Hurray!

Butterfly Weed bloom

Yes!  Today the first Butterfly Weed  bloomed.  What a gorgeous flower.  This bloom is loaded with nectar and, as its name implies, is supposed to be a butterfly magnet.  The Monarch butterfly often lays its eggs on this plant.  Then when they hatch into caterpillars, the leaves they feed on are right there at their feet!  The only food a Monarch butterfly caterpillar eats is Milkweed.  Butterfly Weed is a milkweed.    In addition to butterflies, bees and hummingbirds will enjoy this flower.  Personally, I can't see enough hummingbirds.  Our Ruby Throated Hummingbird is the only hummingbird that regularly nests east of the Rockies.  How delighted we are when we are sitting outside, they zoom right up, hover inches in front of our faces and check us out.  They are such curious little creatures.  I can't imagine I'll be able to get a shot of a hummingbird drinking from this plant, but if I'm patient, maybe a butterfly will sit still long enough for me to take a picture. 

Drilling Deep



Prairie Smoke

Yesterday I was discouraged at the slow growth of some of my new natives.  Then.....Eureka!   I realized that little Prairie Smoke plant is busy doing its native thing.  It is happily growing its roots down, down deep.  Deep so it can survive the Northwest Ohio climate that is sometimes very dry, sometimes very wet, and sometimes very cold.  Much  better for it to get itself ready first, then it can show me its beauty later, maybe next year.  You go little Prairie Smoke.  I can wait.  Then of course, I had to ask myself, "Well little guy, how deep are you growing your roots?".  Then the googling began and I found an astounding chart.  This chart lists a group of native prairie plants and graphically shows their root systems.  Check it out.  Most of these native prairie plants' roots grow to five feet deep or more; several to 10 feet, and a couple others to even 15 feet deep.   Compare the Kentucky Blue Grass shown on the chart as growing a mere 5 or 6 inches into the soil.   So what?  These deep roots enable the plants to take up moisture from much deeper in the ground, enabling it to well survive drought.  And that means, once established, I don't have to water these plants.  Secondly, these deep drilling roots can suck up a lot of moisture and minimize runoff.  And that means less flooding; the land is more able to manage the water the environment gives it.  That makes these particular plants great for rain gardens.  Many of them produce beautiful flowers, pleasing the eye, and nurturing the butterflies and other native pollinators our fruits and vegetables need.  These are some of the reasons we choose natives over cultivated varieties.  And that is what I learned today.

Tiny But Mighty



Columbine seeds

Columbine seedlings

Yesterday, I told you about the Columbine seed I discovered in the refrigerator and my haphazard method of sowing it.   Here's how the little seedlings look today.   After collecting some more seed, I thought you'd like to see how tiny it is. 



First Year Prairie Smoke Plant

Small First Year Bed

Looking at one of our new beds, sparsely planted with  wonderful but tiny first year specimens, I find myself a little discouraged. Some of the specimens are still so small, it's hard for me to visualize how this bed will look after the plants have taken hold and filled in. This one bed has 7 Prairie Smoke, 9 Blue Eyed Grass, and 3 Prairie Dropseed.  Some of the Prairie Smoke plants aren't much bigger than a 50 cent piece. I know they'll be spectacular when they are blooming next year. This plant will grow to 16 inches and produce a wispy flower. When the wind blows, it will look like smoke rising from the top of the plant. I can't wait.  This is especially tough for me because I want instant results.  Patience Grasshopper.

White Snakeroot and the Doctrine of Signatures

Not Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, but today's title reminds me of that movie name.  At the plant rescue the other day, I asked my native plant mentor how this False Solomon's Seal we were harvesting, got its name.  She said scars on the root of Solomon's Seal supposedly looked like the seal of Solomon.  And False Solomon's Seal was just something of a look a like.  Then 3 dreaded words - "your homework tonight"   AGH!  "Since you're so interested in plant names, look up  'the Doctrine of Signatures'.  Today while checking up on the newly planted natives, I saw all that White Snakeroot growing in my "wild area".  And that got me to thinking, how did snakeroot get is name?  And then I realized I hadn't done my homework. 

Largely using Wikipedia, I see the Doctrine of Signatures is a philosophy still used today.  It was started by some very old dudes, way before the Gregorian calendar was started.  In a nutshell, the doctrine said that parts of herbs that looked like parts of the body, could be used as medicine to help cure whatever was wrong with that particular part of the body.  Snakeroot was used by Native Americans as a treatment for snakebite.  Ah ha!  But before you run out and brew up some snakeroot tea for your next snakebite, STOP!  Snakeroot is poisonous.  People got very sick when they drank milk from cows who used to eat a lot of this.  It has been reported that Abraham Lincoln's mother died from this "milk sickness".  Do NOT used Snakeroot for your ailments.   A few other plant names resulting from this philosophy include toothwort, liverwort, and our beloved Bloodroot, but don't try thse plant "remedies" at home.    Enough homework for now.

Bloodroot Seedling in tree stump

Fun little discovery;  I was pulling up the Snakeroot near an old tree stump, and there poking up from one of the cracks in the rotted wood, was a single, solitary Bloodroot.    We are fortunate to have a lot of Bloodroot in our yard.  The title picture for this blog was taken on our property.  A bird or some other creature, deposited a seed in this piece of rotting stump.  Now, this little guy may or not survive here, but it  sure is interesting to see how our native plants find their own homes. 



Amazing!  Two years ago shortly after my first Native Plant seed collecting volunteer session with the Wood County Parks, I decided I'd collect my Columbine seeds at home.  Then I'd sow them in flats and get lots of Columbine to plant around the yard.  I dutifully collected seeds, stuck them in a paper envelope, and put them in the refrigerator.  Then I forgot about them.  Now two years later, I find them.  I didn't want to take the time to sow them in flats and carefully tend to them until transplanting time.  Oh well.  Several weeks ago, I sprinkled them into a shady foundation bed in the front.   I couldn't believe it.  Today I noticed dozens and dozens of tiny little Columbine sprouts. 

Columbine leaves

I've collected a lot of seed from this year's Columbine blooms.  In spite of taking so many seeds, as I walk by brushing the plants, I can hear more of the tiny black seed falling down through the leaves, some onto the front walk.  Soon, I'll cut the scraggly plant tops off just to tidy them up.   At this point in the early summer the lower leaves remain quite striking.

Blooms and Unhappy Wahoo



Ohio Spiderwort w/insect

Purple Coneflower

After yesterday's marathon planting session, I dreaded starting in again.  Nonetheless I vowed  to finish planting the remaining rescues.  However, I was quickly sidetracked by several marvelous blooms.  The Ohio Spiderwort continues to bloom and this mid morning scene with a tiny insect enjoying the nectar demanded I take a picture.  Then I noticed the new Purple Cornflower was showing its first bloom.  This bed will be truly spectacular when all these plants fill out. 

A quick check showed that all yesterday's plantings survived the midnight digging creature.  Not a single one was disturbed.  Take that you masked marauder (probably a raccoon).  I guess it just couldn't deal with that new fangled wire contraption pinned to freshly turned dirt.


I  put a few more Wild Ginger into the new front yard bed along with several clumps of Bottlebrush Grass.  There's still a lot of empty space here.  I really want to keep this one bed totally native.  So I'll transplant some of the Bloodroot from an adjoining bed.  I am tempted to divide some Hostas (non native) to help fill in until I get some natives to take up the slack.

Unhappy Wahoo

Sadly the Wahoo looks even worse today.  I'm not holding much hope for it.  Of the other two I planted in the woods, only one looks happy.  I brought these larger plants home from Thursday's rescue as bare root plants (i.e.  no dirt around them).  I did put them all in a bucket with a  little bit of water and wrapped the roots in a very wet towel.  Perhaps that just wasn't sufficient.  Maybe I should have immersed their roots in water for the two days until planting.  Or maybe I should have just sucked up the energy and quickly planted them in a temporary location.  I think that should have been first choice. 



I finished planting the remaining Wild Ginger, and Bottlebrush Grass in a wetter area of the backyard woods at the edge of a small ravine.  Gathering up my planting tools (including my resurrected trowel) I was surrouned by a raucous chorus of bird song.  Apparently several broods of Titmouse had fledged and decided it was time for their parents to bring them food. 

As I walked around the front to make sure I had all my tools, I found these late blooming Columbine. 

All the rescue plants are planted.  Now I can rest for a while and enjoy.

Bone Tired

Bottlebrush Grass

For the past two days I've been dreaming of the the Bottlebrush Grass I passed up at the plant rescue Thursday night.  So I high tailed it back over there today to fill my bags.  A beautiful sunny day with the sound of children playing in the neighboring backyard mingled with the sounds of chickadees and titmouse flitting around in the trees. 

On the way, I stopped at several stores to find a replacement trowel.  None had one with the features I now have to have.  I couldn't believe it.  Not a single trowel with WI-FI, GPS, or location tracking.  Go figure.  (see the posting about the traumatic trowel incident).  I guess I'll just have to tie a helium balloon to my next one.

I was successful at bagging quite a few Bottlebrush Grass and a few more Wild Ginger.  I then set out to gain a few more Jack in the Pulpits.  Alas - my eyes just aren't trained well enough to see these lurking amongst all the other growth.  Had my patient native plant mentor, Jan been with me, she probably would probably have asked me to quit trampling all over them.  Nonetheless, I proceeded to the front of the lot to organize my collection and WHAM....

Plant Rescue Lot

The next door neighbor, who was gathering his family into a car, turned and looked at me and .....COMPLAINED.   Huh?  He said a lot of us had been decimating the plants from that lot, marching around where we shouldn't, and taking plants from areas where we shouldn't.  I assured him I had permission and was working well within the boundaries permissioned by the landowner.  He then said he pitied the new homeowner who wouldn't have these plants.  OUCH!  He then left with his family and I continued gathering my things.  As I put things into my truck, I looked at this neighbor's home.  It was a beautiful home with a carefully manicured lawn and landscape.  Not a single native plant was visible.  Then my mind jumped to how this wooded lot I just left would look once the bulldozer was done and the new home built there.   It will probably be much the same as the neighbors.  There's a reason they call our activity a "plant rescue".  The truth is these plants would be gone and no one would have them to enjoy if we hadn't rescued them.  Oh well.  I guess the importance of saving and using our native plants isn't obvious to everyone.  It's taken me an awfully long time to get here.  [Jan Hunter:  I too, doubt that the new landowner is going to retain any native areas: most is Poison Ivy infested; and the neighbor that approached you, with his sterile landscape, may have seen too many cars/people in the past week or two and is fed up with that. I have spoken with him before, and he’s really very nice, so he must have been having a bad day or something. I am sure that if the neighbor does try to save some natives that there are MANY that will come up in the spring: trillium, jacks, doll’s eyes, turk’s cap lily, spicebush, bloodroot, etc; they are just not visible now.]

Arriving home, I first started to plant the rescues from Thursday night, and miracle of miracles.    There in the bottom of the trash bag containing the first digs, was....THE TROWEL.  Hallelujah!  My beloved one piece cast aluminum, red rubber handled trowel.  I guess I've got to somehow make up for wasting so much of my mentor's time the other night.  Weeding?  [Jan Hunter:  Not sure if that is grounds for murder...]

Six hours of planting today.   One of the Eastern Wahoo replaced a dead Viburnum in the front yard.  But the Wahoo isn't looking so good.  If it doesn't make it, I'll replace it with one of the others that I planted out in the back woods.  Some of the False Solomon's Seal, Virginia Wild Rye, and Wild Ginger is helping to fill in a lot of the empty place still in the new front yard native bed.  The rest of the plants went into various areas of the backyard.   

Under cover of darkness, some unknown creature loves to dig up my new plantings.  I've had to replant some 5 times before the creature leaves the new plant alone.  This time I cut up some small pieces of hardware cloth and pinned these to the soft ground immediately surrounding the new plants.  We'll see if that works.

Tomorrow - finish planting and rest.  That dang critter better not dig everything up.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Site of plant rescue

Oh My Gosh!  My head is spinning.   I got to go on a Plant Rescue.  Yes, that's right, a Plant Rescue.  The bulldozer was going to be there any time now to doze down this shady, wooded lot in a new residential neighborhood.  With the land owner's permission, for about a year, Jan Hunter has been harvesting various native plants from this site in advance of the eventual clearing for a new home.  Tonight, she took me through the overgrown piece of land, pointing out numerous plants that I'd either bought, had only heard about, or had never heard of.  Wow!  In addition to digging up plants for herself, she helped me dig dozens of Wild Ginger, and Jack in the Pulpit.  We also dug up Virginia Wild Rye, Doll's Eyes, Bottlebrush Grass, Wahoo (a native Euonymus), and some unidentified sedges,    And just a couple of months ago, I thought there weren't any good native plants for the shady wooded areas of our yard.  WRONG.  This was a real cornucopia of good woodland native plants.  And FREE.  After about an hour of loading up our bags with these treasures, another member of our local Wild Ones organization arrived and added to her own collection of plants.  (Wild Ones is a non profit organization dedicated to the use of native plants.)  In another couple of weeks, all these plants will be destroyed.  This happens over and over again.  Fortunately this particular builder is sensitive to native plants and the green movement.  But I can just imagine that fire breathing, diesel drinking, smoke belching, bulldozer lowering its blade and scraping away these plants.  Perhaps I'll be able to get a picture of that event.  In the meantime, I'll certainly be busy planting all these rescued native plants. 

While traipsing through the thick undergrowth, Jan kindly continued my education.  It was like taking a drink from a fire hose.  Why do so many plants have Canada or Virginia in their Latin names?  Generally these were the places these plants were discovered and documented.  We also talked about mosquito spraying.  I didn't know  that within several days after a community sprays for mosquitoes, the mosquitoes are back in equal or greater number?  Unfortunately, the spray has not only killed a lot of pollinators, the chemical has gotten into our own bodies.  That can't be good. 

There was one casualty of this field trip.  In the excitement of digging up the first clump of ever abundant Wild Ginger, I laid down my trusty hand trowel.  We spent a good 15-20 minutes trying to find my beloved little shovel.  To no avail.  It'll certainly be no match for that bad, big-bladed bulldozer.  So if one day you are digging in the garden of your newly built house and find a nice, one piece, cast-aluminum, red rubber handled garden trowel, send me note and let me know how much you like it.

Tuesday, June 22, 2011

This was an exciting day. Returning from some errands I found Jan Hunter and her team planting the last of our Phase I Native Plant plan. They removed the aggressive carpet bugle (ajuga)we had growing around some stone steps in the backyard. The replacement is Wild Ginger. We left several coral bells and hostas I couldn't let go of, but moved a few Columbine to the new front bed in the front yard.

However, the real highlight was having Jan walk through the wooded area with me.  We identified and tagged many of the woodland plants she installed last month.  Those included many Brown Eyed Susans, some Flat Topped Asters, Woodland Phlox, Doll's Eyes, Canada Anemone, and Wood Mint.  During our walk, we continually pulled invasives such as Honeysuckle, and Wild Garlic.  They are certainly much fewer than some years ago when my wife and I started removing these.  Perhaps the reduction of those undesirable plants has allowed the Natives we found to take hold.  Jan was thrilled to show me Doll's Eyes, Jacob's Ladder, Waterleaf, Wild Rye, Wingstem, and Bloodroot; all native plants growing naturally.   There was even a large flowering Dogwood.  I wonder how many of these I've trampled in prior years.  By the end of our trip, the poor lady was probably tired of my unending questions.  What's this plant?  How about that one?  Which ones are native but not very desirable?  What's this one?  Oh a goldenrod.  "Just keep it from spreading too much." she responded. 

And of course, I almost forgot to show her the Trillium I found growing in the front.  Funny when she looked at me with a wry smile and said it wasn't a trillium.  Just a hosta, probably one just like the one next to it. 

She looked at all last month's plantings and told me to water the Columbines located in the front "island" bed.  Transplanted natives do require some nurturing while they are getting established.  These plants probably should have had some water to get them through this blistering heat.  Hope it's not too late.

UGH!  After the Columbine watering, I found one of the budding Butterflyweed plants broken off right at ground level.  The footprint in the mulch matched my shoe perfectly.  Darn it.  I took the broken stalk, peeled off some lower leaves and put it in a jar of water.  Will it send out some roots?  Probably not, but I hope so.  Maybe I'll try some rooting hormone. [Jan Hunter:  I doubt if the Butterflyweed will sprout roots! The tuber will be fine, will produce another stem or two this year, may bloom late, but will definitely come back next year.]


A small part of the side yard, near the woods, I've let grow up, not knowing what were desirable Native Plants and which weren't.  I'll call this the wild part of our native landscape plan.  Jan identified most of it as White Snakeroot, a very common native plant.  So I'll begin pulling that to see what else might come up instead.  However,  for the last five days or so, an Eastern Pewee frequently perches on a nearby bird feeder pole.   Apparently this wild area is producing a lot of tasty flying insects.  It is thoroughly enjoyable to see the aerobatics involved in the Pewee's capture of this food.  He can turn upside down on half a dime, grab the insect, and U turn back to the perch.

Monday, June 20, 2011

The new Butterflyweed, Virginia Mountain Mint, and Purple Coneflower in our front “island” bed are budding up and getting ready to bloom. I didn’t expect any flowers from them this first year. The Ohio Spiderwort and Columbine have already finished flowering. Last month, Jan Hunter and her crew from Naturally Native Nursery did a fantastic job of planting these natives grown from seed in her nursery.
Apparently the Serviceberry berries are ripening. The Robins and chipmunks are rapidly stripping the fruit from the small trees. I’ve got to get some harvested for my own seeding efforts.
The older Columbines that have just grown up naturally are almost through blooming and many of them are already producing seed. I’ll collect a lot of this seed and sow in various parts of the yard. I may keep some of the seed to sow in flats.

Beardtongue

The Beardtongue I planted last year is now in full bloom. There are also several “volunteer” specimens that sprouted in a backyard unused flower pot. Along with a couple of Columbines, I let these seedlings grow where they rooted.

Volunteer Beardtongue

Sunday, June 19, 2011



Juvenile Solomon's Seal

Today I transplanted 3 Purple Coneflowers to the new front yard native bed. I also moved two clumps of juvenile Solomon's Seal. I was rather aggressive in dividing the Columbine and Purple Coneflowers transplanted earlier in the month. They aren’t looking very good right now, but I expect most of them will come back fine next year. These newer transplants were moved in larger clumps without any division. So they look much better and look like they may provide a bloom or two soon.

I keep checking the Brown Eyed Susans growing strong in the shady part of the back side yard. No flower buds showing yet. I am anxious to see how these do. I acquired these 6 seedlings from the Wood County Park system last year. I do a lot of volunteer work in their native plant restoration program. Last year, the manager gave me several leftovers at the end of one volunteer planting session. There is also a Tall Ironweed growing here even though it isn’t supposed to do well in the shade. I also acquired this from the Wood County Parks.

Introduction

My conversion to Urban Landscaping with Native Plants

Spring Bloodroot flowers

Ok.I’ve been bitten.Over the past 5 or so years, through my own interest in gardening and landscaping, certification in the Master Gardener program, reading, volunteering with the Wood County Parks’ native plant restoration efforts, attending numerous lectures, and talking with Jan Hunter of Naturally Native Nursery, I’ve become convinced Native Plants are the way to go.Gradually we’ll convert our traditional landscape to native plants.We’ll replace as many cultivars and exotic plants as possible with natives.

WHY? Good question.

Native plants are much less maintenance.They are naturally designed to live here, in the very type of soil we’ve all got.They’ve grown here for hundreds of years with no help from mankind.They live with the water and nutrients the environment gives them.

Native plants are the base of the food web for our native wildlife.Our pollinating butterflies and other insects depend on these native plants.These plants provide the nutrition and habitat that our wildlife need.The butterflies, beneficial insects, and birds that we all like to see in our yards, grew up on these plants.Hybridized, commercial landscape plants don’t provide these same benefits.Many of the commercial nursery plants have limited nutritional value even though they look pretty and are readily eaten by birds.Invasive plants have crowded out much of our native habitat.I’ve heard it said that birds feasting on the berries from the invasive bush honeysuckle are like our children living on Twinkies.Some invasives have defensive mechanisms that actually kill the young of butterflies fooled into thinking this plant is their natural host plant.Diabolical, huh? Is it any wonder that we don’t have the variety and quantities of butterflies that we used to?There are many, many species of bees native to Ohio.One lecturer I heard said that our native bees are much more efficient and productive pollinators than the imported European honeybee. However, we’re allowing invasive plants to gradually eradicate this important part of our environment.Returning to native plants will help restore the diminishing and endangered wildlife that makes our life so rich.

Native plants don’t require fertilizer and other chemicals to help them flourish.Our existing soils provide everything they need.Many of our commercial fertilizers are byproducts of oil.Many of us feel our dependence on oil has hurt us, both financially and psychologically.The fertilizers and weed killing chemicals we apply to our lawns and landscapes run off into the water stream.There they cause poisonous algae blooms, killing fish and other aquatic life, and degrading the quality of our water supply.There is only so much water available on Earth.Here in Northwest Ohio we are lucky to have so much fresh water.We need to use it responsibly and respectfully.

In short, God made these plants to survive, and thrive all by themselves.Cheaper, less maintenance, better for the environment, better for us - we just have to preserve and enjoy them.

Now I can’t say every single plant in our landscape will be replaced with natives.I’ve spent a lot of time and energy propagating numerous hostas and planting other hybridized perennials in our landscape.I’ll definitely have a hard time letting some of it go.Our lawn is a source of numerous compliments from neighbors.Over the 13 years we’ve been here, I’ve carefully nurtured it.However, it is definitely high and expensive maintenance.Every time I cut the grass, I’m thinking what a waste it is.It is a biological wasteland.I am reducing the lawn size where possible. Our suburban lot was clearly a rich, shady woodland as species such as bloodroot, Jacob’s ladder, Solomon’s seal, trout lily and Virginia waterleaf have spontaneously appeared in our landscape!

In this blog, I’m going to document the psychological transformation of my mind to embracing the Native Plant culture.In addition, I’ll chronicle the transformation of our landscape to a Native Plant habitat.I’ll share my struggles in making the change and the evolution of my thinking from the “old way” to the new enlightened way.

Stay tuned.

[Note:Jan Hunter has agreed to watch over my shoulder and make sure I’m not posting bogus information.As she offers corrections, I’ll post them as notes to the original posting.Thanks Jan]