This week: Butterfly Season
Hello, If you planted a garden full of native plants, you’ve probably been getting some butterfly visitors. Consider this a quick who’s who of a few common...
This week: Wild Petunia, No Relation to Annual Petunias
Hello! This summer, I’ve been experimenting with Wild Petunia (Ruellia humilis). Wild Petunia is native to the Mid-Atlantic and the Midwest. In Pennsylvania,...
This week: Blazing Star Blooms!
Hello! Blazing Star (Liatris spicata) is easily one of my favorite plants. While Liatris are typically associated with the Midwestern and Plains prairies,...
This week: Pioneering Staghorn Sumac
Hello! Staghorn Sumac (Rhus typhina) is a northeastern understory tree with some big benefits: it’s gorgeous, wildlife loves it, and it has more than a few...
This week: Emily Dickinson’s Favorite Flower
Hello! It’s time to open the mailbag! Recently, a reader sent me a photo of Ghost Pipes (Monotropa uniflora) that she spotted while hiking in the Smoky...
This week: Anise Hyssop, a Worthy Mint!
Hello! If you like the look of Lavenders and Catmints in the garden, but don’t love that they aren’t native, try Anise Hyssop (Agastache foeniculum) instead....
This week: Choosing Milkweed for Monarchs
Hello! Monarch butterflies are the unlucky poster child for the plight of our native beneficial insects. The number of Eastern monarchs has declined by more...
This week: Coreopsis for Every Garden
Hello! Coreopsis (also called Tickseed) is an unassuming garden workhorse. It blooms from June through August, and once the blooms slow down, you can...
This week: Raise a Glass to Hophornbeam
Hello! Let me introduce you to Hophornbeam (Ostrya virginiana), a native understory tree that, to quote the eminent horticulturalist Michael A. Dirr, “has...
This week: Arrowwood Viburnum Brings the Blooms
Hello! It’s Viburnum season! Plenty of varieties are in bloom right now, and one such beauty is Arrowwood Viburnum (Viburnum dentatum). This shrub is covered...
This week: How to Do the Chelsea Crop
Hello! Have you seen the Joe Pye Weed lately? Mine is at least 4 feet high, and it is just barely June. Even though it is planted near the back of my garden,...
This week: The Lazybone's Guide to Seed Starting
Hello! There was a time when I started seeds indoors in March and April under grow lights in little handmade paper pots. Or when I would collect plastic...
This week: Bring on the Flowers with Fringe-Tree
Hello! Sometimes I encounter plants that I find hard to believe are native, mainly because their blooms are so ornamental that I imagine intrepid...
This week: Snacking on Wild Strawberries
Hello! If you were a kid growing up in a home with an untreated lawn, you likely spent some time picking tiny wild strawberries and eating them in the...
This week: Red Columbine Wins Hearts
Hello! When you picture a Columbine flower, you probably envision a blue-colored Rocky Mountain Columbine (Aquilegia coerulea). Eastern North American has...
This week: A Better Than Marginal Wood Fern
Hello! People love a free native plant, and for me, Marginal Wood Fern (Dryopteris marginalis) was just that—I found it popping up here and there in the...
This Week: Shopping for Native Plants
Hello! This is a long one today, so scroll down for a link to a page that will track native plants found at my local Lowe’s and Home Depot this summer, and a...
This week: Native Shrubs You Can Eat
Hello! So often, we’re planting native shrubs for insects and birds to eat. But many can be eaten by humans, too. Here are a few native shrubs that are tasty...
This week: Ostrich (Ferns) for Dinner
Hello! You can do a lot with ferns. They are problem-solvers for shady spots like the north side of a building, an understory picked clean by hungry deer, or...
This Week: Bear Corn, Vampire of the Woods
Hello! If you’re intrigued by the weirdness of Skunk Cabbage, you might also be interested in Bear Corn, another oddball native wildflower that pops up this...