Catchfly Commons

Native Groundcovers: Made in the Shade Part II

This week we’re covering additional shade-loving, low-growing plants which provide the functions of groundcovers as described in Part I. Here are five more short native groundcovers that do well in shade and that grow here at Catchfly Commons: Pachysandra procumbensAllegheny Spurge Native pachysandra is an important early spring source of pollen for native bees. To…

Native Grasses

Grasses are important plants to include in native landscape plantings. They can provide structure in a design and can provide beauty with their foliage and blooms. Functionally, grasses can support other plants, fill gaps between plants thus suppressing “weeds,” host Lepidoptera, and provide wildlife shelter. (1) Native grasses are either “warm-season” or “cool season.” Most…

Asters and Goldenrods in a Home Garden? You Bet!

Asters and goldenrods are major actors at this time of the year in the native plant garden because of their high value as late season nectar sources for pollinators and migrating butterflies. Goldenrods are represented in three genera, listed here with the number of Ohio native species in each: Solidago (25), Euthamia (2), and Oligoneuron…

Caterpillars and Moths at Night

One night this week I set up the sheet and lights for mothing. I also went looking for caterpillars at night with the aid of a blacklight flashlight. Erin, our adult daughter, came over and joined me. She confessed that she only planned on staying 30 minutes but she got caught up in the treasure…

Native Groundcovers: Made in the Shade Part I

The 2023 Open Garden at Catchfly Commons highlighted 26 native plant species that perform the functions of groundcovers in this landscape. They shade out and (hopefully) outcompete weeds, help moderate soil temperatures, and keep the soil surface from drying out. Their root systems can help stabilize soil, and a matrix of groundcovers can form an…

Being Out Front with Natives

The idea for this contribution emerged after seeing a post on the Sustainable Delaware Ohio Facebook page in mid-July 2023. It recounted a very painful encounter between a home-owner who created a pollinator garden and the city’s enforcement of ordinances. We have not faced this situation ourselves because our native landscape is mostly in the…

Deception in the Garden

If necessity is the mother of invention, then the need to survive takes creativity to new heights. That creativity can result in amazing ways to hide from predators or help predators sneak up on prey. Either way, deception is the name of the game in the garden. Well, actually mimicry may be the name of…

What’s in a Name – The Coneflowers

What comes to mind when you picture coneflowers? Purple Coneflower? Orange Coneflower? Upright Prairie Coneflower? These three examples, all from the Aster family, Asteraceae, represent the three genera of plants native to Ohio with “coneflower” in their common names. “Cone,” of course, is a reference to the center disk of the flower head. ECHINACEAS According…

Dangling Coneflowers

It’s the time of year when we regularly go out and hunt for dangling flower heads, particularly on Purple Coneflowers, Rosinweed, Cup Plant, and Compass Plant. Unfortunately we are starting to see this kind of damage on other flowers like Black-Eyed Susan, Orange Coneflower, Green-headed Coneflower, and False Sunflower. The damage is from the Sunflower…

IS THIS PLANT NATIVE?

Ask The Biota of North America Program, http://www.bonap.org We’ll leave the subject of how we define native for another post. (At Catchfly Commons, we don’t necessarily base “native” on state boundaries.) BONAP is a go-to site for determining the distribution of plants1. If you’ve clicked on RANGE MAP on a prairiemoon.com plant page for example,…