Easy, Pretty Tatarian Aster

Asters adorn the fall garden with clouds of blue blooms that show to advantage against yellow goldenrod, orange pumpkins, and the warm shades of autumn leaves. The Asteraceae family was one of the largest until those pesky taxonomists got involved. With their penchant for genetic accuracy, they reclassified North American asters into Symphyotrichum, Eurybia, and a number of smaller classes. For an exhaustive (mind-numbing) discussion of Aster’s new family tree, consult the University of Waterloo’s research report by clicking HERE.

Today’s feature plant, Tatarian Aster, was formerly Aster tataricus and is now Crinitaria tatarica (pronounced krin-ih-TAIR-ee-ah tah-tair-IH-ka). Tatarian Aster is a perennial wildflower with soft lavender-blue, star-shaped flowers held in flat-topped groups. The flowers have 7-20 petals each, arranged around a yellow center. Bees, moths, and butterflies love them. They provide a nectar meal for migrating Monarch butterflies.

Tatarian Asters grow in zones 3-9, in any soil type and almost any pH, and require full sun exposure. Plants are resistant to heat and humidity. They may gain heights of up to six feet, but rarely need to be staked unless they are grown in very fertile soil with plentiful moisture. Unless you enjoy staking, take a Tough Love approach to growing this perennial. Plants grown in rich soils with plentiful moisture can spread aggressively.

The height of Tatarian Aster means it is a good back-of-the-border feature. It is especially pretty when grown along the sunny edges of woodlands, paired with Miscanthus, Muhlenbergia, or other grasses. Deadheading spent blooms will lead to a lengthy flowering season, from late summer all the way to freezing temperatures. In winter, cut the dead foliage back to ground level.

Queen Anne's Lace

When a plant’s common name includes “weed” many people are hesitant to introduce them into a cultivated garden. But those same weeds can prove to be resilient, hardy, and attractive. Consider Butterfly Weed (Asclepias) or Iron Weed (Vernonia) as two examples. The downside of growing weeds is the possibility that they can be TOO resilient, even bordering on invasive. That is the case with today’s featured plant, Queen Anne’s Lace.

Queen Anne’s Lace (Daucus carota, pronounced DAW-kus kar-OH-tah) has a fat, carrot-like tap root that helps it survive in hot, dry climates. It is quick to spring up in disturbed areas, and is listed as invasive in more than 20 states. Queen Anne’s Lace, also called Wild Carrot, Bee’s Nest or Devil’s Plague, is a biennial. It develops lacy basal foliage in its first year, then blooms second year. Mature plants range from 2-4 feet, with a narrow footprint. It is found in all the lower 48 states, in full sun to part shade.

Queen Anne’s Lace flowers are flat white umbrels up to four inches across with one little purple flower dot in the middle. If you place cut flowers’ stems in colored water (use a few drops of the same vegetable-based colors used in cake icing), the blooms rapidly take up the dye and will change from white to a pastel shade of the selected color. I thought every child had done this at least once, but it appears I was mistaken.

Spent flower heads curl up on the edges into a brown cup-like form that resembles a bird’s nest. They become brittle when dry. Winds break them off their stems, and they tumble about, spreading seeds far and wide. This promiscuous habit, along with their tolerance for any type soil and any pH, means that they spread everywhere unless consistently deadheaded. Cut stems stink but the smell wanes fast enough to enjoy them as cut flowers. I once had to resort to herbicide to rid a perennial bed of these, and have since decided to just enjoy them along roadsides. They are prolific in my area of the southeast. Bees and butterflies love the flowers, and swallowtail butterfly caterpillars eat the foliage.

Parts of the plants can be cooked and eaten in small quantities, but larger amounts are toxic. Contact with leaves and stems can cause dermatitis. Unless one in starving in the wilderness, I see to need to test out the toxicity threshold. If you feel the need to consume, be positive of your plant identification. Queen Anne’s Lace is easily confused with Wild Parsnip and Wild Hemlock. Consuming either of these can be deadly. Wild Hemlock is the plant that killed Socrates. Its stem has purple spots.

Note the single purple flower in the middle. Not every umbrell has this oddity.

A single plant, flowering in an undeveloped roadside.

A community of Queen Anne’s Lace shows how the plant can multiply into large communities.

Red and Green Groundcovers

Mother Nature is celebrating the holiday season by decorating with red and green. On a walk through the woods , you might spot Partridgeberry (Mitchella repens) or American Wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens). Both these groundcovers have deep green leaves, white blooms in late spring/early summer, and red berries in fall/winter.

American Wintergreen, also known as Boxberry, Checkerberry or Eastern Teaberry, is a woody, evergreen, mat-like groundcover. It has tiny white flowers that are shaped like smooth urns. In fall and winter, bright red berries, about the same size as a single Nandina berry, contrast attractively with the deep green foliage. Wintergreen is a member of the Ericaceous family It prefers poor, acidic soils and the company of hardwood trees. The white or pale pink blooms are shaped like upright cups. Flowers are mildly fragrant, but one almost needs to be on hands and knees to catch the scent.

Partridgeberry is commonly called Twinflower because its blooms are held in pairs. Partridgeberry has two distinctly different types of blooms. One has a long pistil and four short stamens. The other is exactly the opposite: one short pistil and four long stamens. A very close look (think magnifying glass or at least a good pair of reading glasses) at the Partridgeberry bloom reveals its fuzzy appearance. It produces a beautiful red berry similar to Wintergreen. When squeezed, the Partridgeberry fruit will separate into two parts; the Winterberry remains solid.

Both Wintergreen and Partridgeberry are found across most of the eastern United States. They thrive in shady woodlands. The easiest way to distinguish the two is to crush a leaf or sample taste a berry. Wintergreen has the distinctive scent and taste of, well, wintergreen. Partridgeberry leaves have no scent and the fruit is tasteless. Another distinguishing characteristic is that the Partridgeberry leaf has a lighter vein running the from stem to tip. Wintergreen does not have this noticeable feature.

Both these plants grow only a few inches tall, but spread indefinitely to form a  gorgeous carpet for the forest floor. They are frequently found growing shoulder to shoulder in zones 3 through 7. Partridgeberry tolerates more heat; its growth area extends to zone 8. Birds and other wildlife eat the berries.

Red berries rest atop the dark green leaves of Mitchella repans like Nature’s Christmas ornaments

The twosome flowers of Mitchella repans illustrates one of its common names, Twinflower. A persistent berry from last year is visible in the 12 o’clock position.

Woodland Orchids

I consider myself a fairly good gardener, but I have never enjoyed success with indoor orchids such as Phalaenopsis or Dendrobium. It must have something to do with the neglect I inflict on houseplants while I cajole outdoor plants into health and beauty. There are two orchids that thrive in southeastern woodlands without any mollycoddling.

Downy Rattlesnake Plantain (Goodyera pubescens) is an evergreen perennial wildflower found in woodlands across the eastern half of our country. The plant is small and easily overlooked. The distinctive leaves are very attractive, deep blue-green with distinctive veining and prominent light stripe down the center of each leaf. After a plant is several years old, it throws a single bloom stem in mid-summer with 20 to 80 tiny white flowers. These flowering stems remind me of another plant in the orchid family, Lady’s Tresses (Spiranthes). Lady’s Tresses requires plentiful water, while Rattlesnake Plantain prefers average to dry, acidic soils with plentiful organic content. It is commonly found in the same areas as Creeping Cedar.

Pipsissewa popping through a field of creeping cedar.

Rattlesnake Plantain is easily confused with another wildflower, Pipsissewa (Chimaphila maculata), sometimes called Spotted Wintergreen. The two can be distinguished by their different leaf arrangement: Rattlesnake Plantain leaves are held in a basal rosette, while Pipsissewa leaves are held on a stem. I like the musical sound of Pipsissewa: pip-SIS-uh-wuh.

While Rattlesnake Plantain can be grown as a houseplant and in terrariums, it is listed as endangered in several states and should not be dug from the wild. It is sometime possible to find them for sale by native plant societies. Propagation is from root cuttings or dust-like seeds. It was named Wildflower of the Year for 2016.

Pipsissewa produces plentiful seeds and is common in woodlands. In the past, leaves of Pipsissewa were used to flavor root beer. It is one of my favorite discoveries when walking through the forest. The deep green leaves with white netting are gorgeous. The blooms? Meh. Just appreciate them for the foliage and their willingness to thrive without care.

If you pine after something a little more showy than these two woodland orchids, stayed tuned for next week’s feature on Bletilla striata, Hardy Orchid. She’s a beauty!

Admire the pretty leaves of this Pipsissewa. Seedlings are coming up in the leaf litter.

Singing the Blues

Regular readers may notice a clear color preference. I admit it — I love blue flowers, including those that might be considered weedy. As a child, my favorite color in the box of Crayola 64 (the beginning of each school year started with a fresh box “with a built-in sharpener!”) was definitely Cornflower Blue. I learned to love Cornflowers from an early age. Wild Cornflowers edged the fields of my grandparents’ farm. My mother identified them as Ragged Robins. She also told me that ALL snakes were deadly and I might keel over if I even looked at one too long. She was well-meaning, but wrong on both counts.

Ragged Robin is the common name for another flower with similar petals. The blue blooms in these photos are Centaurea cyanus (pronounced Cen-TUR-e-a sigh-AN-us), commonly known as Cornflowers or Bachelor's Buttons. They earned the Cornflower moniker because they bloom in corn fields throughout the US and UK, in all zones. How’s that for accommodating?

As a result of social distancing, I am suffering a case of cabin fever. My husband took me for a country drive, and obediently braked and reversed when I screamed, “Stop - I need a photo!” I don’t know whose pasture I invaded, but I hope they enjoy the blue haze as much as I did.

Seeds are available for this drought-tolerant plant that is native to Europe but has naturalized across our country. The seeds sprout easily and the plants grow rapidly up to 30 inches. Named cultivars may be shorter. They bloom like mad during the spring, then fade into obscurity. If you resist the urge to deadhead spent blooms, they will reseed and naturalize. They look outstanding when seen with a yellow weed that blooms about the same time in our Zone 7b. (Sorry, I don’t know the name of the yellow weed.) Grow them in full sun. Shade produces a weak, floppy stem.

The typical color is Cornflower blue but a pink, white or burgundy bloom may pop up occasionally. Cornflowers attract bees and butterflies, and are a wonderful addition to your wildflower garden or meadow. Makes a good cut flower, too.

A closer look

A sea of blue in a country field. The reddish color in the distance is wild sorrel, also in bloom right now.

Goldenrod good; Ragweed bad

This time of the year is bittersweet.  Sadly, the lovely yellow goldenrods (Solidago) that decorated flower beds and roadsides have been cut down by frosts and freezes. On the other hand, those same freezes knocked out the ragweed that makes me sneeze hard enough to knock the earth off its axis.

Because these two bloom at the same time, goldenrod takes the rap for allergy-sufferers’ misery. The true culprit is ragweed. Goldenrod is pollinated by bees. Its pollen is heavy. Ragweed pollen is airborne and easily inhaled. A single ragweed plant can produce over a billion grains of pollen - lots of sneezes!. There are exceptions, but usually a plant that is bee-pollinated (as opposed to air pollinated) does not have pollen that floats on every breeze, spreading misery to sensitive sinuses.  Ragweed blooms look similar to goldenrod, but they remain green and never change to gold. Gardeners can learn to distinguish between the two because ragweed leaves and branching structure differ from goldenrod.

Goldenrod is easily grown and perennial to zone 4. The roadside ditch varieties have given way to modern cultivars that are shorter, bushier and longer-blooming. These improved introductions spread less aggressively than their wild cousins, but they still colonize the surrounding soil with a fibrous web of rhizomes. Don’t plant them in locations where they can choke out weaker plants.

Goldenrods prefer full sun but will accept some shade. Once established, they are quite drought tolerant. Plants range from two feet to six feet in height, depending upon the variety. They are not picky about soil, and even seem to prefer heavy, acidic clay. The golden color combines particularly well with blue, so an easy combination includes asters, which bloom at the same time of the year. The taller variety looks good with purple Ironweed (Vernonia) and Mexican Bush Sage (Salvia leucantha).

‘Fireworks’ was introduced by the NC Botanical Garden and is widely available. It is on the taller end of the spectrum, reaching four feet or more. ‘Peter Pan’ and ‘Little Lemon’ are petite, reaching 18-24 inches.

Bonus points: Deer leave them alone.

Goldenrod blooming in the Mary Snoddy garden