Wildflower Wednesday: 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.

I garden with pollinators in mind, so having flowers in bloom as close to year round as is possible in my middle Tennessee garden is important. They're active as soon as there are blooming flowers; that means small flies and gnats will be buzzing around the late winter blooming witch hazels in January and February. Pollinator action gets busier when the spring ephemerals bloom and the mason bees and honeybees arrive. From then on, bumbles, green metallic bees, mason bees, big and tiny carpenter bees, sweat bees, flower flies, beetles, moths, butterflies, skippers, and Hummingbirds are busy visiting every plant that offers nectar and/or pollen. Come fall, the rush to get ready for winter ramps up the activity and the little ex-asters are covered with every imaginable pollinating critter.

Long-tailed Skipper/Urbanus proteus on Willow-leaf aster

So you can imagine how thrilled I was to be gifted this delightful aster that blooms in November. My friend referred to it as 'Miss Bessie'. She didn't know the botanical name and named it after the older gardener who passed it along to her. It bloomed the first fall after it was planted and every fall for the last dozen years. 'Miss Bessie' opens in late October just as the Little ex-asters are starting to fade and continues to bloom through much of November and occasionally into December. This fall has been no exception despite challenges from a pretty serious drought. I did have to give her a few big gulps of water from the hose but, nothing stopped 'Miss Bessie' from blooming.

 Symphyotrichum praealtum is the botanical name. It's the only aster with distinctive net/reticulate veins on the undersides of the leaf, which made id-ing her easy.

Symphyotrichum praealtum with its telltale prominent veining

I hope you don't mind that I showcase this important pollinator plant every few years? It's deserving of being a frequent Wildflower Wednesday star. It's my way of encouraging more people to add it to their garden.

Willowleaf aster is an important late fall source of nectar and pollen

Not only is it a star, it's also a Clay and Limestone rough and tumble wildflower. Rough and tumble wildflowers, are generally simple flowers that bloom their hearts out and require no special care. That's exactly how I would describe Willowleaf aster. It shines in my November garden; standing straight and tall until the top heavy flowerheads bend it toward the sun. It sways in the slightest breeze and only patience and hundreds of shots yields a good photo of nectaring pollinators.

photo from last December and a frost

Symphyotrichum praealtum is a tall grass prairie native that is harder to find than a tall grass prairie in Tennessee. It's listed as an endangered and threatened species in several states, including Tennessee, and in several Canadian provinces. (Go here to read about rescue efforts in Canada.)

Symphyotrichum praealtum with its telltale prominent veining

Willowleaf aster can be grown from seed or plants. It needs full/half sun. Surface sew seeds directly in the garden in the fall. They need sun to germinate (don't cover the seed) and the cool moist stratification that happens over a winter. If you're planting rooted plants keep the soil moist until the ground is frozen. 

If you have moist garden soil you can expect it to be VERY happy! Maybe, too happy. It spreads via rhizomes to form large clonal colonies, but, please don't read this and shy away from planting it in your garden. It's so important for pollinators. Plant it in a container or with other aggressive plants.

I think it would dance beautifully with River oats, Obedient plant, Goldenrods, Sunflowers, Rudbeckias, Boltonia, Amsonia, Little Bluestem, Big Bluestem, Indiangrass, and Switchgrass.

Delightful

Blooming this late in the season means that Willowleaf aster plays an important role in providing food for pollinators still out and about on those beautiful warm fall days. One source suggests that it's a go to food source for migrating Monarch Butterflies. I recommend planting this beauty. Get seeds from Prairie Moon Nursery and local buyers, we can find plants at GroWild.

 

 The Particulars

Botanical name: Symphyotrichum praealtum

Family: Asteraceae 

Common Name: willowleaf aster

Type: Herbaceous perennial

Native Range: Southeastern to central and southwestern United States

Zone: 4 to 8 

Height: 2.00 to 5.00 feet Spread: 1.50 to 4.00 feet 

Bloom Time: October to November in middle Tennessee (Zone 7b)

Bloom description: Blue to purple daisy-like composite flowers about ½–¾" across. Each flower has 20-30 has lavender (less often white) ray florets surrounding numerous yellow disk florets that eventually become reddish purple.

Sun: Full sun to part shade 

Water: Medium to wet 

Habitat: Wet low ground, moist meadows, prairie swales, stream and pond edges, open thickets, and roadsides; loamy soil. Please note: NOT a xeric plant.

Maintenance: Low. If you have an extended drought you might need to water. Divide yearly and share with friends.

Suggested Use: Rain gardens, pollinator and butterfly gardens, borders, shorelines, Rhizomatous. Tolerates temporary flooding.

Flower: Showy, lavender with yellow center

Wildlife value: Especially important to mid and late fall season pollinators Butterflies, bumblebees, "Symphyotrichum praealtum spreads via rhizomes to form large clonal colonies. The species does not self-pollinate; cross-pollination with a genetically distinct plant is required for the production of seeds. The seeds are wind-dispersed. In some areas, this species may be the latest-flowering plant, and this may limit the number of insects available to serve as pollinators." source 

Faunal associations: Many kinds of insects visit the flowers, including long-tongued bees, short-tongued bees, flies, butterflies, and skippers. Among the bees, this includes such visitors as honeybees, bumblebees, Halictine bees, and some Andrenid bees that fly late in the season. Some Syrphid flies and beetles may feed on the pollen, otherwise these insects seek nectar; bees also collect pollen for their larvae. The caterpillars of the butterflies Chlosyne nycteis (Silvery Checkerspot) Phyciodes tharos (Pearl Crescent) feed on the foliage, as well as the caterpillars of several species of moths. (source)

Comments: Willowleaf aster is a common name, possibly because the leaves resemble willow tree leaves. Deer and rabbits usually leave this one alone. Rhizomatous/Clonal so it needs an unrelated plant to cross pollinate to get seeds.

Tolerates: Wet Soil

 

 

So, my dear readers, please join me in planting more native ex-asters! I know your pollinators will appreciate the marvelous and floriferous 'Miss Bessie' and you'll love having blooms in late fall.

xoxogail

PS It goes without saying, but you know me, I have to say it. If you want pollinators to visit your garden, you must, never, ever, ever, ever use pesticides. I'm not kidding...NEVER!
 

 

Welcome to Clay and Limestone's Wildflower Wednesday celebration. I am so glad you stopped by. WW is about sharing and celebrating wildflowers from all over this great big, beautiful world. Join us on the fourth Wednesday of each month.

 

Don't forget our Wildflower Wednesday monthly challenge! 

The first part of this challenge is to do something every month during 2023 and beyond 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. Helping others learn about nature is included. Golly gee whiz, there are so many things you can do. The second part of the challenge is to post about it somewhere: Your blog, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or even your neighborhood listserve. Wouldn't an article in the local paper be a coup for nature! 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 an older home along with many (if not all) of the mature oak, hickory, maple, Eastern cedar and hackberry trees that have been there for over 75 years are cut down. In place of the "bee lawns" composed of Claytonia, Salvia lyrata, Ruellia humilis, fleabane, Western Daisy, Violets, self-heal, clovers, and 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!

Here's an incomplete list of things you might consider doing or changing in your garden, but don't limit yourself to my list, make your own list or check out the internet for ideas.

Shrink your lawn and make your planting beds larger.

Plant your favorite native perennials and shrubs. Leave them standing after they've gone to seed to continue to provide for wildlife. What you plant in your yard makes a difference to wildlife. I garden for wildlife so every tree, shrub and plant is chosen with wildlife in mind.

Plant more natives and then consider planting even more. "A typical suburban landscape contains only 20-30% native plant species. Try reversing that trend in your own landscape by using 70-80% native species." (source)

Commit to never, ever, ever, ever using pesticides in the garden.

Stay away from native plant hybrids and cultivars that are double flowered. They are sterile and have no pollen or nectar for insects and no seeds for the birds. If possible plant “true open-pollinated native wildflowers”

If you want to garden for wildlife and pollinators, don't let lack of space stop you! Plant your favorite wildflowers in large containers. You just might have the prairie or woodland garden you've always wanted...in a pot!
 
Create a water feature. Provide water year round that is accessible to birds, bees and other critters.

Show some soil! Our native ground nesting bees nest in bare soil, so don't mulch every square inch of your garden. 

Get rid of the plastic weed barriers in your garden, it's not good for anything.

Invite bugs into your garden. Plant annuals that attract beneficial bugs.

Learn to tolerate damaged plants. Imperfection is the new perfect.

Don't be in a rush to clean up the fall garden. Leave plant stalks and seed heads standing all winter. Leave those fallen leaves or as many as you can tolerate! Insects over winter in the fallen and decaying leaves. Leave a layer of leaves as a soft landing material under trees for moths and butterflies to over winter. Many caterpillars drop to the ground from the trees in the fall.

Make a brush pile. Stack fallen brush, cut tree limbs, broken pots for ground beetles. Ground beetles are excellent at eating "bad bugs'. They're also good bird, toad and small critter food. 

Rethink what you consider a pest. Lots of good bugs eat aphids. Spiders are important predators and bird food!

Add nesting boxes for birds. 

Turn off your yard up-lighting, eave lights and porch lights after 11pm. This is important for nocturnal critters including mammals, snakes, insects, bats, birds (especially during migration). (Birdcast suggestions)

Plant shrubs and small trees that provide berries and nuts.

Keep a nature journal: Observe visitors to the water feature, make note of when they visit. Notice which flowers attract the most pollinators and which ones are just pretty faces. 

Join your state native plant society (Tennessee Native Plant Society)

Join WildOnes even if there's no local group. (Middle Tennessee WildOnes)

Support your local native plant sellers. (GroWild in middle Tennessee, Overhill Gardens in east Tennessee,  Resource Guide TN Native Plant Society)

Encourage your local garden clubs to offer native plant talks.

If your garden club has a plant sale encourage them to sell more native plants.

Get trained as a naturalist (Tennessee Naturalist Program, Almost every state has their own Master Naturalist training program)

Take an online course on tree, fungi and wildflower id.

Take a walk in your neighborhood and observe nature. To quote Joanna Brichetto in Sidewalk Nature "Look Around. Nature is here, is us, our driveways, our baseboards, parks, and parking lots."

Buy the best wildflower, butterfly and bird id books for your state.

Read nature books to your children and grandchildren. Buy them nature books.

Give nature books as baby shower gifts (Nature books for infants and toddlers)

Read! There are hundreds of books on gardening for wildlife, the environment, and rewilding our world. There are delightful blogs with wonderful and informative articles.

If you are already gardening with wildlife in mind then add a few signs that help educate your neighbors. (Xerces Society, Pollinator Partnership)

Set up an information station where neighbors can pick up brochures about your garden and other info. 

Get certified (National Wildlife Federation, check to see what your state offers)

 

Visit

 

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: 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.

It took me a few seasons of being distracted by my struggle to grow plants that made no sense for the shallow soil or shady conditions. When I stumbled upon Dr Hemmerly's book Wildflowers of the Central South everything became clearer. He introduced me to concepts that were important to know if I were to have any success at gardening in my yard. I learned about Middle Tennessee microclimates and about the unique wildflowers that grew only in the cedar glades. I figured out that my garden was a xeric oak-hickory forest plant community with areas of extremely shallow soil with plenty of limestone boulders hiding under the shallow soil. The nearly neutral clay soil is hard as concrete during our dry summers and wet and sticky during our rainy winters. 

I mulled over what I learned and found myself thinking this: "Gail, your garden isn't a failure, but, trying to make it something that it isn't is the true failure. Take a look at what's already growing here. Appreciate and celebrate what you have."

 

So I did. I decided to watch my yard throughout the growing season. I say yard because it really wasn't much of a garden back then. Early the next spring I noticed other hidden wildflower gems. Columbines, Trillium, spring beauties, toothwort, False garlic, Golden Ragwort and Phlox divaricata. In late spring I  found dozens of Penstemon calycosus growing in the wayback backyard in both the dry shade and in the the wet weather spring. Sedges, poverty oatgrass, lyre leaf sage and Ruellias popped up in the lawn. Also growing there were Blue-eyed grass, Downy Woodmint, the cutest little Panicums and a tiny daisy with lavender hints that wasn't even in my wildflower guide. That sweet little daisy is Entireleaf Western Daisy a Middle Tennessee native (annual) that I have allowed to spread where ever it is happy. Later that spring the old world Irises that were planted by the former owner bloomed and the Green Dragon dramatically unfurled. Summer brought the Phlox paniculata into bloom and later that fall I welcomed the sea of blue Symphyotrichum shortii, S lateriflorum, S cordifolium and S pilosum along with their busily nectaring pollinators.

Aromatic aster, Short's aster and River Oats

 It was a native plant wake up call* and I suppose you could say that those little blue asters opened my eyes to all the critters that live in and visit this garden.

Photo from when Nashville was less droughty in the fall

 Symphyotrichum is a genus of about 90 species of herbaceous annual and perennial plants that were formerly treated within the genus Aster, but, are now known officially at Clay and Limestone as the ex-asters or asters when I forget their ridiculously hard to pronounce genus. The ones growing in my garden are all native to Middle Tennessee and grow and thrive in the shallow clay soil and semi-shady to almost full sun conditions of my Zone7 garden. 

 

They're are found all over North America and are an important nectar and pollen source for many insects including long-tongued bees, short-tongued bees, small to medium-sized butterflies, and skippers. The visiting insects primarily seek nectar, although the bees also collect pollen that they use to provision their winter nests. Many kinds of insects feed on the foliage and other parts of asters, including the caterpillars of the butterfly Chlosyne nycteis (Silvery Checkerspot) and the larvae of over 30 moth species. (source)

Aromatic aster

Asters in this post have a lot going for them

• a delightful extended season of bloom just as the garden is transitioning to browns
  
• showy daisy like flowers that come in a variety of blues, violets and white
  
• graceful arching stems
• a floral display that keeps on keeping on
• a pollinator magnet 
• reseeds wonderfully, but they may be propagated by seeds, division, root cuttings, or stem cuttings
• seeds have bristly tufts that help them disperse by the wind
  
• practically maintenance free 
• grows in shade
• fairly drought tolerant
• the leaves are often attractive
  
• will happily grow in containers, your wild garden or even a formal garden
  

 

 The Particulars

Genus name: Symphyotrichum

 
Common Names: Short's aster, Calico aster, Heart leaved aster, Frost aster, Aromatic aster
 

Type: Herbaceous perennial
 

Family: Asteraceae
 

Native Range: Eastern North America, Central United States and western Canada

Zone: 4 to 8 

Height: 2.00 to 4.00 feet 

Spread: 2.00 to 4.00 feet 

Bloom Time: September to October and into November (middle Tennessee) 

Bloom Description: Showy and attractive to native bees and butterfly. The flowers have disc florets that may be white or yellow. The rays encircle the floret, and their colors vary from white, pink, blue, or purple.

Aspect: Full sun to part shade 

Water: Mesic to dry conditions 

Soil: Loam, clay-loam, sandy loam, or gravelly material 

Maintenance: Low

Wildlife value: They're are found all over North America and are an important nectar and pollen source for many insects including long-tongued bees, short-tongued bees, small to medium-sized butterflies, and skippers. The visiting insects primarily seek nectar, although the bees also collect pollen that they use to provision their winter nests. Many kinds of insects feed on the foliage and other parts of asters, including the caterpillars of the butterfly Chlosyne nycteis (Silvery Checkerspot) and the larvae of over 30 moth species. (source) Asters also provide nectar for migrating monarch butterflies and seeds for birds.

Comments: I love how fantastic these flowers can look when they are allowed to plant themselves with abandon throughout the garden. If you can go with the flow you'll be rewarded with a blue cloud of shimmering flowers that bloom until frost...But, if you need more order, they are magnificent in mixed borders.

 

 Trust me when I say that ex-aster time is the best time to be in the garden and maybe the best time to be a bee! So glad you stopped by.xoxogail

Welcome to Clay and Limestone and Wildflower Wednesday.  This day 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. It doesn't matter if they're in bloom (think winter sharing), how they grow and thrive in your garden is what matters most.

Don't forget our Wildflower Wednesday monthly challenge! 

The first part of this challenge is to do something every month during 2023 and beyond 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. Helping others learn about nature is included. Golly gee whiz, there are so many things you can do. The second part of the challenge is to post about it somewhere: Your blog, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or even your neighborhood listserve. Wouldn't an article in the local paper be a coup for nature! 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 an older home along with many (if not all) of the mature oak, hickory, maple, Eastern cedar and hackberry trees that have been there for over 75 years are cut down. In place of the "bee lawns" composed of Claytonia, Salvia lyrata, Ruellia humilis, fleabane, Western Daisy, Violets, self-heal, clovers, and 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!

Here's an incomplete list of things you might consider doing or changing in your garden, but don't limit yourself to my list, make your own list or check out the internet for ideas.

Shrink your lawn and make your planting beds larger.

Plant your favorite native perennials and shrubs. Leave them standing after they've gone to seed to continue to provide for wildlife. What you plant in your yard makes a difference to wildlife. I garden for wildlife so every tree, shrub and plant is chosen with wildlife in mind.

Plant more natives and then consider planting even more. "A typical suburban landscape contains only 20-30% native plant species. Try reversing that trend in your own landscape by using 70-80% native species." (source)

Commit to never, ever, ever, ever using pesticides in the garden.

Stay away from native plant hybrids and cultivars that are double flowered. They are sterile and have no pollen or nectar for insects and no seeds for the birds. If possible plant “true open-pollinated native wildflowers”

If you want to garden for wildlife and pollinators, don't let lack of space stop you! Plant your favorite wildflowers in large containers. You just might have the prairie or woodland garden you've always wanted...in a pot!
 
Create a water feature. Provide water year round that is accessible to birds, bees and other critters.

Show some soil! Our native ground nesting bees nest in bare soil, so don't mulch every square inch of your garden. 

Get rid of the plastic weed barriers in your garden, it's not good for anything.

Invite bugs into your garden. Plant annuals that attract beneficial bugs.

Learn to tolerate damaged plants. Imperfection is the new perfect.

Don't be in a rush to clean up the fall garden. Leave plant stalks and seed heads standing all winter. Leave those fallen leaves or as many as you can tolerate! Insects over winter in the fallen and decaying leaves. Leave a layer of leaves as a soft landing material under trees for moths and butterflies to over winter. Many caterpillars drop to the ground from the trees in the fall.

Make a brush pile. Stack fallen brush, cut tree limbs, broken pots for ground beetles. Ground beetles are excellent at eating "bad bugs'. They're also good bird, toad and small critter food. 

Rethink what you consider a pest. Lots of good bugs eat aphids. Spiders are important predators and bird food!

Add nesting boxes for birds. 

Turn off your yard up-lighting, eave lights and porch lights after 11pm. This is important for nocturnal critters including mammals, snakes, insects, bats, birds (especially during migration). (Birdcast suggestions)

Plant shrubs and small trees that provide berries and nuts.

Keep a nature journal: Observe visitors to the water feature, make note of when they visit. Notice which flowers attract the most pollinators and which ones are just pretty faces. 

Join your state native plant society (Tennessee Native Plant Society)

Join WildOnes even if there's no local group. (Middle Tennessee WildOnes)

Support your local native plant sellers. (GroWild in middle Tennessee, Overhill Gardens in east Tennessee,  Resource Guide TN Native Plant Society)

Encourage your local garden clubs to offer native plant talks.

If your garden club has a plant sale encourage them to sell more native plants.

Get trained as a naturalist (Tennessee Naturalist Program, Almost every state has their own Master Naturalist training program)

Take an online course on tree, fungi and wildflower id.

Take a walk in your neighborhood and observe nature. To quote Joanna Brichetto in Sidewalk Nature "Look Around. Nature is here, is us, our driveways, our baseboards, parks, and parking lots."

Buy the best wildflower, butterfly and bird id books for your state.

Read nature books to your children and grandchildren. Buy them nature books.

Give nature books as baby shower gifts (Nature books for infants and toddlers)

Read! There are hundreds of books on gardening for wildlife, the environment, and rewilding our world. There are delightful blogs with wonderful and informative articles.

If you are already gardening with wildlife in mind then add a few signs that help educate your neighbors. (Xerces Society, Pollinator Partnership)

Set up an information station where neighbors can pick up brochures about your garden and other info. 

Get certified (National Wildlife Federation, check to see what your state offers)

 

Visit

 

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: Clustered Mountain Mint

 Pycnanthemum muticum is quite possibly a pollinator perfect 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!

fly visiting for nectar

If that's not enough to garner your attention, check out its showy silver bracts that highlight the dense clusters of small pink spotted flowers. The tiny flowers appear to lay on those silvery modified leaves with their velvety looking texture.

 blooms from summer to early fall

I planted it before I knew it was a pollinator magnet or saw the silvery bracts and the cute flowers. I fell in love with the silvery gray seed head that stood straight and tall and grabbed my attention across the nursery aisle. I had to have it in my garden!

The seedheads add structure to a winter yard and the seeds feed small songbirds.

That was well over a dozen years ago and it's still here.

Originally it was planted in the Garden of Benign Neglect, but, I wanted to be able to observe all the insect visitors, so I transplanted it along the front walk. It's shadier there than what the mint prefers, but, I still get to see insect activity. Visitors who walk to the front porch might accidentally brush against the leaves and release a wonderful minty fragrance. When I am out there I deliberately reach down to release the scent...It's one of my favorite fragrances in the garden.

The flowers are the tiniest little spotted tubular blooms clustered together to make it easy for the pollinators to stop by for a snack

This might be a good time to talk about mints. They have a well deserved reputation for aggressive spreading.  "Unlike true mints (Mentha species), blunt mountain mint is not invasive although it will slowly spread by rhizomes. Unwanted spreading of this species can be controlled by cutting of the underground rhizomes by a spade."  Although, I don't consider it invasive, some of you might. I don't mind a ground covering of this fantastic pollinator plant.

 

Mountain mint with aster and river oats

I also planted it in the sunnier front garden. It has not outcompeted New York Aster, River oats or Goldenrod. Plant them together if you have the space and let them duke it out. You can always edit them later. If you haven't the space try planting it in a large container and set that in the garden. Mountain mint would look beautiful with Joe-pye weed, Red Cardinal Flower, Great Blue Lobelia, Purple Cone Flower, sunflowers (Helianthus) and Black eyed Susan. Plant spring blooming wildflowers with it to insure you have blooming flowers all season long.

Please close your eyes and picture mountain mint blowing in the breeze with bees and butterflies dancing above it. You can smell its minty aroma. It's delightful. Now go find some plants to add to your garden!
 

The Particulars

 Pycnanthemum muticum  

Family: Lamiaceae  

Common name:  Clustered Mountain Mint, blunt mountain mint. Pycnanthemum, means densely flowered  

Hardiness zones 3 to 9 

Range: a native range as far north as Maine, south to Georgia, with a western range into eastern Texas. This species is listed as threatened in Kentucky, Michigan, and New York.

 Height:  1 to 3 foot 

Spread:  1 to 3 foot 

Bloom Time: June to September 

Bloom Description: tiny pink spotted flowers 

Sun: Full sun to part shade; edge of woodland 

Water:  Easy to grow in almost any average to fertile, well-drained soil. Although it prefers moist soil it has tolerated our dry summer months...caveat,  dry not drought. 

Maintenance: Let it go and don't worry, unless it's too dry. If you have a smaller garden plant it in a container.  

Comments: Mountain Mint is a perfect Clay and Limestone rough and tumble take care of itself wildflower. It is a good choice for a wildlife garden, meadow, butterfly and pollinator garden.  It's a fabulous nectar plant. Mass plantings/letting it spread will bring in the most insect visitors.   Wildlife value: Excellent nectar and pollen source for lots of garden visitors including beneficial insects, and bees, beneficial wasps, flies, beetles, skippers and small butterflies (especially hairstreaks) frequent the blossoms. Seeds  are eaten by small songbirds. Stems and seedheads provide cover for insects and other critters during the winter 

Extra: It's an insect repellent! Try rubbing bruised leaves and stems on your clothing to deter chiggers and mosquitoes.

Welcome to Wildflower Wednesday. It's the fourth Wednesday of each month and time to celebrate wildflowers from all over this great big, beautiful world. I am always glad when you stop by and I so appreciate when you make a comment. 

xoxogail

Don't forget our Wildflower Wednesday monthly challenge! 

The first part of this challenge is to do something every month during 2023 and beyond 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. Helping others learn about nature is included. Golly gee whiz, there are so many things you can do. The second part of the challenge is to post about it somewhere: Your blog, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or even your neighborhood listserve. Wouldn't an article in the local paper be a coup for nature! 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 an older home along with many (if not all) of the mature oak, hickory, maple, Eastern cedar and hackberry trees that have been there for over 75 years are cut down. In place of the "bee lawns" composed of Claytonia, Salvia lyrata, Ruellia humilis, fleabane, Western Daisy, Violets, self-heal, clovers, and 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!

Here's an incomplete list of things you might consider doing or changing in your garden, but don't limit yourself to my list, make your own list or check out the internet for ideas.

Shrink your lawn and make your planting beds larger.

Plant your favorite native perennials and shrubs. Leave them standing after they've gone to seed to continue to provide for wildlife. What you plant in your yard makes a difference to wildlife. I garden for wildlife so every tree, shrub and plant is chosen with wildlife in mind.

Plant more natives and then consider planting even more. "A typical suburban landscape contains only 20-30% native plant species. Try reversing that trend in your own landscape by using 70-80% native species." (source)

Commit to never, ever, ever, ever using pesticides in the garden.

Stay away from native plant hybrids and cultivars that are double flowered. They are sterile and have no pollen or nectar for insects and no seeds for the birds. If possible plant “true open-pollinated native wildflowers”

If you want to garden for wildlife and pollinators, don't let lack of space stop you! Plant your favorite wildflowers in large containers. You just might have the prairie or woodland garden you've always wanted...in a pot!
 
Create a water feature. Provide water year round that is accessible to birds, bees and other critters.

Show some soil! Our native ground nesting bees nest in bare soil, so don't mulch every square inch of your garden. 

Get rid of the plastic weed barriers in your garden, it's not good for anything.

Invite bugs into your garden. Plant annuals that attract beneficial bugs.

Learn to tolerate damaged plants. Imperfection is the new perfect.

Don't be in a rush to clean up the fall garden. Leave plant stalks and seed heads standing all winter. Leave those fallen leaves or as many as you can tolerate! Insects over winter in the fallen and decaying leaves. Leave a layer of leaves as a soft landing material under trees for moths and butterflies to over winter. Many caterpillars drop to the ground from the trees in the fall.

Make a brush pile. Stack fallen brush, cut tree limbs, broken pots for ground beetles. Ground beetles are excellent at eating "bad bugs'. They're also good bird, toad and small critter food. 

Rethink what you consider a pest. Lots of good bugs eat aphids. Spiders are important predators and bird food!

Add nesting boxes for birds. 

Turn off your yard up-lighting, eave lights and porch lights after 11pm. This is important for nocturnal critters including mammals, snakes, insects, bats, birds (especially during migration). (Birdcast suggestions)

Plant shrubs and small trees that provide berries and nuts.

Keep a nature journal: Observe visitors to the water feature, make note of when they visit. Notice which flowers attract the most pollinators and which ones are just pretty faces. 

Join your state native plant society (Tennessee Native Plant Society)

Join WildOnes even if there's no local group. (Middle Tennessee WildOnes)

Support your local native plant sellers. (GroWild in middle Tennessee, Overhill Gardens in east Tennessee,  Resource Guide TN Native Plant Society)

Encourage your local garden clubs to offer native plant talks.

If your garden club has a plant sale encourage them to sell more native plants.

Get trained as a naturalist (Tennessee Naturalist Program, Almost every state has their own Master Naturalist training program)

Take an online course on tree, fungi and wildflower id.

Take a walk in your neighborhood and observe nature. To quote Joanna Brichetto in Sidewalk Nature "Look Around. Nature is here, is us, our driveways, our baseboards, parks, and parking lots."

Buy the best wildflower, butterfly and bird id books for your state.

Read nature books to your children and grandchildren. Buy them nature books.

Give nature books as baby shower gifts (Nature books for infants and toddlers)

Read! There are hundreds of books on gardening for wildlife, the environment, and rewilding our world. There are delightful blogs with wonderful and informative articles.

If you are already gardening with wildlife in mind then add a few signs that help educate your neighbors. (Xerces Society, Pollinator Partnership)

Set up an information station where neighbors can pick up brochures about your garden and other info. 

Get certified (National Wildlife Federation, check to see what your state offers)

 

Visit

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: 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.

Jo Brichetto of Sidewalk Nature has written about and captured a wonderful photo of the Spring Beauty mining bee (Andrena erigeniae).  Follow the link to her article. Jo's posts reflect what many of us are observing~the destruction of habitat and the loss of native plants. The consequences to critters and to us is enormous.

Claytonia virginica still blankets some neighboring lawns. It's a glorious month of bloom and pollinator activity, but development and a strange love of a monoculture lawn has decimated them. There's plenty we can do~see the Wildflower Wednesday Challenge below for ideas.

The Particulars

 Botanical name: Claytonia virginica 

Common Name: spring beauty  

Type: Herbaceous perennial 

Family: Montiaceae 

Native Range: Eastern North America 

Zone: 3 to 8 

Height: 0.50 to 0.75 feet 

Spread: 0.50 to 0.75 feet 

Flower: Showy Bloom Time: March into April (middle Tennessee)

Bloom Description: White to pink 

Sun: Full sun to part shade 

Habitat: prefers dappled sunlight with rich loamy soil. NO way can I give it deep loamy soil, so I enjoy the few I have.

Wildlife value: Pollinators need this early bloomer. This beauty has a bee that specializes on it. Small, potato-like, underground tubers (corms) are edible (chestnut-like flavor) and were in fact consumed by early Americans, but are time-consuming to collect in quantity sufficient for a meal.mall, potato-like, underground tubers (corms) are edible (chestnut-like flavor).  Chipmunks and small mice aren't bothered by the time it takes to dig them up!

Comments: Naturalize. Mow late after plant has gone to seed. DO NOT USE WEED AND FEED.

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

 If you have one plant, you will soon have more. It spreads by rhizome and seed~But, don't be afraid...It's an ephemeral and will disappear after setting seed.

Each flower has four petals characteristic of the mustard family (arranged in the shape of a cross), as well as four green or purple sepals, a single pistil, and six stamens with conspicuous yellow anthers. The flowers appear bell-shaped because they never completely open. The flowers are visited by several types of bees and less commonly by early-flying butterflies or bee flies. Look for honey bees, bumblebees, Mason bees, Cuckoo bees, Miner bees, Halictid bees, and Andrenid bees (which specialize on toothwort).

Andrena arabis collect pollen on toothworts

Toothwort and other woodland flowers require a forest habitat to survive, so they depend on the oaks, hickories, maples, and other trees around them. The presence of toothwort in an area can be an indicator that the soil has not been disturbed by such activities as construction or plowing. 

The Particulars

Botanical name: Cardamine concatenata

Common Name: cutleaf toothwort  

Type: Herbaceous perennial 

Family: Brassicaceae 

Native Range: North America 

Zone: 3 to 8 

Height: 0.50 to 0.75 feet Spread: 0.50 to 0.75 feet 

Bloom Time: late February to March in middle Tennessee  

Bloom Description: White flowers with hints of pink

Fragrance: Yes, on warm days

Sun: Part shade 

Water: Medium 

Comments: Naturalize. DO NOT USE WEED AND SEED on your lawn or beds.

Wildlife value: Attracts: Specialized bee~Andrena arabis collect pollen and other pollinators.

Or, does your taste go to Enemion biternatum.  This lovely ground cover with Columbine like leaves and the sweetest delicate white flower. It's often confused with Thalictrum thalictroides.

it's easily overrun by invasives like garlic mustard, bush honeysuckle and wintercreeper

This is another little spring flower that makes pollen, but, no nectar. Small bees and flies visit to collect and feed on the pollen. Keep an eye on the beds where this lovely grows and remove all invasives that can easily crowd it out.

Isopyrum/Enemion biternatum or False rue anemone

Eastern False Rue-anemone, False Rue Anemone or Enemion biternatum is a sweet little Spring ephemeral in the Buttercup family (Ranunculaceae). It's native to shady rich or calcereous woods & thickets; floodplain woods and limestone ledges. (slightly alkaline soil) and is native to Middle Tennessee. I was lucky to find it in the garden when I moved here.

 

The Particulars

Botanical name: Enemion biternatum

Common names: Eastern False Rue-anemone, False Rue Anemone

Family: Ranunculaceae

Plant type: True ephemeral (summer dormancy)

    
Flowering Period: Early Spring, Mid-Spring

Flower Color: White

         
Sun/Shade Conditions: Filtered Shade, Partial Shade. The preference is partial sun to medium shade, moist to mesic conditions, and a rich loamy soil with abundant leaf mould.

Soil Moisture: Average, Moist, can handle some flooding
 

Soil pH: Adaptable, Alkaline

Soil Type: Loam, Clay, Humus-rich

Flower: Five 'petaled' (sepals) flowers with the showy yellow center stamens
Native

 Faunal association: Pollinated by small bees and flies that visit it for its pollen. 

 

 

If you like a different looking flower your taste might lean toward, Trillium cuneatum. I love the dramatic mottled foliage and those twirling sessile flowers!

Trillium cuneatum was one of the first native plants that I discovered when we moved here. The first spring in our new home I found blooming Toadshade (another common name) in the wayback backyard and transplanted it to my new woodland garden. That was over 35 years ago, but, 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. Please do not dig from the wild. Do not pick the flower...the plant will not survive.

Old stands of native ephemerals are precious do not dig from the wild

 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). The two I transplanted multiplied to many. Trillium will be happy in your garden, if you give it a rich, moist soil, in 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.

seeds waiting to ripen and be harvested

 The Particulars

Botanical name: Trillium cuneatum

Common Name: whip-poor-will flowerlarge toadshade, purple toadshade, and bloody butcher

Type: Herbaceous perennial

Family: Melanthiacea, Little sweet Betsy falls within the sessile group
Flowering: flowers from early March to mid April. Showy, fragrant

Native Range: Southeastern United States

Zone: 5 to 8

Size: 1.00 to 1.50 feet tall and will spread to 1 foot

Bloom: Maroon to yellow to orange to reddish-green

Sun: Part shade to full shade

Water: Medium

Maintenance: Low

Foliage: Colorful

Pollinators: produces pollen, but, I have never seen its pollinators! I assume Hymenoptera insects, including honey bees, bumblebees, and wasps visit the plant.
Propagation: Ants collect and disperse the seeds of Trillium spp. They're attracted to the elaiosome, which is a large, lipid-rich structure attached to the seeds. The ant dispersal process is known as Myrmecochory.  The ants take the seeds to their nest, where they eat the elaiosomes and put the seeds in their garbage (midden), where they can be protected until they germinate.Yellow jackets are also seed disperses.
Wildlife: Can be browsed by deer and roots and rhizomes can be eaten by voles.
Comments: Never pick flowers or leaves, you will lose your plant. Each plant in the genus Trillium features three leaves in a terminal whorl. A single flower emerges on a stem which is either peduncled (on a stalk) or sessile (stalk absent). Trillium cuneatum is a sessile form.

 

 I choose all of them! I choose to protect and celebrate them all. xoxogail

 

Don't forget our Wildflower Wednesday monthly challenge! 

The first part of this challenge is to do something every month during 2023 and beyond 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. Helping others learn about nature is included. Golly gee whiz, there are so many things you can do. The second part of the challenge is to post about it somewhere: Your blog, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or even your neighborhood listserve. Wouldn't an article in the local paper be a coup for nature! 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 an older home along with many (if not all) of the mature oak, hickory, maple, Eastern cedar and hackberry trees that have been there for over 75 years are cut down. In place of the "bee lawns" composed of Claytonia, Salvia lyrata, Ruellia humilis, fleabane, Western Daisy, Violets, self-heal, clovers, and 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!

Here's an incomplete list of things you might consider doing or changing in your garden, but don't limit yourself to my list, make your own list or check out the internet for ideas.

Shrink your lawn and make your planting beds larger.

Plant your favorite native perennials and shrubs. Leave them standing after they've gone to seed to continue to provide for wildlife. What you plant in your yard makes a difference to wildlife. I garden for wildlife so every tree, shrub and plant is chosen with wildlife in mind.

Plant more natives and then consider planting even more. "A typical suburban landscape contains only 20-30% native plant species. Try reversing that trend in your own landscape by using 70-80% native species." (source)

Commit to never, ever, ever, ever using pesticides in the garden.

Stay away from native plant hybrids and cultivars that are double flowered. They are sterile and have no pollen or nectar for insects and no seeds for the birds. If possible plant “true open-pollinated native wildflowers”

If you want to garden for wildlife and pollinators, don't let lack of space stop you! Plant your favorite wildflowers in large containers. You just might have the prairie or woodland garden you've always wanted...in a pot!
 
Create a water feature. Provide water year round that is accessible to birds, bees and other critters.

Show some soil! Our native ground nesting bees nest in bare soil, so don't mulch every square inch of your garden. 

Get rid of the plastic weed barriers in your garden, it's not good for anything.

Invite bugs into your garden. Plant annuals that attract beneficial bugs.

Learn to tolerate damaged plants. Imperfection is the new perfect.

Don't be in a rush to clean up the fall garden. Leave plant stalks and seed heads standing all winter. Leave those fallen leaves or as many as you can tolerate! Insects over winter in the fallen and decaying leaves. Leave a layer of leaves as a soft landing material under trees for moths and butterflies to over winter. Many caterpillars drop to the ground from the trees in the fall.

Make a brush pile. Stack fallen brush, cut tree limbs, broken pots for ground beetles. Ground beetles are excellent at eating "bad bugs'. They're also good bird, toad and small critter food. 

Rethink what you consider a pest. Lots of good bugs eat aphids. Spiders are important predators and bird food!

Add nesting boxes for birds. 

Turn off your yard up-lighting, eave lights and porch lights after 11pm. This is important for nocturnal critters including mammals, snakes, insects, bats, birds (especially during migration). (Birdcast suggestions)

Plant shrubs and small trees that provide berries and nuts.

Keep a nature journal: Observe visitors to the water feature, make note of when they visit. Notice which flowers attract the most pollinators and which ones are just pretty faces. 

Join your state native plant society (Tennessee Native Plant Society)

Join WildOnes even if there's no local group. (Middle Tennessee WildOnes)

Support your local native plant sellers. (GroWild in middle Tennessee, Overhill Gardens in east Tennessee,  Resource Guide TN Native Plant Society)

Encourage your local garden clubs to offer native plant talks.

If your garden club has a plant sale encourage them to sell more native plants.

Get trained as a naturalist (Tennessee Naturalist Program, Almost every state has their own Master Naturalist training program)

Take an online course on tree, fungi and wildflower id.

Take a walk in your neighborhood and observe nature. To quote Joanna Brichetto in Sidewalk Nature "Look Around. Nature is here, is us, our driveways, our baseboards, parks, and parking lots."

Buy the best wildflower, butterfly and bird id books for your state.

Read nature books to your children and grandchildren. Buy them nature books.

Give nature books as baby shower gifts (Nature books for infants and toddlers)

Read! There are hundreds of books on gardening for wildlife, the environment, and rewilding our world. There are delightful blogs with wonderful and informative articles.

If you are already gardening with wildlife in mind then add a few signs that help educate your neighbors. (Xerces Society, Pollinator Partnership)

Set up an information station where neighbors can pick up brochures about your garden and other info. 

Get certified (National Wildlife Federation, check to see what your state offers)

 

Visit

Welcome to Wildflower Wednesday. I am so glad you stopped by. WW is about sharing and celebrating our native 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 and, it doesn't matter if we all share the same plants. It's all about celebrating wildflowers. Please leave your url when you comment. I love your comments, so thank you for leaving them.

 

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.