What’s Coming Up In The Garden, 15: little bluestem

While I’m doing native grasses, I’ll go ahead and add little bluestem to the list. It adds another lovely visual element to the beds, on through the winter months, and the birds love it.

Here you can see both the old growth and the new. This is another edge of the front bed that slopes sharply in the corner and the little bluestem has secured the soil nicely. The birds have flocked to it all through the winter, and are still doing so, which is why I haven’t cut back the old growth. As other things come in, I’ll cut it back.

I have it in my upper pollinator bed as well, where it creates a nice green area between other flowering plants. It’s super hardy and requires zero maintenance.

There’s a big bluestem as well that I planted in Arcadia but the deer ate it. I’ll try again. If I can get it established it should be able to take some deer nibbling, but I may have to plant it inside the fence until it gets big enough to survive their munching.

More info:

Schizachyrium scoparium 

Common Name(s):

 

• Little Bluestem
• Prairie Beardgrass
• Prairie Beard Grass

Previously known as:

 

• Andropogon scoparius

Phonetic Spelling

ski-za-KRY-ee-um sko-PAIR-ee-um

Description

A native ornamental grass with attractive blue-green foliage in the Poaceae family.  Purplish bronze seed heads and yellow-orange leaves make for great fall interest in the landscape.  It is attractive planted en masse and would make an excellent addition to a rain garden. It performs best in average, dry to medium moisture, well-drained soil in full sun.  However, it does tolerate a wide range of soil conditions including infertility and clay.  It has drought resistance once established. It is well-adapted to southern climates as it tolerates high heat and humidity. It is found naturally in a wide range of moist to dry habitats. Cut back to the ground in early spring to promote new attractive growth. There are many cultivars available, which means it can be difficult to find the straight species in trade.

Little Bluestem is a perennial, warm-season grass that may grow to 5 feet. The leaves and stems frequently have a bluish cast in summer, while the fall color is a very warm copper that does not fade throughout winter. 

Seasons of Interest:

     Leaves: Summer/Fall/Winter; Bloom: Late Summer/Fall; Fruit/Seed/Nut: Fall/Winter

What’s Coming Up In The Garden, 14: Gray’s sedge

Gray’s sedge is a native grass I planted two falls ago in the sloped corner of the front-most bed. I needed something that would take the rain run-off there and secure the corner of the bed against erosion, and I also wanted to add something that would spread out and give a diverse visual element to the bed which is full of big blooming things. This stays about a foot tall and it has spread from 6 plants to a solid cover on this corner. It’s got beautiful prickly blooms that I didn’t capture well here. It’s also a pollinator. 

This fall I’ll likely transplant any new babies to other areas of the front gardens that need finishing off. It’s a terrific plant that has done well very easily and it overwinters beautifully to provide forage for birds through the winter season. 

More info:

Carex grayi 

Common Name(s):

• Asa Gray's Sedge
• Gray’s Sedge
• Mace Sedge

Phonetic Spelling

KAIR-eks GRAY-eye

Description

A low maintenance rush or sedge in the Cyperaceae family.  Works well on sites prone to erosion when using bioswales,  also tolerates wet soils such as floodplains, swamps and bottomland forests..  Grows best in full sun but will tolerate light shade.  The plant propagates by seeds in the fall or root division in the spring. It makes an excellent addition to a rain garden and is impactful in the landscape when planted in large groups. It can also be grown in containers. The Carex grayi seed heads are a wonderful unexpected pale-green with earmarks of being spiked clubs that have a long bloom time from spring to fall being attractive in both fresh and dried flower arrangements.  If the dried fruits remain on the plant they add winter interest to the garden.  

Seasons of Interest:

    Bloom: Spring-Fall, May-October  Fruit: Summer-Winter

Wildilfe Value: Tolerates damage by deer.

Insects, Diseases, and Other Plant Problems:  No insect or disease problems.  It does not preform well in dry soils.

What’s Coming Up In The Garden, 13: inkberry holly

Two autumns ago I planted 10 inkberry hollies behind Poplar Folly’s fence, to get a start on some evergreen screening down there that was also native to NC, not popular with deer, and a pollinator plant. 9 survived and while they are slow-growing plants, they have more than doubled in size and the black berries they produce are good for wildlife and also very striking.

The North Carolina Botanical Garden has several mature inkberries and they’re taller than me and quite beautiful. I’m hoping these grow to the upper end of the height range in the next several years.

Here’s one from yesterday’s time down in Arcadia:

Many of the hollies are native and pollinators, and I still have a plant to plant winterberry hollies up front on the outside of our front fencing, as well as the more usual American holly trees along the side fence - where I’d like to limb them up so they provide screening up high but leave the fence area clear. Because the hollies in general are slow growers, I’ve wanted to purchase more mature plants for these two projects - which means more $ and also bigger holes needing to be dug, so it’s gotten pushed to the bottom of my list each fall. Maybe this fall I can tackle this. For now, though, I’m enjoying seeing the little inkberry hollies gain some height each season.

More info:

Wasowski, Sally and Andy 

Ilex glabra

Ilex glabra (L.) A. Gray

Inkberry, Gallberry

Aquifoliaceae (Holly Family)

Synonym(s): 

USDA Symbol: ilgl

USDA Native Status: L48 (N), CAN (N)

A mound-shaped, colony-forming shrub, somewhat open with age, 6-12 ft. tall and wide. Lance-shaped, sparingly-toothed, glossy, leathery foliage varies in color from dark- to light-green both in summer and fall. Inconspicuous flowers are followed by black berries which persist well into winter. This species differs from all other evergreen hollies by lacking spines on the leaves, only having teeth toward the tip of the leaves.

Arcadia gearing up for a honey bee spring!

One of our new nucs is arriving today and I ran down to Arcadia to make sure the Artemis hive was clean and ready to go. Here it is!

I’m really happy we managed to get one nuc right as we move into the tulip poplar nectar flow. This is the big flow in our region and all the nectar gives the bees the ability to build comb and numbers to carry on into summer. We have a dearth in July and so this early start is key to a good start to the season.

Our two nucs coming in May will likely miss this flow and we’ll have to feed them to help them make up for what they missed. If this new hive gets a booming start we will be able to feed their excess honey frames to the “younger” nucs instead of sugar water.

My goal this year is to end up with at least three very healthy hives going into next winter. If we’re lucky we will need to split Artemis and end up with four.

What’s Coming Up In The Garden, 12: elderberry

In December we purchased 30 live stake elderberry plants and put them in along the areas of the farm where we get a lot of rainwater run-off during storms. This was one of the recommendations made by a consult I got from our local native plant nursery. Elderberry was something I’ve wanted to put in on the farm for years, and this was a great, and inexpensive, way to do it.

The live stakes were bare sticks bundled together. We tapped them in the ground with a mallet. There they stood all winter long, an experiment in faith. The idea being that they quickly grow vast root systems, securing and stabilizing the soil around them in the process.

We weren’t able to get them as deeply into the ground as I wanted, but we did our best.

This is what they look like today:

These bushes will be wonderful for wildlife, pollinators, and us, and they will also thrive in the areas we put them. They love getting lots of water at various times and can easily tolerate drought in between.

Plant Details

Sambucus canadensis

Common Elderberry

Scientific Name:	Sambucus canadensis
Genus:	Sambucus
Species Epithet:	canadensis
Common Name:	Common Elderberry
Plant Type	Shrub
Life Cycle	Perennial
Plant Family	Caprifoliaceae (Honeysuckle Family)
Native/Alien:	NC Native
Size:	6-12 ft.
Bloom Color(s):	White
Light:	Sun - 6 or more hours of sun per day, Part Shade - 2 to 6 hours of sun per day
Soil Moisture:	Moist
Bloom Time:	April, May, June, July
Growing Area:	Mountains, Piedmont, Sandhills, Coastal Plain
Habitat Description:	Streambanks, thickets, marshes, moist forests, disturbed areas. Common throughout NC.
Leaf Arrangement:	Opposite
Leaf Retention:	Deciduous
Leaf Type:	Leaves veined, not needle-like or scale-like
Leaf Form:	Compound
Life Cycle:	Perennial
Wildlife Value:	Important for Wildlife
Landscape Value:	Suitable for home landscapes
Notes:	Plants can be vigorous growers and may need more management to control. Attract butterflies and birds.
Blooming Plants  They are very attractive shrubs. along the highway and railroad right-of-way, Black Mountain © MB Baumeister