After last
week’s rant on planting natives, I should make it perfectly clear that I’m all
for it, in case anybody takes me to task. I just want to make sure that when I
plant them in our own garden, I know what I’m in for. Just as non-native or Old World plants can
become invasive here, so can local natives if they are planted heedlessly. In
their natural range, natives are subject to disease, insects, animal predators
and grow with other plants that help keep their populations in check. But when
a single native variety is planted in a garden and released from the limiting
factors that keep it under control, it too can become invasive when provided with
fertile soil, plenty of water and room to roam.
That’s a
hard lesson I’ve learned as our garden and I get older. One bed must be
extensively re-done this spring because it is so infested with native goldenrod,
spiderwort, black-eyed susans, blue star grass, and penstemon that other,
smaller desirable natives are having a hard time of it. Shooting stars, native
sedums, crested irises, and trilliums are being sorely tested. These native
invaders have severely crowded non-natives; iris tectorum, lilies, peonies, clematis, creeping thymes, and columbines
that I really want there. And they spread seed so wantonly that even with
regular deadheading, they shortly get totally out of control. Their deep roots
cling tenaciously to this rocky soil, making them really hard to remove, especially
after a winter’s growth. They refuse to be pulled, giving up their top leaves
like a lizard losing its tail; having to be dug out, disrupting desirables along
the way. Inevitably they insinuate themselves into crowns of other plants, replacing
them quickly if they aren’t dealt with. I must admit responsibility for some of
them, but I blame birds and wind for the rest.
Not to say
that they shouldn’t be planted in a garden. Those aggressive natives are
beautiful with echinaceas, monardas, daisies, grasses, phlox and others that
can compete well in thoughtfully planned beds.
I love them
anyway as a mother loves her incorrigible child, but this year they are all
going to be banished to a meadow area where they can merrily reseed and I don’t
have to deal with them. It’s way too much work. My goal is to make Chaos less
labor intensive as we grow older. I just
want to walk down the paths, tell the flowers how beautiful they are, piddle
with them a bit, plant some new things once in a while, watch the birds and
butterflies; you know, the fun stuff. I have been mostly successful with some
areas, and still tinkering with the rest.
I wish some
natives were a little more aggressive, especially out in the woods where I keep
dividing and transplanting them so they will carpet the ground under the trees
with our hostas, hellebores, heucheras, and other shade perennials. Many wild woods
plants are spring bloomers; ephemerals that come up early, put on a show, and
then disappear until next year. Trout lilies, Mayapples, Dutchman’s breeches, gingers,
Virginia bluebells, hepaticas, ferns, false Solomon’s seal, Jacob’s ladder,
violets in every color, bloodroot, false rue anemone, and Jack-in-the pulpit
grow out here with woodland phlox, a little annual yellow corydalis, that
cursed Virginia waterleaf—I don’t divide or transplant that one however—, and too
many others to name, all keeping company with thousands of daffodils, crocuses,
grape hyacinths, scillas, pushkinias and azaleas that turn the woods into a
blaze of color. This garden is a place to visit to see spring in all its glory.
Virginia Bluebells
Early-blooming native serviceberries have been planted under tall hickories along the south edge of the woods. The fruit is tasty in pies and jam, but I doubt we will get any of the fruits to eat as robins love them better. They are all sprouts from a serviceberry that I once planted closer to the house, not taking into account its suckering ways. Now, those suckers must be dug out each spring to keep them from crowding out a hydrangea that is its bed-mate, and making a serviceberry grove out of the whole area. If I was a harsher mistress of the garden I would pull it out, but I love its delicate white flowers and watching robins plunder the berries in summer.
Many native
plants can be found at local nurseries. Missouri Wildflower Nursery will be at area
sites this spring including our own Wildcat Glades with plants to sell. Their
catalog and schedule is at http://www.mowildflowers.net/
Published in the Joplin Globe, "Speaking of Gardens" by Sandy Parrill March 9, 2014
Published in the Joplin Globe, "Speaking of Gardens" by Sandy Parrill March 9, 2014
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