Visit to Martha Walker Habitat Garden in Napa, CA

In mid-June we had an opportunity to return to the Napa/Sonoma valley region of California.  Most of this trip was involved with tasting some really good wine.  Between tastings we took in some beautiful scenery along the Russian River and the Coastal redwoods near Bodega Bay.   One morning in Napa we paid a visit to the Martha Walker Native Habitat Garden.  

While I grew up in California and learned something of the state's ecology, all of my plant ID skills were learned on the East Coast.  I was a little overwhelmed at first not knowing the plants that I was looking at.  I did find some plant tags to get started.  After a while I started recognizing relatives to plants that I knew from the East.

Here are some photos of some of the plants I recognized.  (There are many more that I don't.)   The Calflora.org website was helpful in confirming some of the ID's.

The California Poppy was in bloom throughout the region.
It does well on well drained soils.

The California Buckeye was also in full bloom in the middle of June.
The palmate leaves and large panicles of flowers are similar to the eastern species.

It was easy to spot this Western Sycamore.  Note that the seed pods are hanging in a chain (raceme).
This is different from the American Sycamore (P. occidentalis) which has singly borne pods
and London Plane (P. x acerfolia) which has pairs of pods. 

When I saw this branch I immediately thought of our Eastern Redbud (C. canadensis).
 I found the tag indicating that it was a Western Redbud.  Instead of having
heart-shaped leaves of the eastern species, these are roundish,
many with an indention at the tip (retuse).

This Spiraea looks a lot like Steeplebush (S. tomentosa),
but that species is not listed as native to California.
 It may be S. douglasii, Rose Spiraea

Here is one of many Monkey Flowers in the garden.
There are over 70 species of Mimulus native to California.
I put some Allegheny Monkey Flower (M. ringens) in my garden
at home this year and am still waiting for it to bloom.

This is one of the many oak species in California (I couldn't find a label).
This is a quintessential tree to the coastal hills and valleys.

The dappled shade under the oak tree provided a very soothing resting spot.  

I had to look on the Calflora site to learn about this Matilija Poppy.
There are two very similar species on Romneya.  These plants
were common along the highways in Napa. (Note the state bird in the background.)

This is one of a number of Sage species in the garden.  I liked this one
because of the interesting form of the spent flowers.
I can image this having an impact all through the summer and fall.

If you are in the Napa Valley area I highly recommend a visit to the Martha Walker Garden for an overview of many native California plants grouped according to their natural habitats.

Late Summer Round-up

Wildflower border in early September.

As summer is winding down for us, it is still going strong for the summer and fall-blooming wildflowers.  In this border on the south side of the house the flowers are sharing space with a few varieties of tomatoes.  Notable here is the Brown-eyed Susan, Rudbeckia triloba.  This plant is also growing in part sun, in dryish soils (I have some doing well near a Norway Maple, but it gets 3-4 hours of sun), but fades out early in deep shade.  Also in this border is the annual Crowned Beggarticks, Bidens coronata.  These are of a more manageable size, and bloom earlier, than the Bearded Beggarticks, B. aristosa, that I have grown in the past.


One plant that is expanding its presence in the border is Texas Sage, Salvia coccinea.  This southeastern native annual has managed to overwinter in the warmer locations here in my northeastern garden and in the pots where I have reused the soil.  The original planting was done 3 years ago, but that doesn't mean that a really cold winter will finish them off.

The bees access the nectar at the base of the flower

The Smooth Asters, Symphiotrichum laeve, have been blooming for about a week.  I don't usually see them blooming with the Black-eyed Susan's, since they usually get dried out here in late August.  I started out with only a couple of these asters, but now they a showing up all around the garden.  Another plant that has adapted well to this residential site is Wild Petunia, Ruellia humilis.  The tiny seeds of these plants are finding their way into pavement cracks and then growing with some success.  They bloom all summer.  I didn't take a photo because they are looking kind of ratty now as they are going to seed.


One new plant I started this year was Giant Blue Hyssop, Agastache foeniculum.  The natural range for this mid-west native does not extend to Massachusetts.  The indigenous Agastache is the Purple Giant Hyssop, A. scrophulariifolia, and it grows to over 6' tall.  Since I wanted to grow this in a small residential setting I opted for the smaller sized species.  I was happy to see that, despite its youth, it has started to bloom.

This new Agastache is attacting bees already;
however, the nearby Beeblossum gets little traffic.

I have been growing Meadowsweet, Spiraea latifolia (actually Spiraea alba var. latifolia) around the house for over 5 years.  It is long blooming and very attractive to the native bees.  The down side is that it gets very rangy and tends to flop over onto other plantings.  This year, after the first big flush of flowers was spent at the end of June, I pruned a plant back by about half.  Now in September it is blooming again and has a more contained shape.

Probably the best place for this plant is in a hedgerow or a naturalistic planting; however, with some attentive maintenance it can work in an informal residential design.

Early Summer Blooms

Bees visit American Bellflower in both sunny
and shady locations

Now that we are getting into the hot days of summer, blooming of many native plants and the associated pollinator activity are picking up.  Here at home I saw my first Monarch Butterfly in many years.  You'll have to take my work for it, since it was gone by the time I got my camera.

One plant that has been blooming for awhile is the American Bellflower, Campanulastrum americanum.  This is particularly attractive to a medium sized black bee, probably a Miner Bee.  This plant blooms nearly as well in the shade as it does in the sun.

This Miner Bee is the primary visitor to the Bellflower

This Miner Bee draws nectar from the open face of the flower.  To do this it lands on the stamen and style of the flower.  Apparently the flower's stigma is situated to receive pollen from the bee as it makes its approach to the flower.








Nearby, on the sunny side of the driveway the Echinacea is in full bloom.  These attract a variety of pollinators, such as this Green Sweat Bee.  The Meadowsweet, Spiraea latifoia, has finished it's first round of blooms.  This year I cut some of the plants back significantly to keep the growth in check.  (I'm pretty sure it will put out a second growth.)  So for now the bees will be visiting other flowers for pollen and nectar.

It's interesting to note that with all the activity on the native flowers, I have seen very few insects visiting the flowers on my nearby shrub rose (other than a couple of Japanese Beetles).

Another early bloomer in the dry shade of my Norway Maple is Rosin Weed, Silphium integrifolium.  I chose this species of of Silphium because it does not get as big as the more familiar Cup Plant, S. perfoliatum.  This plant has slowly been expanding its mass, but I have not seen it show up in other parts of the garden.

A Hover Fly monitoring a cluster of Rosinweed blooms.

The flowers on this particular plant tend to form on the shady side.
This makes for a difficult photograph.

A new native annual that I'm trying out this year is Partridge Pea, Chamaecrista fasciculata.  This plant will grow in poor, dryish soils.  So far I'm favorably impressed.  One grouping that I planted near a highway is growing and blooming, despite receiving no additional moisture, other than the small amount of rain this summer.  Like its relative the Sensitive Plant, its leaves will fold up when the plant is handled roughly.  The leaves also fold up when it gets dark.  I wonder if this behavior helps it to survive under dry conditions (by limiting transpiration).

Some drifts are still intact, like the lavender-color Beebalm, Monarda fistulosa;
the orange Butterflyweed has blown over from another part of the
Wildflower Meadow at Mount Auburn Cemetery.

A Monarch Butterfly passing over
some Beebalm and Hoary Vervain

Over at Mount Auburn Cemetery, in Cambridge, MA, there is a good sized native wildflower meadow installed about 5 years ago.  Here I have seen many more butterflies than in my urban backyard.  This meadow features a number of native grasses as well as many showy flowering plants.  The original planting had the plants arranged in drifts, but the management plan is to let the plants move around as they will, to create a dynamic garden with plants finding there best locations.

In another part of the cemetery I noticed this Bottlebrush Buckeye, Aesculus parviflora, in full bloom.  While native to the Southeastern US, this shrub is very attractive to the bees up in the Northeast.  I spent some time watching how the bees interacted with the flower.  It was more like a mugging than a gentle approach to sip some nectar.  The bee grabs onto to the outside of the flower and extracts nectar from between the petals and the calyx.  In the process the bee's abdomen rubs all over the anthers and the stigma, thus achieving pollination of the flower.  

This bee on the Buckeye flower is about 1.5" long.

Other flowers are about to open up here, like the Scarlet Sage, Woodland Sunflower and Prairie Coneflower, so the show has only just begun.

Winter Field Trip

So after writing about the 'Winter Weeds' around my house for a couple of weeks I decided to take a walk through a nearby meadow to see what's still standing.  For me the closest meadow is Rock Meadow, in Belmont, MA.  This erstwhile farm has been conservation land for the town of Belmont since 1969.  With decreasing maintenance budgets over the years this area was undergoing succession with open meadows being closed up with a variety of native and non-native, invasive species.  This severely  degraded its value as a bird nesting habitat and reduced it general value as a recreational space.  In 2005 the Friends of Rock Meadow worked with the town in securing funds to do a renovation.  Most of this work was completed between 2007 and 2009, with the removal of many invasive plants, clearing shrubbery from the meadow and improving trails.  So with map in hand I set out to see what interesting plants I could find...

The burrs on this Burdock catch the afternoon sun
as easily as they do to a passing hiker.

The first plant I came across was Burdock.  This old world introduction is a common weed of waste spaces, but its strong structure helps it persist in the winter landscape.  The burs on the seed pod are hooked which help them attach to passing animals, thus dispersing the seed to a wider area.







Next I walked by a thicket rich with Red Twig Dogwood.  I am assuming these are the native Cornus sericea (formerly, C. stolonifera), even with leaves and flowers some of these species are difficult to tell apart.

The Red-twig Dogwood was easily identified among
all the other brown branches in the thicket.

Large sections of Rock Meadow are consistently wet.  These areas are easily identified by their large populations of Cattails.  There are two common species in the Northeast, one with broad leaves and one with narrow (Typha latifolia and T. angustifolia, respectively).  I did not investigate which was present, or if both were there.

One of the wet areas in Rock Meadow that is home to Cattails

Steeple Bush, just upstream
of a wet meadow.

Steeple Bush (Spiraea tomentosa) is another native spirea.  Unlike the Meadowsweet I have growing at home, the flowers of Steeple Bush are held in tightly erect panicles.  Also I found it here, Steeple Bush prefers moister soils.

While not a true pre-Colombian native species, Queen Anne's Lace has become naturalized throughout North America.  Even without its flower petals, this plant still has a presence in the winter landscape.  

The bare bones of Queen Anne's Lace

The few remaining seeds on this Little Bluestem
still catch the  winter sunlight.

Little Bluestem is a widespread native grass.  It seems to look its best growing on really poor soils and is often seen growing along the highway.  In richer soils it gets tall and floppy.  In the fall and winter it can be picked out by its orangy appearance and the way that the fuzzy seeds catch the light.



One plant I almost passed right by was this Tower Mustard.  It just looked like some sticks poking out of the ground.  On closer examination I noticed the dimpled membranes that once held the seed in an alternating pattern.  I didn't know this plant at first, but I looked in my copy of  'Weeds in Winter' and it led me to the mustard family.  After that, I was able to locate the species by referring to my copy of Newcomb's.

The seed pods of Tower Mustard still show
the impressions of the seeds they held.

The opened seed pods of Evening Primrose
 look like dried flowers.

Evening Primrose is a plant that is easy to recognize in its dried form.  When I walked by I realized that I knew this plant, I just could not remember its name.  The stiff, four-parted seed capsules on the tall, upright stems are unique and hard to forget.  I quickly flipped through the field guide until I found a drawing that matched this plant dead on.

I'm pretty sure this is Sweet Everlasting.
Had I used my nose as well as my eyes I would no for sure.

After returning to the path I looked down and saw another familiar plant.  There was a single stem of what I believe was Sweet Everlasting (Pseudognaphalium obtussifolium).  However, it could also have been Pearly Everlasting (Anaphalis margaritacea) which also has woolly stems and leaves and persistent papery bracts.  Crushing a flower would have told me which, Sweet Everlasting has a sweet, tobaccoy scent, while Pearly Everlasting has no smell.  Also, the bracts of Sweet Everlasting have a dingy tone, while those of Pearly Everlasting are reported to stay white (forever?).

As I moved into a shadier area, a large patch of Raspberry vines became evident.  These stood out as a purple mass of branches against an otherwise dull brown background.  Closer examination showed the little red thorns on the purple branches.  A couple of years ago I attempted to ID some raspberries but was quickly overwhelmed by the possibilities.  Right now I will just appreciate their contrast to the shades of brown.

Raspberries of some sort; the thorns are too small to be Blackberry

When I first saw these berries I thought this might be an Arailia of some sort.
A little research indicated that this was actually Carrion-Flower.

Carrion-flower was a surprise find as I was heading back to the parking lot.  Most of the members of the genus Smilax are rather unpleasant to deal with, like Catbriar (Smilax rotundifolia), with its tangle of thorny branches.  Carrion-flower, S. herbacea, on the other hand, has few, if any, thorns and only grows to about 8' in length.  As its common name indicates, the flowers have an unpleasant scent.




While Rock Meadow has been cleaned up of many of its  invasive species, some still remain.  In the winter months Winged Euonymus is easily recognized by the little wing-like projections along its stems.  Another common invasive is Black Swallowwort.  It can be recognized by the remains of its seed pod that looks like a dried leaf.  This vine is very hard to eradicate since it will resprout from small fragments of roots left behind after pulling or digging.

The arrow in the photo points to some of the wings
on this Winged Euonymus.

The old seed pods on this Black Swallowwort looks kind of like those of Milkweed.  In fact these are both members of the Asclepiadaceae family.

Winter Weeds, Pt 2

Continuing from last week's post, here are 10 more native wildflowers that, though dried out, are still standing in the middle of winter.

Fertile fronds of the Sensitive Fern

The first is the fruiting stalks of the Sensitive Fern.  While the fronds of this fern are among the first to die back in the fall, these stalks are quite persistent through the winter.


The next image is of Shrubby Cinquifoil.  While not a wildflower per se, it does have a similar appearance in the winter.  Left to their own these small shrubs can form a tangled mass of branches.  Annual removal of about 1/3 of the older branches gives a good balance of flowers, neatness and size.

These dried flowers of Shrubby Cinquifoil
stand above a mass of branches.

The Orange Coneflowers and Black-eyed Susans are classics in the winter landscape.  The Orange Coneflower has spiky, black to dark-brown seed heads.  These look really nice sticking out of the snow, and the seeds provide food for overwintering birds.

Orange Coneflower seed heads are nearly round,

Black-eyed Susan's seed heads are definitely cone-shaped
and are lighter in color than the Orange Coneflower.

Next I have the annual/biennial Black-eyed Susan.  During bloom season the flowers look very similar to the Coneflower, but this species has a laxer habit.  In winter you can see that the light colored seed head is very different.

Wild Petunia after a rare snowfall (this year).

My Wild Petunia is usually crushed under the snow in the winter.  But this year it is still upright.  The dried stems have a silvery cast that is enhanced by the long fine hairs that cover this plant. 

This Blue-stemmed Goldenrod
still has its narrow leaved attached.

Many of the Goldenrods (Solidago ssp.) persist well into winter.  I've captured three species here.  The first is the Blue-stemmed Goldenrod.  This species has flower clusters in the leaf axils all along the stem.  Zig-zag Goldenrod (S. flexicaulis) is another species that also has flowers originating from the leaf axils.  

The second goldenrod I'm showing here is the Seaside Goldenrod.  It has flowers in long terminal sprays.  

The third species is Showy Goldenrod.  This one grow tall and upright with flowers in a terminal plume.  It blooms early in the season, but stays upright through most of the winter.

Seaside Goldenrod blooms later in the season
 and tends to hold its fuzzy white seeds later, as well.

Showy Goldenrod has a strong presence even though
 the flowers are long gone.

Another species that I wanted to show is Stiff Goldenrod (S. rigida), but this early blooming species does not hold up well into the winter.  My plants tend to disappear around the middle of December.

Meadowsweet is lanky spreading shrub that may be difficult to use in a formal landscape.  But it grows under many difficult conditions, blooms all summer and is very attractive to native bees, so I am using it around my house and trying to learn how to tame it.  It also has a nice presence through the winter.

Meadowsweet flowers remain intact all winter.

Swamp Verbena is free-seeding native perennial.  It started in the flower bed and is now growing out of the driveway.  The flowers, borne on little spikes, are rather small considering the overall size of this plant, but I have found that they can be cut back by nearly 1/2 in June and be of a more appropriate size for the garden.

The afternoon sun caught on these Swamp Verbena flower spikes
inspired me to take a closer look at the other plants in my yard this winter.

Now that I've checked out the plants around my house, I'll need to make a trip out to some 'wilder' places to see what's happening.

American Bellflower Update

American Bellflower, in bloom from
late June through August

Over a year ago I posted some information on the American Bellflower, Campanulastrum americanum.  This plant, or it's progeny anyway (it's a biennial) have been growing in my yard since 2008.  It spends its first year as a rather innocuous rosette of leaves, but in its second year it shoots up to form a flower stalk between 2 and 6 feet in height, depending on location.  This spring I had an over abundance of second year plants within about 5 feet of the 2009 plants that I let go to seed. This spread is consistent with the smooth round seed just falling to the ground from the tall flower stalks.  Not wanting to throw any of these seedlings out, I redistributed them to a variety of areas in my yard that are normally difficult for growing flowering plants. 

A spontaneous composition on
the edge of the driveway with
Spiarea latifolia, the blue
Campanulastrum and
Rudbecia hirta.

The Campanulstrum growing in
dry shade under a Crabapplealong a foundation.

Along the North side, here the Hostas
hide the legginess of the Bellflower



Growing in rocky soil from under the
deck - plants forming a screen.



It seems that the plant looks better in some of the more challenging locations, where its vigor is moderated.  In rich soil with lots of sun it can become a floppy 6 foot monster.  Some places where it is doing nicely are : cracks in the driveway, a sterile rocky area under a deck, north side of the house, under a Norway Maple and in the deep shade of a Crab Apple along a dry foundation.  I think this latter location shows the American Bellflower at its best.

As far as pollinators, it seems that there is one particular bee, probably a type of Mason or Miner Bee (can anyone ID this for me?), that really loves this plant.  The first couple of years I didn't see much action with bees, but this year the bee activity has taken off!  A few larger bumblebees drop in, but they prefer the Meadowsweet (Spiarea latifolia var. alba) for the most part.

The meadowsweet is preferred by the bumblebees

I have been a little concerned with how vigorously this plant reproduces, however it is fairly easy to pull up so it can be controlled in the garden fairly easily.  It is not as aggressive a reseeder as my Bearded Beggarticks (Bidens aristosa), which I am glad to say is easily edited out by selective pulling.  The question of persistance of the seed remains.  How many years will it lie dormant in the soil? 

Also, since this bellflower is not a Massachusetts native, I wouldn't recommend its use near wild areas in this state.  But I do think it works well as a North American native that is well adapted to the conditions of the modern residential landscape, particularly under trees and along shady foundations.