New Gardens for Fall

Autumn is a great time to do planting of trees, shrubs and perennials.  The weather is cooling down but the soil is still warm.  This allows new plantings to get established with less stress.  The roots do not need to pump as much water and nutrients to support leaf growth, rather they can focus on growing out and adapting to their new home.  Although we have had a nearly rainless September in Maryland, fall is usually a moister time than late summer.

Another factor that makes fall a good planting time is that many plants are on sale.  While somewhat picked over and tired looking there are many good deals especially for perennials at the nurseries.  There are also a number of native plant sales that occur in the Fall.

I visited a native plant sale in Virginia that featured locally native plants for the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.  I found some plants that I had been searching for for a long time (Aromatic Sumac and Yellowroot) and some that I had never heard of (Astilbe biternata - a North American species of Astilbe).

While not the actual location, this is similar to what we started with.
First my wife cut off the runners, then I dug out the roots.

One of the long term projects for the new property is the elimination of English Ivy.  Our local deer like to eat it; that is one of the few positive things I can say for them.  In the fenced areas, however, the ivy is taking over.  I have been holding off removing the English Ivy from an area until I have something on hand to replace it.  At this fall's Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy native plant sale I found an American Strawberry Bush, Euonymus americanus.  The Strawberry Bush was just the plant I needed for this shady moist corner where the ivy was dominating.

This shrub can grow 6-12' tall.  You can see a little of it's fall color.

The American Strawberry Bush is one of two native Euonymus species that I know of.  The other is Eastern Wahoo, E atropurpureus.  I'm not sure why these plants are not more available in the trade.  While not as showy as the invasive Burning Bush, E. alatus, they each have decent reddish fall foliage and the color of their fruits are outstanding, a red exocarp with fluorescent orange seeds inside.  I did read that deer really like to eat the Strawberry Bush, so finding it the wild can be difficult if there is any amount of deer pressure.

'Hearts-a-burstin' is one of the common names for E. americanus.
The orange seeds are not as bright as when the fruit first opened up.

With the Strawberry Bush as the focal point in this renovated corner I picked up a pair of Goat's Beard, Aruncus diocus to fill the back corner.  The white plume-like flowers should brighten this area in the early summer.  Since this plant comes as separate male and female plants I bought two to increase my chances of producing some viable seed.  (Usually it is recommended to get 3 plants when you want both male and female, but I don't have the space here.)

Goat's Beard should grow to about 5' tall and wide.
These are starting at about 1 foot.

This seed-grown selection of Jumpseed has the pronounced red markings
like those on the cultivar 'Lance Corporal'.

To fill in the ground plane I was imagining buying all sorts of natives like Heuchera, Tiarella and Labrador Violets.  On my trip to a local nursery I noticed that they had a bunch of escaped Jumpseed, Polygonum virginianum, with well defined red markings on the leaves  Since I already have these growing in the woods nearby, I thought it would be great to integrate this species into the plantings around the house.  It worked out that the nursery owner would give me the plants if I provided the labor of digging them out.  What a deal!!!  So I loaded up 9 pots full of this native ground cover, indigenous to my site.

At a distance the long racemes of red flowers look similar to those of Coral Bells.
(The name for this plant has been changed to Persicaria virginiana.)

To complete this design I need to remove the Japanese Honeysuckle on the back fence, then I would like to bring in some wild ginger (also growing nearby) and maybe some Solomon's Seal in the back to add a different texture.

Here's the corner without the ivy and just after planting.  The Aruncus is in the back,
the Euonymus is in front and the Jumpseed is in between.

Mid-summer's Little Blooms

In the middle of summer there are many big blooming native plants like Cone Flowers and Black-eyed Susans.  A next post I will take a look at some of the 'prettier' natives that are in bloom now.  But this post I will show you some of the natives blooming with small pale or white flowers.  Many of these could be considered weeds, but I had not ID'ed many of them before, and, of course as native species they are part of the 'original' ecology of the area.

This Virginia Stickseed is about 2 feet tall.  The horizontal
sprays of seed pods give it a unique texture.

The first plant that literally caught my attention was Virginia Stickseed, Hackelia virginiana.  As I was clearing stilt grass from a planted area several branches from this plant caught hold of my sleeve.  When I pulled back These branches broke off, transferring the sticky burr-like seeds onto my shirt.  Originally about 4 feet tall, parts of this plant fell over due to the weight of seeds.  Rather than noticing the small white flowers, what I see now is a a textural affect from the horizontal branches laden with burrs.

Here you can see the progression from flower to burr.  This bee fly is a pollinator
 for many small flowers.  Its larvae are parasites that feed on other insects.

This plant has a highly branched forms, others
in less disturbed areas grow as a single upright stem.

Nearby was one of my favorite little natives, Indian Tobacco, Lobelia inflata.  It is not really showy.  The blue flowers are not very big and the small flowers are spaced widely on the stalk.  What I think is so cool are the swollen ovaries (hypanthium) that form after the flower fades.  This feature is the reason for the species name, inflata.  This plant is used as an herbal remedy for many ailments, particularly as an emetic, but it is also quite toxic.  I've tried growing these from seed indoors under lights with limited success.  It seems to grow better as a 'weed', than as a cultivated plant.

Here you can see both the pale blue flowers
and the inflated hypanthium.

The coarsely toothed, oppositely arranged leaves
on long petioles are similar to those of nettles.

White Vervain, Verbena urticifolia, has spikes of tiny white flowers.  The plant has a rough appearance with its large, coarsely toothed leaves.  The species name uricifolia refers to it having nettle-like leaves.  This is not a particularly attractive plant, but its flowers are visited by a variety of bees and its seeds are consumed by birds.

Here's a closer view of the flowers of White Vervain.  It seems like the tips of the flower stalks are the place for small insects to hang out.

The current botanical name for this
Horseweed is Conyza canadensis.

When I looked past the white Vervain I saw what thought was more of the same, but on second glance I realized that I had yet another plants with little white flowers.  I keyed this one out as Horseweed, Erigeron canadensis, which has been updated as Conyza canadensis. On examination its form is very different from the verbena, with narrow leaves occurring alternately along the stem.  The main similarity was that the flower stalks originated from the leaf axils.  Similar to members of the genus Erigeron, its flower is composite type with many small rays.  This annual is commonly seen in waste areas and fence rows.

A green sweat bee visiting a Horseweed flower.

My last plant for this post was discovered with its flower stalk sticking out of some berry vines in a woodland edge habitat.  Normally I leave a plant in place until I know what it is, but this one had me worried.  It had characteristics of Polygonum (Knotweed) and with its white flowers I immediately thought of Japanese Knotweed.  When I brought the cutting in for examination I learned that it was actually a native knotweed, Polygonum virginianum, aka Jumpseed or Virginia Knotweed.  It is also known and sold as Persicaria virginiana and Tovara virginiana.  This particular specimen had dark green leaves; however many plants have a red chevron on otherwise green leaves.  

This stem got beat up a bit after I pulled it out from a mass of wineberries.
I would have left it alone had I known what it was.

Of these five natives, I think Jumpseed is the most easily adapted to a landscaped garden.  In addition to the red striped leaves and more compact habit, the long flower stalks (up to 3 ft) turn from pale yellow to red as they age.   A cultivar with particularly strong red markings is called 'Lance Corporal'.  Another cultivar called 'Painters Palette' has multicolored leaves.  The biggest negative is that it can reseed vigorously.  Jumpseed does well in dry shade.  I had a client in the Boston area with a large patch of these growing on the north side of the garage in full shade.   I will keep an eye out for more of these so that I can see how the red color develops on the flower stalk.