Rick Darke

What:  “Balancing Natives and Exotics in the Garden” by internationally acclaimed native-plant expert/author Rick Darke

When:  Saturday, March 2.  Registration and refreshments at 10 am, presentation at 11 am.

Where:  The Key School, 534 Hillsmere Drive, Annapolis, Free parking.  Talk sponsored by Unity Gardens.

Rick Darke brings a breath of fresh air to the debate about the relative merits or pitfalls of using native or exotic plants, a debate that’s so often long on emotion and short on common sense. He sensibly draws from horticultural science, contemporary ecology, and modern resource management studies to describe a balanced ethic for beautiful, functional, and sustainable garden design.

Darke heads a Pennsylvania-based consulting firm focused on landscape ethics, contextual design and photography.  His work blends art, ecology, and cultural geography in the design and management of livable landscapes. Projects include parks, scenic byways, transportation corridors, corporate and collegiate campuses, conservation developments, botanic gardens, and residential landscapes.

Rick Darke’s work has been featured in The New York Times, Garden Design, Gardens Illustrated, and on National Public Radio. He is the author and photographer of many books, including The American Woodland Garden: Capturing the Spirit of the Deciduous Forest, The Encyclopedia of Grasses for Livable Landscapes, and The Wild Garden: Expanded Edition. For further information check his website.

Who Should Attend:  Garden enthusiasts, environmentalists, educators, greening organizations, non-profits, community lovers, nature photographers, area planners and residents.

Registration: Online at Unitygardens.org or registration form can be sent to Unity Gardens, P.O. Box 6310, Annapolis, MD 21401 Cost per ticket: $55 (a portion of the ticket will be tax deductible).  Unity Gardens Inc. is a 501 (c) (3) not for profit organization.

Contact Information:  Email unitygardensaa@gmail.com or Barbara Dowling at 410-703-7530.

Note from a Fan: I’ve enjoyed all of Rick’s books and reviewed his Wild Garden here – with photos and a video.  I’ve also heard him speak in person at the National Arboretum and his talk and visuals were terrific!

Posted by Susan Harris.

We loooooove Pinterest, and what gardener wouldn’t?  So visual, so gorgeous, so chockful of ideas for our own gardeners – designs, plants, outdoor features, you name it.

So we’ve been busy adding to our own Pinterest boards and are happy to announce lots of new “pins” to show off.

For instance, our Native Plants board has 41 photos, all regionally native plants looking gorgeous in the garden.

Shrubs includes 27 photos so far.  These shrubs are full-grown, in gardens.

Our Perennials collection includes 32 photos and we think shows how they might look in YOUR garden.

And we’ve added new photos to our collection of Beautiful Private Gardens, for a total of 26 so far.  Get your ideas right here!

But that’s not all.  Behnkes has 48 Pinterest boards in total – check ‘em out!

by Larry Hurley

Over the years I have been adding more native plants to provide better food sources for birds and I have gotten rid of most of my lawn and replaced it with ornamental perennials, trees and shrubs.  If I am spending time outdoors, I’d rather be grooming perennials than cutting grass. I have the usual challenges with bird seed: too much goes to the squirrels, for example, so I feed mainly in the winter. The thing that I find that provides the most birds for the buck, though, is a birdbath. They seem old-fashioned, but they really attract birds to the garden, and except for an occasional cleaning, they are easy to maintain.

In my mostly shade garden, I have a pretty solid understory of ferns, hostas, hellebores and so on. I leave the leaves that fall in winter on the beds (oak, hickory, tulip poplar) and let them decay over the season, providing a place for ground feeding birds to hunt. I have shrubs and short trees (Fothergilla, hydrangeas, winterberry, spicebush) for nesting sites and for places for the birds to sit as they wait their turn at the birdbath, and of course, the tall trees, again for nesting and to provide a place for the birds to hunt for insect food. The birdbath is the corner tavern as it were, a place where all sorts of birds come to bathe and drink. All from the same water, but that’s birds for you. The best thing is, unlike with birdseed, the squirrels leave the birdbath alone.

I’m in Bethesda but near Rock Creek, so although we have a limited selection of birds, it’s not just English Sparrows and Starlings. We routinely have robins, goldfinches, house finches, grackles and mourning doves at the bath, especially in dry weather.

The smooth surface of this bird bath makes it easy to clean.

Birdbaths need some maintenance. The water should be changed at least once a week to prevent mosquitoes from going from egg to adult. You don’t want to be growing more mosquitoes. The birdbath also grows algae, especially in the sun (warm water in sun with a smattering or splattering of bird poop is the perfect recipe for algae). Dump it out with the old water. My bird baths are granite and bluestone, and I scrub them out every couple of weeks with an SOS pad. This gets rid of most of the algae, cleans the bath of whatever, and gets rid of mosquito eggs. I think that a stone or glazed surface of the bowl will make cleaning and algae control easier than a rough surface.

If you want, you can run the birdbath all winter with a birdbath heater, providing a little spa for your birds. They do have a hard time finding water in winter. I don’t do this myself. I suppose the real birders have a little bird sauna although I admit I haven’t actually seen one. Maybe in Norway.

So: buy a birdbath; change the water; scrub it out once in awhile; enjoy plenty of birds all season long.

Photo credits.  chickadee, robin.

by Behnkes Woodies Buyer Miri Talabac

Have enough Azaleas? Roses? Bored with yews? I always yearn for the different when it comes to my garden, and these shrubs are some of my favorites.

Ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius)

Ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius)

I love this shrub! It’s native (they pop up from between the rocks at Great Falls), attractive to pollinators (wow! lots of Red Admiral butterflies on them this year both at home and at the nursery) and has multi-season interest. Leaves are either mahogany or gold and flowers are white. Older wood has peeling bark (probably why its named nine-bark) and the seed pods are bright red before they mature to dry brown. I have had one in my yard for ten years now with no problems – and plenty of “benign neglect” the whole time. My deer leave it alone, though I have heard of some snacking on it.

Sweetspire (Itea virginica)

Sweetspire (Itea virginica)

Another native, this is one of my top ten shrubs for fall color. White spring flowers, dark red winter stems, and fall colors ranging through burgundy, red, orange and yellow. They tolerate wet areas, shade and deer, and stay relatively short. And while not evergreen, I do often see plants arrive on the nursery in early spring with several burgundy leaves from last fall still hanging on. Neat!

Summersweet (Clethra anifolia)

Summersweet (Clethra anifolia))

For in-your-face summer fragrance, you can’t beat this. Deer-resistant, wet-soil-tolerant, butterfly-drawing goodness. They’re native too, and in the wild I see them in sunny wood’s-edge ditches and under the canopy itself. Flowers are white (sometimes pink) and can start in late June and end in early September.

Leucothoe

Leucothoe

Part of the large Azalea/Andromeda/Blueberry/Heath family, these low-growers are great evergreens for those pesky deer-infused yards and shady spots. Two cream-splashed plants (the variety ‘Girard’s Rainbow’) that I have in my back yard are content under tall shade trees, not bothered deer or neglect for going on ten years now.

'Blue Chip' Butterfly Bush (Buddleia)

'Adonis Blue' Butterfly Bush (Buddleia)

Butterfly Bush (Buddleia)

Okay, we ecology-minded gardeners know to keep an eye on this one; they can escape via seed into wild areas. However, there are several new series that are both compact growers (the better to reach the seed heads for trimming) and/or don’t even set seed. I happen to LOVE the fragrance, and I’m one of those people who can’t stand the overly-sweet scents of Wisteria and Gardenia. Butterfly bush fragrance reminds me of something like a floral vanilla, if that makes any sense. In either case, it’s one of the few shrubs that blooms from June to October; it also takes hot sun well and rebuffs the deer. Plus, it certainly lives up to its name as a butterfly magnet. Blue-violet, purple, pink, magenta, white or yellow flowers let you match it up to just about anything.

Uncommon Natives

This is a catch-all group, but I just can’t skip over these neat natives that can be hard to find. We have all of these now, but once they’re gone, they’re gone until next spring.

Sweetfern (Comptonia peregina)

Sweetfern (Comptonia peregina) is a toughie that looks like a coarse fern and has nice fall color.

Dusty (Xenobia pulverulenta)

Dusty Zenobia (Zenobia pulverulenta) as bluish leaves and nice fall colors.

Yellowroot (L) and Pipevine (R)

Yellowroot (Xanthorhiza simplicissimi) has chains of tiny maroon stars when they flower.

Pipevine (Aristolochia tomentosa) has velvety heart-shaped leaves that feed pipevine swallowtail butterflies and clothe a fence, trellis or arbor.

New Jersey Tea (Ceanthus americanus)

New Jersey Tea (Ceanthus americanus) and its new hyrbid with the western native California Lilac (Look ma, blue!) that also attracts butterflies.

Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis)

Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis) has white starburst flowers in summer that are very popular with butterflies.

Deciduous Azaleas

More Deciduous Azaleas

Finally, there are several deciduous azaleas that I love.  They have fragrant flowers in white, pink or yellow and fantastic fall color.

Sweetfern photo credit.  All other photos by Miri Talabac.

We’ve moved this blog article to our website so readers can easily find it over the years.  Just click here.

You might also enjoy the article about Thomas Rainer’s terrific talk Designing with Native Plants.