What’s Coming Up In The Garden, 38: buttonbush (and new garden dreaming aside)

We’re having a lot of rain today so this is taken from the laundry room window. While I took the photo, a hummingbird passed by, and a squirrel ran across the garden and up a tree across the driveway. Neither were caught by the camera!

This buttonbush is a wonderful addition to the garden. The flowers are very unique and pollinators love them. The bush right in front of the buttonbush is an American beauty berry, and I’ve likely made a big mistake planting these two so close together. I’m not sure where to move the beauty berry to yet, so for now, it’s growing where it was planted.

I have a very large new bed awaiting creation in the front yard. Last spring we moved the grass paddock (also known as Salina’s Paddock) back to create space for a new pollinator bed. I had planned to put in plants in the fall, but life got busy and I didn’t get to it. For now, it has one butterfly bush, a sweet gum tree, beloved by the goldfinches, and a very active bluebird box. It may be the beauty berry will move to that new space as a centerpiece plant.

Back to the buttonbush - they are plants who love big rain events and are recommended for rain gardens. This corner of the terraced beds can have a large water flow when we get a lot of rain, so along with a hand-dug drainage ditch that leads to an underground pipe for overflow, the buttonbush roots are now securing that corner.

I’ll likely use buttonbush in a couple of other areas on the farm where rain run-off is an issue.

More info:

Marcus, Joseph A. 

Cephalanthus occidentalis

Cephalanthus occidentalis L.

Common Buttonbush, Buttonbush, Button Willow

Rubiaceae (Madder Family)

Synonym(s): Cephalanthus occidentalis var. californicus, Cephalanthus occidentalis var. pubescens

USDA Symbol: ceoc2

USDA Native Status: L48 (N), CAN (N)

Common buttonbush is a multi-stemmed shrub which grows 6-12 ft. or occasionally taller. Leaves in pairs or in threes, petiolate; bladeup to 8 inches long, ovate to narrower, sometimes 1/3 or less as wide as long, with a pointed tip and rounded to tapered base, smooth margins and glossy upper surface, lower surface duller. Glossy, dark-green leaves lack significant fall color. Flowers small, borne in distinctive, dense, spherical clusters (heads) with a fringe of pistils protruded beyond the white corollas. Long-lasting, unusual blossoms are white or pale-pink, one-inch globes. Subsequent rounded masses of nutlets persist through the winter. Trunks are often twisted. Spreading, much-branched shrub or sometimes small tree with many branches (often crooked and leaning), irregular crown, balls of white flowers resembling pincushions, and buttonlike balls of fruit. 

Buttonbush is a handsome ornamental suited to wet soils and is also a honey plant. Ducks and other water birds and shorebirds consume the seeds.

What’s Coming Up In The Garden, 37: nodding onion (plus a new garden view)

I fell in love with the nodding onion last year when I saw them locally - possibly Debbie Roos’ demonstration pollinator gardens at Chatham Mills, or at the NC Botanical Garden, I’m not sure which. The NCBG had some in their plant shop in the fall and I got them to put at the front edge of my newest shade bed.

They overwintered well and are now coming up.

This isn’t the best photo - there’s so much in the background of the shady bed it all tends to blend together if I stand back further, but you can get a general idea. The flowers on these plants are beautiful and I’ll be sure and update when they bloom.

Meanwhile, here’s another garden view I love. The golden Alexander against the clematis, with the limbed-up hollies behind that. I love the way you can see through the trunks of the hollies. This is, in miniature form, exactly what I want to do with American hollies along our one fence line that has neighbors on its other side. Leave a little room along the fence to see through, but the upper part of the trees will be a solid screen. I hope I can get that going this fall, as it will take awhile even with 8-foot tall plantings. In my mind’s eye, though, I can see it. For now I look at this view and really love the combination.

More info on the nodding onions:

Allium cernuum

Allium cernuum Roth

Nodding Onion

Liliaceae (Lily Family)

Synonym(s): 

USDA Symbol: alce2

USDA Native Status: L48 (N), CAN (N)

Soft, grasslike leaves and a 1-2 ft., leafless flowering stalk rise from a bulb. The stem bends so that the pink flowers, borne in a cluster at the top, nod toward the ground. An umbel of many pink or white flowers at the tip of a long, erect, leafless stalk, bent like a shepherd’s crook; a basal cluster of several long, narrow leaves. All parts of the perennial have a mild, oniony scent. 

This plant is closely related to the Autumn Wild Onion (A. stellatum) but differs in its unique nodding flower cluster and earlier flowering. One of the rarer Carolinian species because of its restricted habitat.
It is principally found on Lake Erie islands, the southern most land in Canada.
It is edible and has medicinal uses similar to garlic. (Lamb/Rhynard).
Eaten sparingly by Northwest Coast First Nations. They were steamed in pits lined with cedar boughs and covered with lichen and alder boughs. After they were eaten, or dried in strings or on mats or pressed into cakes. EDIBLE PARTS: Leaves, bulbs and bulblets. Field garlic (A. vineale), introduced from Eurasia and northern Africa, is too strong for most tastes. Gather leaves during spring and fall. Gather bulbs in the second year when they are large enough to use like cultivated onions. Flower stem bulblets are collected during the summer. Use as domestic onions, for seasoning or raw in salads. Bulbs can be used raw, boiled, pickled or for seasoning. Their strong taste can be reduced by parboiling and discarding the water. To freeze onions or garlic, one should coarsely chop, blanch two minutes, drain, pat dry and place them into plastic bags. The bulbs can also be dried for use as seasoning. Use flower bulbs to flavor soup or for pickling. Attracts hairstreak butterfly. The city of Chicago gets its name from the Algonquin Indian name for this plant, chigagou.

What’s Coming Up In The Garden, 36: swamp sunflower

These are really cheerful flowers and this year I’m going to cut them back in June to help them branch out some. Last year they got very tall, like the goldenrod, and the entire upper terrace of the bed was hidden if you were standing on driveway level.

Not sure what’s happening with the yellowing leaves in the upper, larger plant, but it is time for me to order the mulch. I’ve put it off and put it off and I’m going to call tomorrow. Too many things on my plate with outside stuff!

More info:

Common Name(s):

 

• Narrow Leaf Sunflower
• Narrow-Leaved Coreopsis
• Swamp Sunflower

Previously known as:

 

• Coreopsis angustifolia

Phonetic Spelling

hee-lee-AN-thus an-gus-tee-FOH-lee-us

Description

Swamp sunflower is a native perennial member of the aster family and can be found from NY to FL to TX. It is a large perennial that can grow up to 8 feet tall with showy yellow daisy-like flowers from mid to late summer into fall.  Prune plants back in June to encourage branching. It prefers moist to occasionally wet acidic sandy to clay loams in full sun. It can be grown on drier soils if adequate moisture is provided. It will tolerate part shade but flowers better in full sun. This plant is a favorite of pollinators and songbirds. There are shorter cultivars available if desired.

Use this plant in the back border of a native/pollinator garden, naturalized area or along streams and ponds. Give it room to grow and spread and you will have a profusion of late-season flowers when little else is blooming.

Insects Diseases and Other Plant Problems: Caterpillars and beetles often chew on the foliage but seldom cause enough damage to warrant management. Rust, leaf fungal spots and powdery mildew are somewhat common.  Because stems can be flimsy, plants may need to be staked, especially if planted in a windy location.  

What’s Coming Up In The Garden, 35: obedient plant (plus two extremely colorful asides)

While looking through books trying to identify the threadleaf bluestar, I noticed the obedient plant and thought to myself, why haven’t I put that in anywhere? I made a mental note to do so in the fall. Then while out looking for today’s featured plant, I was standing in the dappled shade bed and couldn’t remember what one grouping was. I checked the marker. Bingo! Obedient plant!

I haven’t started on my shady beds yet but I can’t resist the synchronicity. The three obedient plants I planted last fall are coming up and looking very nice. They get afternoon sun, dappled by the overhanging trees, and I think when they mature they’ll be very pretty there.

Look for more info at the bottom of this post, but I also can’t resist showing off my new garden cart. We have wheelbarrows at the barn and a dedicated haybarrow, but I’ve been using an old cracked water bucket to put weeds into when I’m working in the beds, or just walking them over to the brush piles over and over again.

I used this cart today and it was so nice to be able to go at the weeds and dump them all at the end. Plus I love purple and this just makes me happy.

And, as if this colorful cart isn’t enough, yesterday I put a second coat of bright fuchsia milk paint on Artemis hive and when I took the top off to get started, found this gorgeous but slightly alien-like creature sitting there. I learned today that its common name is Eyed Elater or Eyed Click Beetle. Supposedly it can click itself and pop 5-6 feet into the air. I assure you if it had done that yesterday,  I would have spilled another container of milk paint! Thankfully it was very calm and kept me company most of the time I painted.

It was nearly 2 inches long.

More info on the obedient plant:

Cressler, Alan 

Physostegia virginiana

Physostegia virginiana (L.) Benth.

Fall Obedient Plant, False Dragonhead, Virginia Lions-heart

Lamiaceae (Mint Family)

Synonym(s): 

USDA Symbol: phvi8

USDA Native Status: L48 (N), CAN (N)

4 ft. stems which frequently grow in clumps and bear long, lanceolate leaves and a 4-6 in., terminal spikes of pink to lavender, tubular flowers. Opposite, pinkish flowers in a spike-like cluster along upper part of a square stem. The perennial’s long-lasting flowers have five triangular lobes, two forming an upper lip and three forming a lower lip. 

This attractive plant is snapdragon-like, but its square stem is typical of the mint family. If the flowers are bent, they tend to stay in the new position for a while, hence the common name Obedient Plant. Several garden forms occasionally escape to the wild. Flowers can be swivelled into new positions where they stay obediently. (Ontario Native Plants 2002)

What’s Coming Up In The Garden, 34: threadleaf bluestar

This plant defied identification and it’s taken me a few days to sit down and research it. Its name tag in the garden has been lost and I couldn’t find my notebook that has my original planting design plan. It was a good exercise in using some books and online databases to figure it out.

I also can’t remember where I purchased it - though I think probably the NC Botanical Garden sale. My sources for plants all sell natives only, so this makes me think it has been found someplace in NC.

It turns out this is an uncommon variation of eastern bluestar, found in Oklahoma and Arkansas, so it’s a US native, but I can’t find anything that says it’s a NC native. It’s listed as a vulnerable plant globally due to its rarity.

In any case, it’s a lovely plant, blooming now and the leaves turn a lovely color in the fall, so it has multi-seasonal interest in the garden bed. The thin leaves add a nice texture to the garden, too.

Here it is today:

It takes up this entire corner of the bed and is growing beautifully in the garden.

More info:

Amsonia hubrichtii 

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Plant of Merit

Common Name: blue star 

Type: Herbaceous perennial

Family: Apocynaceae

Native Range: South-central United States

Zone: 5 to 8

Height: 2.00 to 3.00 feet

Spread: 2.00 to 3.00 feet

Bloom Time: April to May

Bloom Description: Powdery blue

Sun: Full sun to part shade

Water: Medium

Maintenance: Low

Suggested Use: Rain Garden

Flower: Showy

Leaf: Good Fall

Attracts: Butterflies

Tolerate: Deer

Garden locations

Culture

Easily grown in average, medium, well-drained soil in full sun to part shade. Best fall foliage color usually occurs in full sun, but flowers generally last longer if given some afternoon shade in hot sun areas. Stems tend to open up and flop in too much shade, however. Consider cutting back the stems by about 6" after flowering to help keep stems upright and to shape plants into a nice foliage mound.

Noteworthy Characteristics

Amsonia hubrichtii, commonly called bluestar, Arkansas amsonia or Hubricht's amsonia, is an uncommon perennial that is native to the Ouachita Mountains in central Arkansas. It is very similar in appearance to the Missouri native Amsonia ciliata, except the leaves of A. hubrichtii are more narrow and thread-like and the emerging foliage lacks conspicuous hairiness. An erect, clump-forming plant that is primarily grown in cultivation for its blue spring flowers, feathery green summer foliage and golden fall color. Powdery blue, 1/2" star-like flowers appear in terminal clusters in late spring atop stems rising to 3' tall. Feathery, soft-textured, needle-like, alternate leaves are bright green in spring and summer, but turn bright gold in autumn. From a distance plants have an almost lily-like appearance.
Specific epithet honors Leslie Hubricht who first discovered it growing in the wild in the early 1940s.

Genus name honors 18th-century Virginian physician Dr. Charles Amson.

Specific epithet honors Leslie Hubricht who first discovered it growing in the wild in the early 1940s.

Problems

No serious insect or disease problems. Plants may flop, particularly if not cut back after flowering.

Garden Uses

Borders, rock gardens, native plant garden, cottage garden or open woodland area. Best when massed.

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