What’s Coming Up In The Garden, 25: great blue lobelia

I missed a couple of days due to prepping for a big storm that came through. Thankfully we had no damage and all my prep was unneeded, but better to do it than not, so I did. Everything here got a good watering and we’ve had a big burst of growth as a result.

Today’s featured native NC pollinator is the great blue lobelia, which didn’t do especially well the first year I planted it, but it has really come out this year in a large cluster and looks great. Its indigo blue flowers are lovely when they arrive, and until then, the green foliage and pleasing shape make a lovely display in the front of my bed. There are two holly trees adjacent which offer a deep green backdrop, though we’ve limbed them up to get a slightly different look to the front - so now their trunks (very beautiful!) are also a nice feature for the eye.

This is a shot of the entire front garden bed - the lobelia is the large cluster on the right in the back from this angle, and to the right of that low cluster you can see the holly. When you’re walking up the stone walkway to our front door, you see the lobelia in front of the holly and it looks quite nice when blooming. (Should have taken the photo from that angle!)

I love seeing this garden bed come up and mature through the spring/summer/fall seasons. Right now it’s so manicured, but as things come out and mature, it becomes a thicket of pure delight. If you make sure to plant things that bloom in each season, you’ll have a garden that keeps you happy all year, and this one definitely does that for me.

Here’s a closer view of the lobelia:

It’s a woodland plant but somehow ended up in full afternoon sun in my garden, which may be why it struggled some the first year. I make sure it doesn’t get too dry if we have weeks without rainfall, but I haven’t pampered it at all.

This is one of the best reasons I can offer for planting natives aside from their benefits for insects and wildlife - they tend to be very hardy and easy to care for.

More info:

Makin, Julie 

Lobelia siphilitica

Lobelia siphilitica L.

Great Blue Lobelia

Campanulaceae (Bellflower Family)

Synonym(s): 

USDA Symbol: losi

USDA Native Status: L48 (N), CAN (N)

This showy perennial is usually unbranched but may exhibit some branching. The erect, 2-3 ft., stems produce lavender-blue, tubular flowers crowded together on the upper stem. Showy, bright blue flowers are in the axils of leafy bracts and form an elongated cluster on a leafy stem. Each flower is split into two lips - the upper lip has two segments and the lower lip has three. 

This blue counterpart of the Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis) is a most desirable plant for woodland gardens especially since it blooms bright blue in late summer. The unfortunate species name, siphilitica, is based on the fact that it was a supposed cure for syphilis.

What’s Coming Up In The Garden, 24: rattlesnake master

This is a delightful native plant that I was eager to put in two years ago. I think I put in 3, making a sort of windy “row” with them that my stepping stones wove around. Last year they got HUGE, and this spring I think I have about 10 total. The originals are much larger, but the babies have grown quite a bit already this season. I’m going to have to transplant at least 4 of them, and I moved the stepping stones into a new curve to accommodate the rest.

The flowers are really unusual and the pollinators love love love them. I’m enjoying this plant a lot and so glad I got it in to the garden early on.

More info:

Eryngium yuccifolium

Eryngium yuccifolium Michx.

Rattlesnake Master, Button Eryngo, Button Snakeroot, Beargrass, Bear's Grass

Apiaceae (Carrot Family)

Synonym(s): 

USDA Symbol: ERYU

USDA Native Status: L48 (N)

Scattered along the stiff, upright stem of this unusual perennial are tough, blue-green, yucca-like, parallel-veined leaves. Smooth, rigid stem bearing thistle-like flower heads made up of small greenish-white florets mingled with pointed bracts. The individual, greenish-white flowers cluster into unique, globular heads. These occur on branch ends atop the 6 ft. plant. 

Their spiny leaves make walking through clumps of these plants difficult, and also make them unpalatable to grazing livestock. They were once credited with a variety of curative powers. Their flower heads develop a bluish cast with maturity.

What’s Coming Up In The Garden, 23: baptisia alba (and tales of weeding)

I loved this when I saw it and put it in two years ago. It’s fairly short-lived in the garden - but while it’s there it’s beautiful. When it first comes up it looks like asparagus!

Here’s how it looks today, getting close to blooming.

Today, I got out my tools for heavy duty weeding. I start with the fancy hoe. I can’t remember what it’s called, but someone recommended it and I got it. You push it parallel to the ground just underneath the weed, and when you pull it back the weed is uprooted. It works really well and easily.

After I get the weeds uprooted, I use the pronged tool to rake them into a pile and pull up anything still hanging on to the earth. And with the broken muck rake I “muck” the pile and carry it to my brush pile, which is not too far away from these beds.

BUT, I decided to ask husband to repair an old haybarrow that’s been set aside for many months.Walking back and forth is taking too much time. He instead ordered my dream garden cart for me, which I’m very eager to get and use. I’ll show it off when it arrives.

Meanwhile, here’s my tool set for serious weeding:

I knocked out the entire fence line in less than half an hour, and transplanted goldenrod down about half of it. I’ll do the rest of the transplanting tomorrow.

The weeding was so easy using the tools I could hardly stop myself, and ended up doing about half the bed. I really could have gone on much longer but online family gaming awaited, so I called it a day!

On the other side of the driveway I took a shot of the larger bed. The one I was working in was too bright to get a good shot. I’ll do it another day.

I still need to trim back the remaining daffodils to clear the way for the asters coming in beneath.

More info on baptisia alba:

Baptisia alba

Baptisia alba (L.) Vent.

White Wild Indigo, White Baptisia

Fabaceae (Pea Family)

Synonym(s): 

USDA Symbol: BAAL

USDA Native Status: L48 (N)

This 2-4 ft., mound-shaped perennial holds its white, pea-like flowers in erect clusters. Velvety, trifoliate leaves turn from bluish-gray to black in the fall. A bushy perennial with smooth leaves and white or cream-colored pea flowers in stiffly erect clusters; stem covered with whitish bloom. Clusters of large, black seedpods often remain attached to the naked winter stems. 

This showy legume, long known as B. leucantha but now as B. alba, often stands out above surrounding prairie grasses. Many species of this genus contain a blue dye that resembles indigo and becomes noticeable in autumn as the plants dry out and blacken. Large-bracted Wild Indigo (B. bracteata var. leucophaea) has two large stipules at the base of 3-parted leaves, giving the effect of five leaflets rather than three. 

What’s Coming Up In The Garden, 22: Atlantic blue-eyed grass

I bought this last fall at the NC Botanical Garden after one of my native plant studies classes. A plus to being in their certificate program is I can always browse the plant sale area before and after class, and I tried to find new and unusual pollinators each time I was there. This was a fun find last fall. One of the best things about planting in the fall, is not only the way the natives thrive when you do it then, but you get to see the new plantings come up in the spring.

I try to figure out good places to put things, but sometimes I make a poor choice and the plant I put in a certain part of the garden doesn’t end up doing well there. I’ve learned not to fight that. If something dies or seems puny after one season, I move it elsewhere and see if I can find a better spot for it.

This Atlantic blue-eyed grass has come up with a bang this spring and is already blooming. I think I made a good choice for it, but we’ll see how it does through the summer.

I have this in front at the border of this bed, and I love how it looks against everything around it.

Today I did a lot of weeding, though still much to do, and I was shocked that in only a couple of days many plants have had growth spurts. The echinacea has budded, and things that weren’t up at all are now peeking out. There are at least 25 plants I haven’t featured here yet, and I was tempted to take lots of photos and feature more than one, but decided to keep weeding instead.

I desperately need to order my mulch and get that done, but I was trying to finish up a few other things before having it delivered, as it will take several solid days for me to get all the mulching done. It would help with the weeds, though!

Anyway, it’s cooler today and although the wind is blowing quite a bit out there, it was perfect weather for gardening. I tend to do everything with my hands, and decided today I’m going to have to get my hoe out and stop trying to pull every single weed individually with my own bare fingers. I’ve always preferred that to using tools, and there will always be areas best done by hand, but at this point I need something to help speed this work a bit.

More info:

Cressler, Alan 

Sisyrinchium atlanticum

Sisyrinchium atlanticum E.P. Bicknell

Eastern Blue-eyed Grass

Iridaceae (Iris Family)

Synonym(s): Sisyrinchium apiculatum, Sisyrinchium mucronatum var. atlanticum

USDA Symbol: siat

USDA Native Status: L48 (N), CAN (N)

A grass-like, clumped perennial, to 20 in. high, with pale-green foliage and flattened flowering stems terminating in loose clusters of pale-blue, six-petaled, yellow-centered flowers. 

A member of the iris family (family Iridaceae) which consists of herbs growing from rhizomes, bulbs, or corms, with narrow basal leaves and showy clusters at the tips of long stalks. There are about 60 genera and 1,500 species, distributed in temperate and tropical regions. Among them, Iris, Freesia, Gladiolus, Bugle Lily, and Montbretia are popular ornamentals. Saffron dye is obtained from Crocus, and essence of violets, used in perfumes, is extracted from the rhizomes of Iris.

What’s Coming Up In The Garden, 21: tulip poplar

While I’ve planted zero tulip poplars since we already have so many, mature and seedlings, and even the ones Duke Energy cut down are COMING BACK (yay, tulip poplars!!), I couldn’t resist featuring these trees.

They are so important for the bees, both native and the honey bees, and even my equine herd loves them. The flowers fall to the ground sometimes and it’s a mad dash among the herd to get to them and eat them up.

When the flowers open, the main nectar flow in our region begins, and for bees, nectar flow is the source of energy that allows them to build new comb for the queen to lay eggs in, and increase population which has dwindled through the winter. For our area, this is the big one for bees. Nothing else really comes close to it.

So this afternoon I turned horses out and took a walk down the hill in front. So did they, and I noticed them darting forward and chewing. It took me a moment to realize what they were eating. The winds last night and this morning have brought some of these beauties to the ground. I had to run and grab this before the horses and donkeys got to it:

Yay, tulip poplar flowers! Yay, bees! Yay, equine princes and king of November Hill!

I’ll get back to the things I’ve planted tomorrow.