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.

Winter Weeds, Part 1

On nice winter days it is fun and interesting to take a walk through some of the wilder areas to see what plants are still standing.  An excellent guide book for this is Weeds in Winter by Lauren Brown.   This book has all kinds of useful information for winter plant ID in New England.  There’s a glossary of terms, a dichotomous key for plants described in the book and some really great illustrations of the winter appearance of these plants.  

Since this winter has been so mild in southern New England, I was able to find many of these plants right around my house.  These normally would have been crushed under piles of snow.  In fact, I found so many of them I need to split this post into two parts.  Most of these photos were taken at the end of January this year.  Here is the first of two installments of photos of my winter weeds.  

This Prairie Aster retains its strong
stems through the winter

These photos are roughly in alphabetical order.  I had already decided on the order when I remembered the name changes for the asters, so Symphyotrichum is coming first.

Aster can be difficult to ID in the winter.
Fortunately, I remembered which is which in this case.

Many of these native asters have long lasting stems.  For example, the 'bush' on the far right in the topmost photo is a Prairie Aster.

The Bigleaf Aster still has some of its seeds.

When I came across this old stem of the American Bellflower I was not sure what I was looking at.  After I few minutes I remember what had been growing in that location and narrowed it down to this species.  One advantage of using the plants around the house is that ID is a lot easier than when working in the field.

American Bellflower has distinctive seed capsules.

Sweet Pepper Bush looks like a tangle of branches in winter.  Closer examination of the older branches shows that it has exfoliating bark.  It is more easily identified by its flower spikes that stay on through the winter.

The long styles of the pistil are retained
on these dried Sweet Pepper Bush flowers.

I usually don't see the Pink Tickseed in winter.  It's growing out of the driveway and is usually covered with snow.  On close examination you can see the narrow little leaves have already started coming up.

Pink Tickseed is only 6-8" tall.

The new buds on this Sweetfern are beginning to swell.
The hairs on the stem really show up in the afternoon light.

The low angle of the sun really enhances the appearance of the stems and spent flowers of these plants.  This is particularly true for the taller plants like these River Oats.

The seeds of the River Oats are shed
slowly over the coarse of the winter.

Purple Coneflower is one of the easier plants to identify.  The old flowers retain their cone-shape even thought the seeds are long gone, either eaten by birds or scattered in the wind.

Seeds of the Purple Coneflower are all gone now

Even though it's dried up American Pennyroyal
still has its minty scent.

The last plant in this post is the American Pennyroyal.  This low growing annual is usually buried under snow there is nothing left of it when the snow melts.  The dried calyxes are arranged in whorls around the stem.  These are much easier to see now that all the leaves are gone.

Well pregame is nearly over, so it's time to close down the computer and start watching the Super Bowl.

Go Pats!!!!

Under the Norway Maple - Part 2

As the growing season is slowly coming to a close I thought I would revisit the status of the native species I have be evaluating under my Norway Maple.  There have been some improvements and some failures and one plant that I thought I lost has returned in a different spot.  In general many of the plants continuing to grow, only slower and smaller due to competition from the mature Maple.

Maturing berries of Winterthur Viburnum start off
bright green, then turn pink, then finally dark blue.

First the good news.  After 4 years of growing with no berries, I finally got a good crop from my Winterthur Viburnum (Viburnum nudum 'Winterthur').  While it had been slogging along at the edge of the tree canopy, it produced no fruit until I brought in a native form last fall.  This year, with the cross pollination, mature berries were produced for the first time here.

Another plant the seems to be catching on is the Northern Sea Oats (Chasmantheum latifolium) that I moved in last year.  These overwintered and grew fairly well in the shade along the back fence.  I would like this grass to grow up and obscure the chain-link fence.  A new addition, that seems to be working out is the Bluestemmed Goldenrod (Solidago caesia).  The native habitat for this plant is in open woods, so at least this plant is used to the shade.



The Northern Sea Oats are doing well along the fence. 
The new Bluestemmed Goldenrod is in full bloom (late September)
and the Witchhazel is just getting started 



The Green and Gold (Chrysogonum virginianum) that I thought had faded away returned in a new spot and looked healthier this year than when it was first planted 4 years ago. 

I transplanted a lot of 2nd year American Bellflowers (Campanulastrum americanum, a biennial) along the back edge of the garden.  These did well though early and mid-summer until they died out after completing their bloom cycle.  The test will be whether new plants return from the seed. 

The biennial Allegheny Vine (Adlumia fungosa) did not come back with any new seedlings this year (unless they were lost in the spreading Virginia Creeper).  A new addition that I thought would work but did not do well was Canada anemone (Anemone canadensis); I will keep a eye out for this next spring.

Successes

Other plants that are expanding are:

The Rosinweed is standing tall while the Smooth Aster
and Showy Goldenrod have flopped forward toward the sun.

American Pennyroyal (Hedeoma pulegioides, an annual returning from seed), Smooth Aster (Symphyotrichum laeve), Heartleaf Aster (Symphyotrichum cordifolium), Rosinweed (Silphium integrifolium), Showy Goldenrod (Solidago speciosa), Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia, now the dominant grond cover), and Wafer Ash (Ptelea trifoliata).

I should give a shout out to the Rosinweed.  While it does not have the prettiest flowers, it was in bloom all summer.  Then, I cut the spent blooms back to some new flower buds and got the second flush shown in the photo.  (Cutting back when no buds are present just leaves you with a leafy stem; I tried that last year.)

Plants holding their own:

  

Christmas Fern, Bellwort and Wild Bleeding Heart
have looked good all season.

 Male Fern (Dryopteris filix-mas), Christmas Fern (Polystichum acrostichoides), Rosey sedge (Carex rosea), Alumroot (Heuchera villosa),  Black Huckleberry (Gaylussacia baccata), Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta), Lowbush Blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium), Dutchman's Pipe (Aristolochia macrophylla), Largeflower bellwort (Uvularia grandiflora), Twinleaf (Jeffersonia diphylla), Wild Bleeding Heart (Dicentra eximia), Witchhazel (Hamamelis virginiana )

Fading or gone:

Barren Strawberry (Waldsteinia fragariodes) has disappeared and the Canada Mayflower (Maianthemum canadense) was down to only two sprigs in the spring before it disappeared.  Hairy Solomon’s Seal (Polygonatum pubescens) has been in this area for 4 years but it now seems to be in decline.  I put in a new one this fall and am hoping for its return.

Plants that should work, planned for next season:

Last year I planned to put in Labrador violet (Viola labradorica) and Maple-leaf viburnum (Viburnum acerifolium) but didn't.  I'll try to get those for next spring.  I will will also give the Canada Anemone another shot.  I also have some Large-leaf Aster (Eurybia macrophylla) that I should move over, seeing as it usually does well in dry shade.

In addition to using plants that are strong competitors that can get their share of moisture there are some maintenance practices that will help the understory plants survive under the Norway Maple (or other mature tree for that matter).  Limbing up and thinning the canopy to let in more sunlight helps a lot. Also, new plants should be irrigated deeply the first year to get them established, as well as under droughty conditions (mid-summer). I have a rain barrel with a special low pressure soaker hose to help with this.  Returning the leaf mulch to the understory area helps to build the soil.

Asters in New England

Another thing besides beautiful foliage that New England has in the fall is an abundance of native asters. In the Massachusetts County Checklist there are 27 species of Aster indigenous to Massachusetts. (Technically speaking, however, there are no more New World asters, they have been reclassified into a number of new genera including Doellingeria, Eurybia, Ionactis, and Symphyotrichum.)  A few of these native species, such as the purple New England Aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae) and Bushy Aster (S. dumosum) have become common in many gardens with cultivars such as ‘Alma Potschke’ and ‘Wood’s Purple’.  I would like to call attention to some commercially less common species that I have purposely grown or that have appeared around my house.

One of my favorites, which I have grown from seed is the Smooth Aster, Symphyotrichum laeve. This is a medium tall aster that grows in full to part sun and relatively dry soils. Its stems are strong enough that it does not always needed to be staked. However like many asters cutting back by 1/3 at the end of June gives a stronger, bushier plant. The flowers are usually a lavender blue measuring over 1” wide. In this photo are some freely seeded plants that show some variation in flower color. These are most commonly commercially available as the ‘Bluebird’ cultivar.

The Big-leaf Aster, Eurybia macrophylla, is early blooming and grows well in dry shade. My plants started blooming in late June and did not start going to seed until early September. Here we see the fuzzy seed heads and a few residual blooms. This species will spread by both seed and rhizomes. It forms dense mounds of foliage and can be used as a ground cover.  And It's still not bad looking when the seed heads replace the flowers.

Another shade tolerant species is the White Wood Aster, Eurybia divaricata. This species also grows in dry shade, e.g. upland woods. It blooming period is later than for the big leaf aster and it can be a vigorous spreader. This photo was taken at Mount Auburn Cemetery, but they are quite common in the woods in New England.

Two species that grow like weeds around my house are Heart-leaved Aster and Arrow-leaved Aster, Symphyotrichum cordifolium and S. urophyllum, respectively. Structurally these two asters are very similar. The most obvious difference is that the flowers of Heart-leaf asters tend toward blue-violet shades, while the Arrow-leaved asters are whiter.

In the garden they form clouds of light colored flowers that stand out against darker colored foliage.

I purchased the Heart-leaved aster thinking it would combine well with my yellow cone flowers (Rudbeckia), but the cone flowers are just passing as the aster begins to open up in mid-September. I need to find a later blooming yellow for this combination to work, such as the annual Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta), or a late blooming Goldenrod like the ‘Fireworks’ cultivar (Solidage rugosa ‘Fireworks’). The Arrow-leaved aster just blew onto my property on its own.

 

The last aster that I have been working with is the Smooth Violet Prairie Aster (S. turbinellum). This aster is not native to New England, rather its home is in the Plains States. I got this plant for use in a parking lot island, where it gets no extra watering or special care, 4 years ago and it is still going strong. It has profuse blue-violet blooms from September to October on relatively stiff stems. The only care I give this plant is to cut it back by 1/3-1/2 in late June to keep it from getting too tall and flopping over.

 

My first preference was to use the Smooth Aster (a New England Native) on this site, but that plant was not available at the time of installation. I had only a single pot of Smooth Aster to put in at the time.  While it is still surviving there, the Prairie Aster is really doing well in that location (and the bees love it, too).