My favorite plant in the garden this week - "Aster" October Skies

It's October and right on schedule my Aster oblongifolium (or maybe Symphotrichum oblongifolium, depending on your source) 'October Skies' is in her full glory!

Just look at that. Four feet of gorgeous blooms.

Her blooms bring ALL the pollinators to the yard.

I'm just confused when I see that they're supposed to be about 2 foot tall. I've grown this plant in both North Carolina and Massachusetts and it's been about 4 foot tall in both places. I've also read that some people cut them back to keep them short. I don't know why. She's gorgeous as is.

As an added bonus she's a US native, not to Mass. but just to the West of us in New York state.

But this glory is bittersweet because when October Skies blooms I know it's almost the end of the garden season and the beginning of the stuck-indoors-wishing-I-could-get-out-in-the-garden-but-I-can't-until-spring season, the short days and long, cold nights season, the having to wear closed toe shoes season.

Can you tell I don't like New England winters?

thanks to Danger Garden for this meme.

Vernonia: Favorite Plant of the Week and Native Plant of the Month

I've got a double whammy this time. My favorite plant in the garden this week is also my featured native wildflower for the month of September. Meet Vernonia angustifolia var. Plum Peachy, common name: Ironweed.

Granted V. angustifolia is not the species of Vernonia that is native to Massachusetts - it's natural range is the Southeastern US but it is very attractive to the local wildlife - my resident bees are enjoying it.

Vernonia angustifolia is hardy in zones 5-8 or 9, likes full sun and Plum Peachy gets to be about 4 foot high (and that's the height actually is in my garden so bonus points to Plant Delights for getting that right!). The wild type is listed as getting every larger.

V. angustifolia is deer resistant but may reseed. I haven't noticed this in my garden but I may have pulled the seedlings without identifying them first.

I particularly like the darker stems and foliage of Plum Peacy, it makes a nice contrast with nearby, paler greens and it sets off the purple flowers nicely.

Thanks to Danger Garden for the Favorite Plant of the week and to Clay and Limestone for the Native Plant of the month meme.

Favorite Plant in the Garden this Week - Gaura

One of my all-summer long favorite plants is Gaura lindheimeri.

The "white" flowered Gaura (which still has some pink, especially in the buds) is the hardiest and largest variety, growing to 3 foot tall and hardy up to zone 5. Pink colored varieties can sometimes be shorter both in height and in lifespan but often have more colorful foliage.

Gaura are drought hardy, derived from plants that are native to Texas, but unlike some drought hardy plants they can tolerate more frequent rains.

Gaura will self seed in your garden but have shallow root systems and are easy to remove if they show up where you don't want them. They are also easy to move, but they will wilt horribly at first. They will also cross breed with each other. Most of my volunteers come up white. I'm not sure if that means that white is the dominant color or if they're just more prolific.

Best of all these plants bloom from mid-summer through killing frost AND the pollinators like them.

Thanks to Danger Garden for this meme.

Favorite Plant of the Week - Pycnathium muticum

My favorite plant in the garden during late summer is Pycnathium muticum, a type of mountain mint.

This plant is actually, really and truly native to my area (and most of the states east of the Mississippi, except Florida). I see lots of plants for sale locally that are called natives but really didn't used to occur here until the nursery trade brought them in on the wave of let's-plant-natives craze. That's why I like the PLANTS database. It's a good place to double check those sorts of things if they're important to you.

Pycnathium muticum gets to be about 3 foot tall and as wide as you will let it. You can control it by pulling, the new runners don't have deep roots, but it is quite an aggressive spreader. Perfect for that Hell Strip.

According to the Missouri Botanical Garden plant finder database this variety of Mt. Mint tolerates full sun to part shade and medium water.

I don't water mine, ever, and it's in relatively poor soil. I would suggest that natural rainfall is sufficient in areas except the extremely dry ones.

The flowers are pale and small and the bracts are a paler green than the foliage so not showy flowers. Not fragrant blooms, either. I'd like to see them in a photo that shows the ultraviolet range because the bees and wasps and occasional beetle pollinator have no problems finding the blooms so there must be something I can't detect that's attracting them.

This plant is Hymenoptera Heroin (Hymenoptera is the scientific name for the order that includes bees, wasps and ants).

Amazingly neither The Husband nor myself has been stung while admiring or working around this plant (knock wood) despite the fact that for over a month is it practically crawling with bees and wasps.

And that's why I love it and why it's my favorite plant of the season.

thanks to Danger Garden for this meme

My favorite garden plant this week is... Asclepias tuberosa!

As we move into the heat of the summer the delicate flowers of spring start to fade and the tough mid-summer bloomers start to shine. In this case I'm talking about Asclepias tuberosa [butterfly weed] a native wildflower that provides nectar for bees and wasps.

Even better than helping out the native pollinators it is a larval host plant for the rapidly declining Monarch Butterflies! Of course I almost never see them here in New England but when I lived in North Carolina I would have whole plants denuded of leaves by the caterpillars. But these little toughies would come right back.

Don't baby this "weed" - it likes dry, hot weather (can't you tell by the color?) and neglect. It will gently reseed in the garden so if you don't want more you'll need to remove the very obvious, kind of neat looking, seed pods before they open (I probably have a photo but I'm not well organized enough to find it... sorry).

Thanks to Danger Garden for this meme.