Native Gardening

[CountryEscape]

The one thing I don't have is a Wisconsin native plant book, as surprising as that is. I've wanted one for years, but never get around to it.[/QUOTE]

@JBtheExplorer, you'll need to put that book on your Christmas Wish List. Duh!!! Haha Last year my DIL put together a bag with lots of pockets and included a box of zip loc bags, permanent marker, very sharp pruner, and plastic fold up guides for native plants (in color!!!) for all the States my family lives in - WI, IL, IN, and UT. Daughter now has moved to ND, so need one for there now. LOL What a totally thoughtful gift! She knows me very well. I have shared native seeds with her for the Park, since many or most are also native in IN. She trusts me to know what I have gathered and know that they are what I say they are. If I'm not 100% positive, I don't give any of them to her. They are constantly creating new native plantings around the park, most to keep from having to mow or are erosive and the natives will help take care of that as well. It's awesome! Oh, and she had extra seeds of I think Joe Pye and one other type, so they put them in envelopes and are selling them in their store for $1 per pack. What a neat idea! She said they are selling like hotcakes.
Oh, and I went to that website and it's fantastic!!!! Thanks for sharing that with us. I'm definitely saving that as a favorite. It has color pictures for me to compare with, plus lots of info. I can now get the rest of the info from my native plant guide, too. Yay!

 

[JamieB]

Two local flowers I’ll be gathering seeds from this year. No clue what they are, just pretty

 

[addy1]

I have that purple can't recall the name, but the bees love it! I gather the seeds and toss them out all of the time.

 

[CountryEscape]

The first one looks like maybe a wild hyacinth variety, and the second one maybe Snow on the Mountain. My sister had a variety of snow on the mountain many years ago, and had a heck of a time getting rid of it. It reseeded EVERYWHERE, in the grass and even in the rock driveway. But, yours looks much prettier. LOL

 

[JamieB]

The purple one grows wild in ditches just east of here, and the white one in my bosses cow pasture.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

Two local flowers I’ll be gathering seeds from this year. No clue what they are, just pretty

The first one is Dotted Blazing Star (Liatris punctata).
The second one is Snow-On-The-Mountain (Euphorbia marginata). It's an annual.

For the record, seeds of both are available on Prairie Moon Nursery.

 

[Lisak1]

I thought that first one looked like liatris! And the foliage on the second one is so pretty - I love green and white variegated leaf patterns!

 

[JamieB]

I bought weed barrier to go around the gazebo today. With plastic under it to kill grasses, I’ll be trying to clear ground for plants next! I was bad, I bought more seeds and some flower bulbs. Columbine seeds, some small white flowers, can’t recall the name of.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

I was bad, I bought more seeds.

I used to do the same. More than I needed, but I was excited to plant as many natives as I could. I have too many species in my garden now. I'll need to cut it down so I have fewer species but more plants of each specie. That way, everything will better establish itself. Plus, pollinators prefer a large amount of the same specie rather than a large selection of many species.

I'm not done adding new species, though. This year, my goal is to add one or two native grasses to my garden. I know my local nursery usually carries two or three species of native grasses. I have no idea which species they carry, but I'm very interested in Blue Grama (Bouteloua gracilis) and Side-oats Grama (Bouteloua curtipendula). Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) is a possibility too, especially since it's a host plant to Skipper butterflies.

 

[Lisak1]

@JBtheExplorer - do you ever find the natives do TOO well in your garden? As in they take over? We visited the native prairie area of the Chicago Botanic garden last year for the first time and they told us that it was a simple matter to get the prairie started and only took a fire every few years to keep it under control. haha...aaaaaaahhhh. So that got me thinking about natives and WHY they are native and their ability to thrive in our gardens. You mentioned native grasses made me think of it - I have a few grasses that need taming this spring, which does not look to be a fun OR easy job!

 

[CountryEscape]

Lisa, I love so many of the tall beautiful grasses, but I've seen and heard horror stories of trying to divide them or keep them from spreading, etc.
JB, I bought a "native grass" a couple of years ago at our local Rural King. Things were on clearance, and it just jumped out at me! I'm not even sure what type it is, as the name was on the pot, and I forgot to save it. But, so far it has stayed put where I put it, not reseeding or spreading, so I love it! And, it's small ... only about 2' tall. AND, it gets reddish leaves in the fall. Win-win!

 

[CountryEscape]

Good call on both plants, JB. The liatris is a wonderful plant for bees and butterflies. I'm growing 2 cultivated varieties this year from seed, see if they grow true to their color, but mainly I'm excited to have grabbed some seeds from wild liatris. I'll have to try to get it ID'd as to which variety. I know it grows tall, 4-5' and blooms about a month after the plants I bought, and those purchased plants only get to be about 2' tall. On Prairie Moon, it looks like Prairie Blazing Star is what I collected in a wild flower area along the highway, next to the railroad tracks. It's Liatris pycnostachya, although the Marsh Blazing Star, Liatris spicata is taller according to their guide.
Curious, has anyone ever grown the snow on the mountain and had luck with it? I'm wondering if what my sister had was a totally different plant or variety, and called the same thing. But, hers was soooo invasive. I know lots of native plants can be invasive if allowed to take off untethered! Most often, though, the idea is to have enough competition to hold everything in check.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

@JBtheExplorer - do you ever find the natives do TOO well in your garden? As in they take over? We visited the native prairie area of the Chicago Botanic garden last year for the first time and they told us that it was a simple matter to get the prairie started and only took a fire every few years to keep it under control. haha...aaaaaaahhhh. So that got me thinking about natives and WHY they are native and their ability to thrive in our gardens. You mentioned native grasses made me think of it - I have a few grasses that need taming this spring, which does not look to be a fun OR easy job!

Fires aren't for keeping native plants under control. Natives will actually greatly benefit from fire. What fires are really for is killing off any aggressive weeds as well as trees that have grown in with the natives. The native species will typically grow stronger after a fire because they have less competition from plants that aren't supposed to be there. Our DNR does prescribed burns in prairies every few years. Without fire, prairie wouldn't exist.

Fires aren't necessary for gardens or miniature restorations that are small enough that we can keep an eye on and easily remove aggressive weeds or tree saplings before they become a problem.

My garden isn't old enough to find which native species will be more successful than others, but yes, like anything, sometimes you may find one that spreads too quickly. Those will probably be fairly obvious fairly quickly. I had Frost Aster in my garden for one season and it showed that it was going to be too aggressive for my taste so I removed it immediately. It seems that natives that spread quickest are often the ones that spread by rhizome. Some goldenrods fall into that category. I've heard of Big Bluestem being an issue. They can be aggressive enough to create a monoculture. Goldenrods also benefit the largest number of pollinators, so it's all about finding what's right for you. Not all goldenrods are as aggressive.

There are also heavy self-seeders, but that's a considerably easier problem to have, since you can simply cut the seedheads off as soon as the flowers are done blooming. If you have a thickly planted garden, most seeds would struggle to grow under the dark canopy of mature plants.

Of course, depending on the situation, growing "too well" is not necessarily a problem. I have Wild Strawberry and Common Blue Violets in my garden. Wild Strawberry started with about 6 plants a few years ago and now covers almost the entire east garden. I'm ok with that. I'm hoping the violets do the same to my west garden. I want the lower layer of my garden to be thick enough to help limit weeds.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

I know lots of native plants can be invasive if allowed to take off untethered!

This is actually one of the biggest myths about native plants. Truth is, natives are no more likely to spread aggressively than any non-native plant in suitable conditions. All plants exist by spreading at a rate that gives them a reasonable chance to compete with other plants. The only plants that wont spread are sterilized hybrids and cultivars, which I have a hard time considering to be real plants because they've been so altered. Many can't even produce nectar for pollinators.

I also never use the term "invasive" for native species, because you'll never see natives listed as "invasive species", since they belong here. Wisconsin's Department of Natural Resources says "When non-native plants, animals, or pathogens rapidly takes over a new location and alter the ecosystem, we consider them invasive species."

 

[mrsclem]

As we are close to the migration path of the monarch butterflies, I have been trying to raise some milkweed plants. I harvested some seeds from some local plants and had no luck getting them to grow and yet I had several plants show up in an area below where I tried to germinate mine. I bought several varieties of seeds this year and put them in the fridge for 2 weeks. Planted them and was willing to wait the 2-4 weeks for sprouts. 5 days in and sprouts! Its been 10 days and have seedlings from all varieties growing.