Do you garden with Native Plants?

Kathleen...the pictures are absolutely gorgeous!

Thanks, ErikRyan. I do enjoy the property here.

Yellow and purple - just grand, Kathleen.

I hear (and here) you on the goldenrod. Solidago is solidly grounded around the Valley and partners extremely well with ironweed (Vernonia) as far as being rewardingly colorful and prolific with no extra help. Both plants offer winter interest for people and birds, too.

Now, if only I could find a picture...

Thanks, that was a particularly good year. There are also black eyed susans, swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) and several non-natives mixed in there. It really needs some tidying, I pretty much just planted it and left it on its own. I do scatter seeds down in every year and mow the edges. Occasionally, I have to do some goldenrod yanking just to keep it from taking over.

The asters are fun, they've done some cross breeding and occasionally there's a new flower color. I now have some paler pink and some tiny whites that are just a tad lilac hued. One of the New York asters is absolutely electric blue in the sun.

I also have a couple of shade beds with jack-in-pulpits, trilliums in a couple different colors, spring beauties (Claytonis virginica), Solomon's seal (Polygonatum biflorum), hepatica, Virginia bluebells and a yard full of trout lilies (Erythronium americanum).

So many beautiful flowers, I love the Goldenrod, Aster, and Ironweed together too.
Which Vernonia do you have VV?
Josephine.

That could be my alias - Vernonia Valley - if I ever get tired of viburnums.

I believe the local one is Vernonia gigantea (formerly known as Vernonia altissima), the Tall Ironweed. And tall it gets; it is not unusual for 7-8 footers to jostle for position in plantings around my porch. This is just fine, because it then puts the flower heads right at sniffer level.

These are very tough drought resistant wildflowers. Anyone who has tried to eliminate one from where it is unwanted would know why. The root system is stout, deep, and wide-spreading.

I really need to take some pics of perennials once in awhile, though the woody plants are my favorites.

Great pictures Kathleen, what I really like about your bed is that you put it out close to the road. You know folks will be stopping and asking you what they are when you are working out there--good way to let them know about the natives!
Debbie
=)

I have Western ironweed, Vernonia baldwinii, it can get pretty tall too, I am going to try cutting it back in June and see if i can keep it more manageable. Some people do that and say it works great.

Just discovered this lovely thread, Josephine!
I use quite a lot of native wild plants in my tiny town garden, because they are so charming and give me a good feeling..
As photo's can say so much more than words, I'll post only a couple here (it's getting late on my side of the globe!)..

Fritillaria meleagris; pic. from last year;

Pulmonaria officinalis;

Love that Frit bonitin!

Gent...they are both quite lovely.

Sorry bonitin...should put my glasses on when typed Gent.

Thanks Deb!
Never mind Erikryan, lol!
Just a last one before going to bed;
this is a volunteer that came up, last year on the border of my pond, it's originally native to America but has become part of the wild flora over here..

a detail;

oops, forgot to give its name; it's Rudbeckia hirta.

How neat Bonitin, I know by your posts on other threads that you are a great plant lover, and a very creative one too, it is great to have you posting here.
Josephine.

frostweed I always am intrigued at the abilities of native plants to survive in there native locations. For example our northwestern Missouri ice storm in Dec. 2008 just caused havoc with introduced species (broken limbs, splitting, even death) yet the best survivors seems to be those native trees and plants that are better adapted to the periodic ice events that this part of the country has come to expect. They just seem wired or programmed better to survive our midwest heat and humidity,droughts, rainy seasons, cold, ice, snow, wind, hail, etc. Many native trees were damaged but no comparison to the introduced species people try to grow for quick results or shade.
I like native plants and count on them to perform the best. I like to plant varieties of them too(trees,shrubs, and flowers).

Cuckoo

Yes, native plants know how to survive the weather, unfortunately they can't survive destruction brought on by humans, that is why we have to protect them.
I am glad so many people are waking up, and using them more.
Josephine.

The Western Ironweed in my yard has made a bit TOO many plants. I'm thinking of moving some near the dry creek to see if it can survive out there, but it's just been too dry. I can't water out there other than just carrying a little water can.

after many (costly) gardening faux pas, i'm trying to stay Native; they seem to re-
quire a lot less effort & money to keep 'em alive, & they bring in a lot more of the
local critters. (oh if only i had a big enough wooded property to be worried about
deer!).

I have added a few natives to my yard already. I put in 3 Ocotillo 3 years ago. All were roughly the same size - maybe a foot tall. Two I planted at the front and side of my yard near a fairly low block wall. They will recieve lots of sunshine once they grow above the wall but their feet will always be very limited in the amount of sunshine they get - only when the sun is high in the sky. These two ocotillo have just doubled in size though they appear very healthy their growth rate is very slow when compared to the third Ocotillo I planted.
The third ocotillo was planted against a south facing section of the back wall of my home. It is surrounded on 3 sides by white stucco. This apprx. 3'X8' section of my yard is reserved for plants that are happy in near blast-furnace conditions! This ocotillo is very happy and is approaching 6' already. Amazing difference!
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/57648/
http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=FOSP2

Angele, the ocotillo is a really neat plant. I've seen people use it as a hedge or fence in Arizona, where I grew up. I think they can stop deer but not too sure about javelinas. I love all the photos, everybody. I am so glad I found this forum. Lots of inspiration.

Hi all :)

I'm really enjoying this thread and seeing all of the wildflowers! I've been trying to incorporate some wild plants in my gardens, to name a few, golden rod, gateway JPW, just WS some: ironweed, cup plant, little joe pye weed, cypress pine, high-bush cranberry, painter's palette, devil's club and new england asters so far, already have some wild asters in purple and white, a wild sunflower that gets like 9' tall, chocolate JPW, butterfly weeds to name a few. I have two wild bird gardens that have a lot of natives in it and one of them will get bigger each year hoping it will take the field over in a few more years, I'm trying to attract quial, we used to have a lot here when I was a child but not anymore I've only seen one here in the 7 yrs. I've been out here now. I'm doing a lot of grasses this year to thanks to a generous DG'er on here :) Oh I have several black eyed susans, can't forget those they spread everywhere lol

Just a note to Bonitin, I found some seeds to that lovely Begonia grandis and have some growing downstairs as we speak :)

Thanks Josephine! But somehow I hesitate to continue as the native plants over here are not native to the US, so I might cause confusion.. Thinking about the concern that some wild species from f.ex. Europe introduced in the US could become invasive and endanger the local flora...(and vise versa)
My standpoint about this is not rigid though, there are foreign species introduced in Europe that I find an enrichment of the local flora and a great nectar-source for the local insects, like the China originated Buddleja davidii, but then of course there are really dangerous ones like the extremely invasive and aggressive Japanese knotweed that seems to be undestroyable ..
Then there is also the natural evolution of species travelling according to changing climate conditions. So some that were foreigners became natives...

I once started a thread about native plants in the European forum, there were nice responses, but it eventually died; there are not so many European DGrs...

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/739829/

The Western Ironweed is charming Linda!

bonitin, I love your posts and hope you continue with them in this forum. What is native for me here in New Mexico, USA can be very different than what is native in another part of the USA so we all just have to do a little research to see what is what. DG is an international site for sure.

Welcome LeBug! I'd love to hear more. I am hoping to use a lot of natives in my new landscape that will be attractive to the birds.

Thanks angele, I hope to have pictures this summer don't have a camera yet :)

Got to tell you on the wild bird garden the wild grass seems to take a lot of things over and I have a hard time trying to find plants that can fight it out with it lol

I forgot about the wild carrot and I have the wild queen's lace too. There is a pink flower that grows in the woods that I've been trying to transplant because they are getting ready to build some houses there but can't seem to get it to grow after digging it up dirt and all, I never see any seeds on it, I've also rescued a few grape ferns from there and I have the ragged robin too, that's a pretty little flower.

That was a nice thread with lots of pctures of your native plants bonitin, I really enjoyed it sorry I missed it when you started it.

Bonitin, perhaps you could start a thread in this forum. There is one from a few years back that was done by a woman in Israel about the plants that she found on her walk to her childrens' school. I'll see if I can find it.

the link:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/492413/

This message was edited Mar 10, 2008 3:21 PM

We'd love to hear about your plants Bonitin! Even within the US we have the problem that things that are native in one state might be invasive in another so definitely don't let that stop you from posting!

Kathleen, I remember Julie, she is such a sweet girl. She is from Oklahoma living is Israel now. She is very knowledgeable.
Josephine.

I remember seeing Julie's posts, too. She takes great pictures and it was wonderful seeing what she did with her garden, part of which I believe was on the roof. She doesn't seem to be posting any longer. :-(

I mostly grow what ever follows me home, but I have been reading Armitage's Native Plants for North American Gardens,and have found there are more native plants in my garden than I knew.

Kathleen, the photo of your garden reminds me of my Grandmothers garden , she must have been a native plant grower. Probably because they were very poor and her flowers were ones she invited to live in the front yard from other parts of the farm.

All plants interest me. I think it would be good to have a thread for European ones. New Mexico is, more or less, a foreign country right here at home!

Thank you all for the nice responses! It's heart-warming!
I think its a good idea, Kathleen to start a separate thread about European natives.
That was such a lovely one from Julie in Israel!

I think it was a good idea to change the name of this forum!

gardengus, in the case of the goldenrod, it's pure surrender on my part - they're there, I give up! The asters, though, did take a little bit of moving in and encouraging. As for the spireas, anyone in need of a few?? They have gotten way too comfortable.

The woman who lived here was rather dismissive of all those horrible weeds. Some, like the jack-in-pulpits, were originally planted by her husband's family and used medicinally. Others showed up as they will and the trilliums and solomon's seal I brought in from some huge populations back in the woods.

I think that we have lost a sense of what plants really are native to the US. There is a quote in one of Gary Snyder's books from an old Native American who, when talking about the problems in the US, says that we don't know the names of the plants. We are so out of touch with the land, that we have lost the knowledge of the plants. I have a poem called 'Weeds' that has lists of wild flowers at the beginning of each stanza. When I took it to a workshop, on of the questions was how did I find all those names of wild flowers. The way the question was stated left me totally blank - how could I not know those names of the plants around me?

bonitin, I can't wait to see your pictures.

edited because I had the wrong author

This message was edited Mar 11, 2008 8:58 AM

My Mother has been a mushroom hunter all her life(78) and has taken us kids . Along the way she told us the names of flowers and trees and such, there were always things to keep our interest even if we didn't find many mushrooms.

I am so impressed by all of you and so glad to have met you all here in this forum.

gardengus, I think you are very fortunate. What a wonderful set of memories & life experiences.

kathleen I found your post very touching. I love the scrub desert where I live. It is so hard to put into words why it was (& still is) important to me to learn as much as I could about it. Knowing the plant names and learning about them has enriched my life so much.

I have a friend whose husband suddenly found out that he'd inherited a piece of desert land with a house in Arizona. From his biological mother's estate....he didn't even know her. They were already involved in a nature center and a native plant organization, so it was such a perfect opportunity to preserve a pretty much untouched piece of desert. They go there on vacations. It must be so amazing to see!

Kathleen, I understand what you mean about losing the way to talk about plants. We have a book co-written by Barry Lopez and several other nature writers, called "Home Ground" which gives definitions of various types of land...like "alluvial fan" or "dry wash". I heard him talk about this book and how we are losing language to describe natural, wild things. D.G. is really good at this; giving us tools to keep this kind of dialog going, so we can learn from people who have experience, etc.

A lot of native plants are used for helping people. Today I read that Mayapples are toxic yet the rhizomes are used for some cancer studies. The resin from the tubors are used somehow. Native plants are more than just something to grow and look at too!!

Cuckoo

Unfortunately, in some cases. One of our CA native salvias is S. apiana. It's a white sage with lovely flowers and a nice scent. The Native Americans used it for smudge sticks and then it became popular with New Agers, I guess, and people were stripping it from the wilds like crazy. Luckily for us, it seems to love growing in our garden, so we can enjoy it. I hope it's making a recovery in those areas where it was "harvested." Medical research is wonderful, but I draw the line at trendy uses of our plants!