a hard day! Bumbles are the last to leave my garden at night and it's not unusual to find them slumbering on the flowers on a cool Autumn morning. I always thank them and wish them a good day, they are quite the hardest workers in my garden.

 

Thanks for stopping by to see our Wildflower Wednesday stars for 2023. They're all favorites and all incredible plants to add to most of your gardens. If you garden in middle Tennessee they are perfect for your garden. 

I love when you visit and leave comments, especially when you share something about your garden. I hope to see you in 2024 and may your garden give you the joy that mine has given me. xoxogail

Welcome to Clay and Limestone's Wildflower Wednesday celebration. On the fourth Wednesday of each month I share information about wildflowers and other native plants. Please join in if you like. You can write a blog post or share your favorite wildflower on social media. 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.

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 2022 : December Roundup

I love gardening in the Middle South, but, this has been an especially challenging growing year. Droughts are a regular occurrence in Tennessee’s climate, but, the one we experienced throughout the late summer and all fall was devastating. I feared for shrubs and trees. Then came the cold weather in the form of an Arctic air mass that had us rushing to cover plants and making sure our pipes wouldn't freeze. As I look out the window snow is falling. It's lovely. I wish that we had had two inches or more to blanket the garden before the temperature bottomed out at 0˚. Climate scientists said, "Expect extreme weather patterns.". and they were right. It's a good thing we gardeners are flexible and every plant that didn't make it presents us with an opportunity to find another wonderful native wildflower to plant in its place.

Hypericum frondosum in December color

 None the less, we are fortunate to have four seasons in the middle south; a mercifully short winter and a delightful spring and autumn which make up for the steamy hot and often too dry summer weather. The days are starting to lengthen and before long the earliest spring ephemerals will break dormancy and the gloriously long bloom of wildflowers will begin.

Here's the Wildflower Wednesday Roundup. This year I've expanded my wildflower star posts to include a challenge. I hope that you have enjoyed the posts and accepted the challenge. Please follow the links to read about glorious wildflower stars. xoxogail

January 2022 Wildflower Wednesday: A Challenge For 2022

 I've been posting Wildflower Wednesdays for 13 years. To quote a post from May 2009~

Wildflower Wednesday started out as a regular post to celebrate the wildflowers in my garden. It's been a fun way to introduce you to my soul mates! I treasure them and love sharing them. They grow with ease if planted in the right spot and they draw native fauna, like bees, birds and butterflies to the garden. There are articles all over the internet extolling their virtues. You've read many, I'm sure! Here's how I sum it up~Native wildflowers are good for the earth and good for its inhabitants. (Here for the post)

Of course I still love wildflowers and of course I plan to continue sharing them on the Fourth Wednesday of every month, but, it's time to shake it up with a challenge. 

A two part challenge!

The first part of this challenge is to do something every month during 2022 that supports native wildflowers, pollinators, and the critters that visit and rely on our gardens. Activities that increase our knowledge of the natural world are equally as valuable. Below you'll find a list of possible activities you could do...If you choose to participate! But, don't limit yourself to my list, make your own list or check out the internet for ideas.

The second part of the challenge is to post about it somewhere: Your blog; Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or even your neighborhood listserve. 

Why post it?  Because positive publicity is needed to educate our friends, neighbors and communities about how important even the smallest changes we make as gardeners can be for pollinators, birds, insects and mammals that live all around us. 

Why now?  My neighborhood is changing. Yours might be, too. Every day a 1950s ranch along with many of the mature oak, hickory and hackberry trees that have been there for over 75 years are bulldozed down. In place of the "bee lawns" composed of Salvia lyrata, Ruellia humilis, fleabane, Western Daisy, violets, self-heal, clovers, Dandelions that grew so well in the shallow soil that sits on top of limestone bedrock are sodded non-native lawns that get daily watering, whether it rains or not. Gone are the lightening bugs. Gone are the ground dwelling/nesting native bees. Gone is the habitat for insects, spiders and other critters. Gone is plant diversity. Gone are trees that provided for hundreds of moths, butterflies and other insects. Gone are the nesting sites for woodpeckers, hummingbirds, Chickadees and other birds. It breaks my heart. We can't stop the multi-million dollar houses from going up, but, maybe we can make a lot of educational noise and help our new neighbors see the value in providing for critters.

A gardener can hope!

 

February 2022 Wildflower Wednesday: Harbinger-of-Spring

I'd like to think spring has arrived at Clay and Limestone.  When I open the door on the 50˚ mornings, it smells like spring. You've smelled it! It's the fresh dirt smell that wafts on the breeze on warm spring days. Scientist call the chemical that makes dirt smell fresh geosmin,  I call it delicious. We can thank the plant munching bacteria that live in our soil for making it.

It's not just the smells, although late winter blooming Hamamelis vernalis' clovey scent is wafting about the garden on warm days. When it's a bit chilly I have to get up close and sniff the flowers, but, it makes me long and hope for more blooms and spring. And, have you heard the birds? They sing louder and more melodious in the spring. It's not my imagination, they're singing louder!

A few of the spring ephemerals have poked up from under the leaf liter demonstrating once again that leaves on the garden don't kill our native beauties and that spring is just about to bust open. My garden is just beginning to undergo the marvelous transformation from brown to green. Over head the elms are budding, in near by yards the maples have begun to bloom and many shrubs are starting to push out leaves.

 

the diminutive woodland beauty and WW star, Erigenia bulbosa

Freezing nights and pounding rain can't dim my hopes for an early spring. But, let's not rush headlong into a big spring crescendo before it's time, after all we do need to admire our wildflower of the month,  Harbinger-of-Spring/Erigenia bulbosa.

 

March 2022 Wildflower Wednesday: Green and Gold

If you're looking for a charming native groundcover then look no further than Chrysogonum virginianum. The common name Green and Gold is a nod to its fuzzy foliage and golden flower.

The early bloom provides nectar for visiting bees and butterflies.

 It's been in my garden for more than a decade and is very much at home between the large stepping stones on the path to the front door and in the adjacent bed. I'm a fan of repetition planting; especially plants that are easy peasy. Green and Gold is easy to divide and transplant so, I've moved it all around the garden. It's happy in full shade and even in full sun. It flowers every spring and doesn't seem to mind a bit of foot traffic every now and then.

 

April 2022 Wildflower Wednesday: Nothoscordum bivalve

 Like a few of my favorite wildflowers, this one was first spotted in my way back backyard many moons ago! It was growing in full sun (before the trees leafed out) where the soil is wet in the winters and dry in the summers. I knew immediately that it was something special with its fresh white flowers. It looked like a wild Allium, but the scent was not at all like an onion or garlic; it was sweet and worth crawling on my hands and knees to get a good sniff. Of course, I looked it up in my wildflower guide. Turns out this wild garlic looking plant is Nothoscordum bivalve a native member of the Amaryllidaceae (Amaryllis or Narcissus family). Once upon a time it was in the Lily family.

The word Nothoscordum is derived from the Greek word Nothos meaning “false” and Scordum, meaning garlic. Individual plants are about a foot high with a single smooth hollow stem/scape that emerges from an underground bulb. Each plant also has several long, grass-like leaves that emerge from the base of the plant. Mature clumps can reach up to 16" tall and spread to fill an 8" area. The scapes can reach up to 16" tall and are topped with an umbel of 4-8 small, upward-facing flowers in spring. The 0.5" wide flowers are made up of six white tepals with yellow tinged bases. MOBOT

 

May 2022 Wildflower Wednesday: Amorpha fruticosa, Another Fabulous Fabaceae

I purchased bare rooted False Indigo on a whim last fall. I bought three because three is the number that is stuck in my head when buying plants! I had no idea where in the garden I would plant them, so I soaked the roots and planted them in quart sized containers and let them over winter.

I completely forgot them until the classic pinnately compounded leaflets that screamed "I am a member of the Pea family" emerged. Then I began imagining all the different fab Fabaceaes I might be growing.

It wasn't too long after the plants had fully leafed out before the narrow racemes developed. A few weeks later the blooms began opening from the bottom up (acropetal development). I knew by then that it was Amorpha fruticosa and I was thrilled.

 

June 2022 Wildflower Wednesday: June Blooms and Their Pollinator Visitors

  I appreciate all the pollinators at Clay and Limestone, but, my favorite has always been Bumbles.

We moved into this house in early fall 3 dozen years ago. The yard was a mess and there were no real garden beds, but the Summer Phlox and blue wood aster were still blooming. I was captivated by the Bumbles who were actively working the flowers as much as I was by the flowers. Those bumbles stole my heart. Over the years I noticed how hard they worked in the garden. They were the first pollinators up and about each morning and the last to leave each night. I found them sleeping on flowers on cool mornings and watched them nectaring and gathering pollen on the last of the latest blooming ex-asters in November. They were a joy to watch and I wanted to learn all about them. (from earlier post) 

Many years later and Bumbles still make me smile, but, so do a dozen other pollinators. To celebrate June Wildflower Wednesday and Pollinator Week here are more wildflowers and their pollinator visitors.

 

July 2022 Wildflower Wednesday: Clematis viorna

I love Clematis and when I discovered that there were native Clemmies I had to have one or two or more. So far I've planted three in my garden: Clematis virginiana, C pitcheri and C viorna. I wasn't surprised to find out that like other Clematis they can be placed in groups that determine how and when to prune. Clematis viorna is our star and it fits in group 3, which means it blooms on new growth and you need to give it a hard pruning in late winter. Be sure you've harvested seeds or enjoyed their frothy fall look before pruning.

But, I digress, let's start with getting you acquainted with this delightful herbacious vine native to rich wooded banks and thickets throughout the north, central and eastern United States. 

August 2922 Wildflower Wednesday: Rudbeckia triloba

The Susans are summer sizzling beauties and if you've heard me say this once, you've probably heard me say it a dozen times: I cannot imagine gardening without them.  In fact, I can't imagine gardening without the Rudbeckia family of beauties. When you garden in the middle south you learn to plant and appreciate these rough and tumble golden yellow beauties. Especially in our hot and dry summers. The yellow composites keep this garden floriferous when the Phloxes are beginning to look puny, the Joes have faded and the ex-asters haven't broken into song. All with their golden yellow flowers are must haves in the middle to deep south in our blazing sun. They don't fade or melt in the intense sunlight.**

 

September 2022 Wildflower Wednesday: Callicarpa americana

Callicarpa americana is a wildly beautiful flowering shrub.

Even with the gorgeous berries/drupes stripped from the plant by hungry birds, the leaves are a lovely chartreuse and still glow in the garden. The arching stems with the yellowing leaves looks especially lovely as fall continues. 

In case you're wondering,  this is not the first time a native shrub or tree has been a Wildflower Wednesday star. But, it is the first time I've shared one when the garden is still full of blooming wildflowers. It's important that we who garden for wildlife make sure we have energy foods beyond pollen and nectar. Critters who visit and or live in our gardens need them, but they also need seeds, nuts and berries that are fat and protein rich. Trees and shrubs are essential plants in a biodiverse garden. They are host plants for moths and butterflies, provide nesting sites for birds and small mammals and have nuts, berries and seeds that a variety of critters rely upon. Here's something to consider, Doug Tallamy suggests we plant trees and shrubs before we plant flowers and grasses!

 

October 2022 Wildflower Wednesday: Trees and Shrubs in a Native Habitat

 It's October and Nashville is in a moderate to severe drought. The blue wood and white frost asters are still blooming and the shrubs and trees are showing color deeper and sooner than usual. I've been watering to insure that the impossible to replace 50, 60 and 70 year old trees have a chance to survive until rain returns. They've been soldiering on and they all deserve to be Wildflower Wednesday stars and so they are.

Hydrangeas, Hamamelis and Hickories above the wildflowers

 

November 2022 Wildflower Wednesday: Wildlife and Wildflower Friendly Garden Guidelines

Verbesina virginica's frost flower

This month I'm sharing my personal guidelines for wildlife and wildflower gardening. I hope you find them helpful, especially if you're thinking of gardening for wildlife. 

I started sharing these posts more than a dozen years ago and I still love introducing wildflowers to you. Our native wildflowers are treasures. Many are underappreciated and underplanted beauties and that's a shame. Most grow with ease if planted in the right conditions and right spot. They are even happy in containers. The bonus is that they attract crawling, flying, nesting, digging and feeding critters to our gardens. With a little research you can find just the right ones for your garden conditions.       

First, let me tell you a little about my garden, Clay and Limestone. I garden in middle Tennessee in what's known as the Central Basin. The garden soil is shallow clay that is wet in the winter and dry in the summer. The native plants I've chosen are adapted to the environment and conditions here and provide food, nesting and/or shelter for mammals, reptiles, birds and insects. Humans seem to appreciate it, too.

The sunniest bed is along the driveway where the soil is especially shallow! One visitor commented on all the containers with a kind of "What the heck!" tone. Yes, there are a lot, but it's the only way I can plant my wildflower beauties that need either deeper soil or winter drainage. There would be no Agastaches and Salvias in my garden without containers, nor could I grow native Iris. The rough and tumble native plants like the ex-asters, goldenrod, Verbesinas, Fleabanes, River Oats, Bottle brush grass and cup plant battle it out for garden dominance among the containers.

 

The guidelines I use are simple and there's no shaming. Guidelines encourage me to plant for critters not just plant pretty flower faces.  My guidelines can be applied (with appropriate modifications) no matter where you garden for wildlife.

Thanks for stopping by. I love when you visit and leave comments, especially when you share somethings about your garden. See you in 2023 and may your garden give you the joy that mine has given me. xoxogail

Welcome to Clay and Limestone's Wildflower Wednesday celebration. On the fourth Wednesday of each month I share information about wildflowers and other native plants. Please join in if you like. You can write a blog post or share your favorite wildflower on social media. 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.

 

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.