What’s Coming Up In The Garden, 55: green head coneflower

This is an unusual coneflower that has a very prominent green head that eventually turns yellow and golden brown in the fall. I wanted something bright in the potager, native and upright and not attractive to deer but super attractive to pollinators, and this fit the bill nicely. Unlike many of the natives I’ve planted, these aren’t drought resistant, but since they’re in a space that will get regular watering anyway, I think they’ll do well in the potager.

I put in four of these this week and am hoping to see some blooms this season!

More info:

Rudbeckia laciniata 'Autumn Sun (sold out until 2021)'

Autumn Sun cut-leaf coneflower

Native to North America

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FIRST IMPRESSIONS:  Rudbeckia laciniata Autumn Sun is a selection of a native clump forming perennial with multiple upright stems.  The leaves are large, dark green and deeply lobed.  From summer until fall foliage is topped with clusters of showy daisy-like flower heads. Each head consists of a yellow-green globular cone surrounded by drooping yellow rays.  This rhizomatous species thrives in partly shaded sites with moist or wet fertile soils. 

HABITAT & HARDINESS:  Rudbeckia laciniata Autumn Sun occurs in most of the southern Canadian provinces and in all the contiguous United States except for California, Nevada and Oregon.

Plants are indigenous to bottomland forests, moist meadows, borders and clearings of moist woods, shaded sloughs, shaded banks of rivers, creeks and ponds, calcareous seeps and wet to moist fields or pastures.

This species is hardy from USDA Zones 5-9.

PLANT DESCRIPTION:  Rudbeckia laciniata Autumn Sun is an upright lanky perennial that branches in the top half. 

The stems are smooth, light green and clad in alternate drooping blades.  Basal leaves are up to 12” long and 12” across with narrowly winged petioles and 3-7 large toothed lobes.  As the stems rise, the leaves become progressively smaller and unlobed.  

For 1-2 months beginning in summer, stems terminate in clusters of daisy-like heads.  Each head is 2-3” across with a nubby globular cone wreathed by 6-12 clear yellow oblong ray florets. 

The young cones are green with unique widely spaced disc florets that impart a pincushion-like appearance.  The cones turn yellow as the disc florets mature and finally morph into golden brown seed heads as winter approaches.

Plants are 4-7’ tall with a 3-4’ spread.  This species often forms colonies from long underground rhizomes.

CULTURAL & MAINTENANCE NEEDS:  Rudbeckia laciniata Autumn Sun thrives in part sun and moist soil.   Plants tolerate wet soils, seasonal flooding, heat and humidity.

Plants are pest resistant and foliage is unpalatable to deer and other herbivores.

This species is not very drought tolerant.  It may survive in sunny well drained sites but leaves are usually wilted with brown edges. 

In good growing situations with plenty of moisture, plants may spread aggressively from rhizomes.

LANDSCAPE USES:  Rudbeckia laciniata Autumn Sun is a dramatic Accent for a Wildlife Garden or moist Meadow. Plants are also used as Butterfly Nectar Plants or as part of a Grouping or Mass Planting.   This wildflower offers Showy Blooms and provides Erosion Control.  It is useful in Stormwater Management and Rain Gardens. It can be used in Cottage Gardens, Deer Resistant Plantings, Low Maintenance Plantings, Perennial Borders or Shade Gardens.

COMPANION & UNDERSTUDY PLANTS:  Try pairing Rudbeckia laciniata Autumn Sun with Aster novi-belgii, Deschampsia caespitosa, Eupatorium perfoliatum, Lobelia cardinalis, Penstemon calycosus, Carex amphibola, Panicum virgatum or Sorghastrum nutans.

Rudbeckia laciniata is a possible substitute for sunny rain gardens and stormwater management projects.

TRIVIA:  Blossoms attract a variety of bees, pollinating flies, beneficial wasps, butterflies, skippers and moths.  Caterpillars of Silvery Checkerspot Butterflies forage on the foliage and seeds are sometimes eaten by goldfinches.  Foliage is not particularly palatable to deer and other herbivores.

Rudbeckia laciniata Autumn Sun can be differentiated from related species due to their nubby green to yellow cones.  Most other Rudbeckia spp. have brown, black or gray cones.  Foliage of this species has 3-7 deep lobes while most other Rudbeckia spp. have fewer or no lobes.

Height:

4-7 ft

Spread:

3-4 ft

Spacing:

18 Inches

USDA Hardiness Zone:

4-9

Bloom Color:

Yellow

Rudbeckia laciniata 'Autumn Sun (sold out until 2021)' Characteristics

Attracts Wildlife

• Butterflies
• Pollinators

Attributes

• East-Coast Native
• Cut Flower
• Rain Garden
• Coastal
• Clay Soil
• Bog
• Naturalizing
• Long Blooming

Exposure

• Full Sun to Partial Shade

Deer Resistant

• Deer Resistant

Flowering Months

• September
• August
• July

Foliage Color

• Green

Growth Rate

• Medium

Juglans nigra Tolerance (Black Walnut)

• Yes

Salt Tolerance

• Low

Soil Moisture Preference

• Moist to Wet

What’s Coming Up In The Garden, 54: pitcher plant, Scarlet Belle

The space between the yellow pitcher plants and the ailing woodland stonecrop was empty and thus offering prime space for weed invasion, so I wanted to put something there that would add some variety as well as take up that space.

My daughter loves pitcher plants so I chose this native hybrid from one of our local native plant nurseries. It’s absolutely stunning! 

The nursery is sold out of woodland stonecrop but in the fall I’m going to do a new planting in this spot and give it one more chance to grow there. If it fails again, I’ll need to look for something different. Meanwhile I will let the pitcher plants do their thing and spread out if they will to become an even larger spot of interest and beauty.

More info:

Sarracenia 'Scarlet Belle' is a popular and brightly colored pitcher plant with a low-growing habit. Plants look stunning throughout the growing season. 

• Compact habit
• Intensely colored pitchers, especially in the fall
• Very unusual shaped leaves

Details

•  7 to 10 in. tall 
• Grows to 12 in. wide over 3 to 5 years 
• Clump-forming habit 
• Hardy in USDA hardiness zones 6, 7, 8, and 9

Flowering period

In central North Carolina, flowers open in late April before the new pitchers emerge.

How to grow

• Full sun 
• Plant in a peat-based growing medium
• Keep wet by growing plants with their containers sitting in a tray of water
• Don't fertilize, they catch their own
• Only water with rain, distilled, or reverse osmosis water

Care and maintenance

After a hard frost, the tips of the pitchers may turn brown. Trim off the dead parts of the leaf to keep plants looking attractive.

Where to plant

Large tubs and bogs.

When to plant

Scarlet Belle can be planted any time throughout the growing season.

When will my plant flower?

Plants are flowering size and will bloom their first year if purchased before April.

Native habitat and range

The parents of this hybrid grow in bogs and savannas in the southeastern United States.

Source and origin

A hybrid between S. leucophylla and S.psittacina created by the late Bob Hanrahan in 1985 and registered in 2002.

On the International Carnivorous Plant Society website, Bob informs us how he developed and named this beautiful pitcher plant hybrid.

Why I can’t have enough narrow leaf mountain mint on November Hill

Pandemic project

Since March I’ve been craving something to do with my hands, like embroidery or cross-stitch, even though I don’t really know how to do either of these things. I vaguely remember doing something with stitching in home ec class in ninth grade, but mostly when it comes to sewing, I remember my grandma and her Singer, and the many colors of thread she had in the fold-down drawer, like a rainbow, and the button drawer that was full to its brim with buttons.

This craving has led to many nights of perusing embroidery websites online, like The French Needle, which has the most extravagant kits, some of which are very pricy, so I just put things in my shopping cart and then left it there, until a week later those items were sold out and I would start again.

A few weeks ago I decided to look for less expensive sources for kits, and after going to several including Etsy, I had collected some tools and two things to start working on, as well as a really lovely envelope style case to keep the work in while I do it. 

I haven’t started yet, but I have derived an unusual amount of pleasure and calm from just looking at the kit and its colored threads. I’ll do the actual stitching soon enough, but during this time of staying at home, wearing masks, and fielding anxiety about a multitude of things happening in our country and our world, I’m finding that perusing and pondering and enjoying the simple things make everything a bit better.

This is the back of the case. It makes me happy just to look at it, inch by inch, as it reveals its story. 

And the other side, which makes me equally happy. My first project will be the nerve cell that I got from a neuroscience PhD student on Etsy who makes these kits to calm her own neurons. The second project will be Anne of Green Gables and the wonderful quote:

“Why must people kneel down to pray? If I really wanted to pray I’ll tell you what I'd do. I'd go out into a great big field all alone or in the deep, deep woods and I'd look up into the sky—up—up—up—into that lovely blue sky that looks as if there was no end to its blueness. And then I'd just feel a prayer.” 

Meanwhile, looking at the threads, the pink thimble and tiny purple scissors, the patterns and needles, makes me feel calm and excited. Something to look forward to, something to work on a little at a time until I finish it. 

A friend said this sudden penchant for embroidery could represent my subconscious wanting to stitch the world back together. She could be right. 

What’s Coming Up In The Garden, 53: climbing aster

Our local demonstration pollinator garden has a superb example of this climbing aster, and it’s what clued me in to planting it in the potager. It tends to bloom many months of the year here in central NC, so it will be wonderful to have for our bees.

Of course it’s a native to NC and given the success of the non-climbing asters I’ve planted in the past two years, I’m looking forward to seeing this one mature. 

We built this trellis using two posts we had on hand and a “hog panel” from our feed store that they cut in half for us. They come in 16-foot lengths, and we didn’t need anything quite that tall. But I have the other half in the barn so I can use it for something else when the time comes.

I’ve planted three climbing aster plants along the base of the trellis. Two have had their leaves chewed off by something - rabbit? Squirrel? Raccoon? I’m not sure. If this continues to be a problem I’ll use some chicken wire to allow these young plants to get a safe start.

More info:

Ampelaster carolinianus 

Common Name(s):

 

• Climbing Aster

Previously known as:

 

• Symphyotrichum carolinianum

Phonetic Spelling

am-pel-ASS-ter kay-ro-lin-ee-AY-nus

Description

Climbing Aster is a sprawling herbaceous perennial that produces long stems and can climb to heights greater than 10 feet. It prefers to sprawl over the top of fence posts or other plants or can be located and allowed to use a trellis for its support. The side branches grow horizontally, allowing them to use adjoining plants for support of the plant structure.

It can be found growing in marshy shores, stream banks, edges of swamps, moist thickets or wet woodlands. Standing water may affect the plant's health, so a location where good drainage can be accomplished is desirable. It will tolerate seasonal flooding.

Deadhead this plant in the fall, but refrain from any additional trimming at that time. Delaying until spring when the plant is showing signs of awakening is a better alternative.  

In the late summer and fall, it produces pink to purple blooms with yellow centers.

The rapid growing-spreading habit may require frequent division.

Insects, Diseases and Other Plant Problems:  Common diseases of the climbing aster include wilt disease, powdery mildew, and botrytis.