One key to successfully establishing plants in the fall is to periodically check them through the winter months. It has been an extremely dry fall and early winter in our area and for much of Kansas. More than likely, these new established plants are dry and would benefit from a deep soaking. Now is the time to check your plants if you have not already.
Trees and shrubs
Newly planted trees and shrubs are still growing as long as the ground is not frozen and will benefit from up to five gallons of water. Larger trees may need more water. If you have properly planted them with a small basin around the trunk, you can fill it with water and let the water percolate into the soil. This basin concentrates most of the moisture around the original root ball and those fresh new roots. I would even water trees and shrubs you planted within the last few years, because they have not fully developed sustaining root systems. Keep in mind that evergreen trees are always losing and using moisture. They are the most susceptible to desiccation during winter.
American Elm with soil basin for easy watering
Perennials
Hopefully, you were able to get your grasses and perennials established properly last fall. As part of the establishment process, roots attached to the damp soil and they were able to take up moisture on their own. As that soil has dried over the past few months, the perennials are at risk of drying out since they don’t have a deep fully developed root system. Check around the plants and water if the top couple of inches of soil is dry. Native grasses are not actively growing now since the soil temperature is below 60 degrees. But even grasses would absorb a little water this time of year, as well.
Summer and fall planted perennials and grasses, if dry, will benefit from a winter watering.
Watering options
Soaker hoses: Use pressure compensating soaker hoses for foundation plantings or shelterbelts
Overhead Sprinkler: Best for large areas of newly planted fescue or turf with competitive tree roots.
Five gallon bucket: Drill a small hole in the bottom of the bucket and let water slowly drain out over time.
Watering wand: Helps water specific plants and not overwater others that like it dryer.
Garden hose: Place at base of trees or shrubs and let trickle until soil is deeply soaked.
Frequency
Water every few weeks or every time the top couple inches of soil is dry. I go out and physically dig down in the soil to inspect moisture content. If I water this time of year, I make sure to drain any hoses and sprinklers when I am finished to prevent freeze damage.
It may seem like plants are fine since they are not actively growing this time of year, but it has been extremely dry. A quick inspection of the soil will tell you if you need to water or not. Be proactive and water during the winter months as needed. If you have already put the effort into planting them, why not help them along through this drought? Your plants will benefit from your diligence by producing blooms and habitat for you and wildlife next season.
Down time over the holidays while turning the calendar to the new year always feels like a good time to set sights on things I want to do to make my life more enjoyable and feel more meaningful. Planning for and embarking on challenges can be a way of establishing new habits. This year, I would like to focus more on the Land (as defined in The Land Ethic) and my connection to it. I will call them ecological resolutions and delineate them into three categories.
Land Restoration
From the Dyck Arboretum grounds to a number of public and private lands in Harvey County, there are seemingly endless opportunities to practice ecological restoration on remnant or restored native plant communities. In a grassland ecosystem, those opportunities mostly involve reversing the progress of invading woody plants through wood cutting, prescribed burning, and mowing. Woody plant invasion is a real threat for prairies today that involves regular maintenance and effort.
Woody plant invasion of the Flint Hills prairie over a 29-year period. (Courtesy of Tony Capizzo, KS Chapter of The Nature Conservancy)
Luckily, the action of wood cutting means being outside, getting exercise, creating firewood, and having fun in the process. I have fond memories of firewood cutting outings as a kid with my siblings, parents, and grandparents. While I don’t currently heat my house with wood, I have friends that do and perhaps we’ll work out some sort of bartering arrangement.
Such efforts also liberate prairie. The subsequent vigorous flowering response of grasses and wildflowers once they are released from the stifling effects of shade is what we are ultimately trying to achieve. That is probably for me the most gratifying part (even if it takes a year or two) of the whole process.
A 2009 post-burn crew at Sand Prairie in Western Harvey County (photo by Max Voran)
Selective removal of invasive/exotic wildflowers or grasses, brush mowing, conducting prescribed burns, collecting seed, and planting seed are also very worthwhile land restoration activities. This would be one of my top resolutions and a realm in which I would like to spend considerably more time in the coming year.
Wildlife Education
In a native plant garden or seeded restoration plot, we have some idea of what plants to expect to see blooming and setting seed because of our own work and preparation. The wildlife attracted to these developing plant communities, however, is much more of an unknown occurrence. I am fascinated by and motivated to learn more about the wildlife species attracted to native plant communities.
Regal fritillary butterfly nectaring on tall thistle flowers at a restored prairie near Hesston
It has been incredible to see cause and effect play out so clearly with regard to planting native plants and drawing in wildlife. These host plants and their flower nectar and seeds really do attract critters. From small gardens to larger restoration prairies, I’ve observed the influx of insects, small mammals, amphibians, birds, and reptiles, both plant-eaters and predators, in a relatively short timeline. Even when that short timeline is years in the making, the reward of seeing those wildlife species come in makes me want to install even more native plantings.
Just like anything else, building skills and knowledge in wildlife identification takes time and practice. But learning and appreciating the visual, auditory, ecological, and life cycle traits of wildlife species can be so interesting and rewarding. So then is the photography and story-telling of these species to try and inspire other people around you to plant native plants and try to attract wildlife to their landscapes as well.
I participate regularly in two events happening locally with regard to data collection of birds and butterflies. They are the Harvey County Christmas Bird Count and the Harvey County Butterfly Count. You can read more about each via the respective links and we are always welcoming new folks interested in participating. Experts lead the two counts that are great events for novice participants to learn a lot of information in a short amount of time. Organized by the National Audubon Society and North American Butterfly Association, respectively, bird and butterfly counts can be found abundantly in nearly all 50 states.
Harvey County Butterfly Count accessories
Not only do I want to commit more time to bird and butterfly citizen science, but I would like to invest more time studying insects in general. Heather Holm has published excellent books on pollinators, bees, and wasps that are educational and inspiring.
To be inspired by a great prairie ecologist that photographs and writes about wildlife regularly, I would highly encourage you to follow a blog produced by Chris Helzer of the Nebraska Chapter of The Nature Conservancy.
Urban Native Landscaping
Enhancing the urban landscapes in which we live, work, and worship with native plants can be perhaps one of the easiest and most rewarding of activities we promote here at Dyck Arboretum. I could always enjoy spending more time on this particular resolution. Adding a handful of native plants to even the smallest of areas can do wonders – both for increasing biological diversity in your landscape and for increasing your connection to the land.
Penstemon, spiderwort, prairie onion, and phlox blooming behind potted plants in my backyard in early June
Dabbling with native plant gardens in my home landscape is a labor of love in almost all months of the year. Of course, you have the popular processes of planting and watching for pretty flowers that everybody loves. But I also enjoy the time spent in these gardens weeding, mulching, picking flowers for bouquets, collecting seed or dividing plants for friends, chopping down the old vegetation, and building garden borders. It is time enhanced with the delights of observing all sorts of plant-animal interactions. I am outside and unplugged. This practice during the pandemic has been critical for helping me stay sane and grounded.
If you follow our Dyck Arboretum blog, you hear plenty on this particular ecological resolution, so I’ll keep this one brief. If you are new native landscaping, or are looking ways to enhance your native gardening process, consider following some of the best management practices suggested HERE.
Join Me!
Perhaps you would care to join me on any part or all of this quest? I’m always looking for prairie restoration and wildlife watching companions. Spending time with these ecological resolutions will add value to your life and may even enrich the natural environment around you in the process. You won’t regret it.
“Ecological restoration also involves restoring our relatedness to the wild.” ~Dwight Platt
A perennial border is evolution on fast-forward, a watercolor in the rain, changing weekly as various species segue in and out of bloom – and yearly as its constituents dominate or yield, flourish or succumb, according to their natures.
Friel perfectly describes a native perennial border. Each plant grows according to its nature. Some are spreaders while some stay put or fade with competition. To keep all these plants happy and harmoniously growing together, a few plants may need to be thinned from time to time – divided so that they don’t dominate too much.
Front entrance sign will be updated with division of plants, especially grasses and asters.
When to Divide Your Perennials
As we move into spring, March and April is the best time to begin dividing perennials. You can divide in August and September, but excess growth and heat may hinder success. Dividing perennials can be stressful on the plants so dividing during times with cool, moist conditions will reduce shock. Another thing to keep in mind is that native grasses will not start to actively grow until soil temperatures reach at least 60 degrees. Grasses are often the last plants I divide in the spring. It’s good to wait until they are starting to show signs of life.
Which Plants to Divide
Yarrow
Asters
Coral bells
Joe Pye weed
Liatirs
Monarda
Rudbeckia
Coreopsis
Spiderwort
Sneezeweed
Goldenrod
Echinacea purpurea varieties
Vernonia
Sunflowers
Black-eyed Susan is one of the easiest perennials to divide. (Photo by Brad Guhr)
Native grasses often form a “donut” – the center dies back with active growth on the outer edges.
Panicum
Little Bluestem
Big Bluestem
Indiangrass
Sideoats
Blue Grama
Grass that would benefit from being divided
How to Divide Perennials
Dig the Clump
After you have identified the plants that need to be divided, the next step is to dig the entire clump out of the ground. If the soil is dry, it is beneficial to water the area a few days ahead to soften the soil. With well-established grasses this may be a challenge, but it is important to work at it until it is removed. Grasses are resilient and can take much abuse in this division process. I have even worked at removal with a pick axe. Remove the clump/clumps from the hole and set it aside. Brush off excess soil to reveal the growing points.
Separate the growing points/crowns and replant
Some plants are easier to pull apart than others. For instance, asters are easier to pull apart than switchgrass. Usually, I break these clumps in to 1/16th, 1/8th or ¼ pieces. Each clump needs to have a few leaves or healthy growing points and roots in order to grow. Then, replant the divisions as soon as possible so the roots don’t dry out. I put them back into the same hole from which they were removed. Plant at the same depth as before and water well. Cover any bare soil with mulch to help conserve moisture while your new divisions become established. Left over plants can be shared with friends or composted.
Water well
Reestablish these divisions as you would any newly planted perennial. Water daily depending on the weather for the first two weeks. Once you see new growth, reduce water frequency to every other day or every three days. You have removed much of the supporting root system so it will take at least a season to get that back. Also, I would not fertilize the new transplants, because it will encourage top growth that is not sustainable with the new root system.
Which Plants to NOT Divide
While most perennials benefit from being divided every few years, there are a few perennials with deep taproots that are better left alone. You will be more successful planting new seedlings than trying to dig these plants out of the ground. In my experience, it is easier to start with a plant than to remove these plants. Too much damage is inflicted on the taproot. Avoid dividing these varieties:
Baptisia
Butterfly weed (Asclepias)
Coneflowers (Echinacea angustifolia, Echinacea pallida, and Echinacea paradoxa)
We have divided and transplanted hundreds of plants over the years and I don’t believe I’ve ever lost one. Native perennials are resilient and recover from being transplanted in about a week. They may look rough the first year, but they will really come to life the next year. Go out in the next few weeks and identify a few plants that would benefit from a fresh start.
This time of year our focus changes a bit as we transition to spending more time inside. You look longingly outside at your garden, anticipating warmer weather and the arrival of spring. We are not restless yet, but for those of us who garden and love to dig into the soil, it helps if we have something to look at through the kitchen window or sitting in our living room. Here are some plants to consider adding as you “look into” your winter garden.
Form
Flowers fade into buttons, globes, plumes, spikes, daisies or umbels that can be emphasized with the play of light and motion. These expired flowers are attractive even after they are done blooming.
Coneflowers: These dark seed heads are attractive with native grasses and are favorites of overwintering birds.
Asters: Swaths of these fall blooming perennials provide structure and decent fall color.
Amsonia: Blue flowers in the spring and attractive color in the fall
Prairie Dropseed: This is one of my favorite grasses. Fine foliage, airy seedheads, and golden orange fall color that mixes well with many other shorter perennials.
Coneflowers with little bluestem
Texture
This garden design element refers to the surface quality of the plant. Whether coarse or fine, textural plants combined with interesting forms are quite dramatic in the winter landscape.
Switchgrass: There are so many varieties to choose, from tall to short and from green to red leaved. You really can’t go wrong by adding some of these native grasses to your garden.
Rattlesnake master: This unusual native has attractive gray-green foliage and starry white blooms in the summer. As it transitions into the winter-the whole plant turns tawny gold.
Little bluestem: The fine stems of little bluestem add bright color to the stark winter garden.
Fall color of Amsonia with Northwind switchgrass and Oktoberfest Maidengrass
Fruit/seeds
This element in the garden is often overlooked or removed before the birds need them. For birds that take winter residence in your garden, the right mix of plants creates a habitat that is fun to watch.
Composite flowers like blackeyed susan, coneflower, blazing star, sunflowers, and goldenrods are vital food that birds seek out.
Crabapples: Most of ornamental trees have persistent fruit that are utilized later in the winter as other food becomes scarce.
Blackhaw Viburnum: This native produces abundant fruit that taste like miniature prunes. Birds and other wildlife love them.
Sumac: The reddish fruit atop these native shrubs are a favorite of Chickadee and Titmouse.
Robin on a crabapple tree(Photo Credit: Judd Patterson, Birds In Focus)
Stems
Stems are not noticed until everything is bare, but can provide something interesting and beautiful to look at in the winter.
Red/Yellow twig dogwoods: They explode with color especially with snow.
Big Bluestem: Forms with brilliant red fall color are the best with regards to standing out in the landscape.
Seven-Son Flower: Great exfoliating bark on this fall blooming small tree.
Shelter
This can be a brush pile or evergreen of some type. Each provide shelter and safety for wildlife during the cold winter months.
Taylor Juniper: This upright form of our native evergreen also has fruit that the birds need.
Alleghany Viburnum: Tall semi-evergreen shrub with attractive fruit and leathery leaves.
Brush pile: Brush piles create shelter that conceals and protects wildlife from predators and weather. Situate the brush pile where you can enjoy wildlife viewing.
Alleghany Viburnum fruit and evergreen leaves
In the winter, there are fewer times of satisfaction from the garden. If you have only a few plants to watch in the winter landscape, make sure it’s enough to keep it interesting.
Each fall there are a lot of articles and checklists outlining what you need to do to make a healthy garden – a whole stack of chores that take so much time and effort. Who are you tidying for? Is all that raking, cutting, hauling, tidying, trimming and pulling necessary this time of year? I’m here to tell you to stop and take a few steps back before doing much yard and garden clean up this fall. Here’s my fall checklist for a wildlife beneficial landscape:
Habitat=Wildlife
First, all that tidying is destroying habitat and making it more difficult for backyard wildlife to survive the winter in your landscape. Leave your perennials and grasses standing through the fall and winter. These plants are resources for wildlife, offering shelter, overwintering sites and sometimes food. Cut back perennials and grasses in early spring.
There is one exception – if you have diseased plants, cut them back now and dispose of the debris, but not in the compost pile.
Blackhaw viburnum with fruit and switchgrass in the fall
Mulch
DO spread mulch around trees and shrubs. A fresh layer of mulch insulates the soil from weather extremes. Two to three inches of mulch helps conserve water and control weeds. Too much mulch though can be a real problem as it seals off the soil from air exchange and makes soil go into an anaerobic state too wet for plants to thrive. Mulch is a good way to keep mowers and string trimmer away from the trunks and stems.
Walk about
DO take a walk through you garden and label any plants that you are thinking about moving in the spring. Look for signs of drought stress in your landscape and remember plants that have struggled this year. Unhappy plants may need a new home and would benefit from a space with more sun, more shade, or more or less water. By flagging them now, you will save yourself some time searching for them next March or April. Use durable labels with pencil markings or waterproof pen that will not fade from the sun to mark their location. Keep in mind that some of these plants may be very difficult to identify next year.
Ponder
DO assess your landscape as an ecosystem. Do you have the habitat that attracts pollinators and wildlife? Are there plant layers of trees, shrubs and perennials that mimic natural areas around you? What plants have you noticed are missing from your landscape? What is the starting point to create beneficial elements, layers and habitat in your landscape? Each different layer provides habitat and resources for different wildlife, so plan to include any missing layers in the spring.
Layers of perennials, grasses, shrubs and trees
Look up and observe any pruning that needs to be done. Look for dead or diseased wood in your trees and shrubs and take note of path encroachment by neighboring shrubs. During winter, when these plants are dormant, is the best time to prune for best plant health.
Leaves
DO leave fallen leaves in place whenever possible. Don’t let them smother your lawn, but rather mulch them into the lawn with several passes of your mulching mower. If you are inundated with leaves, collect them and use them in plant beds. Leaves make excellent compost and add organic matter to the soil. It is often overlooked that leaves offer overwintering sites for invertebrates and other critters that are part of healthy ecosystems. Remove only as much as needed.
Just think of all those pretty little insects tucked snuggly into bed for the winter in your landscape. (Photo by Brad Guhr)
This whole growing season you have created habitat through the use of native plants. You have been careful to avoid the use of pesticides and herbicides as much as possible. Bird baths, feeders, brush piles, and nectaring plants have helped build up populations of bees, butterflies, bugs, birds and other wildlife.
You have created habitat so why destroy all that hard work by tearing it all down right now? Let the wildlife you have attracted to your landscape survive through the winter. Embrace a little untidiness. It will be worth it. Wait until March or early April to get your landscape ready for another growing season.
My phone is chock full of caterpillar photos. It seems I am constantly stooping down to examine another caterpillar, and to document what it is eating. I am a big fan of all insects, but especially these charismatic transformers. With their plump bodies and endless colors, it is not hard to see why people are becoming more interested in attracting them to the garden.
Viceroy caterpillars can be hard to spot. They disguise themselves as bird poo to appear less appetizing, and it works! This one was spotted just off the sidewalk at the Arb eating willow leaves.
Host plants are a key part of that process. Caterpillars of all kinds often have a specific food plant or plant family that they need to survive. While I am familiar with monarchs on milkweed and swallowtails on parsley, there is a whole world of interesting host plants out there to utilize in the landscape.
Potluck
My house cats can be picky eaters, but caterpillars are even worse. Many of these little creatures can only feed on a handful of plant species. Their mothers may have to fly miles and miles to find the right plant to lay her eggs on. That is why it is so important to support the native insects of your area by gardening with the native plants they have evolved with for millennia.
Recently I added a few new host plants to my mental list of must-haves for caterpillar habitat.
Aspens and willows for viceroy butterflies
Primrose and lythrum for sphinx moths
Baptisia for broom moths
Sumac for spotted datanas
This Viceroy (Limentis archippus) caterpillar was found feeding on our aspen trees during the FloraKansas sale. I was lucky enough to see it transform from a young brown instar, changing colors as it matured to an older instar, and then fresh out of the chrysalis and flying away!
A group of white-lined sphinx moths devoured a primrose patch. They also like to chow down on winged lythrum (Lythrum alatum), a great native plant for wet areas.
Genista broom moth caterpillars (Uresiphita reversalis) are a cheery shade of yellow. They love Baptisia and can make the plants look quite ragged. But, by the time these caterpillars are feeding heavily in midsummer, the Baptisia has already bloomed and is done for the season anyway.
These spotted datana (Datana perspicua) caterpillars are gregarious feeders, meaning you usually find them in groups with their siblings. They munched away on this aromatic sumac (Rhus aromatica) for a few days, and tripled in size!
Appreciate, Don’t Hate
As my knowledge of host plants grows, so does my appreciation for native plants and the intricate ecosystem they support. I am so encouraged to hear more people calling them friends rather than foes, and wanting to identify and observe rather than squish and poison. It is always best practice to pause before sprinkling that pesticide – your garden will thank you, since most caterpillars do more good than harm. Changing our perspective about caterpillars, and all insects, is key to maintaining a functional, healthy food web. If you are interested in finding more caterpillars in your Kansas landscape, reach out to the staff at Dyck Arboretum for consultation, follow our Facebook and Instagram accounts for educational content, and mark your calendars for next spring’s FloraKansas fundraiser!
It has been almost a year since our buffalograss seeding experiment began. In this new approach, we planted the buffalograss seeds along with annual ryegrass in the fall or early winter. In theory, the annual ryegrass, a cool season grass will germinate and hold the soil through the winter. The buffalograss seeds will work their way into the soil with the natural freeze/thaw of the soil throughout the winter. These seeds will then germinate on their own the following spring with annual rainfall and warm 60 degree soil temperature.
Last fall I prepared the soil as if I was planting fescue so the annual ryegrass seed would germinate with daily watering. This loose seed bed helped the annual ryegrass to germinate in about a week or ten days. This method flipped the traditional buffalograss seeding upside down. Typically, I have areas prepared to plant buffalograss in May and June. Buffalograss it is a native warm season grass that needs to be planted when soil temperatures are above 60 degrees.
Update
I have been pleasantly surprised. The little buffalograss seedlings have started to spread in amongst the crabgrass and knotweed. I believe it will begin to overpower these weeds and completely cover the areas next year.
Buffalograss seedling that have started to spread
I may look at putting a preemergent herbicide down next spring to give the buffalograss less weed competition. This is primarily to control summer annuals such as crabgrass and foxtail. Barricade (prodiamine), Pendulum Aquacap (pendimethalin), Dimension (dithiopyr), Specticle (indaziflam) are recommended pre-emergent herbicides on established Buffalograss stands. Read and follow the chemical label application instructions for best results. Pre-emergent herbicides can also be applied in the fall to control that pesky weed, little barley.
When asked if I would do this buffalorass planting method again, I would say yes. For small areas of 1000 sq. ft or less, it makes sense and saves so much water. For larger areas, I think it is a toss-up. I think it will be successful either way. Of course, summer seeding take at least daily watering for the first 10-14 days to get the seed to germinate. For large areas, this obviously requires so much water because the soil dries out quickly with wind and heat. I think you can be successful with either method but I really liked using less water overall.
We encourage people to use buffalograss in areas that receive at least six hours of sunlight each day throughout the year. Newer varieties are vigorous growers and require little to no water once established. Compare that to a traditional fescue lawn, which needs one to two inches of moisture per week to keep it alive in the summer. These newer buffalograss forms stay green longer in the fall and green up earlier in the spring. If kept relatively weed free, they require less frequent mowing. Buffalograss needs little to no fertilizer and will reduce your overall maintenance.
The use of ornamental grasses in the landscape has become more popular than ever, and for good reason. The allure of ornamental grasses is that they are tough and easy to grow. Their resilient nature reflects our prairie landscape in our own garden. They are a nice visual contrast to many other plants like perennials, shrubs, trees and even other grasses. A bonus is the beauty and movement they add to the winter landscape.
Liatris and Indian grass in the Prairie Window Project, Photo by Brad Guhr
One of the questions we get this time of year is whether or not to cut ornamental grasses back to the ground for winter?
In the fall, ornamental grasses are in their full regalia with their attractive seed heads. From short to tall, these grasses put on quite a late season show. As we transition into fall, the colors they develop are another reason we use them in our landscapes. However, these fall colors fade and we are left with dull shades of tan and brown. Is it best to leave these grasses now or remove them? Generally, we leave them through the winter, and cut them back before they begin to grow next season. In Kansas, this task can be done in late February to early April.
Here are some of the advantages of leaving grasses for the winter and waiting until the spring to cut them back
Grasses provide form and texture in the stark winter landscape of withered perennials and deciduous shrubs. These qualities stand out in the frost or snow and low winter sunlight.
Mix well with perennial wildflower seed heads
Provide movement in the garden. The tawny stems and seed heads move with the gentlest breeze.
If used as a screen, they can be left up just before they start greening up again in the spring.
Most native grasses can provide habitat and shelter for birds and other small animals along with overwintering sites for insects and pollinators.
By waiting to remove the previous year’s growth until late winter, the crown of the grass is more protected from the elements.
Little Bluestem and Coneflower Photo by Emily Weaver
Switchgrass capturing snow
How do I cut back my grasses?
After leaving the stalks up through the winter, they are drier, more brittle, and easier to cut back. I like to cut tall grasses like switchgrass and big bluestem down to about 2-3 inches off the ground. I do this with a hedgetrimmer by moving it back and forth across the stalks a few inches at a time. We used to completely remove these stalks and haul them away. Now, we let the clippings lay as mulch around the plants. These stalks may still have overwintering pollinators in the stalks that are left in the garden for next season. By spreading the cut stems around as mulch it helps to break down more quickly too. I shape smaller grasses like prairie dropseed with a pruner or hedgetrimmer. Again, I like to cut them back to two to three inches from the ground.
Over the years, we have found it very beneficial to leave ornamental grasses standing for the winter. You’ll be creating a habitat for birds, insects, and small animals. The rustling grasses will remind you of the successful season past and the promise of spring yet to come.
Switchgrass cut back in late winter ready for spring
This blog post is updated and republished. Previously published as “The Social Network for Plants” in September 2017.
One of the landscaping concepts I touched upon in my recent Matrix Planting class is the idea that plants are members of a complex social network. No, they are not on Facebook, Instagram or tweeting about the conditions on their side of the prairie, but they do grow best in a company of friends. I enjoy the idea that even though each plant is unique, they are part of interrelated communities. They complement each other and live in harmony, which makes them so much more resilient together than if they grow isolated and alone.
Plant communities in the wild
Nature is a great teacher. Look at wild plant communities. Whether a forest or a prairie, you will find plants growing harmoniously together. There aren’t any mulched areas between plants, but rather intertwining, interlocking and dense groups of plants growing side by side. A compass plant reaches up through tall grasses like big bluestem and indiangrass. The deep tap root punches through the fibrous roots of the grasses, and the tall grasses help prop up the compass plant’s long stems and keep them from flopping over. If you plant compass plant in your landscape, plant it with these tall grasses. Plants grow in environments that suit their growth habit.
Butterfly weed is another great example. In the wild, it would get smothered and lost in five to six foot grasses, but you see it flourishing with shorter grasses like little bluestem, prairie dropseed and blue gramma. Grasses of similar height is what they prefer. The beautiful orange blooms are at the same height as the grasses. These plants also have similar sun, soil and moisture requirements, too.
Know more about the plants you grow
An understanding of plant communities and the preferences of individual plants will help direct your landscape design. This approach to landscaping forces you to become familiar with each plant, but rewards you with a successful landscape that mimics the communities on the prairie. By adapting your gardens to include groups of plants that naturally occur together and that match your own landscape, you will have a functional, low maintenance landscape that is ecologically responsible and beautiful at the same time.
Urban prairie photo courtesy Craig Freeman
This style of landscaping has caused me to reevaluate how I design new plantings. For instance, switchgrass, which is one of my favorite grasses, is a solitary grass in the wild. It forms large colonies with other wildflowers growing on the edges of these colonies. Richard Hansen and Friedrich Stahl, in their book “Perennials and their Garden Habitat”, arrange plants according to their sociability level. Plants like switchgrass or coneflowers at lower levels (1 and 2) are set individually or in small clusters. Plants like prairie dropseed or blue grama at higher levels (3 to 5) are set in groups of 10 to 20-plus, arranged loosely around the others.
By observing the different levels of plant sociability, it guides how you incorporate plants into your landscape. It is an ecological way to garden that focuses less on aesthetics and more on relationships of plants. Of course height, bloom time, texture and flower color are important, but they are not the most important consideration when planting. The main emphasis now is grouping plants together that thrive in the wild together.
So what does this look like practically in your landscape?
It looks like 10-20 coneflowers (level 2 plants) propped up with little bluestem, prairie dropseed and blue grama (level 4 plants). In the wild, you never see just coneflowers growing in large solitary groups together, but mixed with other wildflowers and grasses. Blue sage (level 2 plant) has a tendency to flop, but when combined with other taller grasses and wildflowers, its blue flowers are held at eye level. The taller, more upright plants or solitary plants in levels 1 and 2 need the level 3 to 5 plants to grow and spread around them. This interlocking matrix of plants covers every square foot of your garden. Weeds are crowded out and maintenance is reduced over time as these plants squeeze out unwanted species. You can now manage your plant communities as a whole rather than taking care of each individual plant.
Native prairie photo courtesy of Craig Freeman
I believe this approach to designing a landscape has many benefits. Using this approach, we will become intimately acquainted with the plants we grow and the social communities in which they thrive. This connection to our plants forces us to learn about them. More importantly we begin to see them as individual pieces of a much larger collection of associated plants. It is a radical shift in how we design a garden. Plants are pieces that nature weaves together in ecological combinations. Nature is a great teacher.
Early September blooming plants are attracting loads of nectar-sipping insects right now. Host plants are green and thriving from timely rains and providing food for munching larvae. All this insect activity has led to great enjoyment for me in exploring the Dyck Arboretum grounds and my home landscape. It has prompted me to think more about my real motivation for landscaping with native plants.
Gulf fritillary nectaring on prairie dock
Plants or Insects?
For many years, I’ve claimed that my enjoyment of native landscaping was motivated by my love of plants. Indeed, their flowers, seed pods, seeds, seed dispersal mechanisms, and roots are all interesting traits and worthy of appeal. Getting to know their growth habits, moisture and light preferences all translate to the level of success I will have (or not) in establishing these plants in a given landscape. And early in their establishment, my focus is geared toward making sure they stay alive with my watering, mulching, and weeding efforts.
Common milkweed wind-blown seed dispersal mechanisms are cool to observe. But I am increasingly interested by the insects this plant attracts too (like the milkweed bug)
But as these long-lived perennials develop substantial root systems, become established, and begin to flower, I worry less about their survival. My perspective changes, turns towards what they can do for the local ecosystem. New questions arise. What insects are attracted to their flower nectar? Which insects are pollinating them and leading to seed production? What insect larvae are eating their leaves or other parts of the plant? What predators are in turn feeding on those insects?
Simple image of a prairie food pyramid (Credit: Mariana Ruiz Villarreal (LadyofHats) for CK-12 Foundation)
Plants, being at the base of the food pyramid, dictate the level of diversity that exists further up the pyramid of consumption. Small bases lead to small pyramids and bigger bases lead to bigger pyramids. So in theory, the more different species of plants I install in my landscape, the more species of insects I will host. I can specifically predict what insects I will attract to a landscape based on the larval host plants I establish. For example, milkweed species will draw in monarch butterflies. Golden alexander or other species in the parsley family will draw in black swallowtail butterflies. Willow species will draw in viceroy butterflies, and so on. HERE is a list of butterfly larval host plants.
The Insects Have It
When I stop and think about it, the most interesting parts of tours at the Arboretum are when insects are visible and busy doing their thing. Stopping with a group to watch a hatch of caterpillars devour a plant leaf and dream of what those caterpillars will turn into is pretty cool. Observing a huddle of school kids dump out a sweep net and squeal with delight at finding the baby praying mantis, massive grasshopper, or whatever other interesting insect they are not used to seeing, simply makes my day.
Milkweed tussock moth larvae feeding on common milkweed Tour participants observing monarch caterpillars and milkweed longhorn beetles on common milkweed 3rd Graders investigating the contents of an insect sweep net
Many of the species blooming now around the Visitor Center at Dyck Arboretum are sometimes considered invasive and perhaps even uninteresting because they are common. But as I highlight in another blog post Finding Value in the Undesirables, they attract a load of insects which makes them interesting to me. Here is a collection of photos of insects taken just outside my office last week:
Painted lady on Leavenworth eryngo
Clouded sulphur on narrowleaf ironweed
Green bee on Leavenworth eryngo
Spotted Datana caterpillar on aromatic sumac
Newly unfurled monarch
Sachem on Leavenworth eryngo
Woolly caterpillar on narrowleaf ironweed
Fly on Canada goldenrod
Potter wasp on Canada goldenrod
Bumble bee on Leavenworth eryngo
Silver potted skipper on narrowleaf ironweed
Dun skipper on narrowleaf ironweed
One particular plant, Leavenworth eryngo (Eryngium leavenworthii), is stunning due to its vibrant color and interestingly shaped features. It’s often noticed by visitors walking to the greenhouse during FloraKansas: Fall Native Plant Days. However, what most people say when they see it is “did you see the swarms of insects on that plant?!” Customers are eager to recreate such insect habitat at their homes. For this reason, I keep a bag of seed for this annual species collected from the previous year to give away.
Become An Insect Promoter
This subtitle may make many traditional gardeners cringe. I have recently followed social media groups of gardeners where the anti-insect sentiment is rabid. Pesticides are commonly recommended to get rid of insect hatches in home landscapes and the recoil response related to spiders in general can be disturbing. Even many of our dedicated members that love to buy native plants for their landscapes don’t like to see the plants they come to love devoured by caterpillars. I am on a mission to change that.
So, if you are not already an entomology enthusiast and in awe of insects, I encourage you to take on a popular motivation for landscaping with native plants. Become more open to welcoming insects. Choose native plants or native cultivars not only because you think they will be pretty, but for how they will eventually host insects, enhance the food web they support, and increase the wildlife diversity in your landscape.
