The first flowers to show their faces after winter are the native wildflowers. By mid to late-March, they are usually in full bloom. Bloodroot, trillium, and Jack in the pulpit are some of my favorite early-blooming southeastern native plants. Which one is your favorite? Incorporate Native Plants in Your Garden Choosing to incorporate native …
moist soil
Japanese Honeysuckle vs Native Honeysuckle Vine
Have you ever plucked a honeysuckle flower, turned it around, and gently sucked the nectar from the tube-shaped back of the flower? If you grew up in the southeastern U.S., I bet you did. That taste of super-sweet honey nectar always makes me think of summer nights spent chasing fireflies and summer days spent running wild and free. Imagine …
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Obedient Plant – Physostegia virginiana
The obedient plant is native to most of the U.S.. It produces lovely pale purple blooms in the fall when most things are shutting down. It's also easy to dig up and divide. Deer-resistant AND it can grow in clay soil - what's not to love about obedient plants? Like all native plants, it is particularly suited for the growing conditions of its …
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Buttonbush for Wet Soils and Cool Blooms!
Nature produces some interesting shapes, which is true for the flower of the buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis). Common buttonbush (or buttonwillow) produces these crazy-looking little spiky ball-like blooms of compound florets. They’re pretty cool, actually, and both bees and butterflies agree. I recently caught this skipper butterfly …
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Virginia Spring Beauty – Claytonia virginica
When I reach my limit with the bleakness of winter and cold temperatures, the tiniest pink striped flowers start to poke their heads out of lawns and ditches. To me, the Virginia spring beauty (Claytonia virginica) is a harbinger of spring and warmer weather. These wildflowers bloom just before the false garlic – so they fill up the lawns and …
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Spotted Jewelweed: Touch-me-not plant
If you've got soil that stays wet most of the time, then spotted jewelweed is the plant for you. It's native to most of the lower 48 states and prefers shade to part-shade - even better! In its native habitat, you'll find it alongside roads in ditches that stay wet most of the time, alongside a river or stream, in wetlands or boggy places, and …
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