Wildflower Wednesday~Native Bottle Tree

Not what you expected!

Perhaps, you were thinking of this beautiful Bottle Brush Tree~~C&L November 2009

Aesculus parviflora, dressed in the Nashville fall "it" color. I fell for it when visiting the Missouri Botanical Gardens a long time ago...We were walking away from the Climatron when we passed through a planting of very tall shrubs with palmate green leaves (5 to 7 leaflets) and foot long brush like spikes of white tubular flowers. The flowers had showy red anthers that attract hummers. Missouri Plants website*

It was gorgeous and smelled delicious.... Finally, it's growing here!

C&L's Aesculus parviflora is a baby plant! It's planted in the Garden of Benign Neglect on the edge of the dry stream~~In somewhat moist, but, well draining conditions. Bottle Brush Buckeye is not native to Tennessee~~It is found naturally growing in Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina DC, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. It's hardy to zone 4 and will grow in sun or shade. It is not a xeric plant. Here's what it looked like this morning~~All the pretty fall color has faded to a rich brown. You can see hints of the golden color that it once had. It's a slow growing plant that's known to sucker and create colonies! Although, it's described as not invasive. A big bold planting is just what is needed in the back garden...

Here's a photo of what we can hope to have some day!

Thanks to Mobot for the photos of the mature specimens

The Southern Bottle Tree on the other hand
Has no need for anything other than a level spot of lawn or garden.
The new 'garden tree' is sited for maximum viewing...(You might even be wondering where in the world the stock tank can be found? I promise to finish that tale in another post!) I've been hoping to find a bottle tree that had a tree form.

I think this one fits the bill.

The flowering gaura has absolutely nothing to do with this post!
It's just a pretty bloomer that's still going strong in the garden!
I am so very glad you stopped by!

gail

photos courtesy of MOBOT and J.S. Peterson @ USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database
http://www.missouriplants.com/Whiteopp/Aesculus_parviflora_page.html

Mish Mashing Away

Witch Hazel/Hamamelis virginiana

The garden is slowing down even more...
There are no longer great swathes of fall blooming asters; even the long blooming Goldenrods have fewer blooms to tempt the late season visitors.
Grasses are turning deeper browns, clearly on their way to decay. Seedheads of perennials are everywhere
and bulbs have arrived in big and small boxes.


Gardening does not come to a full winter stop in this Mid South Zone 7 garden, activities merely slow down. There is no rush for us to get bulbs into the ground before snow covers the garden....The ground may not even freeze for months. But, this gardener has her own time line. Let's get those bulbs planted by the end of November, please!

Gaura has been the best surprise in the Garden of Benign Neglect.
It flowers and flowers!

Our perennials act like perennials everywhere else and die to the ground. Most annuals disappear with the first big frosts. Pansies, violas and cabbages will add color to the garden all winter. Hamamelis virginiana has already begun to bloom (see photo above); next will be H intermedia 'Diane' and then the vernalis witch hazels will bloom during the late winter. A few cyclamen might pop up. It's in full bloom now. There will be cold days and the ground might freeze for a few weeks, but, the sun will warm it all up and you can move plants around safely. It's not unusual to see aster blooms in December and a few brave bees venturing out. The biggest deterrent to winter gardening will be the winter rains and the gardener's need to take a break! Let's get those bulbs planted by the end of November, please!

Purple has popped up in the garden again! A few of the sweet last flowers of the native PFKAA~~Plants Formerly Known As Asters dot the garden. Also, still in flower are fall blooming crocus where I found a sleeping bee one morning this weekend.

The biggest pop of purple are these Adirondack chairs~~

They have have been reborn. All it took was cleaning and sanding and an afternoon of staining to make this big change in the garden! My favorite shot~below~ It gives me a better sense of the promise of purple coloring! It's also a truer photo of the purple stain. The asters, golden leaves of the nearby Juneberry and the red leaves of native dogwoods will be showcased next fall against the purple chairs. For a nano-second, I was tempted to paint the chairs red. Red would have been fun, too, but, the purple is perfect! Instead, Tulipa gregii 'Red Riding Hood' has been planted at the feet of the chairs. Aren't the gregii's delightful tulips! This photo is from Paghat's Garden~~Have you been there? Paghat the Ratgirl has been an online resource since 1999! Her site is chock full of good garden info and nice photos. I thank her for use of the photo.

I know you love befores~~ You can see (well, maybe not clearly, it's a fuzzy, low light shot) that the bluish asters will get along well with the purple chairs. This winter they will be a spot of color in an other wise brown landscape.

Elsewhere in the garden the Sheffield Mums are attracting these diurnal moths!

Yellow-collared Scape Moth and a multi-colored Ailanthus Webworm Moth

There is still enough pollen and nectar in the fading bloom to attract
the small pollinators. Little cutie pie bees and wasps have been visiting the Sheffies since they started blooming.

Check out these members of the mint family!Agastache x 'Raspberry Summer'

Hummingbird agastache has been covered with little metallic green sweat bees all weekend.
If you enlarge the photo you'll see what I mean.

Salvia elegans and Fred.
...and Pineapple sage has finally come into her good looks and is attracting Sulphurs like nobody else. If you want to see some very lovely photos of Sulphurs and honeybees~~Please pop over to my friend Sweetbay's blog!


Thanks for joining me on my meandering Mish Mash Monday posting.
MMM is the brain-child of Monica, Garden Faerie's Musings.


Gail

“In my garden there is a large place for sentiment. My garden of flowers is also my garden of thoughts and dreams. The thoughts grow as freely as the flowers, and the dreams are as beautiful.” Abram Urban

Gentle Bee The Hand Of The Gardener

The gathering bee

rests upon the goldenrod

the hand becomes the flower

Goldenrod is still blooming at C&L. It is a goldmine of goodness in any garden~~A protein rich pollen and good sugar nectar source for visiting critters. They are still flocking to its golden goodness.... Bees of every sort, wasps, moths and even predators have staked a claim and a space on the last of the flower clusters. They've come to drink nectar, collect pollen, nibble leaves and stems, prey on other insects, or lay eggs.
Its rough and tumble golden beauty has begun to dim and most flowers have
turned to fluffy seeds that will soon be blown about the garden.
Until it completely fades away it will be
a cozy bed for sleeping bees to cling to and
the last stop for many on the journey to winter.

Gail

Warmest thoughts of you all~~Have a good weekend and thank you for stopping by.

Moments In A Garden

If you surrender completely to the moments as they pass

you live more richly those moments.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Gail

Crocus sativus

Autumn Scenes For The Fall Color Project

Do please remember to click to enlarge!

Shagbark Hickory in full golden glory at C&L

All photos taken at Edwin Warner Park and C&L garden

I CRIED over beautiful things knowing no beautiful thing lasts.

The field of cornflower yellow is a scarf at the neck of the copper sunburned woman, the mother of the year, the taker of seeds. The northwest wind comes and the yellow is torn full of holes, new beautiful things come from my garden

in the first spit of snow on the northwest wind, and the old things go, not one lasts.*

Fall finally arrived and cloaked our world in beautiful colors...Please join our host, Dave, The Home Garden and other participants in celebrating the Fall Color project.
Edit: Has anyone noticed their comments disappearing? I had a lot of trouble with blogger this weekend and a commenter has told me she knows her comment posted~~then wasn't there later.


Warmest thoughts of you all.
Gail

* Poem is Carl Sandberg's Autumn Movement
For a list of the trees at the Warner parks go here

It Was A Dark & Scary Walk!

Wait a minute!

That sounds familiar.

A gnarly dead tree and shadowed woodland paths.
Wasn't that last year's dark and spooky garden post?
(I liked that post)

Do you remember when
the wayback backyard REALLY was scary?
If you don't recall go here to see it!

Today, it's all dressed up in fall colors.
But, once upon a time, it was a muddy, dark, weedy space
fit for hide and seek with my nieces and nephews and a
hidey hole for the dear deer that found the gate open!
It was a dark and scary walk, but not anymore.

The Dancing Tree kicking up her heels in celebration.

But, just in case,

you are the kind of reader
who likes to sit on the edge of the seat,
thrills at being frightened, or
delights in the ghoulish....
Here are a few really scary things going on at C&L!

Vampire mosquitoes still biting when it's 50 degrees!
20+ inches of rain that's be-witched hamamelis 'Diane' to mildew!

New invasives taking root overnight!
Were they dropped off by alien space ships?

Close your eyes if you don't want to see anything too scary!

The area near my computer
has spilled over into bedlam!

If that's not scary enough
Take a look at my mosaic shed! There are surely cobwebs in the corners!

YIKES!

This scary looking Pterodactyl Seedpod has taken up residence in the garden!

But, it's not completely horror filled!

The sun did manage to peak out from behind the clouds
for a few minutes and fall has arrived in Middle Tennessee!
But you'll have to wait
to see those photos!

~Happy Halloween~



I sure hope your holiday has just the right amount of spookiness!

Gail

Wildflower Wednesday~Carolina Aster: Not Just Another Pinkish Face!

It Clambers, It Climbs! It's Fragrant!


Need I say more to convince you to rush to your favorite on line native nursery to get this pretty!

Ampelaster carolinianus

Not convinced yet? How about this~~ niche gardens describes it as "tough as nails". What's known so far~~ It appears happy at C&L and for that we love it! It's not a Tennessee native, but, is found happily growing in NC, SC, GA and Florida. I am sorry to say, that it's marginal in anything colder then zone 6. It's a fall blooming member of the asteraceae family with sweet scented pink lilac flowers that resemble Symphyotrichum patens flower and leaf form. What makes this aster unique is that it's the only woody perennial scandent aster in North America. (Horticulture wordsmiths already know that scandent means climbing! Here's another tidbit! This aster has a chromosomal uniqueness that places it in its own little genus and plant geneticists have had tons of fun confirming this over the last few years. They really know how to play!)

I must be honest~~I bet you're wondering what will follow! This is Carolina's first year at C&L! She has yet to be trialed in our wet winters. Which is the true test of most plants that move here. Can they survive wet clay soil for months on end? Regular visitors know that C&L plants have to be tough. This is one reason why there are so many cedar glade endemics in the garden (here for more on them). They are tough as nails; enduring wet winters and hot, dry summers. If these are your conditions, don't despair! Cedar glade endemics can take it! Austin gardeners, you ought to be able to grow them! Go here for ideas! But, I digress, the point is that Sweet Carolina is not a cedar glade endemic.


Carolina Aster has been described as a woody scrambling shrub, so it might be one of those plants that looks equally good climbing on a wall or romping through the border. We'll see how it grows after the winter tests it! It was happily growing in containers at Growild Nursery. My hope is that it will continue to grow well here and reach toward the 12 feet size it's purported to grow. It's planted on a trellis against a southwest facing wall. A sunny and protected spot; the former home of Carolina Jessamine, which started to grow under the roof shingles and was moved to the wayback backyard's ugly cyclone fence, but that's another story!


Bottom Line Info:

*A pretty little southeast coastal native, that might or might not survive the harsh growing conditions this garden likes to throw at plants! But, worth the trouble, if it climbs and scampers. We like climbing and scampering.

*It will grow as far south as Zone 9 and with protection as far north as Zone 6.

*While some garden centers claim it's tough as nails...It is by NO stretch of the imagination a xeric plant!

*Like all asteraceae, it attracts many pollinators looking for nectar and pollen. It's a caterpillar food plant for the American Painted Lady butterfly.

*It has a sweet honey like fragrance.

*Fall blooming until frost for all the bees and late visiting butterflies.

That's all I know folks! But, doesn't she sound like she might be worth some trouble coddling!

Gail

May I leave you with this~Pollinator shot of the day

Bumble on native aster