New Additions for 2020

Every spring (and sometimes in the fall) I make plans on what new or additional regionally native plants I want to add to the garden/landscape.  Here's what I am planning for 2020.

I’m trying big leaf aster, Eurybia macrophylla, from home grown seed again this year.  Last year I harvested seed from an isolated plant.  This year I got it from an area that had several distinct individuals.  Many asters are self-incompatable, so the seeds that I am using this year are more likely to be fertile.  (Though tiny, they did seem to be thicker this year).  I’m still waiting for them to germinate; it’s been 14 days, so far.  Over the years I've had a hard time getting good levels of germination from asters and goldenrods.  Fortunately, in nature, they do just fine on their own.  (I’m also comparing unstratified to 30 days cold moist stratification.  We’ll see.)

There bigleaf aster are doing quite well in the dry shade under
the eaves along the foundation of a house.

I’m also stating some more switch grass, Panicum virgatum, from seed that I bought 3 years ago and kept in a refrigerator.  I was pleased to see that they are still viable, germinating beginning in less than a week.  They were planted in seed starting mix, under lights and bottom heat to warm them to 65-72 F (no stratification). I've been planting these out in a meadow area as plugs where I am trying to displace the very invasive Japanese stiltgrass, Microstegium vimineum. 

Here's an American lady butterfly on its host plant, pearly everlasting.

The tiny seeds of pearly everlasting give way to tiny sprouts (little green spots in this photo). 
After 30 days of cold, moist stratification, these germinated on the soil surface after only 3 days.

The bright pink flowers of fireweed should
stand out through mid-summer in the meadow.

Some new seeds that I am starting now are downy wood mint, Blephilia ciliata, pearly everlasting, Anaphalis margaritacea, and fireweed, Chamaenerion  angustifolium (formerly an Epilobium).  In the past I’ve tried the latter two before from seed with little luck.  This time I’m stratifying at lower temperatures, 37 vs 45 F.  Again, we’ll see.  Of these plants, fireweed can be pretty aggressive, once established.  My plan is to put it into a mown meadow that is home to other tough plants like wingstem, Verbesina alternifolia, Panicled tick trefoil, Desmodium paniculatum, and a variety of thistles.

When we first moved here one of my goals was to rip out all the vinca that was growing along our shady driveway and replace it with native species.  Before going whole hog I wanted to test some species to see which ones were strong competitors in this dry, shady location.  Seven years later and I haven’t made a lot of progress.  Plants that are doing well and slowly expanding are Green and Gold, Chrysogonum virginianum, and Pennsylvania sedge, Carex pensylvanica.  Alum root, Heuchera villosa and cultivars, and foamflower, Tiarella cordifolia, are surviving but not expanding rapidly, I have high hopes for the hay scented fern, Dennstaedtia punctiloba, but it has not expanded much in its first 3 years.   This year I decided to get moving again on this project.  I’ve ordered a number of dry shade tolerant plants:  Red columbine, Aquilegia canadense, ivory sedge, Carex erburnea, wild geranium, Geranium maculatum, Zigzag goldenrod, Solidago flexicaulis, and Labrador violet, Viola labradorica.  Also some of my big-leaf aster will go in, if/when they are successful from seed. 

These Green and Gold, are doing well in an area that was covered in vinca. 
They are continuing to spread but they have not out-competed the vinca.

Last year I potted up some of the red maples that were coming from seed.  I have killed a number of invasive Ailanthus that were dominating the canopy in one area of my woods.  I wanted to give the newly opened up woods a jump start with some native trees.  Red maples, being more shade tolerant, seem to be a good choice (and they’re free).  Since we have sugar, red, and silver maples here it is possible that these seedlings could be any of these or even a cross between red and silver, Acer x freemanii.  When they were young they looked like red or sugar maples.  But as they developed it became harder to tell from the leaf shape, they weren’t as deeply divided as a sliver maple, but not all simply 3-lobed like the ideal red maple.  They all seemed to have overwintered successfully under some shrubs along the garage foundation.  Later this spring I will start putting them in.

Here's my collection of maple seedling after I potted them up last spring. 
Most of them had the 3-lobed leaves indicative of red maple.  As they grew on
it became less clear that these were all red maples.

New Plants for 2019

Top and left are the female 'Blue Rug' junipers, lower right is the
supposedly male 'Andorra Compacta'.  Normal bloom time
for these is late May to early June.  So I will keep an eye out..

I had an established planting of creeping juniper, Juniperus horizontalis, die back last year.  This may have been due to a number of factors, but I think mostly the very wet weather causing the soil to stay very moist for most of the year.  While many folks poo poo junipers as too common, they have their place.  They are a durable, low-maintenance ground cover for sunny, dryish locations.  This species is native to the northern third of the US and most of Canada.  Their usefulness and adaptability has, however, made them a staple in the landscape trade.  One thing you don't see too often is berries on these plants.  Like other junipers, creeping junipers have separate male and female plants.  Ever since seeing cedar waxwings last year I have been looking to have more bird berries on our property.  To the extent that I could find gender information, it seems that most creeping juniper cultivars are female, such as the very popular 'Blue Rug' cultivar (aka 'Wiltonii').  Digging through the literature I found mention that the cultivars 'Bar Harbor', 'Blue Horizon', 'Plumosa' and 'Andorra Compacta' are male (or at least may be male).  In addition to a bunch of 'Blue Rug' junipers I was able to get an 'Andorra Compacta' to serve as a breeding partner. Now by having both male and female cultivars there is a better probability that berries will be produce to help support the winter bird population. 

These large-flowered bellworts came into bloom
just after our mid-season daffodils.

In an area just outside our kitchen window we have a large, somewhat wild perennial garden backed up by pine trees.  The shadier areas are dominated by several species of lamium and ground ivy.  I have had some success with shade-tolerant goldenrods here, particularly blue-stemmed and zigzag goldenrods.  To introduce some more natives to this area of potentially dry shade (assuming it will stop raining at some point), I ordered a few large-flowered bellwort, Uvularia grandiflora, as bare root plants.  We'll see how well these compete.  They have done well so far, all of them sprouted and bloomed this first year.

They say, planting trees is planning for the future, even one that I am not likely to see.  I have been dismayed that some of the big old trees here are dying.  Don't know if it's just their time or if there is something going on.  Besides the loss of their biological function, many of these trees are on a slope where they are helping to hold the soil.  Emerald Ash Borer is definitely one of the problems, causing a early death of many established ash trees.  But we have lost some big oaks and black cherries as well.  Besides these trees going away I am also actively targeting the invasive Alianthus trees and this is opening up the canopy even more.  While natural succession is kicking in, this is slowed by the number of deer that eat the tree seedlings.  I am more than a little concerned how many of these seedlings will reach maturity.  So I am looking for some shade tolerant trees that I can put in and protect to help nature along. 

I got these bare root American beech in the
ground the day they arrived. 

In the woods right now there are a lot of new beech trees, Fagus grandifolia.  These are quite shade tolerant, and seem to be well adapted to our location.  I found a source of bare root beech trees in southern Virginia, Mid-Atlantic Natives, so I ordered a few to see how that works out.  They were planted in early March and are just leafing out now, a bit behind the established beeches.  Beech are fairly slow growing trees, but will mature to be dominant elements in the canopy. 

These are the maple seedlings I gathered from around the property.  These may include
Red, Sugar, Silver and the hybrid Freeman maples. (Also one tulip tree in the mix.)

Red maples, Acer rubrum, are also quite shade tolerant but are much faster growing.  I am looking to add a few of these to fill in the gaps.  Sugar maples are another possibility.  These are slower growing, but better adapted to the near neutral soil pH we have here. (Based on the natural distribution of trees here (Box elder, Hickories, American hornbeam and Tulip tree) soil pH is probably running 6-7.5.)  My regular source of native trees, Stadler Nursery, is cutting back on its supply of reforestation plants (I don't know why), so I decided to harvest some of my own seedlings and nurse them along a little before planting them out.  I've got several species of maples growing here, so at this point I can't say for sure what each of these seedlings are.  Tulip trees also do well here and I've got lots of these seedlings too, so I could move those to some of the more open areas in the woods.

This Henry's Garnet Virginia sweetspire has flopped a little due to the weight of the rain. 
It is nearly full height, at 4' and should spread to about 6'. 
The racemes of white flowers are about to pop.

Another area that I have been trying to bulk up with native species is a  slope that has been built up with sandy clay and is dominated with Japanese stiltgrass, Japanese honeysuckle and garlic mustard.  I've been putting divisions of wild bergamot, Monarda fistulosa, and they are taking hold. I am focusing on shrubs that are colonizers.  These spread out by underground shoots and should help stabilize the soil to erosion.  This year I'm adding a Henry's Garnet sweetspire, Itea virginica 'Henry's Garnet', gray dogwood, Cornus racemosa, and some bare root smooth sumac, Rhus glabra.  Unfortunately my deer do like to munch on these so I need to stay on top of these with either fencing or repellent sprays until they get established.

Since deer like to browse on my gray dogwood I
put some fencing around this one right away.

You can see that the leaf buds on this smooth sumac
are about to pop.  I should get some fencing around this
one soon (in addition to the repellent spray).

In my battle with Japanese stiltgrass, I am planting native species to help displace that invasive grass.  One grass that does well in shadier locations is bottlebrush grass, Elymus hystrix.  I started some from seed this winter and planted them out in early spring.  These make take a year to get established, but should help fill in areas where the stiltgrass has been (is being) removed. 

I started this bottlebrush grass from seed in February and planted it out in April.
It may not get too big this year, but should form a dense clump next spring.

Last year I put in a Red Sprite winterberry holly along a sloping path.  I already had a mate, the early blooming Jim Dandy cultivar, Ilex verticillata 'Jim Dandy'.  To improve berry availability for winter time birds I added another early blooming female cultivar called Afterglow, Ilex verticillata 'Afterglow'.  This cultivar is also compact, like 'Red Sprite' and is supposed to be very dense with flowers and berries.

Also on the holly front, I put in some inkberries, Ilex glabra, in a shady location, near an English walnut tree, last year.  Of the three cultivars I put in, Shamrock and Nigra did well, but the Densa cultivar died.  I don't know if it was just the amount of shade or sensitivity to the juglone from the walnut.  I replaced it with another Nigra cultivar this spring, so we'll see if that one does better.