I love using natives! My front 3/4 acre is all wooded, with trillium, violet, cinnamon fern and small chain fern. In back of the house I have divided the half near the house into regular beds and the far half into wildflowers (beyond my little fence). The wildflowers are so willing to please, need no water or fertilizer (important living on the water), and put on a great show, especially in fall. Here is my 'wild', looking south, October 2007.
That is lovely, is it Glodenrod? I am not sure.
I join in question: what is that field of gold? Very beautiful, almost floating yellow cloud.
How pretty! This is Dame's Rocket, a wild flower that shows up in my yard every year.
Venus' Looking Glass- just popped up in the garden one year. It selfsows for me somewhat but is easy to pull out. It gets long stems that end up bending at the base and laying up against something taller. It can be cute poking up through other things that support the stems. Bloom late spring to early summer then needs to be pulled (easily done)
Sally, do you ever save seeds?
Well, now would be the perfect time- they have justs started blooming so it should be easy in a few weeks, to just pull stems. and I will, in case you're thinking of asking for some ^_^
This is a young plant--but so far seems happy (its native to US, just not Texas) and it gets late afternoon shade so I'm hopeful it will do OK and produce some seed this year.
Silene regia:
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=SIRE2
That's quite a pretty one.
Thanks Roybird--I like it, looking forward to it getting larger next year.
Im drooling over that one DMJ, lol.
Very pretty. I'm really partial to red flowers this year.
I hope something has found it--haven't seen many bees at all this year and hoping if it does set seeds, that they are big enough to see--lol
Now when I buy a new plant I try to find a native plant. Natives work really well for the wildlife gardening I do. Among my favorites are Lobelia cardinalis (red cardinal flower), Lobelia siphilitica (blue cardinal flower) and Lonicera sempervirens (native honeysuckle). Red cardinal flower and the native honeysuckle both attract hummingbirds to my yard. We've also been using Viburnum dentatum (arrowwood viburnum) often as a screening plant.
I'll mention for those people who are interested, that unless I'm getting fooled by the same common name for more than one plant, at least one plant mentioned in this thread is introduced and invasive. Some plants from other continents have been here for so long that most people think they've always been there. While these are wildflowers (which this forum includes), they're not native to North America. In some cases they even hurt natural areas. Just mentioning this since the thread name included the word native, and to save people the experience I've sometimes had of buying something because I thought it was native, and then finding out it wasn't.
-- Lori
It's particularly important to be careful of some of these wildflower seed mixes I see advertised. Many of them contain aggressive aliens like Queen Anne's lace, dame's rocket, ox-eye daisy, & so on. Not all of these are particularly harmful to the environment, and some of them have been here for two or more centuries, but I just don't think they need any help from us gardeners, while a lot of the rarer natives do.
(And of course there are weedy natives too like dandelion and oxalis. They've become weedy because of human disturbance - I understand that in the mature deciduous forests that covered most of E. North America 300 years ago, they were pretty rare.)
dandelions are not native.
The latest research suggests that the species did exist in North America prior to European settlement. According to the USDA map for Taraxacum officinale (http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=TAOF) there are both native and introduced subspecies.
Texas Dandelion, definitely a native! When I was a child, I thought it was the only dandelion around. But it's not the same genus, it's Pyrrhopappus multicaulis.
Well, I learned Dame's Rocket is not a native. It just makes itself at home. I believe this is yellow salsify. It is possibly a native plant in New Mexico.
I am sorry, Salsify is introduced but a very pretty flower, here is the link
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=TRDU
Josephine.
Thank you. I looked it up in a field guide to Rocky Mt. wild flowers and assumed it was native. Duh. I'm terrible at this. See you in the photos. I'm giving up on wild or native for now!
Oh no, please don't quit, we are all learning together, if you go to www.usda.gov
you can find out a lot.
what a coincidence- I have Salsify/yellow goatsbeard in my garden bloooming just now, for the first time ever. I had never seen it around here but collected the seeds in Canada three years ago. First year it looked grassy. This year its almost five feet tall blooming. Looks like it wouuld be a whopper of a self sower with these giant 'dandelion' heads, so I have cut most of it out.
I use both natives and non natives, for the sole reasons of whatever I think is pretty and fits the spot. I love trilliums and certain vine maples behave well in the right scenario.
I use natives because they are just plain pretty, and they keep on coming up whether I want them or not -- but I also use non-natives selectively. I have noticed that many of my favorite "perennials" - are actually natives - either here or elsewhere.
T
Theresa
I love the wild places more than I like the manicured gardens of conventional gardening in this country. When I go to certain of the natural area parks, something just speaks to me. I feel a connection...sometimes I can almost see or hear the native americans and our early settlers, wherever they came from. The native plants and animals are legacies, more a part of the history of this land even than we are. They belong here and have a natural right to grow where they have been for hundreds of years. Many native plants thrive on my land where most nonnative plants give up and die. And yet I don't plant only native plants. How could I deny myself the herbs, fruits and vegetables that are so good, but found their way here from other lands, for one thing? I'll find room for both.
I started with Trilliums, then native ferns, Indian pink, Heuchera americana, Oak leaved Hydrangea, Fire pink, Jack-in-the pulpit, native Rhododendrons, red and bottlebrush Buckeyes, Dicentra, Silphium, and Rudbeckia and a few others but I also fill in with other plants for late season color. Here in Zone 7b-8a we have about a 300 day growing season so it is incumbent to have a lot of things to grow.
I'm learning more and increasingly become more appreciative of native plants. Native, but not neccessary easy culture. I've love to try to trillium and Indian pink if anyone has some starter plant to swap? I'd be greatly grateful of any offer.
Kim
Fantastic thread! I'm in the process of switching over to native planting for so many different reasons.
I grew up in a very rural mountain area and a forced, coifed yard never appealed to me. I am loathe to use traditional fertilizers, insecticides etc. on anything I eat and I'm very time efficient (read lazy) so the thought of baby-ing my beds or treating my flowers different from my veggies is laughable to me.
The ongoing drought in my area, the oddball combinations of clay soil topped with a layer of sand, the multitude of invasives that are taking over the roadsides, the fact that my yard is over-run with invasives from a previous owner: there are so many reasons to go native!
I've trying to lay some eay to follow ground-rules for myself and the yard I'm trying to tackle: hopefully they'll help balance my urge for a native landscape with my husband's urge for a chemical-green expanse of sod with nothing else but a single hedge...
1. Anything non US-native that currently behaves as invasive in my yard has to go. Currently this includes bamboo, nandina, mahonia, a grape-like vine, and multiple ivies and perriwinkles.
2. Anything non US-native that exists in my yard and is acting reasonable can stay on the property (thought they might have to get moved around). This means the camillias (20+ plants in over 10 varieties), azaleas, roses, rose of sharon, daffodils, lily of the valley, and various daylillies are safe for now.
3. Any plant I put in the ground going forwards will either be a North American native or a food plant (i.e. tomatoes). Anything else goes in a pot.
My current want-list is chock full of natives I would love to try in my lot: some are for the shady wooded back and some are for the full-sun front. At this point, I have one US native on the property that I can trade: yellow jessamine http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/1262/ (aka carolina jasmine, my state flower). If you have something on my want list and are interested in a swap, dmail me!
This message was edited Jun 17, 2008 3:29 PM
Just curious - we have native Mahonia here in CA and ours is very slow growing. Are you saying yours is invasive? Do you know what type it is?
http://www.laspilitas.com/plants/plant_lists/California_native_plant_M.htm
KaperC:
Best I can tell mine is a leatherleaf mahonia, but I don't know for sure as I didn't plant it: like so many others, it came with the house.
I say it's invasive in my particular yard because it seeds so readily and because it's so difficult to get rid of, not because it's a super quick grower. A new plant springs up wherever a berry drops, and the birds and squirrels LOVE the fruit so they spread it around even more. At best guess I would say I have 20+ mahonia of various sizes on my very full 0.2 acre lot, ranging from 3 leaf newbies to the 8-10ft tall monstrosity at the very back. Previous owners have tried chopping them down, and new leaves sprout from the stumps. The small ones I've dug out (by small I mean 1 ft tall or less) have been a real pain: there's a main tap-like root that's about the same length as the main stem, plus an extensive network of large horizontal roots. I've envariably wind up cutting those horizontal roots off about 6 inches below the soil line and just keep my fingers crossed they don't resprout. Since it reseeds so easily, I've got mahonia growing out of the cracks of a 50+ year old stone wall and intertwined with the roots of large oak trees: I honestly don't know how I'm going to get rid of those without resorting to poison. Perhaps a syringe full of bleach injected into the stem so it wouldn't contaminate the other plants...
I know mahonia isn't really invasive in other areas of the country, so I'm more than happy to trade berries/seeds for something on my extensive native tradelist =)
Wow, I had no idea - that's why I asked. Glad we don't have that one! We have other "bird planted" nuisances, so I know what you mean. :-)
Josephine
Just checking again to see if you know anyone who will be at the Jacksonville swap that you will see later so I can get those plants to you thru them.
Jameso
James, you are so sweet. I believe Sheila-FW is planning to go, and you could give them to her. Thank you very much for your thoughtfulness.
Josephine.
Josphine
I'll hunt her down.
James H
I've become fond of the Pokeweed and like to keep a few going. I noticed that something, probably a bird, had recently sampled the ripe berries. Guess there might be a bit of unauthorized planting going on soon.
I love poke! We always had large plants in my yard when I was growing up, courtesy of the birds, of course. I've yanked several from my yard now and still have about 10 left. I've decided to let them grow up so I can make some dye from the berries.
I love the Pokeweed too, such a lush and pretty plant.
My Brasil, or Condalia hookeri, is making berries...and is blooming, so more are coming. The berries are small, dark when ripe and edible. I've tasted them and they taste pretty good, so wildlife likes them also. The flowers are greenish and small, so you'd really have to look closely to notice it's blooming. It's a very good small habitat tree that is native to Texas. I rescued mine from an area that later became housing. I wish they were more available here. The only thing I don't like is that the twigs tend to have sharp thornlike ends. When I'm working on something nearby, I have to be careful. It can be a little bit painful brushing up against it.
And here's the tree...it's such a nice shade of green and has such little leaves. Growing bigger slowly.
