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 2018

One of my big plans for this year was to replace the non-native, invasive leatherleaf grape holly, Mahonia bealii, with some native shrubs.  Features of the grape holly that I wanted to preserve were flowers and berries for wildlife and some evergreen qualities that help define that space in the winter.  I decided to use inkberry hollies, Ilex glabra, to carry most of the load.  Also in this space I put a 'Snow Queen' oakleaf hydrangea, Hydrangea quercifolia 'Snow Queen' to continue a screening effect started with two older oakleaf hydrangeas nearby.  A few cinnamon ferns, Osmunda cinnomonea, completed the composition.

Shrubs from left to right are Jim Dandy winterberry holly, Nigra inkberry and Shamrock inkberry. 
Also new are the bright green cinnamon ferns toward the front.  The background is dominated
by a Carolina allspice, Calycanthus floridus.

To create some size variation in the evergreen I got a variety of inkberry cultivars.  'Shamrock' being the shortest (3-4') is in the front and behind it are a 'Densa' (8-10') on one side and 'Nigra' (4-6') on the other.  All three of these are listed as female plants.  To get berries a male plant is needed.  Unfortunately I was not able to get hold of a male plant (such as the 'Chamzin' cultivar).  I saw somewhere that any male holly that blooms at the same time is capable of fertilizing a female, so I put in a 'Jim Dandy' winterberry holly, Ilex verticillata 'Jim Dandy' nearby.  This bloomed at about the same time as the three inkberries. 

Since I was watch the flowers rather closely I noticed that while both 'Densa' and 'Nigra' had exclusively female flowers, 'Shamrock' appeared to have both male and female flowers.  I could find no mention of 'Shamrock' bearing both types of flowers.

Also on the holly front I added a 'Southern Gentleman' winterberry near a well established female.  A few years ago I but in an early blooming 'Jim Dandy' as a pollination partner, but berry production did not improve much.  The 'Jim Dandy' is usually finishing up blooming just as the established female is starting to bloom.  This new 'Southern Gentleman' here has started blooming about 2 weeks later than 'Jim Dandy', hopefully in better synch with the female.  Maybe this year we will get a bush full of red berries. 

Here's the slope prior to planting.  The winterberry is at the top left and
the lower growing aromatic sumac cultivars are on either side of the steps.

 In another area of the yard is a slope almost too steep to mow (about 30% grade).  This year I've decided to put in some steps and plant the slope with native shrubs, perennials and grasses so that it can be left alone.  New plants for this area include 'Grow-low' aromatic sumac, Rhus aromatica 'Grow-low', 'Red Sprite' winterberry holly, Ilex verticillata 'Red Sprite', and fireweed, Chamerion angustifolium.  The 'Red Sprite' is a female clone and was put in as a partner for the 'Jim Dandy' that I planted a few years back. 

Tried to grow fireweed from seed last year, but no luck. 
This year I got some as seedlings.

Here are two red oaks that I will be planting in the woods.
These saplings are about 4 years old.

In the woods around our house a number of older trees are dying.  Some of this may just be natural, some may be the work of the emerald ash borer.  I've also been identifying and killing as many tree of heaven, Ailanthus altissima, as I can.  To fill the open spaces I've been planting oak saplings.  This year I am putting in the more shade tolerant oak  species, red and black oaks, Quercus rubra and Q. velutina.  [P] 

We are also seeing a number of our white pines, Pinus strobus, in our wind break coming apart.  These were planted 40-50 years ago and are probably not in their ideal habitat.  To fill in the gaps in this row of evergreens I've planted some seedling of Canadian hemlock, Tsuga canadensis.  I've spaced these out widely so that any future attack by wooly adelgid will be slowed, since the plants won't be in contact with one another.  I've marked the location of each with a pink flag, otherwise these little plants would disappear into the undergrowth.

 

I also got a bunch of bare root wild ginger, Asarum canadense, in early spring.  I would like to use them as aground cover along with some Heuchera and violets.  So far most of these are surviving, but they do need some help by removing some of the competitive plants.  My previous attempt did not go so well as the plants were overwhelmed with vinca  and the leaves of an English walnut. 

Most of the American plums, Prunus americana, that were planted last fall survived winter.  One died rather suddenly this spring when all the leaves wilted.  There was a lot of insect activity near the roots, or it could have been too much shade from a neighboring box elder.

I've always loved the look of blue cohosh, Caulophyllum thalictroides, blanketing a shady hillside.  I've been reluctant to plant it in the past because I haven't seen it growing nearby, even though I seems like the right conditions.  This year I broke down and bought a couple of plants to put in on a shady, moist hillside.  This is an area where I have been removing garlic mustard and Japanese stiltgrass, so it's time to get some more plants in there to take their place. 

Post bloom, this Itea tends to blend in with the surrounding foliage.

A few years back I planted a small Virginia sweetspire, Itea viginica, possibly 'Henry's Garnet' under a tulip tree.  It has never got too tall.  Possibly due to the shade and possibly due to deer browse.  Despite its lack of size, this year it managed a couple of blooms.  Encouraged by this, this year I added a larger specimen to a sunnier location.  'Little Henry', a cultivar growing to about 3', was my choice.  It has a compact habit and large flowers.  While the flower display on this one this spring was impressive, now at the beginning of summer it's hard to recognize.  It should have good fall color, though.

New Plants for 2017: Just Getting Started

The seed and plant catalogs have been coming since late December and I've made a few selections already.  Here's a run down on seeds and shrubs that I have ordered so far.

The tubular flowers of fireweed mature into long
seed pods, as seen on the lower right.

Fireweed, Chamerion angustifolium (formerly of the genus Epilobium) is a tall perennial that puts out hot pink flowers in mid-summer.  Growing in part to full sunshine and average soil moisture this will be a welcome addition to the small meadow that I am developing.  The tubular flowers are very attractive to a number of native bees as well as hummingbirds.

Fireweed is named for its tendency to appear in great numbers after fire has cleared the competing vegetation.

The tiny seeds, ca. 1 mm long, need to be cold-moist stratified for 60 days for good germination.  The tiny seeds also need to be surface sown, as they need light for germination.  I started the stratification in damp sand last week, so I should be able to get them into trays in early April.

When stratification is done, I'll just smear the damp sand/seed mixture on top of the soil.

Another new species for me will be goat's rue, Tephrosia virginiana.  This member of the legume family likes dryish sandy soils in part to full sun light.  It has feathery foliage and puts out pink and yellow pea-like flowers in early to mid-summer.  Since this plant has a deep taproot, I will use it on an embankment that I want to stabilize.

Relative to fireweed, the seeds of goat's rue are huge, 3-4 mm long and about half as wide.  These seeds have a thick outer coating and will need to be scarified before giving it about 2 weeks of cold-moist stratification.  In addition to this I also got a packet of inoculum that contains the bacteria this plant needs to fix nitrogen from the air. I'll mix this with the seeds prior to starting the stratification process.  I think seeds will germinate with it, but not having the right bacteria can compromise their development.  

I have encountered this with another legume, partridge pea, Chamaecrista fasciculata, where I saw much better growth from seeds that had been treated with inoculum than for those sown without it.

In addition to these I got some additional seeds for rose verbena, Glandularia canadensis, and spotted beebalm, Monarda punctata.  I was pleased with the rose verbena I planted last year.  While it does not call for it, I moist stratified the seed for a month and got excellent germination rates.  It formed a nice ground cover and bloomed well with clusters of deep magenta flowers.  I purchased more seed because it is listed as marginally hardy in zone 6 and I was afraid that there would not be enough seed produced last season to produce another crop for this year.  Since our winter low temperatures this year have not dropped below 15 F, we are having more of a zone 8 winter, this species may make it through until spring.  In any case I'll have more plants to fill in and maybe share a few with others.

Rose verbena as it's looking in mid-February.  It's taken some damage,
but it's looking good close to the ground level.

The spotted beebalm I had a few years back has petered out.  I think it lost out to more competitive plants around the vegetable garden.  It is a short lived perennial and relies on having good places for new seed to germinate to continue in the garden.   For this new crop I will put it in spots with leaner soil and where its seed can germinate without being covered by other plants.


As far as shrubs, I'm just reinforcing some of what I got last year:
Eastern Red Cedar, only one from the three I planted last year was successful.  This year I'll get them in the ground sooner and do a better job of clearing away competitive plants.

Chokecherry, I'm 1 for 2 on this species.  For these I will need to clear a larger space so they can get established.  Once established they should grow quickly on their own.

American hazelnut, these are surviving well in somewhat shady locations.  I have identified several other woodland edge areas where it would be nice to have this native shrub fill in.