Category: Outdoors

Try asters, Joe Pye or turtlehead for autumn color

Many gardeners go to the plant nurseries in June, and buy things in bloom for their gardens — and rarely go back until the next year. But that means that now, as summer winds down, they have few flowers in bloom. Not me. I buy perennials in all seasons. Fall flowers are important not only for me, but for those monarch butterflies that need to have plenty of hefty meals before taking off for Mexico.

Many of the flowers that bloom in fall are tall wild flowers that have been tamed and made into garden flowers: Many of the fall asters, Joe Pye weed and rudbeckias (black-eyed susans) sold in nurseries were just selected and bred to be more “garden worthy.”

According to entomologists in the know, the best plant for pollinators in fall is the goldenrod (Solidago spp.). This tall beauty has a bad reputation in some circles as a few species of goldenrod are a bit aggressive, arriving uninvited and spreading like crazy by root. And since they have massive root systems, they are not easy to remove. But not all are like that, and some are being sold in nurseries.

One of my favorite goldenrods is Fireworks. I’ve had it about 10 years. The original plant has gotten bigger every year, but never to the point of causing problems. It blooms in September with sprays of dainty yellow flowers in a vase-like arrangement. It is readily available in nurseries. It stands 3 to 4 feet tall.

I also grow one called blue-stemmed goldenrod (Solidago caesia) that is a shade-loving, diminutive goldenrod that I bought at the Garden in the Woods in Framingham, Mass., many years ago. It is perfectly well-behaved: It stays in a tidy clump and blooms late in the fall. It’s only about 16 inches tall.

New York ironweed (Vernonia noveboracensis) is a great pollinator plant that stands 4 to 6 feet tall or more with purple aster-like blossoms in big clusters. It does best in full sun and moist soil. Because it is such a tall plant once established, it is recommended that you cut it back to the ground when it is 2 feet tall in early summer to get a more manageable size. I wouldn’t do that until Year 2 or 3. And don’t give it fertilizer at planting time, or it may flop. Monarchs just love this plant, as do a myriad of bees.

New England asters (now no longer with the scientific genus name of aster, but Symphyotrichum) come in many sizes and a few colors. The wild ones are great. I have them alongside my stream in a light lavender. But commercially available ones come in pink and purple, too. They vary in height from quite short (often sold in bloom with the chrysanthemums) to over 5 feet tall. The mum-sized ones get taller in Year 2 and after, as they are cut back repeatedly to increase the number of blossoms and to keep them short. Full sun is best for these; they will grow in ordinary garden soil.

Joe Pye weed (Eutrochium spp., formerly Eupatorium) is also beloved by monarchs and pollinators of all kinds. The native Joe Pye grows wild along my stream, but I also have it growing in a garden bed I call the “Darwin bed.” The Darwin bed never gets weeded, and tall flowers fight for space. That bed contains Joe Pye, turtle head, asters, goldenrod and giant fleece flower, among others.

The variety in the Darwin bed is one called Gateway. Instead of greenish stems, it has dark purple-black stems, and it grows even taller than the native species. Mine is nearly 8 feet tall growing in moist, rich soil. All kinds have pink-to-purple flowers in large panicles at the tops of stems, sometimes a foot or more across.

There is a smaller version of Joe Pye weed, one called Baby Joe, that has been bred to be smaller, allegedly 2 to 3 feet tall. But I hear it is more like 3 to 4 feet tall if pleased with where it is situated. All have very tenacious root systems, so plant it where you want it.

Of my favorites is loved by bumblebees but the nectar and pollen is unavailable to monarchs because the blossoms are tightly closed. Turtlehead (Chelone lyonii) has clusters of delightful pink blossoms atop 4-foot stems. The flowers are unlike anything else I grow. They resemble the head of a turtle, and bumblebees force their way in through the ”mouth” of the turtle. If you listen, sometimes you can hear the bees inside — almost growling. Or are they purring? I don’t know.

Turtlehead has a long bloom time and is a great cut flower. They start blooming in August and bloom through much of September. They do best with rich, moist soil but I have them in full sun as well as full shade. There is another turtlehead that is white, but much less vigorous for me. Its Latin name is C. glabra and I have rarely seen it for sale in a nursery.

A real delight for me is to have a few bulb plants that bloom in the fall. Fall crocus is actually not a crocus at all, but a species known as Colchicum autumnale. It has leaves in the spring that disappear in summer, then it surprises us with big crocus-like blossoms on 4-inch stems. The flowers come in singles and doubles in colors from white to pink to purple. Expensive, but worth it. Most reliable in Zone 5 or warmer, though I have it in Zone 4. The flowers are on dainty stems, and often flop over unless planted in a ground cover like vinca that helps hold the flowers up.

So go to your plant nursery now and see what you can get that blooms in the fall. Our pollinators need food now, too.

Featured photo: Turtlehead is loved by bumblebees. Photo by Henry Homeyer.

Water deep if you can, and mulch properly

Many of my readers are suffering from a serious drought, enough so that plants are losing leaves and going dormant long before they should. Most well-established plants will recover from the effects of drought, even if they lose their leaves now. And new things? If you have not been giving them water weekly or more often, some may die.

Added to the problem is the fact that many places have enacted watering bans or limitations. And wells may not have enough to water everything. And of course watering takes time — time away from family, dogs and recreation.

If you have not been thinking about the drought, you should. Start by looking at your plants. Are leaves limp, withered or turning brown? If so, you need to water them well — today! They need a good deep watering.

Deep watering is not easy. If you take your hose and spray the base of the tree for a minute, you are not actually giving it much water. Wait 10 minutes after watering and go back to the new tree or shrub that you planted last spring. Use your finger or a tool like the CobraHead weeder (a weeding tool with a single tine) to dig down 4 inches or more. Is the soil moist? It should be. Most roots are in the top foot of soil. Add more water as needed.

If your soil is like powder, it is not easy to get water to penetrate the soil. If your tree is on a hillside, water you apply will run away almost immediately and not soak in at all. Even a gentle slope will allow water to run off. You will need to make a ring of soil or mulch around the tree or shrub to contain water.

If you are using a hose, use a watering wand to apply water rather than a spray nozzle held in your hand. These wands are usually 24 inches long with a nice “rose” on the end that makes the water flow in a gentle spray and have a valve to turn the water on, off or part way on. Since the tip of the wand is near the ground, it is less likely to wash away the soil. And it allows you to direct the water just where you want it. Soaker hoses on timers are good if you travel a lot, or vacation when it’s hot and dry.

Before you start watering, learn how much water your hose delivers. Do this by timing how long it takes to fill up a 5-gallon pail. Two or three minutes is usually long enough, but it depends on the diameter of your hose and the water pressure. Half-inch hoses are worthless. Five-eighths-inch hoses are adequate, and three-quarter-inch hoses are good for long-distance runs. Five gallons is the minimum quantity of water needed by a thirsty shrub or newly installed tree.

Most new woody plants need five gallons every week, but it does depend on the soil type. Sandy soil dries out the quickest and needs the most water. Clay soil holds water, but is hard to get thoroughly moist. Even though I have good soil, I always add compost to the soil when I plant anything. Not only does it add biological activity; it also holds water in sandy soil and loosens up clay soils. I buy it by the truckload. Most garden centers sell it in bulk, which is cheaper than buying it by the bag. Of the bagged compost, I like Moo-Doo and Coast of Maine brands.

Grasses and weeds suck moisture out of the soil, so dig them out around your trees. Weed a ring around new or struggling trees that is 3 to 4 feet wide. Then get some fine mulch (double-ground mulch, not wood chips). An inch and a half of mulch is about right, or two inches. Deeper than that and short rain showers will never get moisture to your plants’ roots.

Don’t buy bagged wood chips based on price — or if you do, buy the most expensive. Cheap mulch may be ground up and shredded construction debris and pallets. “Color enhanced” mulch is stained or dyed with something and may spread chemicals in the garden — and fade with time.

Never let the mulch touch the bark of your tree, or worse yet, make a faux-volcano of mulch. Mulch can harbor fungi that will rot the bark of your tree, killing it in six to 10 years. Once the cambium layer under the bark gets rotted, the tree will die. If you have mulch against any of your trees, please fix it right away.

Years ago I visited my friend Sydney Eddison at her home in Newtown, Connecticut. Sydney is a garden designer, author of many fine gardening books and a poet with terrific gardens. They were in the midst of a terrible drought — so bad that mature oaks were losing their leaves in the forest by August. A water ban was in place, but her gardens looked great.

“Sydney,” I said, “You’ve been cheating and watering your plants.” No, she explained, “It’s all about the mulch.” Each fall her husband, Martin, mowed over all the leaves that fell on the lawns and bagged them. He stored them in the barn until spring, and after all her plants woke up in the spring, she added a layer of chopped leaves. Not only did they hold in moisture, as they broke down they added organic matter to the soil — making it better each year.

This fall, do the same. Collect your leaves, or have the lawn service collect them for you. I don’t bag them up, I just add them to a pile and use as mulch in the spring. It really works. A 2-inch layer is perfect.

Don’t be disheartened if some of your plants go dormant now. It is their way of protecting themselves. But do water if you can — and get it down deep. Your plants will bless you!

Featured photo: A straw used to remove air from a bag of cherry tomatoes. Photo by Henry Homeyer.