Full Blog – Page 9 – The Native Plant Gardener

Common Name: Pearly Everlasting

Posted on November 11, 2023November 11, 2023 by ridgetownrick

Scientific Name: Anaphalis margaritacea

Pearly Everlasting (*Anaphalis margaritacea*) in the garden.

Family: Asteraceae (Aster Family)

Alternate Common Names: Western Pearly Everlasting

Plant Description: Pearly Everlasting has many upright stems that are clumped closely together, giving the plant a mounding appearance. The leaves are up to 10 cm long and 2 cm wide and, like the stems, are covered in numerous small hairs, giving the plant a silvery-green appearance. Numerous, 1 cm wide, yellow flowers enclosed in white bracts can be found blooming at the end of the stems. The seeds are very small and have tufts of white hairs that carry them off in the wind.

In the Garden: Pearly Everlasting is an easy-to-grow plant that reliably thrives in the driest of sites. It is highly valued in gardens for its long bloom time. Caterpillars of the American Lady and Painted Lady butterflies feed on the foliage and will weave the leaves together with silk to create small tents. This is nothing to worry about because it is a sign of life in your garden. Your plant will make a full recovery from the hungry caterpillars.

Skill Level: Beginner

Lifespan: Perennial

Exposure: Full sun to part shade

Soil Type: Sandy or gravelly soils

Moisture: Dry to medium

Height: 30–100 cm

Spread: 30–60 cm

Bloom Period: Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct

Colour: White

Fragrant (Y/N): Y (when crushed)

Showy Fruit (Y/N): N

Cut Flower (Y/N): Y – Pearly everlasting makes excellent dried flowers for arrangements. It can also be used for fresh cut flowers

Pests: No serious insect or disease problems, though there is some susceptibility to chewing damage from caterpillars

Natural Habitat: Dry prairies, open woods, roadsides, and waste places

Wildlife Value: Flowers are magnets for pollinators, such as butterflies and bees

Butterflies and numerous other pollinators visit the flowers constantly.

Butterfly Larva Host Plant For: Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui), American Lady (Vanessa virginiensis)

Moth Larva Host Plant For: Everlasting Tebenna Moth (Tebenna gnaphaliella)

USDA Hardiness Zones: 2–7

Propagation: No pretreatment of seeds necessary, but surface sow as the tiny seeds require light to germinate. Plants may be divided in the spring or started from stem cuttings. Anaphalis margaritacea flowers are dioecious, meaning flowers are either male or female, and only one sex can be found on an individual plant, therefore if you want seeds you will need to have both a male and female plant. Male flowers are ball-like (globular) with many slender, erect yellowish-brown staminate flowers in the yellow centre disc. Female flowers are globular to egg-shaped with a yellowish to dark brown bristly ring around the top of the flower head. Both flowers have numerous tiny white bracts in many layers around the centre. The bracts on the female flowers do not spread out much until the seed starts forming.

Additional Info: Pearly Everlasting flowers, leaves and stems have been used to produce yellow, gold, green and brown natural dyes.

Native Range (shaded area):

There are entire books on edible wild plants and on foraging, but I’ve never really paid much attention to them (even though I do have a few on my bookshelves). For me, growing native plants is all about feeding Mother Nature, not about feeding me. But this year I harvested the first of my native wild black currants (Ribes americanum) with the hopes of possibly making a small batch of jam. So I thought for today’s article I would share with you some of the edible plants that grow in my garden and how I have used them. I’ve been told there are lots more that are edible in my garden than what I discuss here, but I’ve never tried tasting them. (Perhaps in the future I may do a series of articles on edible native plants that you can grow. But that will take a lot more research than I have time to do at the moment.)

Wild Black Currant – Ribes americanum

I planted two Wild Black Currant shrubs a couple of years ago. Last year they had a few currants, but this year they were loaded with fruit. Interestingly, the currants do not ripen all at the same time like the non-native red currants I have. Instead, one or two currants in each cluster will start to ripen, eventually becoming ripe enough to pick (if you get them before they fall off) and there will still be tiny green fruits on each cluster along with currants at various stages of ripeness. This makes harvesting a slow and tedious process. I collected fruit as it ripened over a period of a couple of weeks and put them in the freezer to make into jam once I had enough. That will be a winter project.

Wild Black Currants don’t taste quite the same as their European cousins – I find them to be a tad more bitter, but any black currant jam recipe will work – though you may want to add a little more sugar.

Wild Black currants will do well in any moist, well-drained soil (even heavy clay) and tolerate part shade to full sun. They get up to 6 feet tall and so far the plants in my garden don’t seem to be suckering, but if a stem touches down on the soil it may root. (Because of this, starting new plants from cuttings is very easy).

Wild Ginger – Asarum canadense

An early spring blooming plant of the forest floor, in my opinion Wild Ginger only superficially tastes like store bought ginger – the flavours are a bit more complex (one author described it as more peppery). You can grind it or slice it and use it in traditional recipes in place of commercial ginger but use with caution. This plant contains Aristolochic Acid (AA) which, in large doses, can be fatal – do your research before cooking with it. It does, however, make a good tea when steeped (AA is barely soluble in water so you would be unlikely to get enough to harm you).

Wild Ginger wants full to part shade in moist rich soils. It will tolerate drier soils once established and is a great ground cover under those shady maple trees.

Jerusalem Artichoke – Helianthus tuberosus

The tubers from this sunflower relative get to about the size of fingerling potatoes (or even fist sized in some varieties) and can be cooked any way you cook potatoes. My personal favourite is to roast them in the oven with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper. (As with oven roasted sweet potatoes, this seems to intensify the flavour). The center will go mushy when it’s cooked this way, but they are quite delicious. I’ve tried them pan-fried and boiled, too, but I always go back to oven roasting.

Be forewarned, though – the tubers contain a lot of the soluble fibre inulin which can cause gas and bloating in some people (hence one of the plant’s common names – fartichoke).

Jerusalem Artichoke will grow well (some say too well – it is a fairly aggressive spreader) in loose, well drained soils in full sun to part shade. But it’s not all that fussy about soils – a friend grows it very successfully in her garden which is heavy clay. It does like the soil to be a bit on the moist side for larger tubers, but it will rot if the soil is too wet.

Wild Black Raspberry – Rubus occidentalis

There are few treats sweeter than finding a Wild Black Raspberry bush full of ripe berries along the edge of a forest in early to mid-summer. Though they tend to be a little “seedier” than their red commercial cousins, they pack a lot of punch into a thimble-sized fruit. I like to eat them fresh, on their own or mixed with other berries, and drizzled with cream, or with a dollop of ice cream. But they also make an awesome jam, upside-down cake, crumble or any other sweet treat that you can use red raspberries for. And they freeze well.

Wild Black Raspberries grow on canes that can reach up to 9’ long or more in full sun to part shade and they prefer moist, rich loamy soil, but will do well in a wide range of soil and moisture regimes. Wherever the tip of a cane touches down, it will root and send up a new stem. These new canes often have a bluish colour, allowing you to readily differentiate them from other raspberries and blackberries.

Wild Leeks – Allium tricoccum

Ramps, Leeks, no matter what they’re called, people will go to great lengths to collect these for the table each spring. Unfortunately, unscrupulous foragers have decimated wild populations throughout our region. Use Leeks where you would use their non-native, commercial cousins in your cooking. They have a sort of garlic-shallot-cross flavour that can be quite intense. (As a young person, I planted trees and traveled to the planting sites in a van of Wild Leek eating co-workers, and the fumes were so powerful I’d sit with my face to the open window – despite the barely above freezing temperatures.)

Leeks need rich, loose loamy soil with lots of organic matter and full to part shade. The leaves appear in spring for about a month to 6 weeks then disappear till the following spring. But if you’re observant, by mid- to late-summer, you’ll see a stem appear with white flowers that turn to tiny black seeds by early autumn.

Virginia Mountain Mint – Physostegia virginiana

I have only ever used Mountain Mint in tea, but its minty leaves and flower buds can be added to salads or used as a condiment (I’m thinking it would be fabulous on lamb chops). The leaves can be dried or used fresh.

Both the leaves and flowers of Virginia Mountain Mint can add a minty taste to drinks, salads, etc.

This hardy perennial is happy in most garden soils, from sandy to clay, and full sun to part shade, though it likes soils that aren’t too dry.

Anise Hyssop – Agastache foeniculum

Anise Hyssop, though not actually native to the southern Great Lakes region, is a pollinator magnet so I keep it in my garden. The licorice (anise) flavoured leaves and flowers, either fresh or dried, can be steeped to make a lovely tea. And though I haven’t tried it (yet) I recently found a website that said it can be added to hot chocolate, or blended into smoothies or cocktails.

This short-lived perennial likes dry to medium, well drained sandy soils in full sun to part shade. In my garden, it is always covered with various bees when it’s in flower and the flowers last for several weeks.

American Spikenard – Aralia racemosa

The large clusters of burgundy berries on American Spikenard have a mildly sweet, almost floral flavour about them and are said to make excellent jams, jellies or fruit leather. I have only eaten them fresh but have a container-full in the freezer awaiting a slow-down in the garden so I can make them into jam.

Spikenard fruit forms on large, cascading racemes

This perennial likes part shade (it is a forest edge species) that grows fast – it can get up to 150 cm (5’) tall in a single growing season before it dies off for the winter. The white flowers appear in early summer and the fruit starts to ripen in mid- to late-August. It prefers wet to medium-moist, fertile, humus rich soils.

Wild Strawberry – Fragaria virginiana/Fragaria vesca

As a kid, I loved finding a patch of wild strawberries in the fields at my uncle’s farm. The tiny red fruit packed all the flavour, and more, of the store bought counterparts. A bowl full of wild strawberries with cream was an amazing treat. They also make a great jam, and I have thrown fresh berries in a salad (when I’ve had lots). The challenge in my garden is beating the squirrels and birds to the ripe fruit.

Wild Strawberry makes a great groundcover.

F. variegata (Wild Strawberry) differs from F. Vesca (Woodland Strawberry) in that the former likes full sun while the latter prefers full to part shade. The berries and leaves look very similar to the untrained eye, but there are subtle differences. Both species grow best in moist to medium moisture regimes (though Woodland Strawberries prefer the wetter end of the spectrum and Wild Strawberries the drier end), and neither is fussy about soil texture (sand, loam, clay).

Happy (and tasty) Native Plant Gardening.

Gentiana andrewsii

Posted on October 19, 2023October 21, 2023 by ridgetownrick

There isn’t much flowering in my southern Ontario garden as I write this in Mid October. A few asters, a couple of goldenrods, a few harebells (Campanula) and some Black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia). One that stands out, however, is the Bottle Gentian (Gentiana andrewsii). This very late purple flowering plant with blossoms that stay tightly closed has been blooming for several weeks now. As usual, the Plant Description and In the Garden sections are courtesy of Shaun Booth from In Our Nature.

The tightly closed blossoms of Bottle Gentian are a lovely, though unusual, addition to the garden.

Scientific Name: Gentiana andrewsii

Common Name: Bottle Gentian

Family: Gentianaceae (Gentian Family)

Alternate Common Names: Andrew’s Gentian, Blind Gentian, Cloistered Heart, Closed Bottle Gentian, Closed Gentian, Fringe-top Bottle Gentian, Gall Flower, Prairie Closed Gentian, Sampson’s Snakeroot

Plant Description: Bottle Gentian has smooth, unbranched stems that are round and light green to purple. Opposite, stalkless leaves are found along the stem with the uppermost set of leaves being whorled. Leaves are broadly lanceolate, glossy on top and become larger as they ascend the stem, reaching up to 10 cm long and 5 cm wide. The stem terminates with a cluster of tubular flowers, but there may also be secondary flower clusters emerging from leaf axils. Each flower measures 2.5 cm to 4 cm long and has five fused petals with tiny teeth around their tips. The flowers never open and resemble closed buds even when in full bloom. Each flower turns into a papery capsule that splits open to release many tiny seeds. Each seed has papery wings that allow them to be carried by water or wind.

In the Garden: Bottle Gentian is valued by gardeners for its intriguing flowers and bold leaves. The flowers add a welcomed touch of blue to the late-summer garden, while the leaves take on shades of purple and burgundy in the fall. Bottle Gentian is not competitive, so choose its companions wisely. Slow growing but well worth the wait!

Skill Level: Beginner

Lifespan: Perennial

Exposure: Full sun to part shade

Soil Type: Humus-rich, slightly acidic, sandy loam

Moisture: Moist to wet

Height: 30–60 cm

Spread: 30-50 cm

Bloom Period: Aug, Sept, (Oct)

Colour: Blue, purple

Fragrant (Y/N): N

Showy Fruit (Y/N): N

Cut Flower (Y/N): Y

Pests: Mature plants are rarely bothered by foliar disease or leaf-chewing insects

Natural Habitat: Moist and shaded sites, meadows, damp prairies, and along shores

Wildlife Value: Especially valuable to bumblebees, just about the only insect with enough strength to force its way into the closed flower

Butterfly Larva Host Plant For: None

Moth Larva Host Plant For: Verbena Bud Moth (Endothenia hebesana)

USDA Hardiness Zones: 3–6

Propagation: Germination of seed requires cold, moist stratification for at least 60 days, and exposure to light (surface sow). Bottle Gentian are said to be difficult to start from seed, though William Cullina states that sowing outdoors in the fall produces excellent results. Some sources suggest plants may be propagated by dividing the root crowns in fall or early spring, but this is apparently tricky to do without killing the plant.

Bottle Gentian seeds are very tiny and should not be covered with soil as they need light to germinate.

Additional Info: Plant tends to lean at maturity, so plant among sturdier plants for support. If left undisturbed, plants in optimum growing conditions will naturalize over time into large clumps.

Native Range: (shaded area of map)

October Jigsaw Puzzle

Posted on October 6, 2023October 6, 2023 by ridgetownrick

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October Jigsaw Puzzle

Got Shade Part 3 – Late Season Shade

Posted on October 3, 2023October 3, 2023 by ridgetownrick

Fall tends to be a quiet time for flowers in the forests. Long gone are many of the showier shade perennials like Woodland Poppy (Stylophorum diphyllum) and the Meadowrues (Thalictrum species). And the spring ephemerals like Trilliums and Jack-in-the-Pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum) are a distant memory. But it doesn’t mean the shade garden has to be bleak. There are some lovely shade plants that come to life this time of year – either with late season blooms, colourful berries or lovely fall foliage. Here are a few that can make your shade garden look nice as autumn rolls around.

Fall Flowers

Let’s start with fall flowers. In my gardens, Asters are the fall showstoppers. Whites, blues, purples and pinks abound. Mix in the yellows of goldenrods (Solidago spp) and Woodland Sunflowers (Helianthus divericatus) – at least into September – and you’ve got a winner. If your shade is moist, you may even have Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis), Blue Lobelia (L. siphilitica) or Sweet Joe Pye Weed (Eutrochium purpureum) lasting well into September.

But the true Autumn flowers for shade are the whites of White Wood Aster (Eurybia divaricata), Schreber’s Aster (E. schreberi) and Large-leaf Aster (E. macrophylla), and the blues of Blue Wood Aster – aka Heartleaf Aster – (Symphyotrichum cordifolium), Lowrie’s Aster (S. lowrieanum) and Short’s Aster (S. shortii).

If you have light or partial shade, you can add the pinks and purples of New England Aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae), the blues of Sky Blue Aster (S. oolentangiense) or the whites of Arrow-leaved Aster (S. urophyllum) or Flat-topped White Aster (Doellingeria umbellata). Even the purple Swamp Aster (Symphyotrichum puniceum) can handle part shade if the soil is moist enough.

For a splash of yellow, consider Zigzag Goldenrod (Solidago flexicaulis) or even Green-headed Coneflower (Rudbeckia laciniata). And Bluestem Goldenrod (Solidago caesia) will give you lovely sprays of yellow well into September as well.

White Snakeroot (Ageratina altissima) starts flowering with its umbels of white in midsummer and is going to seed by early September, but I find that it often sends out a second flush of flowers (even while the seeds are forming) that can last to the end of September and some years into early October.

And if your shade garden has room for some shrubs, the frilly yellow flowers of Witch Hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) appear in October to November here in southwestern Ontario.

Leaves and Berries

Flowers aren’t the only things to provide autumn colour in the shade garden, though. Several fruiting shrubs and vines also provide colourful seeds and berries, or golds and purples of fall leaves. One such shrub is Northern Spicebush (Lindera benzoin) with its candy-apple red berries and bright yellow leaves in the fall. Another shade tolerant shrub with red berries that is loved by the birds is Red Elderberry (Sambucus racemosa) though, unlike the common elderberry (Sambucus canadensis), the berries are not edible for humans. In the southern Great Lakes region, the fruit of Red Elderbery can often be found on the plants (providing the birds don’t find them first) well into November.

If you want a woody perennial, but don’t have room for a tall, spreading shrub, a ground hugging forest shrub (or short vine) with intriguing fruit is Running Strawberry Bush (Euonymus obovatus). Its rough pink seed pods open to display bright orange berries. But if you plant these, know that (in my garden, at least) the rabbits eat it back to stubs just about every winter.

A long lasting understory plant is False Solomon’s Seal (Maianthemum racemosum) that produces plumes of beautiful white flowers in the spring that become clusters of Vitamin-C rich edible red berries in the fall.

Another medium-short forest shrub with blue-black berries in September and pink to purple leaves in October is Maple-leaf Viburnum (Viburnum acerifolium). This dainty beauty prefers moist shade.

The colourful berries of Running Strawberry Bush contrast with their green leaves and stems

And ferns are always a good structural plant for shade gardens all season long. These plants provide filler when the spring ephemerals disappear and keep your garden looking lush well into the fall. There are so many to choose from, though some of my favourites are Lady Fern (Athyrium filix-femina), Christmas Fern (Polystichum acrostichoides), Sensitive Fern (Onoclea sensibilis), Ostrich Fern (Matteuccia struthiopteris) and Bulblet Fern (Cystopteris bulbifera) as these particular ferns look great in a wide range of soil types and moisture regimes. Perhaps I will put together an article on ferns in the not too distant future.

Happy Native Plant Gardening – in the Shade.

Crossword Puzzle 10

Posted on September 25, 2023September 25, 2023 by ridgetownrick

Here is this month’s crossword puzzle. Enjoy!

Crossword Puzzle 10

Solution for Crossword 9

Smooth Aster

Posted on September 15, 2023September 15, 2023 by ridgetownrick

It’s fall, the time for Goldenrods and Asters. For this month’s Plant of the Month, I will be covering Smooth Aster – a beautiful purply-blue, prolifically blossoming fall staple in the garden. One of the earlier asters to bloom in my garden, it signals the coming of autumn with its cooler temperatures and fall colours. As usual, the Plant Description and In the Garden sections are courtesy of Shaun Booth from In Our Nature.

*Symphyotrichum laeve* (Smooth Aster) and *Solidago nemoralis* (Gray Goldenrod) – the colours of autumn

Common Name: Smooth Aster

Scientific Name: Symphyotrichum laeve

Family: Asteraceae (Aster Family)

Alternate Common Names: Glaucous Aster, Purple Aster, Smooth Blue American Aster, Smooth Blue Aster, Smooth-leaved Aster

Plant Description: Smooth Aster features one to a few erect, hairless stems that are usually green but can be a reddish colour. Leaves clasp the stems in an alternate pattern and measure about 10 cm long and 4 cm wide. They are smooth (almost waxy), shiny, toothless, and greenish blue on top and light green underneath. The basal leaves are toothed with winged petioles and are oblanceolate. Open, branching flower clusters are found at the top of the plant. Flowers can also arise from upper leaf axils (where the leaves meet the stem). Individual flowers measure up to 2.5 cm across and feature 15 to 30 oblong ray florets (petals) surrounding yellow centres that turn purplish red with age. Petal colour can vary from light blue to light purple. Four to six layers of bracts surround the base of each flower. They are smooth, appressed (flattened), and light green to bluish green and have diamond-shaped ends with a dark tip. Flowers give way to dry, brown, narrowly cone-shaped seeds, each with a tuft of light brown hairs that allow them to be carried by the wind.

In the Garden: Smooth Aster is valued by gardeners for its copious blue blooms and non-aggressive growth habit. The flowers are frost hardy and bloom late into fall while the tough stems will persist through the winter months. Smooth Aster is easy to grow but doesn’t like being shaded by taller plants. A favourite food of rabbits, possibly due to the smooth leaves.

Skill Level: Beginner

Lifespan: Perennial

Exposure: Full sun

Soil Type: Any well-drained soil

Moisture: Dry

Height: 20–70 cm (occasionally to 120 cm)

Spread: 30–60 cm

Bloom Period: Sep, Oct (to frost)

Colour: Blue

Fragrant (Y/N): N

Showy Fruit (Y/N): N

Cut Flower (Y/N): Y

Pests: No serious insect or disease problems, though powdery mildew can affect the plant in some years

Natural Habitat: Fields, open woods, and roadsides

Wildlife Value: The nectar and pollen of the flower heads attract many species of native bees, butterflies, and other insects and Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa umbellus) and Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) feed on both the leaves and seeds of asters; the seeds are also eaten by mice and American Tree Sparrows (Spizelloides arborea)

Butterfly Larva Host Plant For: Silvery Checkerspot (Chlosyne nycteis), Tawny Crescent (Phyciodes batesii), Northern Crescent (Phyciodes cocyta), Pearl Crescent (Phyciodes tharos), Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui)

Moth Larva Host Plant For: At least 40 species of moths, including members of the tiger moths, ribbed cocoon-maker moths, case-bearer moths, twirler moths, geometer moths, leaf-blotch miner moths, slug caterpillar moths, owlet moths, clearwing moths, flower moths, trumpet leafminer moths, and tortrix moths.

USDA Hardiness Zones: 3–9

Propagation: Direct sow the seeds in late fall or early spring. No pretreatment is necessary even when starting indoors, but seeds need light to germinate. Germination is said to be slow. Transplanted seedlings will likely bloom in their first year. You can also multiply plants from root cuttings.

Additional Info: Symphyotrichum laeve will tolerate short durations of seasonal flooding. It also self-sows strongly in open areas that are burned and mowed and is walnut (juglone) tolerant.

Native Range:

September Jigsaw Puzzle

Posted on September 8, 2023September 8, 2023 by ridgetownrick

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September Jigsaw Puzzle