Male Ruby-throated Hummingbird nectaring on Coral Honeysuckle

Surging north over a three-month period (from late February through early May), millions of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds depart their winter homes from southern Mexico to Costa Rica. They head north, reach the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, brave the 500 mile-wide Gulf of Mexico water crossing, and if weather cooperates and they’re lucky and strong flyers they reach the Gulf Coast (Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida).  Refueling, they then head “back home” to where they were born.

Ruby-throated Hummingbirds reached our garden in southern New Jersey on April 20 and have only recently (second week of May) settled in in numbers. The very first was seen in New Jersey on April 5. Today the mystery of when they will appear (and when we need to get our feeders hung) has been simplified by Hummingbirds.net, a great, interactive website. Check it out next spring as you’re wondering just when to expect your returning hummingbirds.

What many people do not realize is that, if you hope to attract nesting hummingbirds in the spring as they journey north, you need to place well-maintained feeders in your yard. The reason is simple: our gardens are mostly dirt when they first arrive in mid-April, with little in the way of blooms and nectar.

They are looking for a secure source of food and will settle in when they find it. Feeders are just that. Of course you want to keep those feeders fresh like flower nectar, so be sure to clean them out at least once a week and refill them with fresh solution during the cool weather in spring and fall. Come toasty hot weather, be sure to clean and refill feeders at least every three days or sooner (as soon as the solution begins to look cloudy). The proper solution for a hummingbird feeder is one part sugar and four parts water – this is most like flower nectar. I mix a quart at a time and refrigerate the rest. I own 10 feeders so that I can take 5 full feeders out to replace the 5 I’m bringing in to clean.

HummZinger mini (8-ounce) feeder

 My Favorite Hummingbird Feeder

My favorite feeder is the mini HummZinger 8-ounce feeder by Aspects. This feeder is incredibly well thought out (no surprise since Aspects tapped Sheri Williamson, hummingbird expert and author of the Peterson Field Guide to Hummingbirds of North America, as a consultant). This feeder is easy to clean (which is A MUST – ditch your artsy hard-to-clean feeders), has a built in ant guard, the proper solution is written inside the lid (emphasizing NOT to use red dye), the design is NOT bee-friendly (bees can not get to the solution because they do not have long bills and tongues), etc.

The Coral Honeysuckle arbor in mid-May

Wild Columbine

Coral Bells

In May

By now, mid-May, in my garden many of my spring perennials have kicked into high gear, so feeders are not the only show in town. Territorial males are defending everything in sight.

1. My arbor of lushly blooming Coral Honeysuckle is a hotbed of activity.  I took the first photo in this post just a few days ago.
2. Wild Columbine has wandered all over my garden and woods much to my delight and that of hummingbirds.
3. My old-fashioned Coral Bells are pulling them in too.

I place my five feeders around our one-half acre habitat so that one bossy male simply can not control all five feeders (and flower beds), though he tries. This way a female has a chance of setting up a territory around one of the feeders and nesting somewhere near this secure source of food.

One feeder equates to one bossy male. Two feeders placed out of sight of each other may lure in two territorial males. Three feeders scattered around your yard, some in the front yard and some in the backyard, may lure in a third hummingbird, hopefully a female who will chose to nest in your yard. It is great entertainment watching a male try to defend all of your feeders and gardens, but don’t make it too easy for him or he will be your sole hummingbird.

What few realize is that male Ruby-throated Hummingbirds do not share well with others, even their own “mate” and young. Once a male has mated with a female, he’s done — and off looking for the next available female. So, be sure to have plenty of food in the way of feeders and well-crafted gardens blooming from early, early spring right up until frost.

Nectar (and the solution in feeders) is what powers and maintains a hummingbird’s incredibly high metabolism. Nectar is like a candy bar to a hummingbird, but who can live on candy bars alone? Their meat or protein comes from eating tiny, soft-bodied insects and spiders. So, a pollinator garden full of insects is like a supermarket to hungry hummingbirds.

In June

Trumpet Creeper, a native vine that hummingbirds find Irresistible

Our sturdy Trumpet Creeper arbor

A month from now, in mid-June, Trumpet Creeper and Bee Balm (or Monarda) will kick in as top hummingbird nectar plants in my garden. Trumpet Creeper, a native vine, can be trained up a dead tree or over a sturdy arbor. There’s nothing more fun than sitting under that arbor and blazing away with a camera as hummingbirds feed and perch, feed and perch, over my head.

Bee Balm is the plant that led me to wildlife gardening thirty years ago now. It pulls in EVERYTHING, from hungry hummingbirds to hummingbird moths, butterflies, a multitude of bees and wasps, the works! Bee Balm or Monarda is in the mint family and will spread. If you have a patch, share some with a new wildlife gardener and help get them hooked.

With hummingbirds, there is so much to share about these little bundles of energy that I’ve decided to break it up into a few segments. In later posts on Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens I’ll address the summer hummingbird garden and nectar plants like Cardinal Flower, the fall hummingbird garden, and maybe even what Ruby-throated Hummingbirds face on their wintering grounds (quite a different story than Kathy Vilim shared about her overwintering Anna’s Hummingbirds in California).  We hate to see them go, but let’s not think about that right now.  After all it is spring and we have a solid 4-5 months of hummingbird madness to enjoy.

Happy gardening and happy hummers,
Pat

Pat Sutton, of Cape May NJ, is an author and naturalist who has taught about gardening for wildlife (with a focus on backyard habitats, creating pollinator gardens, meadows, wildlife ponds, invasive plant free areas, and more) and led tours of private wildlife gardens for over 30 years.  She’s available to speak with your group.  Also consider attending one of her “Tours of Private Wildlife Gardens” in Cape May County, NJ, this July, August, or September.

© 2013, Pat Sutton. All rights reserved. This article is the property of Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens. If you are reading this at another site, please report that to us

It’s a risky business to be the first plant to flower – with a high probability of unseasonable weather and temperatures too low for pollinators to fly, how can a plant ensure pollination?

Bloodroot employs several strategies, the first is to limit self-pollination in hopes that a pollinator lands on the flower, bringing pollen from another bloodroot plant to cross-pollinate the flower.

A small sweat bee leaves the flower after finding no nectar. Anthers are bent away from the receptive stigma.

To intitially limit self-pollination, the female reproductive organ (stigma) in the center of the flower becomes receptive first before the male reproductive organs (anthers). This strategy limits pollen from the same flower coming into contact with the receptive stigma. The anthers, during the first few days of the flower opening bend downwards towards the outside of the flower to distance themselves from the receptive stigma.

If temperatures are warm enough for pollinators to fly, pollen from other bloodroot plants is deposited onto the receptive stigma when pollinators visit the flower. Bloodroot during the female phase of flowering does not offer a reward to pollinators because the flowers are nectarless. Since bloodroot typically flowers when no other plants are flowering, the plant can get away with tricking insect visitors because there is very little competition for pollinators.

A female mining bee collects pollen by gathering the anthers together

Mining bees are the primary pollinator of bloodroot, pollen collects on the underside of their abdomens before being combed to their upper rear legs. They often crawl over the receptive stigma when visiting female-phase flowers. Their hairy bodies, dark coloring and moderate size help them keep warm during inclement, early spring weather. Even though they are considered an effective pollinator, mining bees fly around the flowers low to the ground but rarely land on the female-phase flowers. Once the first flowers are offering pollen, their flower visits increase to feed on and collect pollen.

Small carpenter bee, Ceratina sp.

When the flowers first open, small carpenter bees (Ceratina sp.) and small sweat bees (Lasioglossum sp.) land on the petals. They crawl from the petals to the outer edge of the circle of anthers, searching in vain for nectar as they probe with their tongues.

Small sweat bee, Lasioglossum sp. feeding on pollen

When the anthers dehisce, small sweat bees feed on the pollen.

Bee fly, Bombylius sp. probes the flower in vain for nectar

Bee flies, Bombylius sp. are also duped by the showy flowers hovering above and probing for nectar.

If temperatures are too cool for pollinators to fly during the flowering period, a few days after the flower opens the anthers turn upwards, dehisce and contact the stigma in order to self-pollinate the flower.

The ability to self-pollinate will continue to be an effective long-term survial strategy for bloodroot plants as the climate warms, flora and fauna ranges change and plant-pollinator interactions become uncoupled.

References:
Lyon, D. L. (1992). Bee pollination of facultatively xenogamous Sanguinaria canadensis L. Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, 368-375.

© 2013, Heather Holm. All rights reserved. This article is the property of Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens. If you are reading this at another site, please report that to us

monarch butterfly on passion flower

Vines, any vines, are great in the garden.  Three reasons.  First of all, vines need very little root space to flourish, thus they can fit in even the smallest yard.  Second, many vines have beautiful flowers, and the bloom period can last for months, offering an opportunity to fill your yard with color.  Third, and in my book best of all, many vines produce food, fiber, and other usable products (grapes for wine, hops for beer, I could go on). Tops on my vine list for my backyard, with trouble-free growth, ample fruit production, and amazing blooms for months, not to mention butterflies galore — passion vine, or Passiflora.

Passiflora incarnata – photo by Oliver P. Quillia

bud

Called variously passion flower, passion fruit and just plain passion vine, Passiflora has over 500 species and countless varieties, most with edible fruit.  Notable is the passion vine that bears fruit for the Hawaiian Punch blend.  That particular species (Passiflora edulis), does best in an area of high humidity and light freezes, but chances are good there is a passion vine species native to your area of the country.  Best of all, most species fruit in their first year!

But before you bite into any passion fruit, you have to know that the way to eat them is to slit open the leathery outer rind and feast on the sweet flesh and seeds inside.  Passion fruit can store for at least a month in the ‘fridge, but if you leave ripe fruit on the vine, the birds will get them.

Open the leathery rind and scoop out the yummy center.

Plant this vine for the striking flowers as well as the tasty fruit.  The flowers come in purples, reds and other vivid combinations of colors. Most blooms are very large, and look like some sort of alien space ship.

Plant this vine for the butterflies. It is the larval host plant for the gulf fritillary, also called the passion butterfly (Agraulis vanillae), a striking orange and brown butterfly. The larvae are striking as well, orange and black with spikes all over. It clearly says, “Don’t mess with me!” The voracious larvae can really eat, but so far my plants have all recovered from their depredations.

gulf fritillary (Agraulis_vanilla) top view

gulf fritillary (Agraulis_vanilla) underwings

gulf fritillary (Agraulis_vanilla) larva

gulf fritillary (Agraulis_vanilla) pupa

In Tucson Arizona, the best passion vine to plant is the native Sonoran passion vine, Passiflora foetida. At least that is what it is called around here. Common names for the plant include running pop, love-in-a-mist, stinking passion flower, wild maracuja, bush passion fruit, marya-marya, and wild water lemon. That same species is said to be native to a number of warm states. What ever you call it, the bloom appears the same. Stunning!

Sonoran passion flower

The plants sold here as “Sonoran passion vine” open their blooms at night, releasing a heavy, musky scent that draws in bats and the giant sphinx or hummingbird moths. Blooms last into the daylight hours, and I have seen queen, monarch, and gulf fritillary butterflies all at the same time on the flowers. (Now there are some species fun to try to tell apart when they are flitting about!)

A fast grower, a single Passiflora foetida plant can cover 20 by 15 feet in a year. The plant is covered with bloom from March to first freeze, and the fruits ripen in four to six weeks, all throughout the summer. I planted mine under a mesquite tree and it weaves handsomely up through the foliage. Passion flower will not choke the tree like some of the aggressive vines. It usually dies to the ground every winter but quickly resprouts every spring, as soon as the soils warm in late February.

Some botanists argue for a subspecies, slightly different than the original. Baja passion flower vine (Passiflora foetida v. longipedunculata), has more showy flowers that last to mid-day. It will also die back to the ground in a hard freeze, but despite low teens for days on end this past winter, the vine has resprouted (although it is blooming late this year). Generally they start blooming in March, and last through October. Like their Arizona cousin, Baja passion vine is a fast grower and one plant can cover 20 by 15 feet. The fruits of both varieties are equally edible. My only problem is that I should have planted them on an arbor so I could harvest them more easily!

Along with the fruit, young leaves and plant tips are considered edible, and are served in the Philippines. I prefer to leave the leaves on the plant to photosynthesize and thus make more sugars that can be spent in producing pretty flowers and tasty fruit.

Sonoran passion vine leaf

Sonoran and Baja passion vines prefer well-drained soils, and they are especially happy in enriched garden soil. The USDA data base notes that the species is also found in Texas, Maryland, Florida and Hawaii. Ideally, visit a local nursery get plant grown from seed or cuttings of the germplasm that grows best in your state.

Passiflora foetida seeds – photo by Steve Hurst

Note to stamp lovers: check out the passion flowers featured in the new “La Florida” set of US stamps. Celebrating the quincentennial of the first Spanish expedition to Florida, the stamps come on a sheet of sixteen stamps, featuring four beautiful flower stamps. I spent more than was in the budget just to have these lovely forever stamps to send on birthday cards.

“La Florida” quincentennial postage stamps

© 2013, Jacqueline Soule. All rights reserved. This article is the property of Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens. If you are reading this at another site, please report that to us

Gratuitous flower shot!

The kids’ school is moving . . . again. I won’t bore you with the details, but this is the third move/campus change in as many years. The good news is that the whole school is now in one building, and we have a whole campus to turn into garden/wildlife habitat!

So, naturally, I’ve been thinking about beginnings. Of course, we need plants. But, when it comes to creatures, first on the invitation list are the bugs.

At least they should be. Walk through any home center though, and you quickly get the prevailing wisdom that the only good bug is a dead bug. There are a mind-boggling number of products out there to kill, maim, or otherwise incapacitate most any creepy crawly known to man.

Your hired army will soon desert if there is nothing for them to eat.

Then there are the chosen few, the good guys, which we can buy at the local garden store or even order online and release in our gardens en masse—tiny mercenaries in our fight for a perfect garden. Only problem is, there is no enemy to engage, for we have visited terror upon them ourselves long before our hired army arrived.

To be sure, there are many potential pests in the garden. As I write this, my Swiss chard is being destroyed from within by leaf miners because I failed to put row cover over my young plants. Even relatively harmless creatures, like the millipedes that devour my strawberries, can become problematic if populations grow out of balance.

Chickadees need all those lovely bugs to feed their babies.

However, the chemical war we are waging on our buggy “enemies” doesn’t just kill the caterpillars, maim the mites, and asphyxiate the aphids. It also keeps at bay the ladybugs, lacewings, frogs, salamanders, birds and every other delightful creature that we want in our gardens.

Why? Because we are killing the food.

I’m sure you learned about the food chain in elementary school. These days the term is “food web” in recognition of the complexity of ecological relationships, but the concept is still just as simple. Plants feed the plant eaters. Plant eaters feed everything else.

In the garden, plant eaters are primarily the bugs—mostly insects—and us! The plant eaters, in turn, feed ladybugs, mantids, lacewings, frogs, spiders, birds, and the list goes on. When we get rid of the problem bugs, we don’t leave anything for the “beneficials” to eat. Can you hear the conversation?

“What’s wrong Larry?”

“I fear we’ll have to move.”

“But I just go the furniture arranged so nicely!”

“I’m sorry Marge, but the aphids have been wiped out. We have nothing to feed the young’uns.”

When Larry and Marge pull up stakes and leave, this conversation ensues in the aphid community.

“Hey boys, did you hear? Larry and Marge have left. It’ll be easy pickings now!”

“Oh, but what about that awful fog from the sky that killed the Millet family?”

“I’m willing to take our chances. Now that Larry and Marge are gone, there will be too many of us. The fog will never get us all!”

Do you see the ant tending her flock of aphids?

Okay, so I won’t have a career as a comedy writer, but you get the idea. If you are willing to tolerate a few holes in your leaves and allow the pest population to build up a little, help will arrive in the form of all the creatures that eat those pests. And they won’t be hired mercenaries. They’ll be residents of your little country, just as devoted to keeping the peace between plant and pest as you are.

A garden that welcomes a few pests also hosts bird parents seeking for food to feed their hungry broods. Spiders set up shop in nooks and crannies. Frogs lie in wait. Friendly momma mason wasps stuff their nests with buggy prey for their young. Snakes stalk slugs.

Can I promise you’ll never lose a plant to an infestation? Of course not. But infestations become significantly less likely if the army is already garrisoned nearby and doesn’t have to be ordered from an online supply company! So bring on the aphids—the ladybugs are sure to follow!

© 2013, Christy Peterson. All rights reserved. This article is the property of Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens. If you are reading this at another site, please report that to us

Film nature and wildlife and you are going to experience extreme heat and humidity at some point on location in the course of shooting. These are some of the harshest weather conditions to which your sensitive equipment will be exposed. You know how to protect yourself. You wear sunscreen and drink a lot of water. Do you know what to do to protect your cameras?

Working around geysers can at time be problematic with the heat and humidity.

Condensation

When filming on a very hot and humid day, bringing your video equipment out of a cool, air-conditioned automobile into an external steam bath may cause condensation. If this condensation develops inside the lens, internal camera elements can get fogged up and the images produced will not be clear. Worse yet, the condensation inside the camera’s body has the potential of shorting circuits. These result in the camera shutting down unexpectedly. The very worst effect of condensation is that the resulting water drops will dry up and leave spots on the lens that ultimately lead to fungus or mildew growth that the filmmaker cannot clean out. To prevent this problem, always clean all external camera surfaces with a dry, soft cloth when condensation forms. Then put the equipment in dry and well-ventilated place to prevent any more.

Heat

Cameras are designed and manufactured to perform within a specific range of humidity and temperature conditions but it pays to remember is that because most camera bodies are black, the internal temperature may be even higher than the ambient one. Take care to keep all equipment covered in a cooler place when not in use. Try to limit if not completely avoid utilizing camera settings that generate internal heat. Cameras can cause heat build-up in themselves. Battery packs, LCD screens and image sensors all generate internal heat. When filming nature and wildlife in high temperatures limit your use of Live View and LCD screens to reduce the chance for too much heat.

The camera can actually help itself cool down if you set it to automatically shut down after a few minutes of inactivity. You will also conserve the battery’s power this way. Either let the equipment warm up before taking it out in extreme heat or pack in a re-sealable, airtight plastic bag. Squeeze as much air out of the bag as possible and include silica gel packs in the bag. When condensation is gone, it is safe to get the camera out and resume filming with it.

Humidity

When you store your photography equipment for long time periods after filming is complete, remove all battery packs to prevent electrical contacts from corroding. To prevent humidity build up while stored, put plenty of silica gel packets in the camera and equipment bags. This desiccant controls most humidity levels. There are “dry cabinets” for cameras if more protection is needed. If using a hygrometer test it at least once a year and recalibrate it then.

Fog means a lot of moisture is in the air. Protecting your camera should be a high priority in conditions like this.

© 2013, Kevin J. Railsback. All rights reserved. This article is the property of Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens. If you are reading this at another site, please report that to us

Sambucas mexicana in Elderberry Pond wildlife habitat.   Perhaps the cutting shrub propagation will be successful.   The young shoots look promising.

Come on, Blue Elderberry, you can do it!  Grow, grow, grow.  Don’t stop now – you’re on your way.  Keep growing and send out roots.  Send out more leaf to soak in the sun to make yourself strong.  Grow so fast that you leave the snails and slugs behind.  Stand firm and dig in your roots before the summer sun gets here.  Beat this race of sun, water, nutrients, and hungry critters.  Grow!  The Little Elderberry Engine That Could!

Yes, I have a favorite plant to watch this spring – a blue elderberry (Sambucus mexicana) cutting that has sprouted shoots.

A young blue elderberry shrub planted as part of The Laguna Foundation’s restoration project, Stone Farm, Santa Rosa, California.   Note the red multiple trunks, opposite pinnately compound leaves, and the early-summer bloom.

Blue elderberry is treated by some taxonomists, including the USDA, as a subspecies of black elderberry, or Sambucus nigra; it is then called Sambucus nigra ssp. caerulea.  Other taxonomists, including the Jepson Manual (The Jepson Manual: Vascular Plants of California, 2nd edition), call the blue elderberry Sambucas mexicana.  Regardless of the name chosen, the blue elderberry is a large broadleaf deciduous shrub.  If left wild, it will grow many trunks and become a thicket reaching 15-30 feet tall.  It will become tree-like if pruned into dominant trunks.  The elder family of shrubs is successful worldwide, partly because of its members’ being both drought- and water-tolerant.  The blue elderberry likes sun and does well along the forest edge.  It thrives on moist soils, including clay and  those that flood.

Every part of this North American native shrub can be eaten – the leaves, stems, berries, flower, and root.  But caution is in order, because some parts are mildly toxic with cyanogenic glycoside, a chemical that creates arsenic when processed in the digestive tract of an animal (like a  human!).  Sure, I look forward to the delicious sweet and juicy berries.  But mostly, I want a blue elderberry shrub in our garden for its benefits to wildlife.

A blue elderberry flower cluster.   The creamy colored flat-topped umbels bloom in early summer.   Lots of tiny flowers to provide pollen for insects.   The flowers make a mild tea.

Blue elderberry are typically grown from seed.  Another propagation method is to use a young shoot that has last year’s heel.  Both tried  and true methods of propagating blue elderberries, but I have been experimenting another technique in our garden.  The blue elder is so similar to habits of the willow, that I am having a hard time accepting that this plant will not sprout life from a cutting in the ground.  Actually, “a hard time” is an understatement – I have worked this experiment for two years now and have given it much time and energy.

Last year’s blue elderberry cutting, mulched with oak leaves.   The stake framing was for support and to protect the cutting from foot traffic.   The cutting was just planted.   Note the healthy looking young shoots from the older trunk wood.

The purpose of the elderberry in our garden will be to have a thicket of native flora supported by our greywater runoff.  Rather than go directly to veggies that we want to eat, our greywater will irrigate a wildlife habitat – perhaps a small tub pond, some small plants, and the elderberry tree.  The elderberry will provide food, cover, perching, and nesting sites for many species of birds and food and cover for various other wildlife.  I’m not the only one in love with the pithy trunks of elderberry.  Insects, like elderberry beetles and longhorn beetles, bore into the pith for food and shelter.  Birds eat the berries and other animals eat the seeds.

End-view, from base, of blue elderberry trunk.   Love that pith!   What a beautiful home for insects to thrive in during the warm months and cozy warm during the over-wintering months.  Note how some of the trunks have a hollow center.

Blue elderberry trunk close-up.

So propagation by cutting it was, last year, when I took a six foot length and sunk it into the ground about three feet.   Seemed like a good idea to me to treat this sometimes riparian plant like a willow.  But the shoots eventually died back, never to sprout again.

Failed propagation cutting of blue elderberry.   No roots, not even stubble.   No nothin’!

But this is a new year, a new chance to get this elderberry propagation right.  I was lucky to collect some local blue elderberry cuttings from unwanted prunings in late winter.  Treasure at the perfect time!

Blue elderberry prunings.   Note the rich red of the trunk wood and new leaf growth.

Elderberry Pond wildlife habitat site, off the back of our deck, under the grape arbor (top right).   Greywater from the house will be piped to the habitat.   Eventually, the elderberry tree will kill off the almost dead birch tree (not native to California!).

This time around, my experiment would be two cuttings, each about eight feet long and buried three feet.  I used the same hole as last year’s cuttings for one and stabbed a new hole in the soil for the other.  For two months now, we have carried greywater to the tree cutting almost daily.  And, the area has been watered by very little rain this year and some hose water.  And, I talk to the plant – giving it some love, some guilt.  Grow little elderberry, grow!  And, it is growing.

A sprout of life from Blue Elderberry’s trunk.   It’s going to make it.

There was a die-back of the original leaf growth when I planted the cutting; that was about one month after planting.  Now, after two months, new growth is appearing.  And that new growth seems strong.  I will keep the plant happily wet, keep up the love, maybe cut back on the guilt.  Successful propagation from the cutting will be so satisfying; we will get a stronger tree, faster, per the USDA:

“The cuttings that survive seem to establish and grow faster.  Plant biomass production, height, flowering and seed set is more rapid than with seedlings.”

New growth on blue elderberry cutting.   The Little Elderberry Engine That Could!

Enjoy your wildlife garden.  Habitat It!

Tony

© 2013, Tony McGuigan. All rights reserved. This article is the property of Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens. If you are reading this at another site, please report that to us

Queen Devil, also known as Hawkweed

Some of us just can’t wrap our heads around scientific names for our flora and fauna.  Try as I might, every time I snap a flower photo I have to go to the Institute of Systematic Botany’s Atlas of Florida Vascular Plants to look up the proper scientific name.  It doesn’t matter if I’ve photographed the plant once or 20 times, the scientific names just don’t stick with me. Half the time the common names don’t either, but I attribute that to age more so than foreign language block.

However, some common names stand out because they seem to elicit an aura of grandeur.  These are the flora and fauna that represent “royalty” in my garden.  Here are a few of the players at my Central Florida native plant garden location:

Queens Delight

QUEENSDELIGHT (Stillingia sylvatica)

A low growing (1-3 ft) perennial shrub that grows in sun or part shade.  The sap of this member of the Spurge Family (Euphorbiaceae) can be an irritant.  Listed as an important gopher tortoise forage by US Forest Service.

Low Growing Florida Native Shrub

Used in Native American Ethnobotany for diarrhea, vomiting, menstrual problems and venereal disease.  An ingredient in Hoxsey anti-cancer tonic use for cancer treatment. Toxic adverse reactions are possible in anything other than a small amount.  Oil is listed as “powerful and an irritant” in Guide to the Poisonous and Irritant Plants of Florida (Florida Cooperative Extension Service IFAS).  Sounds pretty scary to me, I think I’ll pass on the ummmmm, “witch doctor” stuff (no offense intended).

Royal Fern

ROYAL FERN (Osmunda regalis var. spectabilis)

An accent fern for wet locations…water garden, bog, or pond area.  Mine appeared in the margins of the pond when I allowed things to restore themselves naturally.  This beauty provides coverage for wildlife and does well in the shade.

Queen Devil aka Hawkweed

QUEEN-DEVIL (Hieracium gronovii)

Queen Devil is a tall and lanky Florida Native Wildflower

A tall, gangly, yellow wildflower with hairy basal leaves.  Before putting out buds, The basal leaves may sometimes be confused with Elephant Foot (Elephantopus elatus).

A Favorite of Pollinators

Also known as Hawkweed, insects are attracted to nectar and pollen of the flowers including bees, bee flies, and beetles. The seedheads are eaten by Wild Turkey. Leaves are foraged by deer and rabbits…with that furriness, I wonder if they taste like kiwis.

Talk about hairy, just look at the basal leaves

Moving on to fauna:

BELTED KINGFISHER (Megaceryle alcyon)

Waiting Over the Pond for a Sign of a Meal

This bird is in the Order: Coraciiformes, Family: Alcedinidae and is the lone bird listed in these classifications, much like an only child without any relatives.  Their diet consists primarily of fish (imagine that).

Ready to Pounce on the first fish he sees

The kingfisher makes a loud rattle just prior to diving into the water to get a meal.  He also will dive in to avoid predators such as hawks.  They may eat snails, crustaceans, insects, amphibians, reptiles, young birds, small mammals, and berries if the fish supply is slim.  With his beautiful Mohawk-style crest it is easy to see why he is a king.

Monarchs get all the press, but this Queen is MY favorite of the milkweed butterflies

MILKWEED BUTTERFLIES (Tribe: Danaini):

Monarch Butterfly
(Note that the butterflies are nectaring on Bidens Alba in ALL these photos)

Next up are a couple of butterflies of royal proportions.  Everyone is familiar with the Monarch (Danaus plexippus), likely the most recognizable butterfly of all time.  The larval host is appropriately enough, Milkweed (Asclepias spp.).  Probably how the tribe got it’s common name.

Monarch

Monarch caterpillar:

Not to be outdone, there is the Queen Butterfly (D. gilippus) a relative of the Monarch.  Personally, I prefer the Queen, which is good because in my butterfly population, the queens outnumber the monarchs probably ten to one.  By providing larval host plants in addition to nectar sources, you increase your chance at better butterfly numbers in your garden. The Ultimate Guide to Butterfly Gardening produced by our own editor, Carole Sevilla Brown is full of more hints in how to make your garden more inviting to our winged friends.

Queen (left), Hairstreak (right)

Queen Caterpillar:

So, whom do you bow to in your garden?

© 2013, Loret T. Setters. All rights reserved. This article is the property of Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens. If you are reading this at another site, please report that to us

Yet we know that we can’t always just plunk these plants into the average garden – anyone that has ever tried to transplant a pink ladyslipper (Cypripedium acaule) has learned that. In the case of the pink ladyslipper, special mycorrhizal fungi relationships, careful treatment of the sensitive roots AND the right growing conditions are keys to that plant’s survival.

Southern shield fern, Thelypteris kunthii

There are native plants that do adapt very well to our gardens, many of which have been used for years: foamflower, ferns, and bloodroot to name a few. Here is a list for shade perennials that you can use when researching what to add.

When looking to purchase native plants, I encourage you to think locally: use plants that are generally indigenous to the same region as the garden and purchase plants that are grown from indigenous seed/cuttings and raised in the region itself. If you’re not sure how to find plants that are native to your area, the post linked here might be of use.

Perennial plants are those that come back each year. Trees and shrubs are “woody” perennials. Generally the term “perennials” indicates herbaceous plants. Herbaceous plants die back to the soil line each year, leaving no woody remnants, and sprout all new growth come spring.

These are perennials for shady areas that receive 4 or less hours of direct sun or which reside in filtered light conditions:

Maidenhair fern, Adiantum pedatum.

Ferns – A wide range of native ferns exists to provide the shade gardener with a variety of foliage forms and textures.  One of them even went mainstream: Athyrium filix-femina  ‘Lady in Red’. You go, girl! Northern maidenhair (Adiantum pedatum) is one of my favorites; the foliage is stunning. If you have a bit of morning sun, be sure to look into Thelypteris kunthii, a tall fern that is quite sun-tolerant.

Clockwise from top left: Arisaema, Asarum, Geranium, Galax

Arisaema – Jack-in-the-pulpit (A. triphyllum) is a fun plant, especially for kids. Be sure to check out green dragon (A. dracontium) too.

Asarum – Canadian ginger (A. canadense) is a deciduous groundcover. Check out the genus Hexastylis for the evergreen gingers.

Galax urceolata – Call it beetleweed if you want, I just call it Galax … and exceptional. This is a superb plant for shady areas. The foliage is worthy enough, but the wand-shaped flowers are wonderful too.

Geranium – Our true Geranium plants are modest but decorative and hardy as the day is long. Geranium maculatum is the one to get. You’ll love the pink flowers.

Clockwise from top left: Heuchera, Hexastylis, Maianthemum, Iris

Heuchera – Coral bells have gotten a lot of treatment in the nursery trade until there are cultivars now that resemble their ancestors only by leaf shape and flower form. Give me the straight up Heuchera americana any day of the week.

Hexastylis – Evergreen gingers have beautiful leaves and mysterious flowers. I love to show the hidden flowers to kids. Both H. arifolia and H. shuttleworthii are quite at home in the shade garden.

Iris cristata – This is the shade-loving dwarf iris. The petite bloom and diminutive foliage make me feel like I’m in a fairy garden.

Maianthemum racemosum – Solomon’s plume offers handsome foliage, feathery blooms and bright red berries. I’ve seen huge stands of it on hikes on the Smokies and I know that look can be replicated at home.

Clockwise from top left: Polygonatum, Sanguinaria, Tiarella, Trillium

Polygonatum biflorum – Solomon’s seal has blue-green foliage and secretive flowers. The blue berries that form afterwards are very attractive.

Sanguinaria canadensis – Bloodroot’s early spring flowers are a salve to the winter-starved soul. Later the foliage remains and a large clump can double as a summer groundcover.

Tiarella – Foamflower is Heuchera’s showier cousin (they are both in the Saxifragaceae family) and it is an outstanding plant for the shade. It can spread to create a bit of groundcover when happy. Naturally found near streamsides, be sure to use it around ponds and streams.

Trillium – Trillium are dainty and special yet surprisingly hardy. When happy, clumps will increase in size and small babies will pop here and there, proof that the ants have done their share of the heavy lifting. In my area, Southern nodding trillium (T. rugelii) is the fastest to multiply.

Separately I have posted a list of the tried and true perennials for the southeastern sun garden. If your shade garden gets 4-5 hours of morning sun, many of these “sun” perennials will do fine there too. I hope that these ideas will help you find some new ways to incorporate native plants into your garden.

© 2013, Ellen Honeycutt. All rights reserved. This article is the property of Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens. If you are reading this at another site, please report that to us

And every other yard has a lawnmower roaring up and down, side to side. Two men wear ear protectors I’ve only seen construction workers use with jackhammers. Mr. Mows All the Time, who lives across the street from me, is gliding around his front yard for the third time in a week, and the lawn next door is bog-like from the daily watering of an underground sprinkler system. Everyone this night is enjoying the weather, enjoying it by destroying it.

You, too, can have Swallarchs in your garden.

Maintaining a lawn is like maintaining a big cornfield — that’s what Home Depot and Scotts want you to think. They subtly play into the ideal that your quarter acre lot at the city’s edge is really your 160 acre homestead, that your property is something to prove up. But you have to MAINTAIN it (for the record, in one hard day of work my 2000′ native plant garden is set for 12 months). My one neighbor sweats like a hog every time he mows and looks, after an hour, like he’s about to have a heart attack. What joy mowing the lawn is! Huzzah to the green carpet that you fertilize when the commercials come on the air to tell you when! Work it! Work it! Work it! The same machine we feed that poisons our food supply poisons us in yet another way.

I watered this bad boy twice last year and pulled about ten weeds.

A lawn is a desert. A lawn slathered in petrochemicals is a Superfund site in the making with a drug-addicted soil that needs more more more juice. Turn on the sprinklers and wash that stuff into our streams and lakes, help the Mississippi dead zone grow. As the fertilizer sits on the lawn it releases greenhouse gases. Lawnmower exhaust restricts blood flow leading to hypertension, fosters lung disease, creates hearing loss, makes a person impotent. The only time I see my neighbors outside is when they’re mowing — at least if they picnicked, or suntanned, or made love on the lawn it’d get some use, I’d see some purpose.

I’m not wholly against lawns. Well, yes I am. It’s the whole system designed to maintain it that I abhor, and the non regional idea that lawn works out here in the prairie (did Lewis and Clark see Native Americans maintaining tall fescue?).

Drought tolerant and climate adapted prairie plants — tugs on my root strings.

It was Michael Pollen’s father who, after neighbors pressured him to finally mow his lawn, wheeled out a mower that barely started and simply carved his initials into the lawn, never to mow again. Per acre, American lawns use four times as much pesticide as agriculture — and you know how much agriculture uses now that GMO crops can take more pesticides. American lawns use 50% of our fresh water. American lawns kill the planet. Lawn, as it is now, is murder as we lose thousands of animal, plant, and insect species each year due to habitat loss from farming, new roads, chemical overuse…. American lawns are killing our families through artificial chemicals that can increase the risk of cancer, ADHD, Alzheimer’s, and lead to early puberty.

Our new veg bed — less lawn, more organic food. That’s two birds with one stone!

I haven’t mowed yet this year, whereas my neighborhood has been at it for over a month — even right after a morning snowfall melted. My soil-enriching dandelions are doing fine, and if it wasn’t for my city’s 12 inch “weed” ordinance, I’d have a short grass prairie on my 1,000 square foot front side that would be a drought tolerant, soil amending, pollinator nirvana. Watching a man spraying something on his lawn as kids next door run barefoot makes me stare long and hard at the tiller in my garage. Do you want to come over and help me change the world?

© 2013, Benjamin Vogt. All rights reserved. This article is the property of Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens. If you are reading this at another site, please report that to us

Missouri Goldenrod (Solidago missouriensis) flower

Ever considered including Goldenrod (Solidago sp.) in your garden?  It’s great for late season pollinators, provides nectar for many beneficial insects and is amazingly hardy.  As we approach planting season, I challenge you to consider adding a Goldenrod to your landscape!  It’s one of my favorites!

Missouri Goldenrod, Solidago missouriensis

Goldenrod is a host plant for a number of beneficial insects and is used as a food source by a number of moth and butterfly caterpillars.  The Goldenrod in my gardens is literally covered with bees, wasps, flies and butterflies sipping nectar when it is in bloom.  Other insects including Praying Mantis, Lacewings, a number of spider species, beetles and parasitic wasps utilize it for both habitat and food.

It is especially valuable for pollinators in late summer when other plants are dormant.  In my garden Pine Siskins eagerly harvest seeds and insects while dangling on the tall stems during fall months.

Rigid Goldenrod (Solidago rigida) flower

Historically Goldenrods were unjustly blamed as the cause of hay fever, but the true hay fever culprit is really ragweed (Ambrosia sp.) which blooms at the same time as Goldenrod.  While ragweed’s pollen is wind-born, the pollen of Goldenrod is to heavy and sticky to be blown in the wind and it is pollinated primarily by insects.  So nix to that argument!

With nearly 100 species of Goldenrod (some are difficult to distinguish from others), there is at least one species that grows in your area.  In the Rocky Mountains we have 11 species including Solidago canadensis, S. missouriensis, S. gigantea, S. multiradiata, S. rigida and S. decumbens.

Canada Goldenrod (Solidago canadensis)

There is a great deal of variation among the Goldenrods.  Some (like Rocky Mountain Goldenrod (S. multiradiata) are rather short and have smaller flowers; others such as Giant Goldenrod (S. serotina) top six feet in height with open flower heads crowded in showy pyramidal clusters.  Rigid Goldenrod (S. rigida) is found in wet areas while Missouri Goldenrod (S. missouriensis) is an inhabitant of dry open meadows.  Rocky Mountain Goldenrod prefers high elevation, cooler sites while Canada Goldenrod is found in ditches and in disturbed areas at lower elevations.

Rigid Goldenrod (Solidago rigida)

Goldenrods spread by both seeds and rhizomes so they can become pesky, especially if given supplemental water.  Best to avoid water!  It seldom becomes problematic in rangelands and is not invasive when put in a sunny, dry location.  I do try to contain them in my gardens by occasionally removing seedlings and removing shoots that overstep their boundaries, but I find them quite manageable.  Then again, I don’t water except in the extreme heat of summer.

Many of the Goldenrods are positively affected by disturbance and thrive in disturbed soils.  They will often colonize these areas rather quickly and play a significant role in erosion control.

Rocky Mountain Goldenrod (Solidago multiradiata)

The leaves have significant quantities of latex and apparently Thomas Edison attempted to create rubber from them although the rubber was rather sticky and lacked tensile strength.

Considered a weed by some Goldenrod has nonetheless earned a reputation as a prized garden plant by gardeners worldwide providing swaths of gold color covered with buzzing insects.

Missouri Goldenrod (Solidago missouriensis)

So next time you are looking for a good plant for color, late season bloom time and/or a great pollinator plant, go for the gold and find a Goldenrod to add  to your landscape!

© 2013, Kathy Settevendemie. All rights reserved. This article is the property of Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens. If you are reading this at another site, please report that to us