Natives In Harmony

We’re so excited to be a part of this event next weekend at Scioto Gardens! It’s shaping up to be a fantastic day!

Happy Wildflower Wednesday! It’s a beautiful, sunny day here in Central Ohio and we’re celebrating by highlighting a “sunny” native perennial for your garden!

Cutleaf Coneflower (Rudbeckia lacinata) aka Green-headed Coneflower is a widespread native coneflower that can reach heights of 7-8 feet or more! Although in cultivation it typically only reaches half that size. This woodland denizen is at home in partial or dappled sunlight and moist, fertile loams commonly found in the understories of deciduous forests. A site that is too sunny and dry may cause the leaves to droop excessively and wither away. Otherwise, this plant is easy to cultivate and may spread aggressively by means of its rhizomes. Native habitats include bottomland forests, moist meadows, woodland boarders, moist thickets, margins of poorly drained fields, as well as partially shaded river banks and floodplains. It can tolerate full sun as long as the soils do not dry out. Cutleaf Coneflower blooms from mid-summer to early fall, lasting about 1-2 months. The nectar and pollen of the flowers attract many kinds of insects, including bees, wasps, butterflies, skippers, moths, and various kinds of flies. Larvae of the Silvery Checkerspot butterfly feed on the foliage as well as the larvae of numerous other species of moths, flies, and sawflies. Native bees will hibernate and nest in the dead stems. American Goldfinches eat the seeds and mammalian herbivores will browse the foliage. Cutleaf Coneflower is also referred to by its Cherokee name Sochan. The spring basal leaves are a traditional Cherokee food. Although foliage is slightly toxic, young or dried leaves, stems, and shoots are considered edible. Historically a tea infusion was made from the roots to treat worms and a poultice was made from the flowers to treat burns.
Height: 3-8’
Spread: 1.5-3’
Bloom Time: July-September
Bloom Color: Yellow
Sun: Full-Partial
Water: Moist

Natives In Harmony will be joining us at the 2nd Annual Habitat Hoopla on Saturday, June 13, making this event not just a learning opportunity, but a native plant sale of epic proportion!

𝗠𝗲𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘁𝘀: 𝗚𝗮𝗹𝗲 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗻, 𝗼𝘄𝗻𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗡𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗛𝗮𝗿𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘆

Gale Martin loves native plants. And since pollinators depend on plants and we depend on pollinators, it is safe to say Gale also loves pollinators. She makes the case for why Ohio genotype plants are so important for the pollinators that are native to Ohio. It’s for her love of bugs and plants that Gale doesn’t relent. She’s on a mission to “keep these plants from disappearing.”

As a little girl, Gale spent time on her family farm, tromping through the woods, studying the plants. Her career, however, eventually led her to become the executive director of the historical society in Marion County. Gale’s work often took her out to study remnants in prairies throughout the county, where she noticed unique and rare plants and collected seeds to bring back to her farm, to germinate and later grow in her gardens.

It all grew from there!

In the beginning, she just donated plants to county park districts. Feeling there might be more public interest in the plants, she then tried farmers' markets. On her first day, she stood and talked about why native plants are so important as people walked by. They didn’t get it. Gale left, discouraged and considering giving up. Then Dan advised: “You just have to educate them.”

And he was right. If you visit Natives in Harmony, or find Gale at a plant sale near you, you’ll find the plants along with an information sheet for each one that details its habitat, history and how best to grow it. Gale says this addition to her business plan “changed everything.”

𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗡𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗛𝗮𝗿𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘆:

"Natives in Harmony is a native plant nursery dedicated to providing habitat, promoting species preservation, and encouraging education. 90% of the plants we propagate are Ohio genotypes, with most of our seed sources located within 150 miles of our central Ohio location. Since we have the species planted on-site to grow seed for our plant propagation, we display living plant collections and native plant communities, and disseminate knowledge about propagating and preserving plants. Natives in Harmony supplies local genotype natives to homeowners, nature preserves, parks, and schools."

Our friends Terri and Randy Litchfield have asked us to share the information on their Open Garden event on July 4th! They have masterfully landscaped their property in Delaware Ohio with native plants that has lead to a thriving local ecosystem. On this 250th anniversary of the United States, celebrate native plants and biodiversity that makes this land great.

Our next feature on this wet Wildflower Wednesday could actually be classified as a small shrub!

Yellowroot (Xanthorhiza simplicissima) is the only member of its genus and one of the few woody members of the buttercup family. This deciduous plant forms a thicket of suckering stems starting about a foot tall and increasing in height each year up to three feet. Native to forested stream banks and other moist woodland areas in portions of the eastern and southeastern United States, yellowroot is an adaptable ground cover that can help stabilize shaded slopes. It will adapt to a wide range of soil conditions including wet, dry, or clay. It will also adapt to varying sun conditions ranging from full sun to full shade, although it grows and spreads most readily in part shade and moist, acidic, humusy soils. Spread can be controlled with concrete walkways, metal edging, or by siting in a drier location. Unique starry purple or maroon flowers emerge from the stems in early spring before the leaves come out. The foliage is bright glossy green, lacy, and divided. In autumn, yellowroot is at its showiest. The leaves turn yellow, then bright red, fading into tan and persisting into winter. The small seeds are eaten by a variety of wildlife. The roots are indeed a bright yellow and crushing them yields a yellow dye. The roots have been used traditionally to treat various ailments of the digestive and circulatory systems. Deer tend to avoid this plant. Use yellowroot in shaded woodland gardens, under deciduous trees, along shady stream banks or pond margins, and other places where a naturalized ground cover is desired.
Height: 8-30”
Spread: 6-10’
Bloom Time: April
Bloom Color: deep purple/maroon
Sun: full sun to full shade
Water: moist to medium

It’s Wildflower Wednesday! This week we are celebrating an easy-to-grow beauty for shadier gardens!

Virginia Spiderwort (Tradescantia virginiana) is the lesser known cousin of Ohio Spiderwort and tends to inhabit more woodland areas and thickets where it can beat the heat in partial to dappled sunlight under the canopy of trees and large shrubs. This clump-forming perennial has a long bloom time from early May until July. The vibrant purple flowers open for one day each, a few from each cluster at a time. The arching, iris-like green foliage stays beautiful throughout the spring and early summer, but begins to decline as hot, dry weather persists. Bumblebees are the most important pollinators of the flowers, but other bees such as honeybees, little carpenter bees, and Halictine bees also visit the flowers. Herbivores browse the foliage occasionally, but it is not a preferred food source probably due to the low severity poisonous characteristics of the sticky sap. Native habitats include fertile woodlands, open woods, moist thickets, hillsides, bluffs, and partially shaded stream banks. Virginia spiderwort can be distinguished from Ohio spiderwort by the hairiness of its slender pedicels, larger bracts subtending the flowers, and tends to be shorter and stouter without the blueish tint to its leaves.
Height: 2-3’
Spread: 1-1.5’
Bloom Time: late spring to mid-summer
Bloom Color: violet to blue
Sun: partial sun to light shade
Water: moist to medium

Happy World Bee Day! Plant a native plant today and help out our imperiled native bees 🐝🌱

Save the native bees 🐝

Welcome back to Wildflower Wednesday! Today we’re highlighting a native parent plant to one of our most beloved fruits 🍓

Wild Strawberry (Frageria virginiana) is native to most of the continental United States and is easily grown in a variety of soils and light conditions. It is a cool-season plant that grows actively in the spring and fall, but slows down in the hot summer months. The preference is full to part sun in fertile, well-drained loam or clay-loam, but it will grow in nearly full shade and drier sites. This is one of the parent plants for cultivated hybrid strawberries, the other being from Chile. The fruit is much smaller than commercially grown strawberries and not produced in abundance, but is probably the most delicious of the wild fruits. The flowers of wild strawberry is always white with a yellow center making it easy to distinguish from the non-native yellow-flowered Mock or Indian strawberry. In autumn, the low growing foliage turns shades of maroon and red which adds to its landscape appeal. Wild strawberry spreads easily by runners to form patches of groundcover. New plants can easily be propagated from the runners or dug up and moved to introduce this plant to new areas. The ecological value of wild strawberry is very high. It is a host plant for 71 species of caterpillars including the Isabella Tiger Moth, Crocus Geometer, Grizzled Skipper, Smith’s Dart, Purple-lined Sallow, and Strawberry Leafroller Moth to name a few. Nectar and pollen of the flowers attract numerous bees, flies, small butterflies, and skippers. Birds, mammals, and turtles eat the fruits. Wild strawberry can be used as a groundcover in nearly any landscape including prairies, meadows, wooded areas, roadsides, under trees and shrubs, and large gardens. It acts as a green mulch, inhibiting weeds and reducing the need for wood mulch.
Height: 6-10”
Spread: 1-2’
Bloom Time: May-June
Bloom Color: white
Sun: light shade - full sun
Water: moist - slightly dry