What’s Coming Up In The Garden, 10: spotted horsemint

This is my absolute favorite plant in the pollinator beds. I fell in love with it in a pollinator plant class I took with our local extension agent Debbie Roos, and managed to get three plants at the North Carolina Botanical Garden’s annual plant sale that fall. It has spread and done beautifully in my garden. Pollinators of all kinds love it.

Here it is today, coming up in the foreground. The tulips were there when we bought the farm and while they are of course not native, I have let them remain. They bloom early and I can remove the stems before the spotted horsemint comes all the way in.

Below is a nearly mature flower from last year’s horsemint, in the same part of the garden bed. I cannot tell you how much I love these - they take my breath away when in full bloom. A friend who lives on Hatteras says they grow everywhere there, and recommended I manipulate the seed pods in late fall to encourage more growth. I did it the first year and now have many, many more than the three I originally planted. They encompass an entire swath of one pollinator bed now. This may be the year to transplant some of them. For now I’m just enjoying the anticipation.

Here’s more info:

Flaigg, Norman G. 

Monarda punctata

Monarda punctata L.

Spotted Beebalm, Spotted Horsemint, Horsemint

Lamiaceae (Mint Family)

Synonym(s): 

USDA Symbol: MOPU

USDA Native Status: L48 (N), CAN (N)

An aromatic, erect perennial ranging from only 6 in. to almost 3 ft. tall. Rosettes of yellowish, purple-spotted, tubular flowers occur in whorls, forming a dense, elongated spike at the end of the stem or from leaf axils. Each whorl is subtended by large, conspicuous, whitish, purple-tinged, leaf-like bracts. 

Linnaeus named the genus Monarda in honor of a 16th century Spanish physician and botanist, Nicolas Bautista Monardes (1493-1588). Monardes never went to the Americas but was able to study medicinal plants in Spain.

What’s Coming Up In The Garden, 9: wild bergamot

This is a favorite in my pollinator garden, both mine and the bees. I planted three small plants two years ago and it’s nicely bunched and spread now, and is a delight once it blooms. It lasts a long time, too. Although it’s not blooming yet, it has leafed out nicely this spring and I look forward to see it in another month or so.

I planted it at the front of the bed, just under the huge butterfly bush that has been here since we bought the farm, and while I do have to trim the butterfly bush back to keep it from taking over, the bergamot grows right up into the bush’s lower hanging branches and later in the season the blooms intermingle. It’s very pretty. 

More info:

Monarda fistulosa 

Common Name(s):

• Bee Balm
• Eastern Bergamot
• Wild Bergamot

Phonetic Spelling

mo-NAR-da fist-yoo-LOW-suh

Description

Monarda fistulosa, commonly called wild bergamot, is a native perennial that occurs in dryish soils on prairies, dry rocky woods and glade margins, unplanted fields and along roads and railroads. It is a clump-forming, mint family member that grows typically to 2-4' tall.   

November Hill farm journal, 95

It’s a rainy day here so I’m going to update on the farm stuff instead of doing a what’s coming up post. I’ll get back to that tomorrow.

Over the weekend I finished off several terrace beds in Poplar Folly and planted them with native to NC pollinator seed mix. We’re fortunate to have a local farm that does nothing but grow and sell native plants, and these seed mixes are affordable ways to do larger pollinator areas. I still have some shade and sun mix left so will be sowing those in various spots around the farm where I want bee forage and roots in the ground, which help with run-off.

I also walked the entire back pasture, the big barnyard, and half of the little barnyard, spreading red clover seed in advance of the rain. Hoping to see that come up this spring.

I added to the terraced bed in the front pasture - more brush, more leaves, more stall waste. I have a bit more to do and then I can put compost on top and figure out what to plant there. Of course as I was out there working, I concocted another plan to create one more of these beds along that same steep slope using the other tree trunk in the front field. This will require the truck and tow strap and would be a bit trickier, but if we could do it, it would really take care of this eroded path along the edge of the front field. We’ll have to wait for dry ground, but I think we’ll give it a go.

There always exists a bit of a dichotomy between life on November Hill and the larger world, but it’s even more stark right now. I do the chores. Mucking is mucking, right? It has a zen-like quality to it if one allows for that, and it’s a daily thing. You feed the equines, they digest, they drop manure. You get it up and move it where you can use it best.

The world right now feels spiky and full of change. New updates, sudden change, information both reliable and not. Answers, no answers. I hope all reading this are staying home unless you are in a position essential to your communities. To all those on the front lines, and I mean not only doctors and nurses but caregivers and grocery staff and pet/livestock staff, and utility staff, THANK YOU. May we all come out of this smarter and more compassionate.

I posted about the golden girl passing her Canine Good Citizen test, but I didn’t share a photo of her. She’s very big and she is, we think, beautiful!

What’s Coming Up In The Garden, 8: dogwoods

One of our favorite things each year is seeing the dogwoods come into bloom. Ours have popped out in the past two days and while not yet peaking, are already very lovely. A welcome sight given all that is going on.

I especially love seeing them in concert with the redbuds.

Two falls ago I planted two young dogwoods on either side of the driveway. One unfortunately dried out and died and the other one succumbed to something eating it down. These were small saplings and I hope to replace them with larger ones this fall. The existing dogwoods are mostly very old and we lost a couple in the past two years. There are many young ones volunteering along our property line on two sides, but we’re leaving those where they are. 

These trees offer beautiful spring blooms, berries in late fall and into winter that are favorites among birds and opossums alike, and the greenery in later spring and summer creates a lush landscape on our farm. 

The dogwood is our state tree here in North Carolina.

Here’s a bit more info:

Cornus florida 

Common Name(s):

 

• Flowering Dogwood

Phonetic Spelling

KOR-nus FLOR-ih-dah

Description

Flowering Dogwood is a deciduous tree that may grow 15 to 25 feet tall. The leaves are alternate, acutely veined, with a smooth to wavy margin. The bark is smooth when young. As the tree ages, the bark becomes very scaly to finely blocky. A very small and inconspicuous, tight cluster of green flowers surrounded by 4 very showy, large, white (occasionally pink) bracts mature in early spring. The small tree produces a cluster of red drupes that mature in the fall.

What’s Coming Up In The Garden, 7: highbush blueberry

Last fall I put in 8 native NC highbush blueberries along the fence going down the path to Poplar Folly, partly to get some roots in the soil, partly to help pollinators and wildlife, partly to add some screening along that side of the farm, and partly to give us some blueberries to harvest.

These had been originally planned for the strip of land we own along our gravel lane up to the paved road, but when neighbors voted to hire the road repair with someone who cleared every living thing along the right of way coming down the hill, I decided I wasn’t willing to put my own time/effort/money into planting that strip, even though we own it, and even though it’s outside the right of way. Hard call, but life is too short to waste effort.

I’m glad to have these on the path to Poplar Folly, and it is exciting to see them leafing out:

I took a photo of the bottom area so you can see a bit of Poplar Folly:

The darkish strip just beyond the green is one of the terraced beds I made using brush and then stall waste and autumn leaves. It’s mostly mulched down now and today after the rain I sowed a mix of shade and part-shade pollinator mix in hopes of roots and forage for bees and other pollinators.

More info on the blueberries:

Plant Details

Vaccinium corymbosum [several other species have been split from this]

Highbush Blueberry, Smooth Highbush Blueberry

Scientific Name:	Vaccinium corymbosum [several other species have been split from this]
Genus:	Vaccinium
Species Epithet:	corymbosum
Common Name:	Highbush Blueberry, Smooth Highbush Blueberry
Plant Type	Shrub
Life Cycle	Perennial
Plant Family	Ericaceae (Heath Family)
Native/Alien:	NC Native