Garden Tips
The “Buzz” on Native Plants
By Carol Schroding,
Gardening Enthusiast and former owner of Northeast Native Perennials
Next week: More Beautiful Late Bloomers for Your Garden!
When late August and early September come, many gardens are waning. The good news is that if you have chosen wisely, you still have lots of pollen, nectar, and seeds for the pollinators and birds who still have plenty of season left in them! In the case of the birds, if they do not migrate, they are looking for sustenance from your garden year-round!
Some favorite “late bloomers” in my garden are Garden Phlox ‘Jeana’ (Phlox paniculata ‘Jeana’) which is a butterfly magnet and is still blooming now and started in July! Another is the Three-lobed Coneflower (Rudbeckia triloba), which is so very bright yellow and beautiful in the garden and the Goldfinches have already begun snacking on its seeds!
New York Ironweed’s burst of purple to contrast with the yellows is amazing! It provides pollen and nectar for many native bees and butterflies and seeds for the birds after blooming! It serves as a larval host for 19 different butterflies and moths in our area. It will grow tall, so keep that in mind when placing it. Or you can cut it back in early summer, as the deer did mine, and it will be shorter and have double the blooms!
When you garden with native plants for the purpose of providing habitat and food source for our birds and pollinators, it changes the way you see your landscape. Of course you want it to look beautiful and it will, but instead of choosing plants solely for their color or how they look in the garden, you choose them for their value to the wildlife you wish to attract and provide for. This could mean that they produce berries or seeds for the birds or nectar and/or pollen for the butterflies and bees. Or it could be a larval host for the caterpillars of moths and butterflies. Seeing your garden through this lens is so very rewarding!
Recently I added two shrubs to my garden with high wildlife value. The first was a Red Twig Dogwood (Cornus sericea). It attracts butterflies to its flowers in the spring. It is a larval host for approximately 120 species of butterflies, and it produces berries that are loved by the birds. This is truly serving many purposes for the wildlife and therefore “high wildlife value!”
Inkberry Holly (Ilex glabra) is a beautiful small-leaved evergreen which produces flowers that are an important nectar source for pollinators, black berries prized by the birds on female plants in fall and serves as a larval host for Henry’s Elfin Butterfly and 30 other butterflies and moths!
Sedges, often referred to as grasses, but certainly much more beneficial than the turf grass in our lawns, are useful for attracting birds and butterflies. Some serve as larval hosts for butterflies and moths, while others produce seed for the birds. Sedges (Carex species) are available in many different forms, textures and even colors. Many do well in dry shade, are low-growing and will form a wonderful ground cover for a tough area.
Since I am working on a large area under a tall evergreen which is both shady and dry, I am utilizing a mix of these wonderful grasses. These include Seersucker Sedge (Carex plantaginea) bright green with puckery leaves, Oak Sedge (Carex albicans) thin leaves with a fountain-like form, Spreading Sedge (Carex laxiculmus) beautiful blue-green leaves and Appalachian Sedge (Carex appalachica) dark green with a fireworks-like appearance when in bloom.
Hairy Alumroot ‘Autumn Bride’ (Heuchera villosa) a native cultivar which tolerates drought and dry shade, is another plant I am using in this space. It forms a beautiful groundcover, and its creamy white blooms in late August/early September brighten up the shade garden. Hummingbirds and tiny beneficial native bees will seek out the nectar!
Whether you are just getting acquainted with using native plants in your garden or have been using them for a while, there are always questions regarding the proper site for a particular plant or finding the right plants for a particular location in your garden.
As I plan a dry shade garden under a large evergreen, my goal is to create a beautiful patchwork of texture and color, low maintenance, hardworking area that will provide food and cover for many of our pollinators and feathered friends.
If you have a shady area, here are two beautiful pollinator-friendly plants you might consider adding to your garden:
The Blue Wood Aster (Symphotricum cordifolium) is a very pretty fall bloomer which tolerates shade, provides nectar and pollen and serves as a larval host for the Pearl Crescent and Gorgone Checkerspot butterflies!
Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis) is an important early nectar source for Hummingbirds, tolerates shade and has a long bloom period.
I credit my Dad with teaching me to love and respect my natural surroundings and ultimately, my love of gardening! But it wasn’t until many years later when I read Doug Tallamy’s book Bringing Nature Home, that I realized that planting native plants was the way to help restore our ecosystem and in turn help our pollinators, birds and other native creatures.
My husband and I gardened our property for many years before we knew anything about native plants. That’s okay! When we did learn, we then only added natives to our gardens. Our passion for native plants led us to open a retail native plant business, Northeast Native Perennials in 2007 and we grew and sold native plants until 2022, when we retired our business. Our goal was to raise awareness and help add lots of native plants to our local region.
