Author: Henry Homeyer

Henry is now teaching Zoom classes to gardening clubs and libraries. Contact him at henry.homeyer@comcast.net. He is the author of four gardening books.

Plants that have stood the test of time

The Fourth of July celebrations are over — the fireworks, parades, hot dogs and strawberry shortcake. Leading up to the Fourth I paused to think about the gardens of Thomas Jefferson, one of the authors and signers of the Declaration of Independence. He lived and gardened at Monticello, his estate in Virginia. According to the Monticello website, Jefferson planted (or ordered and supervised the planting of) 160 different kinds of trees and shrubs as well as perennials, annuals and vegetables — and kept notes of everything. Monticello still grows almost everything he did.

Jefferson grew one of my favorite trees, the Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis). It is a wonderful early-summer blooming medium-sized tree and I’ve had one for at least 10 years. It is suitable for a part shade location or full sun. In the wild (New Jersey and south) it is found mainly as an understory tree. It blooms in early summer with small pink blossoms that seemingly pop right out of the bark. Cold hardy varieties are common now and it is rated to Zone 4.

Jefferson loved peaches. He grew more than 30 kinds of peaches but we can grow just a handful that are sold here in New England. A few will survive a Zone 4 winter, but Zone 5 is better for peaches, with winters that never drop below minus 20.

All peaches do best in full sun, meaning six hours of sun or more per day in summer. They are self-fruitful — they self-pollinate and you need only one tree to get fruit. Apple, plums and most pears do need a second variety that blooms at the same time for pollination. Most fruit trees are said to “Not like wet feet.” So don’t plant them in an area where the soil is usually wet.

The ‘Reliance’ peach, developed at UNH, has been around for decades and is one of the better cold hardy peaches. It is productive and tasty. Other good peaches are Red Haven and Madison. Contender is well thought of, but I have not found the fruit very tasty, and a lot of my fruit has rotted on the tree. Other growers love it. Try to taste peach varieties before planting one.

Jefferson was intrigued by sugar maples as an alternate source for sugar, but they did not do well down there. Virginia is a bit too hot. In my experience, if you have an old maple that is declining in health, try giving it some garden lime. Spread it not just under the drip line, but go out much farther because the roots do.

I gave lime to an old maple because I read about an experiment in 1999 at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Station in northern New Hampshire. Scientists found that acid rains had depleted calcium in soils there. They distributed calcium (using crop dusters) and found it increased health in stands of sugar maples and red spruce. I’ve given my old sugar maple several applications of lime over the last 25 years and it is doing fine. And don’t park cars under your maples as root compaction is not well tolerated.

One of Jefferson’s favorite trees was Southern Catalpa (C. bignonioides). That is hardy to Zone 6, but I grow northern Catalpa (C. speciosa) and love it. I planted mine eight years ago as an 8-foot-tall tree that came in a 7- or 10-gallon pot. Now it is 30-some feet tall with a trunk diameter of 12 inches a foot off the ground. My catalpa blooms vigorously in late June or early July each year, producing cream colored flowers that are 2 inches long and flecked with purple inside, growing in panicles. The seed pods look like foot-long beans.

Catalpas can get 60 feet or more tall, and are a bit weak-wooded, so they are prone to wind damage or blow-overs. My solution? I use an extension ladder to get up to a spot 30 feet off the ground each fall and cut off all growth that occurred that year. I top it. That keeps it from getting too tall — it can and does grow up to 5 feet in a year. Of course, at some point I won’t be allowed up a ladder. So far, so good. I’ve done it for the last three years.

Jefferson loved lilacs, as we all do. If your lilac has not produced many blossoms in recent years, it may also need a treatment of garden lime. Lilacs do best with soil that has a neutral pH, around 7.0, and lime will help get the pH closer to neutral. By now they have already set their buds for next year, but add lime or wood ashes now while you are thinking of it.

A shrub liked by Jefferson is called the Carolina Sweet Shrub (Calycanthus spp.). I grow it, but found it a bit fussy. I moved mine twice to find, like Cinderella, the fit that was “just right.” I first tried it in full sun and the leaves scorched — despite plenty of moisture. After the second year I moved it into shade, but it didn’t get enough sun and did not bloom much. Finally, five years later, I moved it under a big pear tree, where it gets filtered sun all day and it blooms and grows vigorously. The blossoms are a deep wine red, up to 2 inches across and shaped like little peonies. Some specimens are very fragrant, though mine is not. It blooms in early summer,

Like Jefferson, I like keeping a list of what woody plants I grow. Since I bought my house in 1970, I have planted at least 118 different kinds of woody plants, and about 95 percent of them have survived. And I’m still going to plant a few more. I make it through winter and mud season each year, in part, because I want to see what plants survived, too.

Henry may be reached by e-mail at henry.homeyer@comcast.net or by regular mail at PO Box 364, Cornish Flat,NH 03746.

It’s time to pay attention to the vegetable garden

Go look at your tomato plants

By now, most of us have planted our vegetable gardens. My peas, onions, lettuce, spinach and potatoes went in early, and now our tomatoes and peppers have settled in and are starting to grow. Is it hammock time? No, now it’s better to do some maintenance so that we can go to the beach later on with a good conscience.

Many gardeners are looking for a magic potion to put on their tomato plants to prevent that nasty fungal disease that blackens the leaves and shortens the lifespan and production of their tomato plants. Alas, there is none. But there are a few things you can do to minimize it.

Right now go look at your tomato plants: Do they have any leaves that touch the soil? If so, take a sharp knife or scissors and cut them off. The spores of the disease are in the soil, unless you are starting somewhere that was most recently lawn or field. That first year you will probably have plants free of blackened leaves.

Mulch under your tomato plants now, before disease sets in. The spores get on leaves by splash-up when you water or get a heavy rain. Got a bagger on your lawn mower? Save the grass and spread it over the soil. Or you can buy straw (which is seed-free) or mulch hay (which is not, but is less expensive). Spreading four layers of newspaper on the ground before putting down mulch helps keep soil moist and keep weeds from germinating. I don’t recommend using chipped branches or bark mulch in the vegetable garden.

One last bit of advice on tomatoes: I have found that buying the biggest cages possible is best, 54 inches tall, with four legs, not three. They’re not cheap, but you should get 25 years or more out of each if you store them in the barn for the winter.

I have plenty of lettuce to eat right now, having planted it early. But I will start seeds now. Although I could sow seeds directly in the ground, I prefer to plant seeds in cells and keep them on a sunny deck where I will see them, water them and monitor them. When they have two true leaves, sturdy ones, I will plant them in the ground. That allows me to space them well. Small seeds are easy to over-plant directly in the ground, and then I’d have to find the time to thin them later.

That brings me to thinning, sigh. The most tedious job in the garden. If you planted carrots, beets and radishes early on, they are about ready to thin. Start now and thin to one inch apart. Then, a bit later, thin again, but to 3 inches apart. Crowded carrots compete with their cousins for water and minerals just as they would with weeds. Eat those thinnings. Young carrots are a real treat.

I don’t mind weeding. Some of you do, and I agree it can be tedious. Young people wear earbuds and listen to music, but I like to listen to the birds and the burble of my brook going by. Did you know that by adding stones to a brook you can tune it? In 2003 I interviewed Robert Irwin, an installation artist who designed the gardens at J. Paul Getty Center in Los Angeles, and he told me he personally “tuned” a recirculating brook he had installed at the gardens. Water falling over stones makes a pleasant sound that depends on the drop and quantity of water falling.

But back to weeding. The best time to weed is after a rain or a good watering. I use a CobraHead weeder, a single-tined tool that easily slides through the soil, loosening it so that weeds pull easily and weed roots are less likely to snap off. Right now is the time to weed because the bigger they get the more difficult they are to pull.

I used to do all my weeding standing up, bent from the waist. Now? Mostly I kneel. I use a “Garden Kneeler” I got from Gardener’s Supply Co. It has a padded kneeling platform a few inches off the ground and handrails on the sides that are a great help in getting up from the kneeling position. Turned over, it provides a seat, and it can be folded up for storage. Using mine, I just weeded a double row of onions 16 feet long, and felt no aches and pains from doing so.

To avoid re-weeding the same bed, over and over, there are two things you should do: (1) never let your weeds flower and produce seeds; (2) mulch after weeding. Same as above, newspaper covered with straw. In the old days, newspapers used toxic chemicals in the ink. Now? As far as I know, all the inks are made with soy products. By the end of the summer my earthworms will have mostly eaten the papers.

If you grow potatoes, it is important to watch for potato beetles. Go down the row, pawing through the leaves so you can watch for the orange egg masses under the leaves and scrape them off. Later, if you look for larvae or beetles every day or two and pick them off, you can control the problem in a home garden. Just drop the culprits in a jar of soapy water. There is also a biological control called Bt, which is a naturally occurring bacterium that you can spray; it sickens the larvae as they eat the leaves but will not harm anything else.

I’ve been picking and eating homegrown vegetables all my life, and I am convinced that it helps me stay young(ish) and healthy. And it gives me great joy.

Henry can be reached by email at henry.homeyer@comcast.net or by USPS at PO Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 03746.

Tips for growing wonderful flowers

I’ve heard it said that June is the most common month for weddings. I’m not sure why, but my theory is that June, despite black flies and noxious ticks, is a great month to be outside for wedding receptions. Roses are in bloom, as are peonies, iris and so much more.

Roses have evolved considerably since I was a boy in the 1950s. Breeders have created modern hybrids that are disease-free and bloom almost non-stop all summer. In the old days rosarians sprayed roses regularly with various poisons to minimize damage from fungal diseases and insect pests.

Many old-fashioned roses bloom mostly in June and are deliciously fragrant. New hybrids will bloom more or less continuously all summer if in full sun, but most are not fragrant. And they are rarely attacked by insects as they have no scent that would attract them. Since I’m technically a geezer, I should grow the old-fashioned roses — but I like these new hybrids.

There are several lines of trademarked roses. I love the ‘Knock-Out’ roses. They are winter hardy (in Zone 4) and offer blooms until October for me. Everything the Proven Winner people grow — annuals, perennials, roses — does very well. Their ‘Oso Easy’ line of roses is well-regarded, but I haven’t personally grown any.

My wife loves heirloom roses and has had great luck buying some from Old Sheep Meadows Nursery in Alfred, Maine. And if they will grow in Alfred, Maine, they will grow where you are. According to his website, the owner, Raymond Graber, has been growing roses in Maine for over 60 years. He has a wealth of knowledge and he is happy to share it.

Three bits of knowledge I can share about roses: 1. They love — and need — plenty of water. Water daily in hot or dry times. 2. They like dark, rich soil and some added garden lime and slow-release organic fertilizer at planting time. 3. Although six hours of sunshine or more is recommended, most will do fine with four. You don’t have any roses? Go buy a few. We only live once.

Most plants have a finite lifespan. Many perennials will die out in 10 years. Some trees last a hundred or more. But I often say, “Properly planted, peonies will live forever.” My maternal grandmother, Anna Lenat, died in 1953 when I was just 7 years old. My mother dug up one of her peonies and brought it to our home in Connecticut. I dug it up again in 1984 and divided it, leaving half with my mom, and planting half at my home in Cornish, New Hampshire. The roots or tubers, presumably more than 100 years old by now, still produce plenty of blossoms.

I always recommend buying peonies in June when they’re in bloom — seeing is believing. Some are fragrant — even heavenly fragrant — while others are not. Some have stiff, strong stems, while others flop even on sunny days from the weight of their magnificent blossoms. “Single” peonies have just one row of petals so are less prone to flopping. But most common are the doubles: gorgeous, but with so many petals they flop when it rains.

Peony rings are wire cages sold to hold up flower stems even on rainy days. Most are too low to really do the job right. Plus, you have to remember early in May to install them. By now mature plants are too big to fit the cages over them. My solution is to poke three bamboo stakes firmly into the soil around each plant and then connect them at the appropriate height with green garden twine. If you were a Scout, you may remember learning to tie a clove hitch. That’s the knot you want.

If you bought a nice peony a few years ago and it no longer blooms, you may have planted it too deeply or covered the “nibs” (growing points) with too much mulch. Feel around the plant to see where next year’s growth will emerge from little pointy nibs. More than an inch of cover will often inhibit blooming. Yes, you will have a healthy plant — but no blossoms.

My great Great-Granny told me that peonies need ants crawling around on the buds for them to open. Not true. Peonies attract aphids, and ants come to harvest the sweet “nectar” that is their poop.

Other great June flowers in my garden include gas plant (Dictamnus albus), which has an intense citrus odor that is strongest at dusk to attract night-flying moths.

Delphiniums are wonderful plants with stalks often over 5 feet tall and loaded with blue, purple or white blossoms. But you do need to stake them to keep them upright in the rain. Scratch in some slow-release organic fertilizer each spring as they are heavy feeders. And if you cut them back to the ground after blooming, they probably will re-bloom in the fall.

Perennial bachelor buttons (Centaurea montana) are easy to grow and make good cut flowers. Blue to purple, they love sun and will make you feel like you have made it as a gardener.

All the flowering plants are wonderful. Think back to what your parents and grandparents grew. That’s a good place to start shopping. Or better yet, see if you can dig some plants from their gardens if they will let you.

Henry can be reached at PO Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 03746 or henry.homeyer@comcast.net. He is the author of four gardening books.

Featured photo: Bachelor buttons have unusual, spidery flowers. Photo by Henry Homeyer.

Late May in the garden

Test your soil, make it better

Asking me to name my favorite flower is, perhaps, like asking you to name your favorite child or dog. But late May brings one of my top picks: the candelabra primrose (Primula japonica). It sends up a flower stalk with a circle of florets, then it grows a few inches and sends out more blossoms, getting taller and blooming sequentially for nearly a month. They grow best in deep, rich, moist soil in partial shade and ideally under old apple trees.

Late May will also produce early peonies I love, including two part-shade peonies, Paeonia obovata and P. tenuifolia. The latter is also known as the fernleaf peony for its finely cut foliage; the blossoms are a deep red. Neither is common in garden centers, but keep an eye out for them.

Spring is a good time to improve your soil. Most commercial farmers grow food by adding chemical fertilizer to the soil before planting. I am an organic gardener, meaning I do not use pesticides nor do I use any chemical fertilizer.

Chemical fertilizers are safe to use but only provide three of the 17 elements needed by plants to grow and thrive. Granted, most of those elements are needed in very small quantities and may already be in the soil, but I want to provide my plants with the equivalent of a full five-course meal.

Chemical fertilizers only contain nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), and lots of filler. A 5-10-5 fertilizer is 5 percent N, 10 percent P, and 5 percent K; the rest — 80 percent — is filler. Nitrogen in the form of nitrate and ammonia ions is used by plants to make proteins, fueling green growth. Phosphorus promotes growth of roots, blooming, seeds and fruits. Potassium is important for growing thick cell walls to survive cold and excess heat.

Plants also need other elements in order to thrive: calcium (for cell metabolism), magnesium (for chlorophyll needed for photosynthesis), sulfur (for making proteins and fats). Also needed are micronutrients like iron, chlorine, manganese, zinc, copper, boron, molybdenum and nickel.

All those elements are found in organic fertilizers like Pro-Gro, Gro-Tone and others. And while most chemical fertilizers provide water-soluble elements for quick absorption, organic fertilizers are mostly slow-release, providing key elements over a period of months, or even years. Most contain things like cotton seed meal, kelp meal, ground peanut shells and ground oyster shells.

So what can you do to improve your soil? Add compost. Don’t buy just a bag or two of compost and think it will improve your whole vegetable garden with some left over for new perennials. Borrow a pick-up truck and get a “scoop” from a front-end loader at your garden center. Or get it delivered. Alternatively, you can buy aged manure from your local dairy farmer. Even aged manure will have some weed seeds, but it will add good organic material that will be used by your plants.

Why is compost so good? Well-made compost is full of microorganisms that will work with your plants. Many produce organic acids that help to dissolve minerals from fine stone particles in the soil and make those minerals available to your plants. Compost is, or should be, biologically active: full of living bacteria and fungi. And it will improve soil texture making root growth easier for your plants.

Our soils were created back during the last Ice Age when glaciers a mile thick ground up bedrock, making sand and even the finer bits of stone that are in clay and loam. Fully 50 percent of all soil is made of ground up rocks. The rest? Anywhere from 1 percent to 8 percent is organic matter, and the rest, nearly 50% of soil by volume, is air. Oxygen is absorbed by root hairs from the air in the soil.

Two other key ingredients do not come from the soil. Plants get carbon, a major part of all plants, from carbon dioxide that is in our air. Nitrogen is in our air, but most nitrogen used by plants comes from decayed plant or animal material — or is made in a chemical factory and sold as a fertilizer.

I highly recommend getting your soil tested every three to five years. Each state university offers a service for gardeners and farmers. It will tell you soil pH (a measure of acidity), soil type, levels of some soil minerals and the percentage of organic matter. It will offer suggestions on what to add to your soil, though different plants have different needs. You should strive to have 4 percent or more organic matter in your soil.

You can perform a simple test to see how well your soil holds water or drains. Dig a hole 24 inches wide and 8 inches deep with sloping sides. Fill it with your hose and time how long it takes to drain. Sandy soil will drain almost immediately. Clay soil will hold water for several hours, even overnight. Good loam might take an hour or two, depending on how much rain you’ve had recently.

Adding compost to heavy clay or sandy soils will help them considerably. Soil texture and the ability to hold some water but drain well is important to most plants. Compost does both.

Improving your soil takes years, even decades. Yes, I do use some slow-release organic fertilizer at planting time, but my real success has come from years of adding compost.

You may reach Henry at henryhomeyer@comcast.net.

Featured photo: Candelabra primroses delight me each year, starting in late May. Photo by Henry Homeyer.

Late spring chores

Clean your tools and seize the weeds

Spring arrives in New England in fits and starts: hot and sunny one day, chilly and drizzly the next. Maybe even a few flurries to outrage the impatient gardener. But there is much that can be done now, even on a rainy day.

I much prefer tools with wooden handles: If treated properly they will last your entire lifetime. Every year or two I clean up and oil the handles of my garden tools, which keeps the wood supple. I‘ve got tools with wood handles I’ve used regularly for over 40 years, and some from my grandfather that are more than 75 years old.

First I clean up the handles by rubbing with fine steel wool or, if very rough, with 100 grit sandpaper. Then I wipe them down with a scrap of a towel. Finally I use a brush to paint them with boiled linseed oil. I then let them dry in the sun or in the barn it’s a rainy day, and wipe them down the next day.

Shovels should be sharpened from time to time. Get a wide, medium-rough flat file and push it firmly across the shovel’s edge on the backside of the blade. Take long, slow strikes but do not saw back and forth with your file. Look carefully at the angle it came with, and try to mimic that angle with your file. A sharp shovel is much more efficient than a dull one. But it’s not a good idea to sharpen the blade until it’s knife-sharp. It will dull quickly if you do. Sharpening a dull shovel is not quick work,

Impatient to get things growing in the vegetable garden? Peas, spinach, arugula and lettuce are very cold-hardy and can be planted early by seed, even if frost will still occur. Soil temperatures of 40 degrees are adequate for germination of them, but I think 50 degrees is better. For most seeds, I prefer to wait until the soil hits 50 degrees or more. I worry seeds will rot if the soil is too cold and wet. That goes for potatoes and onions, too. Cukes, squash, pepper and tomato seedlings I don’t plant until June.

Soil thermometers look like little probes with a dial on top, something like the one you poke in a turkey to see when it’s done. Garden centers sell them. If you get one, poke it down 4 inches to get your reading.

If your soil was covered with leaves or straw for the winter, rake that off your planting beds now so that the sun will hit your soil directly and warm it up. Mulch keeps the soil cool. If there are weeds coming up, pull them as soon as you can — no sense letting them get a head start on your plants.

This is also a good time to look for invasive plants on your property. For me, the cast of characters includes bush honeysuckle, barberry, buckthorn and multiflora rose. If you have a Norway maple, you probably have lots of new seedlings from it that are easy to pull.

You can get a list of invasives from your state online, but I found the Vermont Invasive Plants list is best. It includes just the 12 most common, along with pictures, so it’s easier to use.

Many invasives leaf out early and drop their leaves late in the fall. That gives them an advantage over many natives. Honeysuckle puts out greenery in mid-April for me. Burning bush holds its red leaves late in the fall, so it’s easier to find small ones then.

Although not easy, digging out invasives is generally the best way to control them. Cutting them down usually does not kill them. Buckthorn is the worst: Cut one to the ground, and a dozen will grow from the roots. If you can double-girdle all the stems down low, it will die after two winters. Basically, you’re starving the roots from the nutrition produced by the leaves.

Potting mix is readily available at all garden centers, big box stores, and even some mini-marts. But if you are going to fill up lots of flower pots, you can save money by making your own.

If you never emptied your pots and window boxes last fall, you can reuse it this year. First pull the dead plants and dump the used potting soil into a pile. Then make up some new potting soil and mix it 50-50 with your old potting soil.

To make potting soil, mix add equal parts coir or peat moss, compost and perlite (which looks like crumbled Styrofoam but is actually super-heated volcanic minerals) to it in roughly equal quantities in a wheelbarrow until mostly full. Stir well. Add half a cup of a slow-release organic fertilizer like Pro-Gro or Plant-Tone and mix well. It is best to water the peat moss or coir before using as it can be very dry.

When I make potting soil, I don’t measure things exactly. I probably use more compost than perlite or coir. If you have a good source of mature compost, you can save money and add good microorganisms to the soil. The finished product should be fluffy and not quick to clump up when you grab a handful of it. But if you are only going to use a few pots, just buy a bag of potting soil.

So don’t get discouraged by a few cold days now. Summer is on the way, so get ready.

You may reach Henry at henryhomeyer@comcast.net.

Featured photo: Honeysuckles have opposite branching. They leaf out early. Photo by Henry Homeyer.

Meet the Locals

Native plants support wildlife and offer beauty in your garden

In recent years there has been a real upsurge in the use of native plants in the landscape as a way to support pollinators, birds and other wildlife. This is due, in part, to the fact that native plants are recognized and used by our wildlife, while most foreign species of plants are not. For example, birds generally nest in native trees and shrubs, but avoid those originally from Europe or Asia, and caterpillars rarely are seen on any imported species of plants. Not only that, most natives are hardy and lovely.

Scientists have found that birds depend on the caterpillars of butterflies and moths as the primary food source for baby birds. No caterpillars? No birds nesting. Entomologist Dr. Doug Tallamy found that a clutch of chickadees needs 6,000 to 9,000 caterpillars to survive from hatching to fledging. So let’s take a look at some common native perennials, trees and shrubs that are handsome and easy to grow.

According to Dr. Tallamy, the best perennial for pollinators is goldenrod. There are many species of goldenrod. Some of the wild types are not suitable for garden beds as they spread by root and easily elbow out plants we also want. But there are some nice ones readily found for sale at nurseries and that do not spread like crazy.

My favorite goldenrod is a variety called ‘Fireworks.’ It grows to be 2 to 4 feet tall and stays in a nice clump that does increase in size but is not aggressive. It does best in full sun with damp soil, but will take some shade and dry soil.

The Mt. Cuba Center is a research center in Hockessin, Delaware, that trials and rates native plants. They rate ‘Fireworks’ goldenrod as the very best, a 4.6 out of 5.0. Another one I like is a dainty little goldenrod called blue-stemmed goldenrod (Solidago caesia) that grows well in dry shade, blooming late in the fall. For me it stays about 18 inches tall.

You probably know that monarch butterflies need milkweed for their caterpillars. The milky alkaloids in milkweed are ingested, making the caterpillars distasteful to predators. But common milkweed, the wild one, spreads aggressively by root and seed, making it a problem for most gardeners. The answer? Buy swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata). This comes with pink blossoms (or sometimes white ones) and stays in a nice 3- to 5-foot-tall clump. Other pollinators enjoy the nectar and pollen of this fine plant, too. It does best in moist soil, but will grow in ordinary garden soil. It blooms in early to mid-summer.

One day last September we were visited in our garden by hundreds of migrating monarch butterflies. Just like marathon runners, monarchs need lots of calories before their long trip. These were feeding on nectar from a late-blooming native plant, Joe Pye weed (Eutrochium spp.). I’d not seen so many monarchs all at once in 30 years or more.

There are several species and cultivars of Joe Pye weed. All do best in full sun or partial shade, and consistently moist soil — though I’ve read that they will tolerate ordinary garden soils once well-established. Most Joe Pye weeds are tall — 5 to 8 feet tall — and develop into large clumps. Blossoms are purplish to pink, lasting for several weeks in the fall. Their seeds are eaten by birds in winter if you leave the stalks uncut in the fall.

My favorite Joe Pye is a variety called ‘Gateway.’ It has purple stems and the blossoms look good in a vase longer than the wild ones I also grow. There are two varieties that are claimed to stay short, one called ‘Baby Joe’ and another ‘Little Joe.’ Both are said to grow to just 3 feet, but I haven’t grown either one.

Goldenstar or Green and Gold (Chrysogonum virginianum) is a nice, low native that does well as a groundcover. It blooms with 1-inch bright yellow flowers in early June for me, but also re-blooms off and on throughout the summer. It does fine in shade or part shade with rich, moist soil. If the soil stays moist, it will grow in full sun, though it will go dormant in the heat of summer. Each plant can cover a circle about a foot in diameter. Look for it in better nurseries: It is not a plant you’ll find in a big box store. It is native to Pennsylvania but is hardy in all but the coldest pockets of New England.

All wildflowers are native, and many are called ephemerals because they disappear after an early spring flush of flowers. All are important for native pollinators and beneficial insects because there are few sources of pollen or nectar in a New England spring. A good selection of wildflowers are available at The Garden in the Woods in Framingham, Mass. The Garden in the Woods is a nonprofit garden, education center and plant nursery run by The Native Plant Trust, formerly called the New England Wild Flower Society.

One of my favorite spring ephemerals is Dutchman’s breeches (Dicentra cucularia). This is a low-growing plant with delicate, finely divided leaves and white blossoms that look to me a bit like pairs of white long underwear! Mine is growing under an old apple tree in partial shade and deep, rich soil. It only blooms for a couple of weeks.

If you see a bumblebee at this time of year, it is a queen that has overwintered. They love Dutchman’s breeches and other early wildflowers — they use the pollen to feed their worker bees that are growing into real workers, so the queens can retire to a life of luxury.

Dutchman’s breeches have two relatives that you may know or grow: bleeding heart (Dicentra spectabilis) and wild or fringed bleeding heart (Dicentra eximia). Some books say both are natives, others say Dicentra spectabilis is native to Asia, or native both here and there. It dies back in late summer.

I’ve seen wild bleeding heart (Dicentra eximia) growing in the wilds of Vermont, though it is not common. It is an unusual wildflower because it keeps its foliage all summer and blooms on and off all summer. It is much lower-growing than its bigger cousin and has nice finely divided delicate-looking leaves. Both of these plants are readily available in nurseries.

If you live in suburbia with a big lawn and want to support wildlife, think about giving up some lawn and planting native trees. Trees really are the workhorses of the plant world. They have more leaves and greenery than our annual and perennial plantings, and hence can let moth and butterfly larvae munch their leaves — and you will probably never notice. Before you plant any full-sized tree, do your homework. Learn how big it will get and leave plenty of space for it.

According to Doug Tallamy’s excellent book, Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard, the very best trees to plant to support wildlife are the oaks. There are 90 species of native oaks that grow in the United States, and all are excellent. Of these, the white oak (Quercus alba) is the best. It commonly grows wild in the Northeast and it supports many more species of caterpillars than any other tree. Not only that, it grows to be a huge tree, one that can live for hundreds of years. So the white oak is also great at sequestering large quantities of carbon from the atmosphere, helping to reduce global warming.

If you want to plant a white oak, do not be deterred by how long you think it might take to grow. If you can afford a tree that is already 6 to 8 feet tall, it will be 20 feet tall inside of five years. Or if you are young and patient, you can plant acorns. At this time of year, or soon, you should be able to find and dig up seedlings that are just starting to grow. Oaks send down deep taproots, so digging up bigger plants is more difficult.

The only downside to white oaks, from my perspective, is that deer love to nibble on them when the trees are young — much more so than red oaks, which are also good native trees to grow for wildlife. If you plant a white oak and have deer in your vicinity, the safest way to protect it when young is to surround it with a wire mesh fence.

However, I have planted white oaks where deer are a problem and did not fence them. Instead I relied on a repellent device that clips onto twigs like a clothespin. It is called “Fend Off Deer and Rabbit Repellent” and contains garlic extract in small cylinders. Once you puncture the seal inside the capsule, it emits a strong odor that deer hate. These repellents last for over six months. I’ve seen footprints of deer going right up to white oaks with these garlic oil repellents — and then walking away without taking a bite.

Oaks have very strong limbs and can send out limbs that are almost parallel to the ground, sometimes 20 feet or more in all directions. So do not plant your tree near the house. It is a good “specimen tree” suitable for the middle of your back lawn, or protruding out from the edge of a wooded area. White oaks do not do well in areas that have poor drainage. For such an area, choose a swamp white oak (Quercus bicolor). They also do well in ordinary soil.

We all know and love the sugar maple (Acer saccharum) for its great fall colors and delicious syrup. Unfortunately it is not a perfect choice for suburban landscapes. It is not tolerant of pollution, compacted soils or salt. It does not tolerate long periods of wet soil. It struggles in soils low in calcium. It is better suited for rural areas where it grows wild.

If you want a maple tolerant of soil compaction and suitable for soils from wet to dry, sandy to clay, our native red maple (Acer rubrum) is a good choice. It is relatively fast growing and shows off bright red leaves in the fall. It does not tolerate road salt, so it is not a tree to plant near a paved road. But almost anywhere else? It’s a great tree.

According to the terrific book Essential Native Trees and Shrubs for the Eastern United States by Tony Dove and Ginger Woolridge, the red maple supports 300 kinds of caterpillars as well as providing nectar while blooming in the early spring. Some varieties have male and female trees, but others have flowers of both sexes on the same tree. The seeds on female trees are important for birds and small mammals.

For smaller properties there are many fine native shrubs to choose from. One of my favorites is mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia), the state flower of Connecticut. I grew up with it blooming in hardwood forests with a high canopy — mature oaks in particular. I did a lot of off-trail hiking as a boy and always stopped dead in my tracks when I came upon mountain laurels in bloom. Here I have planted three of them as they are hardy but are not found in the wild near me.

Mountain laurel, I have read, is not an easy shrub to grow, but my own experience is different: I planted my first one on a moist hillside with morning sunshine and acidic soil. It has thrived and blossomed nicely for decades even though I do nothing for it. It is a relatively slow-growing shrub, 6 to 12 inches per year. In the wild they can grow to 10 or 12 feet in height, but they stay smaller in cultivation.

Mountain laurel is in the heath or heather family, so it needs soil that is quite acidic, pH 5.5 or so. When planting, dig a nice wide hole and add sulfur or soil acidifier to the soil. It’s best to use a pH test kit to determine the soil pH, and then add acidifier as directed on the package to bring down the pH. Adding peat moss at planting time will help, too. Mulch with pine needles if you have them.

The mountain laurel has glossy green leaves that are a bit like those of rhododendrons. They look good all year. But then, ka-boom, the buds and flowers appear in June. The blossoms appear in clusters, which open up to small cups, often with a mixture of pink and white inside, though there are some varieties that are deep rose throughout.

Hydrangeas are well-loved shrubs for home gardeners, though many of them are not native. According to the Mt. Cuba Center, the best native is one I grow, a smooth hydrangea (Hydrangea arborescens) called Haas’ Halo. This is a relatively new selection with lacecap flowers in mid-summer. The flowers have both fertile and sterile blossoms on flat-topped corymbs 4 to 8 inches across. Bees and other pollinators flock to it when blooming. In the wild, smooth hydrangeas are found in woodlands, and this one will boom well in either sun or shade, and tolerates dry soils well.

The best-known smooth hydrangea is ‘Annabelle,’ which I don’t use because the first time the blossoms get rained on they flop to the ground. Not so with Haas’ Halo. It has sturdy woody stems that hold up its blossoms well. Even after the flowers go by, the dry floret looks good into the fall and winter. Though I have seen reports saying it is not attractive to deer, I have seen deer demolish young Haas’ Halo shrubs. I cut the stems right to the ground in late winter or early spring as they bloom on new growth, and this keeps the shrub from getting too lanky.

My last pick for a handsome native shrub is Common Sweetshrub (Calycanthus florida), which is native to Pennsylvania and south through Florida, but hardy here to Zone 4. It does best in part shade with well-drained rich loam — but will grow in clay soil and survive in full sun if given adequate moisture. I have had it scald in full sun, so I don’t recommend that.

Common Sweetshrub’s claim to fame is the strong fragrance of its wine-red 1- to 2-inch flowers. I suggest you buy one in bloom if fragrance is important to you. I have two specimens, both of which have only a minor fragrance. But the blossoms are delightful to look at, and they are vigorous plants. It provides pollen to bees and the leaves are eaten by caterpillars.

Although statistics vary, most authorities agree that at least 50 percent of Americans do at least a little gardening. If all of us planted a few native plants, it would help our birds and pollinators to thrive. Remember, native plants co-evolved with our native animals over millions of years. They are wired to recognize and use natives. So strive to plant more natives this year!

Henry can be reached by e-mail at henry.homeyer@comcast.net. If you’ve grown some of these plants, feel free to e-mail him and give a report on how yours did.

Stay in the loop!

Get FREE weekly briefs on local food, music,

arts, and more across southern New Hampshire!