Three Little Known Native Composites by Beverly Fitts

Feature Article Three Little Known Native Composites By Beverly Fitts Eastern Fleabane mostly native herbaceous plants such Honey and bumble bees pollinate If you’re looking for a versatile as coneflowers, switchgrass, and the flowers. Butterflies, such as groundcover that thrives in dry asters. One problem with my faux the Orange Sulphur, Silvery Blue, shade, or in full sun for that matter, meadow was that the earth was bare and Pearl Crescent, find it a good I’ve got one. It’s the eastern fleabane, in winter. ‘Lynnhaven Carpet’ solved nectar source, and it’s also food for Erigeron pulchellus var. pulchellus the problem. Now this cold, earthy the larva of the Checkered White. ‘Lynnhaven Carpet’. I first saw expanse is nearly covered with Robin's plantain is usually disease, this groundcover the semi-evergreen pest, and deer free, and according on the edge of the foliage of ‘Lynnhaven to Claudia West at North Creek camassia woodland Carpet’. Nurseries, the cut flowers last two at Chanticleer The unusually weeks in a vase. and took to it large, up to 4" long, immediately. and thick, fuzzy, There’s something silvery green leaves irresistible about of ‘Lynnhaven Carpet’ create showy, a mass of pale ‘ Lynnhaven Carpet’ closeup lavender daisies. 6" high, weed- Eight years ago, Joe Henderson, suppressing mats, making it a a section gardener at Chanticleer, perfect groundcover. Around the gave me a piece to try. It did well second week in May, pale lavender, in my garden from day one, so the daisy-like flowers grow to about following year I bought three more 14" tall, then fade to almost white. from Seneca Hill Perennials in ‘Lynnhaven Carpet’ does well in full upstate New York. I use this little sun to part shade, average to dry soil, composite in perennial beds, as an and thrives in dry shade. It blooms in edger along the driveway, and as full shade, but the flowers sweep the a groundcover, but I prefer it as an ground, which I find unattractive. underplanting in my meadow. It’s ‘Lynnhaven Carpet’ spreads Erigeron pulchellus var. pulchellus ‘ Lynnhaven not a real meadow, just a mass of slowly by rhizomes and stolons, Carpet’ transplants, and divides easily. Divide it each fall and you can A few years ago, Charles have large patches within a few Cresson, a fellow Longwood years. Although it produces fluffy Gardens Instructor, told me this seedheads, I never see any seedlings. fleabane's history.He says this But, I'm a cautious gardener and particular form of Robin's plantain remove most of the seedheads was found in Clarice Keeling's anyway. I advise you to do the same garden near the Lynnhaven River in until we understand its seeding Virginia Beach. Clarice cultivated habits better. the indigenous plants on her deeply Robin’s plantain, another wooded lot and worked its 27 acres common name for this eastern single-handedly into her eighties. ‘ Lynnhaven Carpet’ at Chanticleer fleabane, has ecological benefits. ‘Lynnhaven Carpet’ is believed to Vol. 28, No. 3 Hardy Plant Society/Mid-Atlantic Group 3 be one of those indigenous species. Pittsburgh, I found S. cordifolium Like many gardeners, Clarice had a sprinkled down a dark, forested generous spirit and shared her plants hillside. Last year, I saw it in part with friends; some went to Dale sun on flatter ground along the Henderson, another woman gardener coastal plain of New Jersey. In fact, in Virginia Beach. Dale's mission the heartleaf aster grows throughout was to spread rare, garden-worthy the eastern United States and into plants among as many gardeners parts of the midwest: sometimes as possible. So, she packed entire white, sometimes blue, and boxes with deserving varieties sometimes short, sometimes tall. and sent them off to her green- Blue or white, the heartleaf aster thumbed friends. In 1997, two years is good for the environment. Bees, after Clarice died, Dale passed the butterflies, beetles, and flies pollinate erigeron on to Charles Cresson. it, and it attracts wildlife—like deer. Charles traced its provenance and Deer nibble the foliage once or twice gave it the cultivar name ‘Lynnhaven in spring, but tend to pass it by as the Carpet’, describing its dense, Symphyotrichum cordifolium foliage matures. I don't mind—their carpeting habit and place of origin. quasi meadow and discovered how nibbling saves me the trouble of Erigeron pulchellus var. beautiful it could be. There, masses pinching it back in June along with pulchellus ‘Lynnhaven Carpet’ is of misty blue flowers evoke images my other asters. still little known by gardeners. But of old fields and lush meadows—just Symphyotrichum cordifolium this year, the wholesaler North what I wanted. combines well with other Creek Nurseries in Landenberg, Heartleaf aster blooms from plants, both in the garden and in PA is marketing it widely, so look mid-September to late October arrangements. Imagine its blue for it at your local nursery—or with small, light blue flowers.The daisies mixed with pink turtlehead drive to Gateway Garden Center in blue ray flowers surround yellow or with lavender-pink obedient Hockessin, Delaware. disc flowers that turn a rich, red- plant. Try combining it with swamp purple during October. In shade, S. sunflower or goldenrods, like The Heartleaf Aster cordifolium is slim and spindly in Solidago caesia. If you're broad- Another native composite, habit. Give it more sun and you’d minded and enjoy a few exotic better known but little grown, is hardly recognize it. In species in your garden, Symphyotrichum cordifolium. Most part to full sun, this plant the heartleaf aster of us know it as the heartleaf aster charming composite with pink Japanese or the blue wood aster. I grew it in reaches 3–4' tall, anemones or late shade on my woodland's edge for puffs up proudly, blooming daylilies, years and thought it nice, but nothing and displays masses such as Hemerocallis special. Then one day, I tried it in my of tiny daisies on ‘Autumn Minaret’. well-branched stems. Three good Heartleaf aster enjoys cultivars of average to moist soil, Symphyotrichum and, like ‘Lynnhaven cordifolium are Carpet’, tolerates dry currently available: shade. The only thing ‘Avondale’ is 2' tall remarkable about with light blue flowers; the foliage is that it ‘Little Carlow’ is accounts for two of its 3–4' tall with slightly common names. The Parthenium integrifolium larger, bluer flowers; landscape heart-shaped lower ‘Chieftain’ is the tallest leaves explain the name I use, while at 5' with pale lavender-blue flowers. the small, narrow, upper leaves The last two received the Award explain another common name—bee of Garden Merit from the Royal tongue. Horticultural Society. You can buy Symphyotrichum cordifolium Two years ago, while hiking in them from Digging Dog Nursery in scene the Allegheny Mountains east of Albion, CA. 4 Hardy Plant Society/Mid-Atlantic Group May 2014 Wild Quinine an upright, narrow I turned to the Internet Parthenium integrifolium, sometimes habit, and has aromatic and located our Ameri- called wild quinine or American foliage. The leaves can feverfew at Agrecol, feverfew, is our third little known are large, gray-green, a native plant nursery composite. It's noticeably different and coarsely toothed, in Evansville, WI. from ‘Lynnhaven Carpet’ and becoming smaller and I admit I was appre- Symphyotrichum cordifolium. At a sessile as they climb hensive about ordering quick glance it doesn't look like a the stem. That's all very online from an unknown daisy at all, more like a tiny, white interesting if you're the nursery, but one day button. techy type, but that's not in mid-May, six robust why I admire this plant. plugs arrived, beauti- I like P. integrifo- fully packed. lium because it blooms P. integrifolium & Heliopsis If you want to for five months and 'Summer Sun' see this little known because its button-like composite before you flower heads make showier plants buy it, you'll find it near the ruin at shine. It's the perfect companion for Chanticleer, in the Idea Garden at nearby ox-eye daisies, coneflowers, Longwood Gardens, at the High Line and rudbeckias. It’s gorgeous with in New York City, and at the New agastaches and against the red blades York Botanical Garden. of Panicum virgatum ‘Shenandoah’. Wild quinine, the heartleaf Parthenium integrifolium closeup Because wild quinine is a good aster, and Erigeron puchellus var. Look closely and you'll see that supporting actor, I use it throughout puchellus ‘Lynnhaven Carpet’ are the flower heads of wild quinine my quasi meadow, where it has full all favorites of mine. They play have wooly, white disc flowers to part sun, average to dry soil, and important roles in my quasi meadow. surrounded by five, miniscule, white good drainage. In winter, the erigeron foliage covers ray flowers—only the ray flowers are Wild quinine is not only a good bare earth. In spring, its lavender fertile. From late May into August companion, but like many native flowers decorate the meadow. the flower heads are pristine white. plants, also has medicinal uses. The In summer, the white buttons of By September, they change to a Catawba Indians used its leaves for a wild quinine compliment my pink warm ivory and by October, a soft poultice to ease burns and for a tea to and yellow daises, and in fall, the pecan brown. cure dysentery. They rubbed its ashes heartleaf aster spreads a misty blue The root structure is different onto the skin of horses to ease their haze over the meadow. I've come too. Wild quinine springs from a sore backs.

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