North American Natives for a Patio Container

Last year I had spotty results using the combination of Mealy-cup Sage (Salvia farinacea), Phlox drummondii, and Bidens ferulifolia to do a Native-species planting box scheme using primary colors.  The sage performed well, but the Phlox didn't transplant well and the Bidens bloomed in cycles, so I rarely had all three color blooming at once.  This year I stuck with the Salvia (cultivar 'Victoria Blue') as my tall plant and used a Lantana cultivar 'Bandana-Rose Improved' as the 'spiller' and Zinnias from the 'Profusion' series as 'fillers.'

This Lantana starts out yellow and ages to a pinkish-red.
The Zinnias had not bloomed yet.

In this flower box I also got a surprize.  A Drummond Phlox reseeded itself and has grown much better than the ones I grew indoors last year.  This past winter was mild enough to allow the seeds of this Texas species to overwinter in the flower box.  I also got a bunch of Salvia reseeding themselves as well.  This was great, I got bonus plants for free!

Native species that I have found to work well in a sunny flower box are native to Mexico and the Southwest US.  The hot and often dry conditions encountered in these containers is not unlike their native environment.  At first, I hesitated to use the Zinnias.  They have been highly bred and manipulated, but then I remembered the these plants actually have their origins in the North America, Mexico to be more specific.  The ones you see in the garden centers have been horticulturally improved for features like color, long bloom and resistance to powdery mildew, to name a few.

The 'Profusion Series' are hybrids of Zinnia elegans (the common tall Zinnia) and Z. angustifolia (Narrow-leaf Zinnia).  They tend to be about a foot tall with 1.5 inch flowers in a wide variety of colors that are supposed to bloom all summer.  I am using the cherry- and the white-flowered cultivars.  So far the cherry-form matured more quickly and is a little larger than the white-flowered form.

In checking out the progress of this Zinnia the first thing I noticed was the intricacy of the flower bud.  Maybe all Zinnia buds look like this, but this is the first time I noticed.  So now I'll watch and see if these Zinnias keeps pace with their neighbors.

I was happy to see that this cultivar still has fertile flowers
 - a bonus for the pollinators.

In another sunny area a random selection of blooms caught my eye.  Here the magenta-colored Wine-cups (Callirhoe involucrata) have encroached on a new planting of 'Apricot Sparkles' Day lily (yes, not everything I have is native).  To these, some self-seeded Wild petunias (Ruellia humilis) have also popped up.  I don't think I would have planned on this color combination, but the three taken together work for me.

I don't think the Daylily and the pale lavender Petunia would work
together if it weren't for the intense color of the  Wine-cups.

Bidens in the Garden --- Beggarticks, weeds or not?

The name Beggarticks may not give you a warm, happy feel for a plant to add to your garden. Many of the plants in this genus do not have strong aesthetic qualities that appeal to the general public, BUT a few of these do and are worth considering.  This is another chapter in my experience of working with native annuals and biennials.

Most Bidens species share the trait of having seeds that stick to anything passing their way. In Latin, bidens refers to having two teeth, in this case the two teeth on the seed. The flowers of many Bidens species have diminutive yellow to white ray flowers, rendering the bloom insignificant for the human observer, but still just as valuable to insects (its the disk flowers that matter). Also these plants produce a lot of seed that can be long lived in the soil. With these caveats in mind let me mention several species that have greater visual appeal and can work well in a garden setting.

The first is Swamp Marigold, Bidens aristosa var. mutica. This plant is the exceptional in that it has the largest ray flowers of the genus. Also, while the seed possesses the two teeth typical of the Bidens, these are not able to catch hold like the others. B. aristosa’s range extends from the Maine to Georgia and as far west as Oklahoma.

As the common name implies, Swamp Marigold’s native habitat is wetlands, growing in full sun, or part sun on a woodland edge. Its growth habit is upright with many branches, forming a rounded shrub-like plant 3-5’ in height. It produces a large number of sweet scented yellow flowers, measuring to 2” in diameter. Blooming begins August with a burst of color and continues to October at a slower rate. Flowers are very attractive to bees. I have found that deadheading was effective at improving the second flush of blooms. Also the blooming period was independent of the location of the plant. Plants in pots, different soils, sun and moisture conditions all started to bloom within 2 weeks of each other. If you want a smaller plant, it can be cut back in late June without compromising the floral display.

Unlike many other tap rooted plants, this plant tolerated transplanting well. While somewhat stunted in size, plants transplanted from small pots into the ground as late as July, still put on a good show. I also noted that wherever the stem touched the soil, new roots would be produced. So while the best habitat for the plant is in wet soils, I found it to be adaptable to drier soils, even to the point of surviving as a container plants that were repeatedly dried to the point of wilting!

Seed for Bidens aristosa var. mutica is available from several sources including Prairie Moon Nursery. In my test moist stratified seed (90 days/40F) showed a very high rate of germination. In fact, germination had started while still under refrigeration in the dark. One potential difficulty in a native annuals garden is that the seedlings look the same as those for 'weedy' B. frondosa, Devil’s beggarticks. Differences will become apparent as the mature leaves appear, the leaflets of B. aristosa are much more deeply toothed.  In my garden I have Sulfur Cosmos (Cosmos sulfureus) growing from seed in the same bed. The plants look very similar, but the first set of true leaves of the Cosmos are rounded, not pointed. Also the Cosmos comes up several weeks after the Bidens seedlings first appear.

There are three other annual Bidens native to the Northeast US worth mentioning here. All of these grow 3-4 feet tall and prefer moist to wet soils.

• Smooth Bidens, B. laevis, has flowers that are slightly smaller and nod downward when in full bloom. Seeds are available from Native Ventures in Louisiana.
• Nodding Beggarticks, B. cernua, also has smaller flowers, but the bloom starts as early as June, extending to Septmeber.  
• Northern Tickseed Sunflower, B coronata.  For the taxonomists out there there corrected name for this plant is B. trichosperma, but it will take some time for this to be updated.  Seeds for these last two plants are available from Prairie Moon Nursery.

All three of these species are indigenous to the eastern half of Massachusetts.

I will be trying out the Northern Tickseed this year and comparing it to the Swamp Marigold. One thing I will watch for is how popular the flowers are with pollinators. Northern tickseed is a Massachusetts native, while the swamp marigold, while found in the wild, is not listed as indigenous to Massachusetts.

  

Bidens ferulifolia – Apache Beggarticks

The last member of the genus I will mention here is Apache Beggarticks. These are low growing perennials originally found growing in open fields in southern Arizona and into Mexico. As the species, this plant has small yellow flowers; however, a number of larger flowered cultivars have been developed that perform well as annuals in gardens here in the Northeast. The species name ferulifolia is a reference to the fennel-like foliage.

Several cultivars of this plant are available as seeds and as small plants from nurseries. An example is B. ferulifolia ‘Peter’s Golden Carpet’ available from Proven Winners. This cultivar grows 10-15” in height and spread, producing copious amounts of honey-yellow, 5-7-petaled flowers, 1-1.5” in diameter, from mid-summer to frost (earlier if starting from nursery stock). This Bidens likes full sun and average soil moisture (mesic), thought it will tolerate droughty conditions. These plants perform well on the front edges of a border and in hanging baskets. Plants that I have observed returning from seed in Cambridge, MA have retained the character of the cultivar over least 3 years.

Nursery Available Native Annuals & Biennials in New England

Commercial annuals are bred and selected for such things as appearance (bloom and habit), disease resistance, consistent performance and rate of growth. In a conventional annual planting these are desirable traits, since you won’t have to weed out random plants the following year. Ability to survive in an unmanaged habitat is not an important factor for a six pack of impatiens. Many of the more spectacular annuals feature double blooms, which tend to be sterile. These produce no seed to continue the species and therefore have less wildlife value (also less pollen production). Check out ‘Bringing Nature Home’ by Douglas Tallamy for an in deeper discussion of why fully functional native plants are so important.

As I mentioned in the previous entry, to get the true species seed is the best source. However many of us lack the time, inclination or resources to locate and grow our own plants. The lists that follow contain a few plants which I have seen available in retail nurseries that are or are close to North American annual and biennial species. These lists include plants that have been horticulturally improved or breed for use in garden environments. Selection of less hybridized forms (e.g. single, rather than double flower forms) may improve chances of production of viable seed. (Unless noted there is evidence that these plants can produce viable seed and reproduce on their own in the Northeastern US - see the link to USDA Plants Database to get information of the distribution of plants growing wild in the US and Canada.)

Native to Northeast – native to New England
There aren’t many of these out there that I know of, so this is a short list.

Helianthus annuus, Annual Sunflower, had its origins in western North America but was spread across the continent by Native Americans on account of its food value. There are many highly cultivated forms available. (These are sensitive to root disturbance, but are easy from seed.)

Hibiscus moscheutos, Wild Cotton, can grow as a perennial shrub, but is also reported to grow as an annual. This is most commonly available as a cultivar or a hybrid form.


Rudbeckia hirta, Black-eyed Susan, is an annual or biennial (it dies after a season of blooming). Many fancy cultivars are available.

Native Annuals and Biennials from other parts of North American (including Mexico)

This list contains North American native annuals and biennials that have a good possibility of returning by self-seeding and are available as plants in retail nurseries.

Bidens ferulifolia, Apache Beggar Ticks, originally from the Southwest and has been cultivated into a compact freely blooming annual. I’ve seen this returning from seed in the Boston area and gave it a try this past season (2009) – we’ll see.

Cosmos bipinnatus, Garden Cosmos, had it origins in Arizona and throughout Mexico. There are a huge number of cultivars of this plant. I have seen the single-blooming forms returning from cracks in sidewalks around here (Eastern Massachusetts).

Gaillardia pulchella, Annual Blanket Flower, is another Southwestern native. In the nursery trade there are many cultivars of G. pulchella and its hybrid, G. x grandiflora (G. pulchella + C. aristata, the perennial blanket flower). I got some seed for the straight species from the Wildflower Center in Austin, TX for 2010.

Gaura lindheimeri, Lindheimer’s Beeblossum, is a short-lived perennial in the Northeast US. This plant may be too freely reseeding for many gardeners. It is a Texas-Louisiana native. Several cultivars are available in shades of pink to white.

Melampodium paludosum (actually M. divaricatum), Medallion Flower, is originally from Mexico. There are several cultivars in production. I tried this last year and was not too impressed. A report from the Missouri Botanical Garden indicates that this plant will self-seed in their climate.

Salvia farinacea, Mealycup Sage, is a perennial in its native range around Texas, but treated as a bedding annual in the north. I have had this return from seed in my garden. There are several cultivars sold ranging from near-white to deep blue.

I could include the zinnias from the Southwest US and Mexico, but many of these have undergone extensive breeding. I might consider the ‘Old Mexico’ cultivar of Mexican Zinnia (Z. haagaeana), as it is sometimes listed as an ‘Heirloom’ variety.

I would like to hear for any of you if you know of other natives in the nursery trade, as well as what is available in other regions of the country.