Bayscape Blog 10/25/10
This is for the Birds!
By Judy DeFiglio

There are so many great reasons to grow native plants in your garden and one of the best ones is that many natives have wonderful berries that add interest to your landscape and attracts birds. This is the time of year that many of the plants display their red, blue and orange fruit. Along with the vibrant autumn leaves, they really add gorgeous color throughout the fall.

Welcome birds into your yard. Not only are they fun to watch, they also do a great job of eating unwelcomed insects that could harm your plants. Plant a variety of native trees, shrubs and flowers to provide a food source for the birds as well as place to nest and protection from predators.
The following are some good choices for native trees and shrubs with great fruit displays:
• Serviceberry (Amelanchier) is a tree that has white flowers in early spring and tons of red berries in the fall.
• The chokeberry (Aronia), highlighted in an earlier blog (9/20/10), also has white flowers in spring and long lasting red berries into the winter.
• The American holly (Ilex opaca) is a large evergreen tree with typical holly leaves and clusters of red berries that you can enjoy all winter long.
• One of the natives that is good for a wet site is winterberry holly (Ilex verticillata). It is a deciduous holly that has a brilliant display of large red berries after the leaves drop.
• The arrow wood (Viburnum dentatum) is a large shrub that has clusters of white flowers in late spring and dark blue fruit in autumn.
• For a different color try American beautyberry (Callicarpa Americana). This shrub is aptly named because it has spectacular lavender berries that really add beauty to your landscape.
Bird watching is an interesting hobby that the whole family can enjoy and if you plant natives that berry they will come.

Bayscape blog 10/19/10
Itea a Great Idea
By Judy DeFiglio

Pardon the play on words but Itea virginica (Virginia Sweetspire) really is a great idea for your landscape. This native shrub is a stand out in any garden at any time of the year. Itea is a multi-stemmed plant that has a suckering growth habit. Three to five foot tall and up to six foot wide, with gracefully draping stems, this plant can stand alone or be used in mass plantings. It is an easy plant to grow because it will take sun or shade, and wet or dry.

Tons of fragrant white flowers appear in June on six inch long racemes and persist into July. The dark green leaves turn a brilliant burgundy red in fall. It is a deciduous plant, but the leaves hang on until December. Even then this plant has more to offer as the red stems add to the winter interest of your garden and look great against the snow.

One of my favorites, I have planted this in several locations in my landscape. Each site has different conditions: some irrigated, some not, some shade, some sun, sometimes it’s left to spread freely and sometimes my husband (Edward Scissorhands!) has attacked it with the hedge trimmers. It has thrived in every case. I have never fertilized this plant and have always had lots of flowers. Who could ask for anything more?

Bayscape Blog 10/11/10
Blanketflower Best in Show
By Judy DeFiglio

Do you keep planting annuals each year because you want color all summer long in your garden? Are you afraid that perennials will be too much work? It’s time for you to discover the Blanket Flower (Gaillardia). These colorful native perennials start blooming in late spring and continue re-blooming until hard frost. The daisy-like flowers are red with yellow tips. They add a big boost of color to the spring garden, yet are bold enough to stand up the intense sun of summer without fading. Their color scheme also works well with your fall garden design.

Easy to care for, blanket flowers couldn’t be happier with our shore conditions. They prefer poor soil and require no fertilizer. In fact, fertilizer makes the plant get floppy and produce fewer flowers. They are drought tolerant requiring no additional water once established. Blanket flowers do reseed, giving you additional plants for next year, but they are not invasive. I love to get extra plants for free but if you have a small garden and don’t want more plants just cut the flowers before they go to seed.
As an additional bonus, gaillardias attract butterflies to your garden and the seed heads are a favorite of the goldfinch. Fun to watch and even more color for your garden!
While Gaillardia is available at most garden centers, you can grow your own from seed. Unlike most perennials they flower the first year. If the red and yellow combo does not fit your existing garden colors, you can find blanket flowers in plain yellow, or burgundy. Give the gaillardia a try and you’ll have a garden full of flowers all season long.

Bayscape Blog 10/4/10
Go Green- Go Native
By Judy DeFiglio
It is very popular now to be “Green”. You see this message everywhere you go. I think that gardeners are the original members of the Green Team. They have a special connection to the earth as they plant and nurture their garden each year. They respect Mother Nature and realize that we all need to care for this planet or suffer the consequences.

An easy way for all of us to go green is to include some native plants in our landscape. While we all love a gorgeous garden full of beautiful flowers some of the exotic (non native) ornamentals are causing problems for the environment. Many of them require constant watering, wasting this valuable resource. Some exotics have become invasive, destroying natural habitats. Others need so many chemicals, fertilizers and pesticides to keep them growing that they have become a danger to man, animals, insects and our water supply. There are hundreds of desirable native plants that are quite happy to grow in our local sandy soil without any additional water or fertilizer.

If you are new to the world of native plants you will be surprised at the wide variety of gorgeous flowers, trees and shrubs. If you thought that native plants were all weeds and wildflowers think again. While some natives do work best in a meadow type landscape, there are many that are an asset to your traditional garden bed. If you’ve tried natives and they looked weedy it is probably because you treated them like exotics, fertilizing and overwatering them. They don’t need it and don’t want it. If you are afraid to try natives because you heard they are invasive, a few simple tips will solve that concern. First learn the growth habit of the plant to determine if it will work in your garden space. Cut off the spent flowers before they go to seed. If some plants do reseed just tug them out in the spring when they first emerge.

While it may have been difficult to find native plants at your local retail outlet in the past, their growing popularity (pun intended!) and increasing demand has made the industry take notice. More native plants are becoming available locally. There are many mail order companies that specialize in native plants. Just be sure you are ordering plants native to your region.

For more information and ideas for using native plants check out littoralsociety.org and click on the Shore Stewards and the Maris Stella Native Plant Demonstration Garden.