All the Dirt on Gardening

Wingstem or Ironweed is classified as a weed by the Virginia Tech Weed Identification Guide but we planted it intentionally as a butterfly nectar food for our yard since its flowers are abundant in the fall when there is little else for our flying friends. Ironweed or Wingstem is Verbesina alternaefolia One if its other common names is Ironweed and there are several other plants with that common name, including Veronia novemboracensis which has blue-purple flowers in the fall. Pine Ridge Gardens in NW Arkansas was the source for our original plant. It has taken several years for it to become 12 feet tall and begin to sucker out into the dry bed where it lives. Since the blossoms are small we find a lot of skippers nectaring on the flowers. Oklahoma's Bina Flower Moth and Aluring Schinia Moth use these plants to raise their caterpillars. Wingstem, a member of the Aster family, is definitely an American native plant and can be found flourishing in open fields. O...

Going native is so important to our sustainable environment. Every native plant you add to your slice of Planet Earth makes a difference, even if you only have window boxes. You can start from seed or purchase plants. I've listed reliable plant sources below with links By the purest and purist’s definition, native plants grew here before European settlers arrived. In contrast, plants brought into our area from other places and hybrid plants are non-natives. Naturalized plants are those that were brought into the region as non-natives but escaped the cultivated area and thrive as weeds. Wherever they originated, natives are low-maintenance plants that grow well without much assistance after they become established. The benefits to wildlife and to your appreciation of your gardening experience cannot be measured!  Do as much native planting in the fall as you possibly can.  Wild Things Nursery ( www.wildthingsnursery.com ) in Seminole grows and sells OK nativ...

Bottlebrush Buckeye Even though we have 2.5 acres, we have created smaller garden spaces close to the house where we have planted PawPaw, Japanese Maple and Witch Hazel elder that have been successful in our soil.  We've also planted small, short-living, trees such as Crabapple, Walkingstick, and Redbud that are small enough but tend to last 10 years or so.  Many shrubs can also be pruned into small trees to make a hedgerow more interesting. These include Smoketree, Burning Bush, Flowering Almond, Tea Rose Trees, and all the weeping trees (peach, willow, honeylocust),  I can recommend PineRidge Gardens in Arkansas for perusing a catalog of native woody plants. Go to one of MaryAnn's open nursery days and get advice. She knows everything. Hawthorn berries Maple trees: Acer negundo  ‘Flamingo’  25 ft Acer palmatum   (Japanese maple) 4-25 ft  Acer tataricum ginnala   (Amur maple) 20 ft  Buckeye (we have these 2 varieties that...

Fall is the ideal time to plant perennials and MaryAnn King at Pine Ridge Gardens in northwest Arkansas has lots of native plants ready for fall gardens. Below are two of her postings: a list of the milkweed varieties a she has for your garden and a list of her nursery open days and hours for the fall Below are some milkweeds available now.  Also attached is new plants for fall.  Asclepias amplexicaulis Clasping milkweed $15.00 Asclepias tuberosa                             Orange butterfly weed $10.00 Asclepias tuberosa ‘Hello Yellow’     Yellow butterfly weed $12.00 Asclepias incarnata ‘Ice Ballet’          White swamp milkweed $10.00 Asclepias incarnata   Rose milkweed or swamp milkweed  ...

Native Witch Hazel, Hamamelis virgiana - February In our back garden the native Witch Hazel Shrub, Hamamelis virgiana, grows next to Chinese Fringe flower, Loropetalum chinese. This has been an especially mild winter so we can be outside for several hours a day now, admiring the daffodils, cleaning out the oak leaves and prepping the vegetable beds. The Witch Hazel shrub came from Pine Ridge Gardens native plant nursery in Arkansas. It was only a one-gallon size shrub so it took a few years for it to mature enough to bloom. This year it was completely covered with flowers! Here's a Fine Gardening article link to all things Witch Hazel. MOBOT praises its ability to cover a hillside and thrive in clay soils. Chinese Fringeflower, Loropetalum chines - February The Chinese Fringe flower shrub came in a 6-inch pot probably also three years ago. It isn't as tall as the Witch Hazel yet but is equally rewarding in terms of its urge to produce beautiful flowers in ...

Barbara's Buttons, Marshallia caespitosa  Mary Ann King, owner of Pine Ridge Gardens in northwest Arkansas has always been a reliable source for native plants grown at her nursery. Yesterday King announced that they have collected seeds from their plants and the surrounding area and are making them available to native plant lovers. Click over to see the entire listing at http://www.pineridgegardens.com/Seed%20Listing.html Other useful links - Arkansas Native Plant Society http://anps.org/ Ozark Chapter Arkansas Native Plant Society http://anps.org/ozark-chapter/ Native Plants for Birds in NW Arkansas http://www.nwarkaudubon.org/native-plants-for-birds-in-northwest-arkansas.html Seeds we have to Spare Our seed mostly comes from the nursery or the farm so most of our seed is only available in small quantities.  Sometimes seed may hybridize naturally so  it may not turn out exactly like its parent plant.  And since these are...