Designing with Native Plants

Designing with native plants is not that different from designing with any other plant palette.  You still use basic design concepts, using the shapes, colors and textures of plants to create rhythm and flow in the landscape.  What is different is that your selection of plants is more focused on native species, ideally ones that are regionally or locally native.

Advantages

What you gain from using native species in your landscape is greater benefit to the nearby wildlife, better fit with the local ecology and character of the region, and, if your plant selection was right lower maintenance and increased sustainability.

There are North American native plants species that will grow under just about any landscape situation imaginable.  That doesn't mean that any North American plant will grow anywhere in North America.  Beyond the many geographic climate zones there are also differences in soil chemistry, texture, moisture, exposure to sunlight and competition both from other plants as well as animals.

By looking at nearby native plant communities you can get some inspiration about what to combine in your landscape.  At Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge MA they created a meadow using many species of grasses and wildflowers native to the Northeast. 

This constructed 'Northeast Meadow' features showy goldenrod (Solidago speciosa),
little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium), New England blazing star (Liatric scariosa), hyssopleaf thoroughwort (Eupatorium hyssopifolium) and brown-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia triloba).

When I was designing a planting for a sloping path I selected some species that I observed along a nearby hiking trail in Maryland Heights.

Bottlebrush grass (Elymus hystrix) and clustered mountain mint
(Pycnanthemum muticum) are major components of this hillside garden.

While I stress about how you need to match plants to their ideal conditions, there are often surprising exceptions.  Test their adaptability by trying a plant or two in unusual locations, they just might catch hold.  This is why I like to use natives that produce a lot of seed, particularly native annuals.  The seed is able to spread around and find new places to grow, some of which will be a good fit.

This pink tickseed was originally planted in a near-by bed but found a better home when seed fell into a crack in the driveway.

Challenges

Some natives are generalists and are able to grow well under a wide variety of conditions.   Others are more specialized, having adapted to some very specific growing conditions.  Some of the frustration of working with natives is that while it is implied that they are adapted to grow in North America, a given native will not necessarily do well everywhere on the continent. 

Another factor to realize is that residential landscapes often have very different soil conditions than near-by natural areas.  Depending on where they are located around a building, light exposure and moisture levels can also be very different from undisturbed areas.  Newer construction areas often have compacted soils.  Many times the native top soil has been removed and replaced with soil from another location.

Reasons for failure of new plantings include competition from other plants, incorrect soil chemistry, texture or drainage, or missing  companion plants.  Also consider age of plants and the original conditions when they were planted.  Many shrubs growing in shade were planted when there was less competition both for light and root space.  Planting new specimens into an established wooded area is more challenging now than when the area was originally planted.  I have been fooled into planting new rhododendrons under established shade trees based on seeing mature shrubs in woodland settings.  In many cases, there is too much competition in the root zone for water and nutrients and too much shade cover for the new plants to get established.  Options here include opening up or raising the tree canopy, clearing a wider root zone (without damaging the existing trees), or  opting for more shade tolerant species.

Sometimes when I see native species dominating some harsh environmental conditions and I think, wow that could grow anywhere.  That is often faulty reasoning.  In many cases these plants excel because they have adapted to those conditions in specific ways to use those harsh conditions to their advantage to out compete other species.  

Rock harlequin will excel in thin rocky soils but does
 not compete well in normal soils against other plants.

One example is rock harlequin (Corydalis sempervirens) a short lived perennial that needs to reseed itself to maintain a garden presence. It's native to rocky slopes in the Northeast where there are shallow pockets of soil and exposure to full sun for a good portion of the day.  When planted in richer soil or 'better' conditions it often fails due to competition from other plants. 

Almost all plants in nature grow in a community of some sort.  There are a few  species that require a host plant to help them grow and develop.  Indian paint brush (Castilleja sp.) tap into the roots of neighboring plants, such as little bluestem or penstemons, for nourishment.  False foxgloves (Aureolaria sp.) are partially parasitic on the roots of oak trees.  And , like many members of the pea family, Texas bluebonnets (Lupinus texensis and sp.) do better when there are specific soil bacteria present to help them fix nitrogen. 

Texas bluebonnets are winter annuals that blanket open fields with their iconic blue and white flowers in early spring.  They are well adapted to the calcareous soils with the assistance of a soil bacteria.  Performance in other regions is erratic. 

Plant Selection and Sources

The nature of native plants are that they are native to particular areas of the country based on climate, soil chemistry and evolutionary history. As such there are very few 'nationally native' plants, nor should there be.  If you search the garden centers you can often find sections devoted to native plants.  The nice thing about many commercially available native plants, though there may not be many of them, is that most have been selected to be commercially viable, that is they work in many residential situations and are fairly robust.  We need to expand the offerings by asking for more of these plants.  American Beauties is one program based in the Northeast that is supplying a variety of native species.  There are also a number of native plant suppliers that you can find on the web.   Izel Plants is a clearing house for a number of native plant nurseries primarily in the Eastern US and has an extensive catalog of native species.  The Plant Native link below also has listings of native plant nurseries by state.   You can also search the web for nurseries in your region that specialize in native plants. 

To help with the selection of which species to use there are a number of websites that allow you to search for plants based on the site conditions.  You can find plant search websites for a given area by using search terms like 'Native Plant Database for  '  My favorite site to search is from the Wildflower Center.  It allow you to search by where a plant is native as well as specific growing conditions and plant attributes such as size and bloom color.  Plant Native is another good site.  While the plant lists are smaller, the plants listed are mostly commercially available.  Missouri Botanical Garden has an excellent search platform, but it is not solely native species.

Strategies for Designing with Native Species

• Try to match the preferred conditions/habitats of a new plant to your local conditions (much easier than trying to match your conditions to those of a given plant).
• Start small, when in doubt.  Before doing a massive planting put in a couple of plants as a test to see if they survive.
• Try a new species in a couple of different locations to see where it grows well. 
• Don't just drop a new plant into an established bed.  Clear some area to allow for roots to get established without competition.  Also open up the canopy to let in some light.  Water well, but don't feed perennials, shrubs or trees until the roots are established (about one growing season).
• Build a plant community by learning about which plants grow together in nature.
• When starting perennials from seedlings, like you get with liners or sizes one quart or smaller, it will take as many as three seasons for them to reach their full glory.  The adage 'sleep, creep, then leap' really does hold true when start from small specimens.

Native Plants Update 2011

Now that most of the fall chores are done, I took some time to think about how some of my native plants were doing. My main focus is on those that I started from seed, but I have also put in some newer perennials and shrubs that put in as more mature specimens

New this Year from Seed

I successfully started the following species from seed this year.

• Pearly Everlasting, Anaphalis margaritacea, is a perennial, similar to the annual sweet everlastings (Pseudognaphallium obtusifolium) that I have had trouble transplanting into the garden in the past. These germinated well, but did not do well in ‘regular’ soil; however the ones that I put into a bed of decomposed bark chips seem to be taking hold. So it appears that these plants like a well drained, airy soil.

• Flowering Spurge, Euphorbia corollata, had limited germination but did grow well in the soilless mix. The transplants, like the Anaphalis above, showed a strong preference for lighter, well drained soils.

• Crowned Beggarticks, Bidens coronata, were difficult to germinate, unlike some of its prolific cousins. They did mature and bloom early in the season (June-August), but after setting seed this annual expired. This is in contrast to the Swamp Beggarticks that spend the summer growing to a good sized shrub before blooming in September.

It's nearly December and this plant has been trying to
bloom for awhile.  The arrow shows one of the trilobed
leaves for which this species is named.

• The woodland sunflower, Helianthus divaricatus, also had limited germination, but produced fairly strong plants. Like the Brown-eyed Susans, these have spent their first year in the ground getting established. These have a reputation for being aggressive, so they have been put under the Norway Maple.

• Brown-eyed Susan, Rudbeckia triloba, was difficult to germinate in moist sand. I did get better results with cold stratification in damp soil for 2 months in the refrigerator. These seedlings are spending their first year getting established in the soil, i.e., no flowers this year. Although with the extended warm weather this year there are a couple which have been trying to bloom since October.

Old from Seed

The following plants have performed well from seed in the past and I just wanted more of them:

• I really love the Orange Hummingbird Mint, Agastache aurantica ‘Navaho Sunset’, as much for the smell of its foliage as I do for the flowers. This perennial grows well from seed under lights and blooms the first year. Older plants are maturing to 2-2.5’ tall. So far I have not seen strong evidence of self seeding, but I believe it should.

Two shades of Sulfur Cosmos with
some American Bellflower in the back.

• Sulfur Cosmos, Cosmos sulphureus, are southwestern natives that grow and reseed well in garden soil in the Northeast. I had grown these in the past, but they were pushed out by my experiments with the more massive Bidens aristosa. I do prefer these in the garden since they are of more manageable size and have beautiful bright flowers. While they are fine left on their own, they do better, bloom-wise, with dead heading.

• Rock Harlequin, Corydalis sempervirens, is a favorite of mine, though, like many other natives this is not for general garden soil. It likes lean, well drained conditions. Some that I had growing in a pot, bloomed and started a second generation in an adjoining tray. I’m over-wintering these seedlings for next year. Once these plant have set a lot of seed they tend to peter out and die.

• The Indian Blanket, Gallardia pulchella, seeds that I got in Austin three years ago are still viable (refrigerator storage). These seeds produce variable plants that that will stand tall in the open or grow sideways to find an opening in more competitive environments. So far I have seen no evidence of self seeding in my New England garden, though the plants themselves need a good hard frost to kill them for the year.

• Cucumberleaf Sunflower, Helianthus debilis, is a Southeastern native that has made its way up the east coast as far as Maine. I got the cultivar ‘Pan’ three years ago and it seems to be coming back true to seed.

• Spotted Beebalm, Monarda punctata, is a short-lived perennial that is easy to start under lights and grows well in a variety of soils. After three years I am beginning to see signs of it spreading, just as the older plants are beginning to die off.

• I also bought the Texas native Drummond Phlox, Phlox drummondii, seeds in Austin three years back. Seeds stored in the refrigerator are still viable, and they will reseed themselves within a season, but I have not seen any overwinter up here naturally.



Purchased Native ‘Annuals’

This year I tried using all southwestern natives in my deck flower boxes. Just to be bold I went with a ‘primary’ color scheme: Mealy-cup Sage, Saliva farinacea, provided the blue spikes; I used Apache Beggarticks, Bidens ferulifolia, for yellow ‘fillers’ and the Drummond Phlox for a deep red, that I hoped would act as a ‘trailer’. I purchased the Sage and Bidens at a garden center and the phlox were from seed. While these plants survived the hot and occasionally very dry conditions, I found that the effect was compromised by ‘spotty’ blooming. The Salvia was a constant blue, but the Bidens tended to bloom in cycles that rarely coincided with the Phlox.

The Phlox is blooming while the yellow Bidens is between bloom cycles.

Returning on their Own

I have a fairly long list of annuals, biennials and perennials that are spreading mostly by seed. In managing these I need to be willing to toss out the extras (that I can’t give away) rather than let one or two aggressive species dominate. So here’s a quick summary of this years results:

• Red Columbine, Aquilegia canadensis reseeds well and stays ‘close to home’.

• Swamp Marigold, Bidens aristosa, vigorous self-seeder, but not too hard to pull out.

• American Bellflower, Campanulastrum americanum, also a vigorous self-seeder, but grows in dry shady locations.

• Strawberry Blite, Chenopodium capitatum, thought this was lost but it reappeared; this plant is too ‘sloppy’ for the flower garden, but it has other uses.

• Philadelphia Fleabane, Erigeron philadelphicus, mostly coming up from self-scattered seed in the lawn.

• Northern Sea Oats, Chasmanthium latifolium, was grown from seed started about 5 years ago and up until last year had been staying put. This past season I was finding it scattered around the garden. I have been moving the extra to underneath the Norway Maple, where this enthusiastic growth is needed.

• Sand Love Grass, Eragrotis trichodies, grows on dryish, sites with full sun. It produces attractive seed heads in early fall and slightly taller than it’s relative Purple Love Grass. This is a relatively short lived grass, so a decent seed bank will be needed to ensure its continued presence.

• Biennial Beeblossom, Gaura biennis has been reseeding itself since I first planted it in 2008. Even with cutting back in the early summer, this biennial will reach 6’ tall.

• American Pennyroyal, Hedeoma pulegiodes, has been reseeding itself consistently since 2008. It tends to concentrate in pavement cracks. When possible I have been moving this to more useful garden locations.

Scarlet, or Texas Sage

• Black-eyed Susan, Rudbeckia hirta, tends to stay close to the original planting location. My plants typically survive from 1-3 years.

• Scarlet Sage, Salvia coccinea, has been a surprise. It has reseeded itself in a variety of locations and matured on its own to give healthy, blooming specimens from July through September. Based on my experience with other red Salvias, I did not expect this one to come back so strongly.

• Showy Goldenrod, Solidago speciosa, spreads by both seed and underground runners. I have had to remove excess plants from the garden and am running out of places to put them.

• Swamp Verbena, Verbena hastata, is also an aggressive self-seeder. It grows in pavement cracks as well as in the garden.



New Perennials & Shrubs

In addition to the plants originally grown from seed, I put in the following perennials and shrubs. In the sun:

• Butterfly Weed, Asclepias tuberosa, is a tap-rooted perennial. It is found in coastal areas, so I am hoping that it will tolerate a roadside planting location.

• Sheep Laurel, Kalmia angustifolia, is a spreading shrub, growing to about 3’. I’m putting in place of some Meadowsweet that had grown too large.

Fall color of 'Blue Muffin' Viburnum
(a crimson colored leaf from a 'Winterthur'
Viburnum is to the back left).

In the shadier areas I added Canada Anemone, Anemone canadensis, Celandine Poppy, Stylophorum dipyllum, and Blue Stemmed Goldenrod, Solidago caesia. The Poppy and Goldenrod have performed well in the shade. The Anemone seemed to disappear after a month or so, but I could still find a leaf or two late in the season.

Finally, I added an Arrowwood Viburnum, Viburnum dentatum ‘Blue Muffin’, to the shrub border. Mainly I wanted to see how this oft used cultivar performs. So far my specimen stayed green longer than my 'Winterthur' Viburnum and, when the leaves did change, the coloration was fine, but not spectacular; a good foil for showier plants.

So, now I can start thinking about next year.  More on that later....

Native Seeds for 2011

After assessing what did and did not do well last year, I placed my seed orders for native seeds. Here’s a run down on what I’ll be trying this year.

New Plants
Pearly Everlasting (Anaphalis margaritacea) A perennial with white, long lasting flowers. I’ve been frustrated growing the related annual Sweet Everlasting (see below), so I thought I would try a perennial version.

Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa) This perennial that does well in dryer sunny locations and attracts many pollinators. I’ve seen a few plants commercially available but I wanted to make sure I had some growing this year.

Rosey Sedge (Carex rosea) I was given a small clump of this foot-tall perennial grass for nearly 5 years ago. I thought I should test it out in some different locations. This sedge prefers part to full shade.

Flowering Spurge (Euphorbia corollata) This perennial is also known as Prairie Baby’s Breath. I thought this could be good for general landscape use, with white flowers through mid-summer.

Woodland Sunflower (Helianthus divaricatus) This perennial sunflower grows well in dry shade. It can be weedy in the garden, but I really want to test it out under the Norway Maple. I’ve seen this brightening up shady oak woodlands in the middle of summer.  This is the first year that I have been able to find seed.


Repeats
Alleghany vine (Adlumia fungosa) I’ve written a lot about this biennial vine. I just can’t get enough. Note that these seeds need 90 days of cold stratification, so don’t wait if you want to try this one!

Orange Hummingbird Mint (Agastache aurantica ‘Navaho Sunset’) grew quite well last year and now I need more to try with clients. I really like the scent of the gray-green foliage and the flowers are pretty nice, too.

Rock Harlequin (Corydalis sempervirens) This another plant that I love.  I just need more rocky places to put it.

Sulfur Cosmos (Cosmos sulphureus) This native of Mexico (a part of North America) grows as an annual in the Northeast.  I had a crop that returned for 4-5 years until it got crowded out by some Bidens. I thought I would try to start it up again. While the bloom is similar to that of the swamp marigold (B. aristosa), this Cosmos starts blooming earlier and for a longer time.  Also, the foliage is not as dense.

American Pennyroyal (Hedeoma pulegioides) has been getting established from a planting 2 years ago, but I’d like to try more in some different locations. This will do well along a path.

Spotted Beebalm (Monarda punctata) was pretty successful last year and I need more to try with some clients.

Sweet Everlasting (Pseudognaphalium obtusifolium) has given me trouble on transplanting in the past two years. I’ll try this again, this time seeding directly in the garden in prepared soil (not in compacted turf).

One last try...
These three plants did not germinate for me last year, but I’ll try one more time with a lengthy stratification in moist starter mix.

Fern-leaf False Foxglove (Aureolaria peduculata) This biennial is parasitic on oaks, but, reportedly, does not need them for germination. I also have some of these scattered around a nearby oak. Stay tuned…

Tall Swamp Marigold (Bidens coronata) is an annual, with good-sized yellow flowers. I'm curious to see how if differs from the other Bidens I have around.

Brown-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia triloba) is a short-lived perennial, that while taller, has a more delicate appearance than the typical Black-eyed Susan (R. hirta).  I've posted a number of photos of this species over the past year.

Returning on their own:
I'm sure the Swamp Marigold (Bidens aristosa) will be back, but I will be pulling these up to make room for new plants.  I will have a lot of the biennial American Bellflower (Campanulastrum americanum) in 2011, judging by the large number of rosettes in the 2010 garden.  Also, I will keep an eye out for the return of any of the Texas native annuals: Indian Blanket (Gallardia pulchella), Drummond Phlox (Phlox dummondii) and Scarlet Sage (Salvia coccinea), that bloomed so nicely last year.

Native Annual Seeds that I tested in 2010

As I get ready to order seeds for 2011, I’m looking back on the native annuals and biennials that I tried out last year.  Some were successful and bear repeating while others went nowhere.  Some of the failures were not surprising while others just wouldn’t germinate and I’m not sure why.  So here’s a review of last years seeds.

Native to Massachusetts:

Adlumia fungosa (Allegheny vine, biennial) I got a few more plants from seed I collected in 2009.  Even better, I saw several plants coming up on their own from the previous season’s plants! 

Aureolaria pedicularia (Fernleaf yellow false foxglove, annual)  None of these germinated.  Since these plants are partially parasitic on oaks, my seed starting mix may not have been right, or they may not have been conditioned properly.

Bidens coronata (Crowned beggar’s ticks, annual)  Very few of these seeds germinated and those few that did failed to mature.  This was a surprise to me since other Bidens species tend to run wild in the garden.  I’ll give this one another try, directly in the garden.

Corydalis sempervirens (Rock harlequin, short-lived perennial)  These had good germination and transplanted well. I really love this plant.  I’ll need to find more places with thin rocky soil for this plant.

Hedeoma pulegiodes (American pennyroyal, annual) sprouted freely in the garden near where I had planted seedlings in 2009 – even under the Norway Maple.  While I couldn’t see them all, I could detect their aromatic aroma whenever I stepped on or mowed over them in the lawn.  It is reported that these plants act as an insect repellant when rubbed on the skin.  I hope to give that a try this year. 

Neither the Hypoxis hirsuta (Eastern yellow star grass, perennial) nor the Polygala sanguinia (Purple milkwort, annual) seeds germinated for me this year.  I will give up on these two for now, also I have run out of seed. 

Pseudognaphalium obtusifolium (Sweet everlasting, annual)  These seeds germinate well, but the transplants do not mature well in the yard or in pots.  Its native habitat is in depleted soils with little competition from other plants. However, I was surprised to find one out of the lawn, near the one successful plant from 2009.  I’ll try these again with direct seeding in a prepared area. 


Native to New England:

Monarda punctata (Spotted bee balm, biennial) germinated and transplanted well.  It also bloomed quickly and was a big hit with the bees and some very interesting wasps in the garden.  Since this Monarda prefers drier conditions, I have a roadside spot that would benefit from this plant that I would like to try it in this year.

Rudbeckia triloba (Brown-eyed Susan, biennial) failed to germinate for me.  The germination conditions on the packet were fairly complex, especially when compared to relative Rubeckia hirta (Black-eyed Susan) which germinates freely after a month of cold moist stratification.  A small population of R. triloba is getting established at the Wildflower Meadow at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, MA.





For plants Native to other parts of North America I found the following:

Salvia, Spotted Beebalm, Agastache and Gallardia
all mixed together in my South-facing bed.

Agastache aurantiaca ‘Navaho Sunset’ (Golden hyssop, perennial)  This cultivar germinated reasonably well and while it was a little slow to get started growing in the garden, it was up to full size and blooming by mid-July, producing a cloud of orangy-pink flowers.  The foliage also smells really good when disturbed. We’ll see how well these overwinter/reseed.  I’ll be growing more of these this year!

Cleome serrulata (Rocky Mountain Bee Plant, annual) again failed to sprout for me, either indoors or out. I can get the seeds to germinate, but not develop into seedlings.  Again, there may be something wrong with my starter mix or the newly germinated seed may be too delicate to sow into the growing mix.  In either case, I think I need to move on. 

Eschscholzia californica (California poppy, annual/tender perennial) germinates well in the garden, but my site is a bit too cool to allow many of them to reach maturity.  I usually get only a handful of blooms each year. This plant also shuts down when it gets too hot.  While I loved this plant in my native California, I think it is time to move on from this one too.

Euphorbia marginata ‘Summer Icicle’ (Snow-on-the-Mountain, annual) is a tap rotted annual and is reported not to transplant well.  So after soaking the seeds in warm water for a few hours these were planted directly in the ground in early June.  When mature they provided foot-tall mounds of white foliage and flowers.  This cultivar is shorter than the species (1-3’). 

Gallardia pulchella (Annual blanket flower, annual)  These seeds came from the Wildflower Center in Austin, TX.  These germinated and transplanted well after 30 days of cold stratification (may not have been necessary).  This species has a laxer form than the commercial cultivars, but it bloomed well both in pots and in the garden where it intermingled with the Spotted Beebalm and the Agastache.  This plant was very popular with the bees. I allowed the flowers to go to seed so we’ll see if they are still viable in the spring. 

Helianthus debilis ‘Pan’ (Beach sunflower, annual) reseeded itself into the same pot from last year.  This is not too surprising since there are naturalized populations of this Texas native scattered along the Eastern seaboard up to the Northeast.  This second generation had the same upright branching form of its parent.

Phacelia tanacetifolia (Lacy phacelia, annual) germinated very well and grew well in potting soil, but did not take well to being transplanted.  It has been recommended as a cover crop, with the warning not to let it go to seed in agricultural fields.  I may try this again as a direct sow plant.

Phlox drummundii (Drummond phlox – straight species, annual) also came from the Wildflower Center. These seeds germinated and transplanted well.  The flowers were true to the species scarlet red, but there was some variation in flower shape.  While I am not too hopeful that about the seeds overwintering outside, I did get a second generation late in the summer.  Relative to other flowers in my Massachusetts garden, these flowers were not very attractive to the pollinating insects.

This petal shape, with the white edging,
was unique from the other plants I had this year

Salvia coccinea (Texas sage, annual/tender perennial) is another Texas native.  Seeds for this plant germinated and transplanted well.  It grew equally well in a pots and in the garden bed and was very attractive to the bees.  Based on the native range of this species I don’t expect that any of the seeds would overwinter in my garden.

If you have any advice for growing the plants I listed here, I love to hear it.  What new native plants are you thinking about trying for next year?

Rock Harlequin, a Native Corydalis

I first ran across Rock Harlequin, Corydalis sempervirens, while climbing around a rocky slope when I noticed the pink and yellow flowers poking up out of a crack in the rocks. It seemed so odd that such delicate flowers would be in such a seemingly harsh habitat. In fact these plants do very well in harsh conditions like exposed stone walls and shallow, dry soil conditions, but it does not like too much heat. Other common names for this plant are Pale Corydalis and Tall Corydalis. I like the Rock Harlequin name, since for me it pop out of the rocks like some kind of joker.

Its native range is all across Canada and south from Minnesota over to Georgia (in the higher elevations). C. sempervirens is found in throughout Massachusetts, excepting Barnstable County and the Islands. Its native habitat is in dry or rocky woods and often on sites after a disturbance.

It seems as if it can deal with poor soil better than it can handle competition with other plants on a richer site. This was borne out in my garden when I put a few plants on the edge of a mass of Yellow Corydalis , C. leutea, in cool moist soil. The Yellow Corydalis completely engulfed the Rock Harlequin within 2 weeks, never again to be seen. I had much better luck on a dry site on the edge of the driveway where not much else would grow.

Corydalis sempervirens is not so much an annual as it is a biennial or short lived perennial, producing a large amount of seed and moving around the garden. Like an annual it will flower in its first year from seed. The highly dissected gray-green leaves occur all along the upright, branched stem. The ¾ inch long pink and yellow tubular flowers are borne in panicles at the ends of the foot-long branches. Blooming time begins as early as May, for year old plants, and continues sporadically though September.

Fresh seed, or seed kept cool and moist, are best for starting this plant. Seed started indoors should be moist stratified for 60 days and then be planted shallowly as light is needed for germination. Seeds are available from a few sources, including Summer Hill Seeds. I have started two batches of seeds with excellent results, high rates of germination and strong seedlings.

This year I started seed, before I figured out if I had a place to put the new plants, since space around the garden is filling up. Then I remembered where I first saw the plants, so I put a little soil in the cracks in a garden wall (over a layer of landscape fabric) and stuffed in a few plants. After a few days they seem to be adapting to their new home. With any luck they should be blooming in a couple of weeks.

For more information on this plant check out this link to the Wildflower Center's Database.