Build Back Biodiversity

 

I read a quote this week from Doug Tallamy that really resonated with me about what we can do as individuals. The quote was in support of International Day for Biological Diversity (May 22). The theme for 2023 is “From agreement to action: Build back biodiversity.” Doug’s quote is (bolding is mine):

“When I was growing up in the 50s and 60s, the impacts of our rapidly-growing human footprint were obvious enough, but, like everybody else who was concerned about the loss of nature, I focused 100% on saving the bits of nature that had not yet fallen to the bulldozer. Never once did it occur to me that I could rebuild effective habitat right in my yard.”

We now understand that we can (and should) build back some of the biodiversity (that is, biological diversity) that has been lost. Our residential landscapes are becoming key areas to reintroduce native plants and to bolster the biodiversity that is shrinking because of habitat destruction and replacement of natural habitat with development and non-native plants. The very name of this blog is USING Georgia native plants; we need to be USING them in our landscapes. 

Why do we need diversity in our plants? It’s because we have diversity in our insects, and they don’t all eat the same thing.

The story of the Monarch butterfly’s decline in population has gotten a lot of attention over the last decade, and it serves as a reminder that when native insect host plant distribution declines (which was true for milkweed, the single host plant family for Monarchs), so do the insects that depend on it. This is especially true for specialist insects like the Monarch and Zebra Swallowtail butterflies. When insect populations decline, so do all the species in the chain after them (birds, frogs, dragonflies, etc.).

Add some garden-friendly goldenrod

Regular plant nurseries and big box stores often have the same plant choices and most of them are not native. If we all shop there and plant these same non-native plants in every landscape, our biodiversity is reduced because we're all planting the same plants. It is further reduced because most native insects can’t use these non-native plants to further their life cycle. We might as well be landscaping our yards with plastic plants. Plants that literally add life to your landscape need to be native to Georgia.

96% of birds depend on finding insects for themselves or their babies
Photo credit: Romin Dawson

People can be intimidated by the thought of changing their landscape, especially in large amounts. You don’t have to rip out all your landscaping at once and re-do it. We all have time and money constraints. Adding a simple pollinator garden (6x8), replacing a row of non-native shrubs, adding a native oak to your landscape – these are all steps we can make in a positive direction. My post last year offered some tips on getting started.

There are also some things you can do that don’t require planting right now: You can stop applying pesticides to your landscape; [please!] cancel that mosquito-spraying contract; or simply mow your lawn every 3 weeks instead of every 2 weeks. We can make a difference as individuals and with our own yards. We can build back the diversity that our local ecosystem needs. Don’t wait for someone else to do it; remember the Lorax? If not you, then who?

If you haven’t read Doug Tallamy’s books, I do recommend Nature’s Best Hope to get started. I think you’ll find yourself reaching for your shovel before you’re even done with it.

May 2023 Moment in Nature

I am so glad to have this as a monthly feature because I love sharing the #momentinnature that reveals itself every month. And I do mean reveal because they catch me by surprise - I don't plan them.

I came back this week after being gone for few days and was sorry to see that a silk moth cocoon that I had saved was newly vacant. I was hoping to see the giant moth emerge. I left it where I had it; several days later I noticed that the inside now sported a leafy green re-do! A leafcutter bee had chosen to make an egg chamber in the old cocoon. 

As I write this, it is still a work in progress. I believe she has laid one egg and provisioned it and added one partition. Above are two photos, one is my original view and the second is while she is working.

Landscape Spotlight: American Wisteria

 

In my travels, I occasionally come across a particularly nice display of a native plant in a designed landscape. I usually take a photo of it, but I don’t always have a chance to work that into a blog. So this will be a new and occasional series for the blog to feature good landscape examples.

American wisteria (Wisteria frustescens) is an attractive native vine that blooms later than the invasive wisteria species we see on the roadside. It does very well on a structure in the garden, whether it be an arbor or pergola or just a chain link fence. It flowers after the leaves have already emerged, and the flowers are only lightly fragrant. It is not as aggressive as its cousins and maximum length is about 40 feet.

It is most often sold as the cultivar ‘Amethyst Falls’ which was a wild selection noted for good landscape qualities (deep color, early flowering). Unlike, the non-native species, American wisteria usually flowers in its second year, making it a better selection for that reason alone!

Read more about American wisteria on the Virginia Native Plant Society’s website where they profiled it as their 2021 Wildflower of the Year.

Native Evergreen Rhododendron

 

People ask about evergreen shrubs for their landscaping, but I don’t see our evergreen rhododendrons get used as often as they should. This week I had a chance to see some of them blooming when I visited Nearly Native Nursery in Fayetteville. They were at peak bloom, and seeing them reminded me how beautiful they can be.

Rhododendron catawbiense

The first one I spotted was a dark color form of Rhododendron catawbiense, a northern species found in both NW and NE Georgia. Jim (the owner of the nursery) said that Cloudland Canyon State Park is a great place to see this species in the wild.

Rhododendron carolinianum

The next one I saw was a pale pink rhododendron with smaller leaves; I asked if it was R. minus but he said no, this was Rhododendron carolinianum, which has been considered as a variety of minus in the past. In Georgia, it is only in the very NE corner. The flower is a little bit smaller than R minus.

He had a beautiful specimen of Rhododendron minus blooming as well. I have seen it in the wild several times in Georgia; May is the perfect time to see it. It has a surprisingly large range in Georgia, from the NE to the SW.

Rhododendron minus

One other species is found in Georgia: the great laurel (Rhododendron maximum). And while all of these species are quite deserving of a place in our gardens, they are very hard to find in nurseries. You can find rhododendrons in the nurseries, but they are mostly hybrids and it’s very hard to figure out their parentage because sometimes even the parents are hybrids. Even cultivars with names like 'Catawbiense Album' and 'Catawbiense Boursault' hint at only partial parentage with a native species.

It’s time for someone to get back to propagating native evergreen rhododendrons without hybridizing them with non-native species so that gardeners can get these beauties into their landscapes.

More on Deer Resistance

 

I wrote a general blog post about dealing with deer in 2011; all of it is still true so if you haven’t read it, please do. I talked about understanding what they like, plant placement, and deterrents (both physical and chemical). I didn’t get into a lot of specifics about what plants might be deer resistant. So here I am, 12 years later, ready to give some ideas based on my experiences in the metro Atlanta area.

Let me stress that last sentence: these are ideas based on my experience. Claims of deer resistance vary widely. You’ll find people who say XYZ is resistant while in my yard that is not true (I just got a mail from a nursery saying that coneflower is deer resistant: not in my yard!). As someone once said to me: “They’ll try anything once.” Very few plants will be absolutely resistant but there are some general recommendations. In some respect, you have to find your own way, figure out what works for you and your deer. For that, fall back to the 2011 article. Let’s start from the ground up:

Groundcovers

• Green & gold (Chrysogonum), partridgeberry (Mitchella repens), pussytoes (Antennaria), dwarf cinquefoil (Potentilla canadensis), golden groundsel (Packera aurea), violets (Viola), moss phlox (Phlox subulata), and native pachysandra (Pachysandra procumbens).

Pachysandra procumbens

Perennials/Annuals

• In the sun: Penstemon, red columbine (Aquilegia canadensis), anise hyssop (Agastache), things that are minty and smelly like Monarda and Pycnanthemum, camphorweed (Pluchea), blue mistflower (Conoclinium coelestinum), golden ragwort (Packera), scarlet sage (Salvia coccinea, Salvia lyrata), starry rosinweed (Silphium asteriscus), Stokes’s aster (Stokesia laevis), wingstem (Verbesina alternifolia), late thoroughwort (Eupatorium serotinum), and American germander (Teucrium canadense).

Penstemon is great for bees too

• In the shade: mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum), bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis), rue anemone (Thalictrum thalictroides), wood anemone (Anemone quinquefolia), white snakeroot (Ageratina altissima), blue-eyed grass (Sisyrinchium angustifolium), and Georgia savory (Clinopodium georgianum).

Ageratina altissima

• In general, native ferns, native grasses, and sedges (Carex)

• Things I manage with 2-3 sprays during the growing season but some may still get munched: Trillium, foamflower (Tiarella), and toothwort (Cardamine).

• Some things will be nibbled early in the year but may still get a chance to bloom later – that is particularly true for some of the annuals whose drive to bloom is supreme.

Christmas fern

Shrubs and Trees

• General comment on trees: any browsing will be done on the lower branches so once something gets tall enough, it’s usually ok.

• Deer damage includes rubbing in the late summer by male deer (because of antlers) so if you have a young special tree or shrub, consider enclosing it with wire fencing for a while.

• Beautyberry (Callicarpa americana), doghobble (Agarista populifolia), spicebush (Lindera benzoin), St. John’s wort (Hypericum), paw paw (Asimina), buckeye (Aesculus), Florida anise (Illicium), blueberry (Vaccinium), dwarf witch alder (Fothergilla), summersweet (Clethra), yaupon holly (Ilex vomitoria), and wax myrtle (Morella).

Clethra alnifolia in early summer

• Some browsing on Viburnum and mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia); you might be able to manage this with sprays/deterrent. Forget about Hydrangea and native azaleas!

If you have some deer resistant plants that I didn’t mention, feel free to add a comment so everyone can learn.

April 2023 Moment in Nature

 

I love to walk through the natural areas of my property in the spring to see what is sprouting (and to find non-native weeds that need pulling). It is naturally a slow walk as I focus on the ground. As I walked through one area this past week, I heard a low buzzing and spotted a large bee checking out the sloped sides of a drainage ditch, slowly going from one area to another. It was as large as a carpenter bee but it had a fuzzy butt instead of the ‘shiny hiney’ of a carpenter bee.

The bee was checking out crevices and leaf litter. I realized that it must be a queen bumble bee, looking for a cavity to start her new nest. I've never seen a queen before and was a little bit in awe. It is amazing to find new things in nature. She is #amomentinnature for my April.

I hope she found a good spot. A few days later, I saw another one near the creek. Bumble bees are an important part of pollination, especially during the summer, and I am happy to share my home with them.

Plants On The Move?

 

This is an observational post not rooted in science, but it is about roots that seem to be able to move around in my garden. I have lived here for 20 years and in all those years I have monitored my trilliums like an obsessive plant mom. There were just a few Sweet Betsy trillium (Trillium cuneatum) here when I moved in, and I noticed that deer would occasionally munch one so I started spraying them with Liquid Fence every spring.

Trillium luteum on the move

Of course I also added more as I acquired them, either from plant rescues or gifts from friends. One species in particular that I added was a group of yellow trillium (Trillium luteum), a sweet-smelling species that is not native to my area but which are found in moist soils especially over calcareous rocks. These plants were all set out into a 3x3 area. Over the years, I noticed that the population seemed to dwindle a bit (and like others, I wondered if perhaps they were just kaput).  

Over the last couple years, I believe I have found the missing trillium. They have been popping up in places near and far, only recognizable once they got big enough to bloom (their mottled foliage looks very similar to my native T. cuneatum). The furthest one was in my neighbor’s yard, about 50-75 feet away from the original planting (and on the other side of their driveway). I have now found about 7 of these Trillium luteum throughout my property, all confirmed as genuine by their flower and smell.

So how did they get there? I think that critters transported them: either underground critters like moles/voles (both of which I have) or via chipmunks/squirrels (plenty of those too). Trilliums can grow from damaged rhizomes so they may only have had to take a piece/offset of it in order to get a new one growing many feet away from the original spot.

So if you’re missing any bulb plants, perhaps you’ll find them one day somewhere else! In future, I might add a little PermaTILL to my planting holes to help deter the critters.