Farm Progress

Grow Native: Wildflowers provide color to a woodland landscape.

Scott Woodbury

March 16, 2018

3 Min Read
A celandine poppy seed pod is held open here to reveal its seeds, which ants help distribute. Ants carry seeds to their nests, eating the white carbohydrate-rich outer portion of the seed while depositing the actual seeds outside of the nests.

When you hear the word “wildflower,” what is the first thing that pops into your head? Splashes of color along a roadside? Untended patches of weeds? Or perhaps spring flowers blossoming in the woods?

If you want to stretch your native garden into the realm of the woods, consider planting wildflowers.

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Celandine poppy and Virginia bluebells sway in the summer breeze. These woodland flowers provide just the color needed for tree lines.

Early-blooming plants like trout lily, bloodroot, wild geranium, Virginia bluebells, celandine poppy, and violets are woodland wildflowers. These plants grow and flower before trees leaf out so they can get enough sunlight to survive in the shade. They are referred to as spring ephemerals and go dormant by mid- to late summer. These plants lift our spirits at the end of winter and have hopeful names like harbinger of spring, spring beauty, and spring daisy.

But they aren’t the only plants that grow in the woods. By the end of spring, tick and chigger season is in full swing. Spring ephemerals give way to a second and third wave of wildflowers that bloom in summer and fall. These plants are sometimes overlooked because they bloom in the heat and humidity of summer, when nagging insects are abundant outdoors — and people are not. Don’t let this keep you inside; there is much to see in the summer woodland, like purple coneflowers, downy skullcap, garden phlox, star coreopsis, creek oats, the wild ryes and yellow wingstem, to name a few.

The third wave in fall is mostly aster and goldenrod, like Drummond aster, spreading aster, blue-stemmed goldenrod, zigzag goldenrod and rough-leaved goldenrod. These combine nicely with the tan and russet glow of woodland grasses and the black seed heads of purple coneflower.

Wildflower movement
Woodland gardens can be more natural in style, and they work well with large areas. Plants established from seed can be planted in a scattered fashion, as if they were thrown up in the air and planted where they landed. Some are spread by ants, which stay busy in late spring carrying seeds to their nests on the other side of the garden.

Though many woodland wildflowers move around from year to year, others stay put for decades. Plants like mayapple, Solomon’s seal and various ferns like narrow-leaved spleenwort grow in groups for years, so they are planted in groups initially.

Planting tips
In early April, consider installing these plants about 18 inches apart. Carefully mulch the area where you’ll be planting 1 to 2 inches deep with shredded leaf mulch. Maintain the plant by weeding, watering and mulching for two full growing seasons. Trim back the more vigorous plants to equal the size of the slower-growers. In the third growing season, wean off care: no mulch, less weeding and watering, and little trimming. Pull up seedlings when they crowd a more vulnerable neighboring plant.

For instance, Indian pink and maidenhair fern need help to survive — especially at the edge of the bed, where they are more visible. Pull seedlings of anything that sprouts within 6 to 8 inches of them. Otherwise, they disappear over time. The usual seedy suspects include purple coneflower, blue-stemmed goldenrod, rough-leaved goldenrod and garden phlox. These are a few of the plants to keep regularly in check, and it would be wise not to plant them until the third year, when all the other plants have become established.

When naturalizing with native plants in the woods, don’t forget the summer- and fall-blooming wildflowers. Naturalized areas also lower in maintenance compared to more traditionally planted areas in the garden. If you have shade on your property, and especially big areas, naturalizing in the woods may work well for you.

Horticulturist Woodbury is curator of the Whitmire Wildflower Garden at Shaw Nature Reserve in Gray Summit, Mo., and an adviser to the Missouri Prairie Foundation’s Grow Native! program.

 

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