It's Thanksgiving week and I am feeling appreciative and thankful about the good people, good things, good wildflowers and good garden critters in my life. The last two years have been especially challenging for me as a gardener, so I am working extra hard at appreciating what is revealed to me every day in my garden. This Wildflower Wednesday post is in celebration of the wildflower and native plant beauty in the garden. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I have had in putting it together.
But first a little history to remind myself and long time readers of what this journey has been like! xoxogail
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| Shagbark hickory |
To create this suburban neighborhood developer's bulldozers cut streets through the
woodland. They built brick ranch houses that had deep backyards and grassy
front yards. They left a few canopy trees, primarily the oaks, hickories and hackberry, but took out most of the understory and
planted non native lawns, so that boys and girls could play baseball, kickball
and reach for the sky on their backyard swings. |
| crinkle root (Cardamine diphylla |
The rocky, shallow soil was not so good at supporting turf grasses, but, it was excellent at supporting bee friendly lawns that were populated with native plants like Danthonia spicata Poverty Oat Grasses, panic grasses, Ruellia humilis, Viola spp., Sisyrinchium angustifolium/Blue-eyed grass, Nothoscordum bivalve/False garlic, Claytonia virginica/Spring beauty, Downy woodmint, Erythronium americanum/trout lily, fleabane, toothworts, Lyre-leaf sage, Western Daisy and sedges.
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| Western Daisy is a fabulous native annual and still blooming |
Today, I look around and celebrate those wildflowers. They have brought me so much joy. When I stop and think about its those wildflowers that I have to thank for helping me gain new knowledge, for great adventures and for meeting new people. Without wildflowers I might never have realized the possibilities for a garden with difficult growing conditions like I have here at Clay and Limestone. I would surely never have met the unique plants and trees that grow in middle Tennessee, I wouldn't have begun blogging and I wouldn't have met wonderful friends like you dear readers or my dear friends from Garden Bloggers Flings. Nor would I have become a Tennessee Naturalist. My love for wildflowers opened my eyes to many things, especially to pollinators and their importance to our gardens, to agriculture and to the earth.
Here's the garden/habitat in November colors.
Of course when I speak of my garden and wildlife value I include shrubs and trees. Now tell me what you think of the Ostrya virginiana in her fall yellows? Undistinguished yellow in autumn is how MOBOT describes this beauty. I beg to disagree.
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| Cotinus 'Grace' and Cercis canadensis |
Color in the garden at this time of year is in many shades of yellow, brown and some reds. I believe that this Redbud looks fabulous with Cotinus 'Grace'.
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| Hypericum frondosum |
I love native plants that offer year round beauty and Hypericum frondosum fits the bill. Gorgeous exfoliating winter bark gives way to incredible blue green foliage topped with gorgeous flowers in June. It doesn't stop there...The seedheads are fabulous and then the pièce de ré·sis·tance of late fall and winter is its spectacular hypercolored leaves.
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| Porteranthus stipulatus |
Another fall beauty with equally lovely summer flowers is Western Indian Physic. I am not sure why this plant isn't in more gardens, after all, who needs
big showy blooms on every plant when subtle beauty and charm can be
found on this lovely native in the summer and when the flowers fade you get leaves that are a golden orange color in the fall.
I love my garden habitat in the fall. There's enough color to make me smile, even after all the damage done by browsing deer and an impossibly long drought. Looking down I notice that the spring blooming biennials and annuals have germinated. Fallen leaves never smother them and I have a lot of leaves.
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| Phacelia bipinnatifida |
The garden becomes a sea of browning leaves and seedheads after the flowers fade. I think they're beautiful.
Not only are they beautiful in shades of brown, the promise of spring and summer is in every one of those seeds. Those promises are
everywhere if you look carefully. Take a close look at your native
shrubs and small trees for buds. I remember the first time I saw the little green buds on spice bush.
Understory trees and shrubs like Hydrangeas, witch-hazel, Hypericums add a lot of color to the late fall garden. All have been chosen for their excellent wildlife value.
I am grateful that so many plants happily grow in my shallow, clay soil and that they survive what nature throws at them. Thanks so much for stopping by and helping me celebrate the November Wildflower Wednesday with a tour through my habitat and a look at a little of its history.
Happy Thanksgiving to you all. xoxogail
Gail Eichelberger is a gardener and therapist in Middle Tennessee. She loves wildflowers and native plants and thoroughly enjoys writing about the ones she grows at Clay and Limestone. She reminds all that the words and images are the property of the author and cannot be used without written permission.
