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What’s Blooming In My Damp Meadow
I get so engrossed with gardening around the house during the summer that I tend to ignore the wilder parts of our property. I decided to remedy that and take a walk through our damp meadow, and I’m...
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Jewelweed: Wildflower Wednesday
If you have to have a weed in your garden, jewelweed is a great choice. First and foremost, jewelweed is very, very easy to remove from any place you don’t want it. That’s got to be the number one...
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Is It A Garden Plant Or A Weed Wildflower?
Every flower is a wildflower–a native plant–somewhere, though this is easy to forget when that “somewhere” is on the other side of the world. On the other hand, it’s easy to take our own native...
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Improving On Nature
This probably looks like a weed to you. It would look like a weed to me, too, if it weren’t for the yellow tent stake and the plant label.The label says “Cardinal flower” (Lobelia cardinalis) and I...
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Evergreen Native Ferns
It’s so easy to think that nothing is living or growing under the snow, but all you need is a January thaw and a stroll in the woods to see that there are plants that have not given in to the onslaught...
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Sundrops Add Sunshine To My Garden: Wildflower Wednesday
It’s easy to take sundrops for granted, because they’re so easy to grow. Here I was, trying to think of a plant to feature for Wildflower Wednesday. I couldn’t think of a single native plant. Then I...
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Zig-Zag Goldenrod
I‘ve lived on this land almost seven years now, and I’m still discovering native plants growing wild here. This month’s find was zig-zag goldenrod (Solidago flexicaulis). Sometimes–but not always–the...
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The Creepiest Native Plant I Know
It’s a scene straight out of a horror movie: a thread-like orange stem emerges from the ground, circling around counter-clockwise, searching by smell* for a potential victim. When it finds an...
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Fly Honeysuckle: My Earliest-Blooming Native Shrub
It still surprises me every time I see this shrub blooming. The bloodroots are waning and the trout lilies are gearing up. At best, the forest trees have tiny pinpricks of yellow, green, or red along...
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Canada Anemone, My Frenemy
I was warned. My friend told me it would spread when she offered me a handful of Canada anemone (Anemone canadensis). I wanted a groundcover for the shrubs in the front porch garden bed, so I thought...
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