A Collection of November Posts

 

This blog is seasonal. Every week the topic has something to do with what’s happening: in the yard, in the season, even what’s happening with me. For those of you who haven’t been following since day 1 (Mapleleaf viburnum: October 14, 2010), you can still enjoy the posts by scrolling through the archives on the right side of the blog.

Even I find it entertaining to occasionally go back and see what I posted about in the same season, even in the same month. November can be such a good month for being outdoors, being thankful, and planning (and planting) for the next year. Here are a few of my favorite November posts over the last few years.

In November 2010 I posted about native evergreens because people love to use evergreen plants (often to screen out neighbors). Since plants don’t change much, even an old post like this can still be quite relevant and useful.

Evergreen American holly (Ilex opaca)

An obsession with native trees in parking lots started in 2011 with this post about oaks. Trees in parking lots have to be tough to handle the conditions imposed there. You can find more of my parking lot posts here.

Serviceberry is one of my favorite native trees to recommend so it is my pick for November 2012 (although it was hard to pick just one from that month – I had a lot of good ideas to work through in those early years).

If you’ve read my blog for a while then you know a rant sneaks in occasionally. For November 2013, I worked out my frustration with the term ‘backyard habitat’ by recommending that our front yards be considered habitat as well.

Planting for difficult spots doesn’t get enough attention when it comes to native plants (even though they were made for them!), so in 2014 I pulled together some shrub ideas just in time for our fall planting season.

Oakleaf hydrangea - a good shrub with great fall color

While so many people want evergreens, planning for and enjoying deciduous plants was the subject of this November 2015 post. In November 2016 I added to that with a Fall Color at Home post with specific recommendations. In November 2020, I felt compelled to combat the rise of the leaf blowers with a reminder of how to rake, including a cute photo of my grandson (who helped me rake just recently and we found a cute frog in the leaves).

Green tree frog discovered while raking

Fall is a great time to hike and appreciate the sights of fall. In November 2017, I recommended Big Trees Nature Preserve, in November 2021 it was Vogel State Park, and in November 2022 I reviewed the book Favorite Wildflower Walks in Georgia to give people ideas for spring (make a plan!).

Smartphone identification apps are commonly used now; in November 2018 I compiled some tips that are still relevant today when using apps. One thing I didn’t mention: taking a good, clear photo of the leaves is important to having the software provide good suggestions.

It wouldn’t be November if we weren’t reminded to be thankful, so in 2019 I finally did a post on being thankful for trees. They are our keystone plants, essential for life, and we should use native ones more often. I hope you find some useful posts tucked into this collection, whether they be new to you or a refresher.

A Refuge for Native Plants in Cemeteries

 

Being in a suburban-transitioning-from-rural area, I pass a few cemeteries as I drive around. Their quiet spaces provide a visual respite from the increasing residential developments and shopping centers. Although grass is the primary source of green at most of them, I learned some years ago that some of them are worth exploring for the other plants that grow in these old spaces.

Moss phlox

I was searching one year for mature examples of American holly (Ilex opaca) and a friend suggested that I check cemeteries for good specimens. He was right and I found a nice one not far from me in Roswell. Well-behaved plants in cemeteries have time to grow into beautiful mature plants. And every spring I visit an even closer cemetery to enjoy the old moss phlox (Phlox subulata or Phlox nivalis, there may be both there) that blooms in the grass among the graves. Yuccas are an early summer flower at another nearby cemetery.

Could cemeteries be a place where native plants could thrive and even enrich the beauty of the area? I’ve been wanting to express this idea for several years. While green cemeteries would support this, the far more numerous traditional cemeteries could play an important role in adding to biodiversity. This article in Scientific American provides examples of that already happening in the US and around the world.

In Illinois, cemeteries where early European colonists were buried are sustaining patches of endangered prairie vegetation, which has largely been wiped out by modern agricultural practices. As of December 2020, more than 40 cemeteries are listed in the state’s Natural Areas Inventory for their high-quality prairie and savanna flora.

This year I visited another cemetery in late summer to get a closer look at some beautiful summer phlox (Phlox paniculata) that lights up one plot each year. This cemetery is always noticeably more floriferous than others, not just in the one plot but throughout. I found a number of native flowers besides the phlox: Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia fulgida), Cutleaf Coneflower (Rudbeckia laciniata), Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea), beebalm (Monarda), Bluemist flower (Conoclinium coelestinum), native sages (Salvia), and more. Butterflies were visiting and bees were abundant. 

I read online that this cemetery has been refreshed since 2018 and most of the plants have been added by a woman who got involved after a nearby church took on management. She marvels at how well they’ve done but I think that is a testament to her selections. Our native perennials can be very durable once established and provide blooms for years. 

Mixed in were some of the hardy non-native perennials like Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ as well as annuals like zinnia. What a colorful and joyful space it is; well into the fall, a happy clump of perennial mums has just finished blooming.  

Another article I found talks about how several rare things (a beetle, a salamander, and a lichen) were found in a cemetery in Brooklyn, NY. Closer to home, this article by Trees Atlanta discusses the potential for supporting wildlife:

“Decatur Cemetery predates Atlanta’s founding by 10 years. The old-growth forest along the periphery—where our Forest Restoration program has been working to clear invasive species and reintroduce native plants—accommodates a thriving population of deer, foxes, coyotes, and more.”

That article includes a link to another article about birding in cemeteries (and birds are more abundant when there are native plants!) and some history about Mount Auburn Cemetery in Massachusetts, one of the first rural US cemeteries designed to be beautiful (they even have a What’s in Bloom feature on their website).  

Arlington Cemetery in Virginia is a well-known military cemetery whose sustainable policies include using native plants.

Let’s get growing in places like cemeteries. There is no reason they should be dull and boring, and using dependable resilient native plants to beautify them would help get more native plants back into our landscapes. A win-win!

Fall Color in the Mountains – Thanks, Native Plants

Scarlet oak (Quercus coccinea)

Fall color is a beautiful time of year in North Georgia and we are fortunate to have it last a number of weeks thanks to each group of plants taking their turn. 

First come the red maples (Acer rubrum), sassafras (Sassafras albidum), and sumacs (Rhus spp.). The maples are abundant and not always appreciated for the role they play in our fall color. I love to photograph lakes this time of year when the red maples that line the shore have their color reflected in the water’s edge. 

Sassafras’s bright orange and reddish hues are too few seen these days as they are not often planted and natural populations fall to development. Sumacs are bright flags of color along dry roadsides, also not appreciated at all for their landscape potential.

The following photo is from my friend Bruce Roberts; this photo was taken several weeks ago in North Carolina; the bright orange/red spots are most likely maples and sassafras.

Doe Knob from Riley Cove (NC); Photo by Bruce Roberts

The next wave of color in my area comes from hickory (Carya spp., except for pecan which has not much fall color), sourwood (Oxydendrum arboreum), and American beech (Fagus grandifolia), three more underappreciated trees for new landscapes. Why reach for zelkova and pistache – imported trees more often selected – when these beauties can light up your landscape in more beneficial ways?

The fall color show finishes up with an array of black gum (Nyssa sylvatica) and native oaks (Quercus spp.). The abundance of our native oaks is revealed as their tall, broad crowns paint the remaining leafy landscape with deep reds and lustrous browns throughout the natural landscape. The oak photo at the start of this post is from yesterday at Vogel State Park. The oaks are providing much of the color there now.

Vogel State Park Nov 11, 2023

As you travel through the backroads and up to the mountains of North Georgia to appreciate the fall color, know this: these are native plants putting on this magnificent show. They deserve to be in our designed landscapes. Here are some previous blogs to provide inspiration and suggestions.

Dependable Fall Color

The Fall Color Compilation (which has a lot of links)

Don’t have room for more trees? Try my fall shrub recommendations. 

November 2023 Moment in Nature

As we were working in the kitchen in the early evening this past week, a large bird flew past the window, swooping down towards the deck. It landed on the nearby devil's walking stick briefly and then flew up to a dead branch on a large pine overlooking the pool.

It turned out to be a barred owl and I quickly snapped a few photos through the window blinds. We've heard barred owls calling ("Who cooks for you?") in the woods every year that we've been here but have never seen one. This was certainly a very special #momentinnature for us.

After I downloaded the photos from the camera, I realized that it had caught a small bird. I don't currently have any bird seed out, but this is the area where I usually have a bird feeder. I hope that the owls help out with some of the chipmunks and the moles/voles that have been digging so many tunnels lately. It's good to have some local (and natural) pest control in our area.

Asters – Homegrown Fall Beauty

 

Asters at Battersea Power Station (London, UK)

In America, gardeners flock to stores to plunk down their money for imported plants. This time of year, it is Chrysanthemums that flood the stores, carefully pruned to be full of lush flowers. “They must be so much better!” The native pollinators are not as excited.

Unfortunately most of the mums sold are the cushion mums whose double flowers provide little pollinator support (there are old-fashioned mums with centers of flowers that contain pollen and nectar for the bees, but they are rarely sold). None of the mums are native.

These two were labeled as New York aster

in a private garden in Bath (UK)

Instead we could be cultivating and using our native asters, a group of flowers which seem to get more appreciation in a place where it is the imported plant: Europe! I recently spent some time in England and was surprised to see a number of native asters being used in designed plantings and personal gardens. The mild October climate is similar to ours and these plants were bursting with blooms.

Closer view of Battersea aster (I think it is calico aster - S. lateriflorum)

Sidewalk gardens filled with asters at Battersea

I cannot say enough good things about our native asters, including how important they are to our native insects. My small white asters are buzzing with bees right now. If I’ve piqued your interest, here are some of my previous aster posts:

Asters, Asters, Asters

Aster Love

Those Tiny White Asters

What Happened to the Asters?

Wildscape (The Book)

 

This written-from-the-heart book about the wonders of backyard nature was written during the pandemic and published this year. The author’s experiences speak so much to those of us living in our gardens, places that became mini oases during those uncertain times and that continue today to amaze and uplift us as we watch nature work her magic. This is Nancy Lawson’s second book; her first is The Humane Gardener.

The book is divided into five sections, each one corresponding to the 5 senses. Her detailed accounts of areas that affect our senses bring new depth to our understandings of those with whom we share our spaces. Her personal stories and associated research show how the 5 senses of wild creatures help them to live, love, and thrive all around us.

The chapter on the Scentscape offers a number of fascinating accounts of how insects rely on scent for their food, mates, and even a new place to live. The most fascinating was about monarch leaf scratching, a behavior noticed by the author on dried boneset leaves one evening in her garden. The behavior was determined to be a deliberate extraction of pyrrolizidine alkaloids that they use to fortify their own defenses. Read more here about how she collaborated on a paper and a community science project known as Monarch Rx.  

The Soundscape chapter takes the reader through how sound is essential to wildlife, how it also affects plants, and the impact of the reduction in noise pollution during the early months of the pandemic. Most of us are aware of how noisy our neighborhoods have become with an increase in leafblowers and yard crews (my neighbor, for example, has a lawn service twice as often as I mow my lawn). This noise pollution doesn’t just affect us; birds and critters are impacted too, and sometimes they make behavioral changes that impact where they visit and drop seed, indirectly affecting where plants might thrive.

The Tastescape section reminds us how just how much our beloved plants depend on the services of wildlife to taste, enjoy, and spread the seeds of plants so that they continue to thrive and spread, including the efforts of the much-maligned ants and flies.

Solanum carolinense - prickly but beloved

Spines of all kinds affect the Touchscape – from spines that protect caterpillars to those that protect plants. I especially loved learning more about Carolina horse nettle (Solanum carolinense), a prickly native that humans love to hate. “More than thirty insect species feed on horse nettle, including specialists who rely completely on the plant or closely related species.” The author also points out that prickly plants like this help shield nearby seedlings of other – more desirable? – plants during their early growth.

For those of us who didn’t know, the author’s sister was part of the catalyst for a new law in Maryland; it was inspired by her legal battle with an HOA that tried to force her to conform to traditional landscaping. The Sightscape section covers that in some detail. Much of the section does cover how humans see the value in landscaping and how we’ve become “anesthetized to the losses” that affect the insects and birds. We need to “look again, from the eyes of a wren” to discover what is missing. The section also includes sightscape from wildlife’s point of view: how insects use sight to find nectar, how plants might favor red to encourage hummers and discourage nectar-robbing bees (who don’t see red very well), and how critters hide in plain sight to protect themselves. Nuggets of knowledge like these – sure to come up in a future talk of mine – are woven throughout this and every section.

A gray tree frog turns greenish among plants to better hide

Wildscape is a collection of everyday treasures to help us learn how to savor the special lives that live among us. It is also a collection of environmental issues large and small that help us better understand how we can help our non-human neighbors. Our journey starts in our very yards, both back and front. Let this inspiring book be one of the steps on your journey.

Landscape Spotlight: Garden Worthy Goldenrod

Who’s in the mood for goldenrod? How about almost every bee and migrating Monarch butterfly that you know! I love seeing it all over the side of the road (indeed it is almost the only native thing left) but the one on the side of the road (usually it is tall goldenrod, Solidago altissima) is probably not the right one for your garden because it spreads by roots.

I have posted before about garden worthy goldenrods, but I want to spotlight one that I have seen used to beautiful effect a number of times (including at my own mailbox). I'm including several photos from over the years.

This was a traffic circle in Big Canoe, GA.

This goldenrod is called wrinkleleaf goldenrod (Solidago rugosa) and it does have textured foliage. It naturally has a splayed inflorescence when it blooms at the top of the plant. It is harder to find the species than the very popular cultivar known as Solidago rugosa ‘Fireworks’ which is shorter, more compact, and more floriferous than the species. All these photos are of 'Fireworks.'

According to this link, the cultivar ‘Fireworks’ was a selection of the natural species that “was introduced in 1993 from the North Carolina Botanical Garden, originally having been selected from a coastal plain population of the species. It was the top-rated cultivar in the 5-year goldenrod trials at the Chicago Botanic Garden (completed in 2001) that included 22 species and cultivars. Hardy to zone 4, it doesn’t get mildew or rust, and the slowly expanding clump grows 3-4 feet tall.”

You can read about that Chicago trial here.

A note about cultivars: I don't recommend them for use in restoration areas. For large garden areas, it is ecologically beneficial to incorporate some straight species plants along with the cultivars to provide good genetic diversity.