Wildflower Wednesday on a Sunday

It's been a long time since I've participated in Wildflower Wednesday, almost a year in fact. But that doesn't mean I don't enjoy reading and learning about all the native plants that Gail and others post each month.  Actually, native plants and their importance to pollinators have been on my mind a lot this summer.  Last week I attended a workshop on "Pollinator Pockets," a program developed by our local Master Naturalists and Master Gardener programs to educate the community and encourage people to plant more pollinator-friendly plants.  It's a great program, and now I am officially trained as a Pollinator Pocket presenter, so I will share more about this program later--probably this winter, when I'm not knee-deep in weeding and dead-heading,

For today, though, let's look at a few of the natives blooming in my little butterfly garden, now officially designated as a "Pollinator Pocket."

For the last few weeks, the gray-headed coneflowers, also known simply as yellow coneflowers, have been commanding attention in the Butterfly Garden as they sway in the breeze above the shorter natives.  Although they are called coneflowers, they are not an Echinacea at all, but belong to another genus Ratibida pinnata.

The drooping florets are topped by a head that initially is green/gray, but gradually turns brown.  I've found no info to support my theory, but it appears that the head slowly turns brown from the bottom up, kind of like a reverse balding process.

Growing up to four feet tall, the gray-headed coneflower is a common sight in many prairie plantings and is especially attractive to many species of bees.  It's easy to grow, adapting to many soil and moisture conditions, and--so far--doesn't seem to be an aggressive spreader.

Another native blooming right now is Joe-Pye Weed,  Eutrochium spp.  Actually, I'm not sure what type of Joe-Pye weed this is; as I've mentioned before, mine looks quite different from most Joes I've seen in gardens.  The flowerheads are fluffier, the stems aren't purple, and well, frankly, it's not as pretty as other Joes.  I suspect it is a straight species of some type.  For a much more attractive plant, check out Gail's post featuring the Joe-Pye weed this WW.

Joe-Pye weeds are such bee magnets, they are a great addition to any pollinator garden.  But for gardeners who don't have room for these 5-7' tall beauties, 'Little Joe' is an excellent alternative, growing only to 3-4 feet tall.  Notice the much prettier flowerhead on my 'Little Joe' and the purple stems compared to the tall one previously.

Every spring I weed and thin out the thugs in this area and plant some new seedlings, but after that, it's pretty much on its own.  So you never know what might pop up during the season.  Smack dab in the middle of the garden right now is this Queen Anne's Lace, Daucus Carota.  Many people think of this plant as a weed, but I've always had a special fondness for it and am happy to see it make an appearance this year.  For the past couple of weeks the roadsides have been lined with Queen Anne's Lace and Chicory, one of my favorite wildflower combos that always brings a smile to my face.

Another plant that popped up rather out of place is this hollyhock.  Once I had many hollyhocks, descendants of plants from my grandmother and my husband's grandfather.  But in recent years they have fallen victim to rust, so when a new plant springs up--no matter how out of place it might be--I let it grow, hoping I'll eventually get a healthy crop of them once again.

One plant that has really grown taller this year is Tansy, Tanacetum vulgare.  This is one of those plants I purchased at a gardener's plant sale without knowing much about it.  It's actually not a native, having been introduced from Europe many years ago, and can be invasive in some places.  But it does provide nectar and pollen for small bees, flies, and wasps, and I think the button-like flowerheads are kind of cool.  We'll see if it gets too aggressive in my garden--it will have to duke it out with the asters and goldenrod first.  Sticking up in the forefront of the photo are the seedheads of blackberry lilies, whose blooms faded before I ever got a chance to photograph them.

Peeking out behind the Tansy is the Butterfly Weed, Asclepias Tuberosa.  While I have trouble getting other milkweeds to grow here for some reason, Butterfly Weed has done well, though it takes time to get established.

There are other plants blooming as well right now in the Butterfly Garden including a few coneflowers and Black-eyed Susans hiding out at the back.

Not so shy, though, are the Brown-eyed Susans, Rudbeckia triloba, blooming along one edge of this flower bed.  This plant is not for the faint of heart or one with limited garden space.  The first year it mysteriously appeared here I had one plant, the next year two or three, and this year--well, let's just say, I did a lot of digging and sending perfectly robust plants to the compost pile.

Still, these cheery blooms put on such a display late summer through fall that I just don't have the heart to eradicate them completely--as if I could:)

Native plants aren't the only choice if you are planting a pollinator-friendly garden.  Volunteer dill in the vegetable garden has been a tasty treat for some very hungry caterpillars.

You know I couldn't write a post in July without just one more coneflower:)  If I had to choose one summer-blooming plant that attracted a host of pollinators, it would have to be purple coneflowers.  Butterflies and various bees including this very large bumble bee have been enjoying these flowers since they first began to bloom in late June.

Wildflower Wednesday is held the fourth Wednesday of every month, and anyone is welcome to join in.  Thanks to Gail for always being a great hostess and welcoming even those of us who are late to the party.

Wildflower Wednesday: Invited Guests and the Party Crashers

It has been a long time since I have participated in Gail's Wildflower Wednesday.  It's been a busy summer with little time for blogging, but it also seems that most of the native plants I have don't start blooming until late summer.  I've learned so much about native plants over the years from Gail and the WW posts and added more of them to my garden as I've learned about their benefits to pollinators.  So I'm very happy to join in once again with some of the late bloomers from my garden.

If you've read my last few posts, you know that the current star of my garden is Rudbeckia triloba, also known as Brown-eyed Susan.  In fact, it's pretty hard to miss as it's taken over the front of the Lily Bed as well as parts of the Butterfly Garden.  A volunteer that mysteriously appeared in my garden a few years ago, it has made itself quite at home here.  But you can never have too many Susans, right?

Joe-Pye weed is still hanging on at the back of the butterfly garden.  As I've mentioned before, this is definitely the native species of Eutrochium purpureum because the stems are green, not purplish, and the flowerheads not as showy a pink as many of the other types.

'Little Joe,' however, has much prettier flowers and the dark purple stems that I love.  I'd like to plant more of the taller Joes with this coloring at the back of the butterfly garden, but first I have to contend with the semi-thugs that have taken up residence there . . .

 . . . the Obedient Plants.  I have a love-hate relationship with this plant:  I hate its aggressiveness and pull out numerous seedlings in the spring, but in the fall I love these white, pink, and purple blooms.

I noticed today that the pinkish blossoms actually have freckles and remind me of foxglove blooms.  Since I have never had much luck with foxgloves in my garden, perhaps I should change my attitude and think of these as the poor-man's foxglove.  The bees like them, no matter their name.

Although I have planted more natives over the past few years, the most prominent and prolific ones seem to be the ones I didn't plant.  Common Evening Primrose Oenothera biennis is one of those mystery plants that suddenly appear in my garden and I allow to let grow because I'm not sure if it's a weed or something I actually planted and forgot about.

At 6-7 feet tall, it's hard to ignore.  The flowers remain open from evening till morning, but might also stay open on a cloudy day.

Despite its classification as a "Prairie Wildflower" by the Illinois Wildflowers website, I'd classify it as a weedy wildflower.  It has a long taproot, which explains why my efforts to eradicate it have been unsuccessful.  Still, these pretty little yellow flowers are rather attractive, and they do attract moths and the occasional hummingbird and bees, so I guess they're not all bad.

Bees also like thistle as do various birds, including the goldfinches.  However, there are more than enough plants here for the bees and plenty of coneflowers for the finches, so this lone thistle--definitely a weed in my opinion--is going to have to go.

Another volunteer that appears every year is the Pokeweed.  It's another one of those with a long taproot, which is why my simply cutting it off after it blooms never quite gets rid of it.

Because it has been well-mannered so far, I usually leave it alone for awhile so the birds can enjoy the berries.  The berries, as you can see, aren't ripe yet, but when they are, they'll be a deep dark purple.  They are toxic to humans, though, and can stain your hands, so I will definitely let the birds pick them!

Goldenrod is also just beginning to bloom. I'm not sure what type this is, because all the plants are volunteers.  And talk about volunteers--it would take over my garden if I let it!   I pull some of the excess seedlings every year, but I leave the rest because, besides its value to insects, it really does make a pretty backdrop for other flowers, like these seedheads of the gray-headed coneflowers.  It also makes a nice filler for flower arrangements.

As you can see, many of the natives in my garden are actually volunteers, probably gifts from the birds.  Too often it seems the natives I actually plant in my garden don't germinate or disappear, probably overcome by the thugs already there.  But sometimes I am pleasantly surprised, as I was by the plant I wanted to focus on this month.

A few weeks ago I noticed a few tall plants amidst the emerging goldenrod and asters.  I was pretty sure they were weeds until I noticed small flowerbuds on them.  I was intrigued and decided to leave them alone.  Thank goodness I did!  When they bloomed, I was finally able to identify them as Common Sneezeweed, Helenium Autumnale.

A few facts about this Sneezeweed:

• Zone 3-8, blooms August --October
• 3-5 feet tall with not much branching but an abundance of flowers
• likes wet to moist conditions--we had the perfect spring/early summer for it this year
• the foliage is bitter and toxic, with some reports of livestock poisoning from it
• despite the name, it does not cause sneezing.  In the past, the leaves and flowers were dried and used as snuff, hence the name

Common visitors to the Sneezeweed include all kinds of bees, some wasps, Syrphid flies, butterflies, and beetles.  Most suck the nectar, but some also collect the pollen.

So how did these pretty bee-magnets find their way into my garden?? I doubted they were volunteers, so I searched through my garden journals, and sure enough, I discovered that I had purchased a seedling at our local Prairie Plant Society sale two years ago.  Because I had seen no sign of it the past two years, I had forgotten all about it--thank goodness I didn't pull it out!  Sometimes there are benefits to being forgetful--it makes for some happy surprises every year in the garden:)  Aside from that, seeing the Sneezeweed in full bloom gives me hope that some of the other natives I've planted in the past two years and haven't seen a sign of may just be biding their time and will surprise me next year.

I am enjoying all these late additions to the garden, whether they were invited or not.  For more information on wildflowers and natives, be sure to visit our gracious hostess Gail at Clay and Limestone.

Wildflower Wednesday: Pollinators Need Our Help

Today I am going to "preach to the choir. " I know that you know that many pollinators, especially honeybees and our native bumblebees, are in sharp decline.  I know you are concerned because so many of you post information on your own blogs on this subject. And if you have stopped by after visiting Gail's Wildflower Wednesday post, you already are concerned about helping the pollinators.  So I'm not going to bore you today with things you might already know, but I might have some encouraging news.

Several weeks ago I attended a panel discussion on  helping the pollinators sponsored by three area organizations and held in the County Extension auditorium.  I signed up to attend as soon as I found out about this forum, not only because of the topic, but because I really wanted to hear two of the speakers.

Echinacea Purpurea is a favorite attraction for all kinds of pollinators in my garden.

This was the first time I've had the chance to attend any kind of talk given by Dr. May Berenbaum, the head of the Entomology Department here at the University of Illinois.  Dr. Berenbaum is somewhat of a local celebrity, having started the Insect Fear Film Festival at the U of I over 30 years ago.  The film festival has received national publicity, and I just noticed the 2015 festival will be held this weekend, so stop in for some fun if you're in the area!  Dr. Berenbaum has also received a host of other more dignified academic awards, including the National Medal of Science, which she received in a White House ceremony in November.

If you read Dr. Berenbaum's history of the Insect Fear Film Festival (and it's worth reading), you can tell she is not some stuffy academician.  She is passionate about insects and sharing that passion with the public.  In the 20 minutes or so allotted to her, she gave the audience a wealth of information about the importance of pollinators, including the fact that they are worth about $20 billion to U.S. agriculture.  I learned that while the majority of pollinators are insects, 1 in 100 are vertebrates like birds, bats, and even a few lizards.

Tiny Syrphid flies, also called hoverflies, are important pollinators, too.

While the numbers of some pollinators like honeybees has declined dramatically all over the world in recent years, the interest in this topic is at an all-time high.  So the good news is that more and more people want to help!  Dr. Berenbaum ended her talk by offering some suggestions for all of us such as diversifying our landscapes, avoiding pesticides, and becoming a Bee Spotter.

Native Beebalm, also know as Monarda or Wild Bergamot

The next speaker was someone I was particularly interested in hearing, too, not because he is any kind of a celebrity, but because he is a friend of my family.  A local beekeeper continuing his family's tradition, Rev. Emil discussed the problems in managing beehives and reported that on his last inspection of his hives, there was only a 17% survival rate.  That is a pretty depressing outlook, and I was a little disappointed that he never explained the cause of losses in the hives in recent years.  Perhaps he doesn't know himself, and perhaps it is due to a combination of factors.  However, he did remark that “I haven’t learned yet how to herd bees—bees go where they want to go.”  That drew some chuckles from the audience, but it also highlighted a serious problem for managed bees as well as bees in the wild--nearby fields and lawns sprayed with pesticides.

A familiar sign to Portland Flingers--from Chickadee Gardens--an important reminder to helping the bees!

A representative from Pheasants Forever was also on the panel.  I have to be honest--I knew nothing about this organization beforehand and always assumed from the name that it was some kind of hunting group.  But quite the opposite is true--it's a group dedicated to conserving pheasants and other wildlife through habitat improvement.

A swath of yellow natives--and a wildflower corridor for bees--at a local prairie restoration area.

The speaker also happened to be a Farm Bill Biologist working in several area counties, and in that role he presented what I thought was one of the most encouraging bits of news of the afternoon.  The 2008 Farm Bill calls for more pollinator habitats and specifically is encouraging farmers to turn land not in production or unproductive land into corridors where bees and other pollinating insects can thrive.  Farmers who sign up to participate can receive wildflower seed and even some financial compensation.  This seems like such a great idea, and I hope it is successful.

The final speaker of the afternoon was our own Extension Horticulture Educator Sandy, who offered suggestions for home gardeners on how to create a pollinator-friendly landscape, including plant recommendations and allowing so-called "weeds" in the lawn like violets and white clover to grow because they are important food sources for many pollinators.

Some non-native plants are food sources for pollinators, too.  They prefer single-petaled flowers, like this cosmos, to double-petaled flowers.

 Most of Sandy's recommendations are well-known to those who garden for wildlife and pollinators, so I won't repeat them all here.  But for anyone in the audience who might not know where to start on creating a garden, she recommended a brochure from the Extension, "Plant a Pollinator Pocket."  The pamphlet includes sample designs for a small garden and makes it easy for anyone to get started--you can even download it from the Extension website here, if you wish.

Don't forget late-blooming plants like asters and goldenrods to provide nourishment in the fall.

Although the plight of many pollinators is still in peril, what was so encouraging about this whole forum was that so many people were interested in the topic. There was a standing-room-only crowd in the Extension Auditorium--more than 150 people on a chilly January afternoon.  And these were not necessarily gardeners:  I spotted some familiar Master Gardener faces and some Master Naturalists, but there were just as many farmers and other interested community members as well.  If each one of these takes some action to create a more pollinator-friendly environment on their own property, and then by their own example encourages others to do the same, think of the impact!  

For more ideas on helping the pollinators and different native plants to grow, check out other Wildflower Wednesday posts at Clay and Limestone.  A big thank-you to Gail for being one of the first to inspire me to create a more pollinator-friendly garden and a very Happy 5th WW Anniversary!

Wildflower Wednesday: Mystery Aster

Why am I always late for Wildflower Wednesday?  I don't mean a couple days late: our hostess Gail of Clay and Limestone celebrates wildflowers all month long and isn't fussy about deadlines for her monthly meme.  No, I'm talking about being a whole month late.

Back in late September I had planned to show off the New England asters that have taken over were blooming in the small butterfly/native garden.

In September these purple and various pink blooms were covered with all kinds of bees filling up with nectar for the long winter ahead.

There were also butterflies a-plenty back in September in this little backyard garden, including the late-arriving Painted Ladies, sharing the goodness with the bees.

Most of the goldenrod was also blooming back in September, its bright yellow blooms covered with all kinds of little critters.

Oh, I could have done a nice little post just on the asters and goldenrod blooming in September.  But you see, I was waiting for something else.  Two tall plants had suddenly, or so it seemed, emerged at the very back of the butterfly garden.  Earlier, I had mistakenly thought they were Obedient Plant, because the stems and leaves looked somewhat similar.  But as they grew and grew, reaching five feet, and began to show small little buds on the top stems, I realized they were something entirely different.  But what were they?

This would make an interesting addition to my Wildflower Wednesday post, I thought, and so I waited as September turned into October.  The buds turned a pinkish cast, but still did not open.

While I waited, I tried to figure out what these two plants could be.  I didn't remember planting anything in this corner, and I searched my garden journal for native plant purchases in the last year or two, with nothing noted that would look anything like this.  I consulted my two favorite wildflower references without much luck either.  Perhaps it was an Aster tataricus,  a tall, late-blooming aster.  But the leaves are alternate, and one source said this aster's leaves were opposite.  Could it be a Vernonia, or Ironweed, which does have alternate leaves?  I began to hope it was Ironweed, a plant I've always wanted to add to this area.  Only time would tell .  . .

While one week turned into the next, another flower suddenly burst into bloom at the front of the butterfly garden.  This wildflower is no stranger here, usually appearing in the fall in various places around the outbuildings.  Some time ago  I identified this as a Aster pilosus or Frost aster, also called a Hairy Aster, though I'm not 100% positive that is correct.

This is definitely a weedy wildflower and not to everyone's taste.  I usually pull them when they appear throughout the garden, but I was too lazy didn't have time to pull this one before it bloomed, and I'm actually glad I left it alone.  The bees don't care whether it's some fancy type of aster or a weedy one.  Meanwhile, back to the mystery plant . . .

After weeks of waiting, the blooms on my tall mystery plant finally appeared.  Definitely not Ironweed!  The blooms are those of an aster, but what kind?

Perhaps it's an Aster tataricus, but it doesn't quite look like the images I've found.  I have trouble distinguishing one aster--or Symphyotrichum for botanical purists--from another.  Its tall, sturdy stem sways in the breeze, but doesn't bend; it's nice to have a tall plant at the back of the garden that doesn't need staking.

The asters in the early photos have long since faded to brown, but after two weeks, this maybe-aster is still blooming, and I am no closer to solving the mystery of its identity.  I also haven't solved the mystery of how it came to be in my garden.  Perhaps it's just another of the many gifts I receive each year from the birds sharing seeds with me.  Whatever this plant is, I'm enjoying its late blooms in my garden.


Wildflower Wednesday is hosted the fourth Wednesday of every month by Gail of Clay and Limestone.