My Garden on Easter

Easter is conveniently happening at the peak of wildflower season in my yard. Lots of wonderful colors to look at that are all on theme with the holiday. It's a shame my family doesn't gather at my house for this holiday but in a way it's a blessing. So many non-native bulbs though they certainly serve their purpose. The thing about Tulips, Daffodils, Hyacinths, and "Easter" Lilies is they thrive best in full sun. Almost all our native ephemerals are shade plants. It's a shame they're not sold in as much abundance or bought with the same enthusiasm.

I rarely get to show off my garden to family members I don't live with. Often the holidays they do come over my garden is transitioning from one season to the next and lacking in flowers. Despite the diversity in my garden few of the species bloom with any abundance. They don't always demonstrate their usefulness either.

My camera doesn't capture the detail it should in this photo.

Second attempt wasn't much better I should probably stop trying such wide photos of small objects.

Trees are probably the best way to entice pollinators into the garden. This beefly is a little late to the party but cooperated for a photo on a cool day on the new Witch Hazel I've added to the garden. On warm days I've seen it (more likely others) flying around on the Native Plums when they flowered then a day before those blooms closed up onto the Beach Plum tree and now onto the Apple Tree which started flowering this weekend.

Beeflies are important pollinators for certain plants like Woodland Phlox, Phlox divaricata. Long tongued bees and flies are the only insects that can reach the pollen anthers hidden deep within the tube-shaped flowers. Without them populations of these flowers diminish in size or blink out entirely. Unlike creeping phlox, Phlox divaricata is a short lived perennial. When pollination occurs though they are abundant seeders and spread far and wide.

But the other thing about beeflies is that most of them are parasites of Bumblebee hives. They invade the nests, lay a few eggs and the maggots eat the wax. Bumblebees don't really pollinate phlox though, so in order to have the pollinator of this Phlox species you need enough wildflowers and trees established to support a few bumblebee hives. 

As an aside, I did a google image search for "Bumblebee Phlox" and almost all the images that come up are of Carpenter Bees which chew holes in the sides of the Phlox flowers to gain access to the nectar and probably don't pollinate the flower. Bumblebees do visit Phlox but of the images taken I only saw the summer flowering species. Not Phlox divaricata. I'm not saying it doesn't happen but it seems rare if it does.

Our ephemerals get away growing and flowering now because most trees have yet to leaf out. When they do though they secrete a small amount of sugary sap. Here a Nylanderia faisonensis worker is exploring a few leaves on the sapling I planted last year. 

Sap isn't always a good thing though. The flower buds to our Flame Azalea, Rhododendron calendulaceum, are so sticky with sap that insects that land on them get stuck. This is probably an added way to entice humming birds to visit the flower but I don't think it's always successful. More likely it's a method to prevent ants from crawling into the blooms when they open and stealing all the nectar to them selves. (I've actually found opened Flame Azalea flowers that had ants all stuck to the stems of their flowers). Whether it's intentional or not, it's probably still to the humming bird's benefit should it chance up on one.

These types of flies are becoming more abundant in my yard too. I've caught them visiting more than a few of my Trillium species. I had assumed all the large white flowering Trilliums were pollinated by bees but this photo tells another story. The pale yellow/white dots on the fly here are actually pollen. 

These are Trillium flexipes, note how fat the petals are to form a triangular shape overall and how the pollen is pale in color. 

This is Trillium grandiflorum, note the bright yellow pollen and how the petals are ruffled along the edges. The petals aren't as wide either.

I know for a fact that Honeybees and Bumblebees will visit these flowers but only when the patches are in abundance. Maybe ~25 plants all flowering within a few feet of one another? My plants aren't quite there yet but given time they'll get there.

I've found our native Jacob's Ladder, Polemonium reptans, makes a beautiful companion plant for them. They're just short enough to fill in all around underneath the Trilliums and the blue flowers are a nice addition.

I bought a nice big flat of these from New Moon Nursery a few years back. They were a pain in the ass the rip free from the plastic flat. The roots seem to push outward all the way up the plastic. I was ripping the foliage clean off the top of them and probably did that to most of them before I figured out a good method. Pushing up from the bottom worked but required a lot more force than expected. They really didn't want to come out of there!

Fernleaf Phacelia, Phacelia bipinnatifida, has FINALLY started to establish in my yard! Of all the spring ephemerals in eastern North America, this is probably one of the best ones to plant for honeybees... a shame I don't have hives anymore. I've been trying to get this plant to grow in my yard for probably the last 8 years now.

The issue with it is that it's a biannual and the only place selling it online basically has an F rating from the Better Business Bureau. I bought from them once and they sent me Watercress by mistake, yes that little invasive lawn weed with exploding seed pods everyone tries to get ride of... This place Sells that... to people... for money... and they pay them to do it apparently...

I called them about the mistake and they refused to help me until I had sent them pictures to prove they had made the mistake and then demanded the plants back at my cost! About a month later I received a trash bag in the mail of Fernleaf Phacelia roots that were lacking any green growth to them. This was in May so the plants had already flowered which they do at the end of their life cycle... So they sent me a bunch of dead plants.

So in order for me to obtain this species I have to drive to Native Plant Sales in Delaware and Pennsylvania (I'm in NJ) and hope they happen to be selling this species.

I fell in love with this stuff at the Mt. Cube Center in DE where it grows in huge abundance on some years. One time during their annual Wildflower Celebration I was telling one of the gardeners there I'm friendly with how I wish the species were more available to sale, especially in seed form. You'd think someone would sell it in seed form given that it's a biannual or at the very years recently germinated plugs. The Gardener couldn't believe no one was doing that and then told me, to my horror, that they actually cull the stuff there every few years! They fill up huge trash bags with it.... I wonder if that awful online nursery I bought from was stealing from their garbage?

Anyway, as you can see my efforts to get this plant started has come along. It's growing nicely beside some Jacob's Ladder. Several years of planting 1 quart sized pots of it have started something of a seed bank. The only thing holding it back now are the rabbits which have a real liking for the stuff. One year I had a great big plant growing a good 3' across and then the next day it had all been nibbled down into nothing.

Virginia Bluebells are another one that's supposed to spread like crazy. So far my plants have only enlarged in size each year. I'm not seeing any seedlings at all. It's another plant the gardeners at the Mt. Cuba Center occasionally have to weed out when they get too aggressive.

Woodland Poppy, Stylophorum diphyllum, has spread like a sort of weed though not in the direction I'd like it to. I stared with maybe 6 plants of this one year and they've spread quite a bit, but died out where I initially planted them. They seem to like growing away from other plants instead of next to them though I do like that they're spreading.

This species is also called the Caladine Poppy, but I hate this name because I have no idea what a Caladine is besides a different plant. Webster's Dictionary says it's basically a yellow flower scientifically known as Chelidonium majus, which is an invasive weed in America often mistaken for Stylophorum diphyllum. So it's common name refers to a species that it isn't... What? Is the dictionary wrong? It seems to be implying that the Calandine Poppy is the Calandine Poppy but not that Calandine Poppy, rather it's this Calandine Poppy over here.

If you google Calandine Poppy it certainly gives you Stylophorum diphyllum. So someone stole a name somewhere or is wrong.

The Eastern Redbuds in my yard are now all very well established and the perfect overlay to the ephemeral garden plants beneath them. Eventually the red/pink petals will drop from the tree and sprinkle the color to the display below. 

I had assumed the Spring Beauty, Claytonia , would be pinker before I planted it. That was the intent anyhow. I tried planting a pink flowering Phlox stolonifera which I read is aggressive spreading and one of the hardest phlox species to kill... well it died out.

Right now the only pink under the tree are the shriveled up petals Trillium pusillum. Interesting thing about this plant, I bought them from a nursery selling them as Trillium catesbaei. At least I think that was this nursery. I don't keep good records of all the plants I buy and from whom but given how much of this I have coming up, I would have had to have bought a flat of them. They've taken this long to ID because this is the first time one of them has flowered.

 Trillium viridescens, looking handsome as usual.

This is by far the most successful Trillium species in my yard. Each late afternoon they produce a faintly pungent scene of rotting apples and get swarmed by vinegar flies which transfer pollen from one flower to the other. They all started as just three plants, but that's become three large clumps of flowering stems with patches of seedlings all around them and then strays like the one photographed here coming up in other places.

 I'm gonna have to start giving them away as gifts.

More Jacob's Ladder doing well. I planted so much of this because I'd given up on Fernleaf Phacelia and wanted to move onto something easier to grow. Despite having such a good year with Phacelia, ultimately because it's a biannual I have no idea where it will come up next year, unless I collect seeds.

Round Leaf Ragwort. This would be having a good year but isn't. Basically the past two years, a female rabbit used the patch to have her babies in. She cleared out a nest in the middle. Then this year we got a puppy... (I'm amazed my Trilliums are holding up as well as they are.) She's has also decided to make this spot in the Ragwort patch her little spot to lay and chew things like plant stem. 

Trillium cuneatum growing beneath one of my few non native plants. The non native Bleeding heart was a mistake on my part. Back when I started gardening they were in the same genus as the native ones. So I have this gigantic bleeding heart plant I've started dividing and spreading about.

I didn't know Trillium cuneatum, was so amazingly fragrant until last year when a different one started flowering. While T. viridescens smells like rotting fruit, T. cuneatum is much more like fresh apples. Oddly though it doesn't seem to get anywhere near as many pollinators to it. I've yet to see anything land on them actually.

Another of what I'm calling T. cuneatum though I suspect one or the other is a different species. These are flowering for the first time and relatively short. They're newly planted this year so the stems might not be so short in future.

I have another one that's just as big as the red flowering one (two pictures up) but with flower petals in this shade. They all smell the same but that might be coincidence. We'll see what they do next year. 

There are Trillium species that remain this short though.

I've been finding Trillium growers (even reputable ones that don't steal from nature) have difficulty distinguishing some species apart. Lots of reasons for this. Growing them from seed they require 2 years to germinate, produce a single leaf of foliage for the next 2 to 3 years and then all look fairly identical until flowering. Take into account having to move flats around in a green house and it's easy to see over even just a 5 year period how things can get mixed around. Likewise Trilliums are prone to hybridizing with some frequency. 

Trillium luteum is another one I've had for a long time. They've mostly started to divide like my T. viridescens, but I've noticed when they do that they don't flower as much. I've never gotten them to produce seeds, nor seen anything visiting the flowers, even though they smell nice and lemony. Hopefully as the Trillium patches continue to grow in size I'll get more of the flies, beetles, and bees that pollinate them taking closer attention.

Red Trilliums I've been finding very tricky to ID. I'm going with T. vaseyi because that's what the nursery said they were, but I'm not certain how they ruled out, T. sulcatum, or T. erectum. Actually I can kind of see how it isn't T. erectum which I assume would have a larger flower with slightly longer petals. T. vaseyi and T. sulcatum seem to differ only in whether they stick the flower above or below the leaves. Mine just opened today so and have the flowers above the leaves suggesting T. sulcatum  ... but they might hang under the leaves in a day or two...

Whatever the case, I'm happy to see they're at least getting pollinated both by vinegar flies and some sort of pollen beetle.

 

 Maybe I should cave in and plant more tulips; no one cares what pollinates those.

Myrmecochory: Ant Plant Seed Dispersal

It's that time of the year again. This is probably my favorite part about native plant gardening because it combines so many of our loved spring ephemerals with ants.

Ants are largely overlooked by gardeners despite being the most common insect (by number). Part of the reason gardeners don't appreciate ants is likely because they are generalist foragers. So it doesn't matter a whole lot what plants are growing in a garden, native or non; if you have soil and dead wood,  chances are ants live in your yard. 

They play a vital role in removing dead insects. So after those big pretty swallowtail butterflies are done laying their eggs and visiting the flowers in your garden, ants are more than happy to collect, dissect, and consume their expired carcass. Though on the other hand, ants are also happy to remove butterfly eggs from host plants and often kill early instars to a lot of species. Ants don't forage equally on certain plants though, so it can depend on what's nesting near the tree/plant. Many caterpillars have defenses against ants too, but they're not always effective.

I have a Hackberry sapling that's about as tall as me right now. My dream is to someday see some Hackberry Emperors using it as a host plant. Every year though I got out there and find ants (Lasius alienus, Camponotus pennsylvanicus, C. chromaiodes, C. nearcticus, C. subarbatus, Temnothorax curvispinosus and Nylanderia faisonensis) foraging on the tree. They're mostly doing what's called nectar scraping where they wonder the plant licking and scraping the surface of the leaves to collect the small amounts of sweet sap that bleeds out of the leaves with the changing temperature of the day. The foraging power of 1 ant colony is enough to put a dent in the number of Lepidoptera eggs on a sapling; this one has 7 different species and likely multiple colonies of each constantly foraging on it, so I won't likely be seeing any Hackberry Emperors for several years.   

To a lesser degree, ants also think pollinators are delicious. They're mostly an issue with solitary bees, usually ground nesting or mason bee nests when discovered by ants. Ants typically don't dig into structures in search of food though, so as long as the burrows or tubes are properly secured with mud the developing bee larva should be safe.

My favorite thing ants do in the garden is called Myrmecochory, or ant plant seed dispersal. Even here though ants can be considered annoying. Let's say you paid $20 for a rare Trillium species, looking to start a clump of them over the next decade, which is how long many Trilliums take to flower from seed. Often though Trillium seeds have the annoying habit of walking away from the plant thanks to packets of "Elaiosome," a lipid rich substance on the seed, attracting ants to come and carry them home. 

This is Trillium vaseyi, (I believe), which is pollinated by Vinegar Flies and other sorts of carrion insects. Note Vinegar Flies are sold in pet stores as "Fruit Flies" because that sounds better than Vinegar Flies. True Fruit Flies consume fresh fruit and tune delicious apples and berries into balls of maggots. Vinegar Flies target foods that have already spoiled, drawn in by the fermenting smell of yest, cider and dead fish, which is what this flower smell like.  

Lots of Trilliums are either pollinated by carrion insects or bees. In my garden this particular Trillium species isn't quite ready to produce seeds yet, though they flower every year. A rabbit or some other critter trampled through the Trillium garden and snapped the stems to the two plants of this species so I've yet to get photograph them. Fortunately I have 8 other Trillium species in my garden!

Trillium grandiflorum! This is by far the most common and easily recognized Trillium species. It's pollinated by bees and while I never witnessed any bees visiting my flowers I have seen honeybees visiting them in other gardens when planted in sufficient numbers. I'm certain Bumblebees and others must visit them on occasion too. Currently I have a clump of about 9 plants of flowering age. Each of which has a few off shoots underneath that will reach flowering age in years to come. I may even need to divide a few in a year or two. 

Admittedly things like Twinleaf, Violets, Blood Root, Hepatica, Woodland Poppy, and Bleeding Hearts have already dropped their seeds for ants to disperse. Trilliums are latest ephemeral plant in North America to drop their seeds as many of the ones I've mentioned are already dormant.

Note how the leaves to the plants photoed above are singed at the tips. If you don't water your plants, they will fry right up and abort the seedpod entirely. You can plant Trilliums in full sun and they'll grow happily but probably won't produce seeds because of how much sun they get. You can compensate for this by adding water but there's only so much watering can do. It's best to plant them in the shade with a small amount of mulch and a low ground cover growing underneath such as Hepatica or Stone Crop. I like to water the roots to mine basically every time I walk past with the hose, or once every other day. Just put the water to the stem and count to 10 for each plant. Even doing this though won't guarantee success. Note the plant to the left didn't bother producing a seedpod at all. Of 9 plants only 2 didn't make seedpods, lack of pollination is likely the issue. Some that did make seedpods made smaller than average ones.   

You can tell a Trillium pod is ripe when you can see the seeds right through the pod. Another thing to look for is a change in color. Some go from green to purple, others go from purple to green, some ends up as bright red, depending on the species. Seeing these changes, and especially seeing the seeds within, mean you're within 2 weeks of the seeds being ripe. Seeds should be hard, like unpopped popcorn. The longer you wait the more likely the pod will become damaged, where ants, wasps, birds, and rodents will make off with the seeds. I've found seedpods completely hollow inside thanks to a small puncture hole allowing ants to gain entry.

Ants planting the seeds is not necessary for germination! This is just how the plants disperse their seeds in the wild. For gardeners looking to start a bed of these, I'd say go ahead and crack open a pod or two and just dump the seeds out in a shallow ditch and plant them yourself. Ideally the elaiosome should be removed before doing this, however that stuff is really effing on there!!! You can't just cut it off or take your finger nail to it. The risk is sometimes a kind of mold or fungus grows on the elaiosome and may kill the seed... I've never seen this happen to an extreme degree though. Maybe let the seeds dry out for two hours before planting. 

Personally I like letting the ants carry the seeds off. The consequence here is that I get Trillium seedlings coming up in the lawn and in unwanted places. These are easy enough to transplant when I notice them, but determining what species they are can't be done for many more years!

Shortly after a pod has become damaged, ants will more than likely find the seeds. Here a pavement ant, Tetramorium caespitum, has chanced upon the mother load.

Because dirt doesn't make for a thrilling background, I took the liberty of placing a seedpod on one of the stepping stones of my garden.

Nylanderia faisonensis is a nonnative woodland species that's slowly been invading areas rich in leaf litter. Nylanderia is a genus of tramp ants which are accidentally imported all over the world. Not all ants are ideal at planting seeds, and this is one of them. The ants are too small to carry the seeds anywhere, so instead of dispersing them as the plant wanted, the ants simply feed on the elaiosome where they found the seed. 

Tetramorium caespitum, Pavement Ants, do a better job but also are not native. Studies have been coming out finding that Nonnative Ants tend to favor the seeds to Nonnative Plants. In this case the Tetramorium were more than happy to disperse these seeds for me. (My yard also lacks any nonnative plant that has elaiosome on the seeds.)

Another risk facing Trillium seeds is the ants eating the seed along with the elaiosome. Trillium seeds tend to be rock hard for the first two years then soften up as they go to germinate. They are said to produce a fowl smell which is probably meant to encourage ants to move their nest elsewhere!

The ideal ant genus to be doing this seems to be Aphaenogaster which form abundant colonies of ~2000 ants throughout woodland settings. They're also very much in the habit of changing their nest location, so as the colonies move around they leave seed banks behind where plants like Trilliums tend to grow. There used to be a colony of Aphaenogaster rudis under this stepping stone which is why I picked it, sadly it seems the colony has moved on.

Two Pavement Ants trying to carry a Trillium seed home.

These ants are just big enough to handle the seed, though it still takes two of them to move it. Sometimes ants will actually give up after carrying the seeds a few feet. The seed is still dispersed from the parent plant but slightly at risk of being eaten by a rodent. Trilliums naturally grow best where there is plenty of leaf litter decomposing, and it's likely in these kinds of settings such discarded seeds are still successful. 

I love this shot.

The larger, ground nesting, Camponotus castaneus does a great job of dispersing seeds too. In the past I had assumed the seeds might get lost 4' underground where these ants like to nest. As it turns out though after bringing the seeds home, they're discarded a short while later, once the elaiosome has dried up typically. While the seeds may not be planted, they are dispersed and left in the colony midden pile (trash heap) which is still better than nothing.

These are one of the most elegant ants in my opinion and I love their chestnut brown and orange color tone.