My goal this summer is to be more disciplined when shopping for new additions to my garden beds. Restraint has never been one of my traits and it’s magnified by the feeling that I’m abandoning all the plants that don’t make it into my cart. You know that feeling when you have picked out a puppy and five others are left? That’s how my heart breaks as I head to the car without that tray of coneflowers or nicotiana or asters or…
This year will be different! I have an increased interest and inclination to choose plants that not only will be pretty, but will support our pollinators- birds, bees, butterflies, moths, etc. Effective pollinator planting has at least three species blooming at one time, during each of the three-early, mid and late- parts of the growing season.
I’m going to install more native plants because they want to grow here and know how to survive our unpredictable weather without requiring fertilizing and fussing. As I write this (April 14), snow has been falling for hours, yet a 70⁰ day is expected later this week!
Here are my lists of “3’s” for each part of the growing season.
Early: Prairie Smoke (Geum triflorum) – very easy to grow, 6-12” tall
Sharp-lobed Hepatica (Hepatica acutiloba) – a sweet, short plant with pastel flowers
Wild Geranium (Geranium maculatum) – shade tolerant and often reblooms
Mid: Butterflyweed (Asclepias tuberosa) – 2017 Perennial Plant of the Year!
Pale coneflower (Echinacea pallida) – very drought tolerant
White Wild Indigo (Baptisia leucantha) – tall and elegant
Late: Cup Plant (Silphium perfoliatum) – big leaves hold water for birds and butterflies
White Turtlehead (Chelone glabra) – larval food for the Baltimore Checkspot butterfly
Smooth Blue Aster (Symphotrichum laeve) – host plant for Pearly Crescent and Silvery Checkerspot butterflies
These plants, and many others, are well-behaved and will add beauty and purpose to the suburban home landscape. They all should be available at our local nurseries. Ihope you’ll try some. Happy planting!
