Pollinators Galore!

It's June and the pollinators are buzzing.

The last two posts on lavender and blanket flower have covered some of the buzz, but there's more to come...

This could be a bumblebee, but I think it's a carpenter bee on hyssop (Hyssopus officinalis)

Bumblebee on creeping germander (Teucrium chamaedrys 'Prostratum')

Some sort of tiny bee or maybe an ant on 'Natchez' crape myrtle - just starting to bloom on June 2nd.

Small bee on yarrow (Alchillea millefolium 'Paprika')

Fly on yarrow

Hoverfly on wildflower (I believe this is daisy fleabane - Erigeron annuus)

Small bee (I believe) on 'Carefree Beauty' rose

Indian pinks (Spigelia marilandica) are flourish this year as never before. In previous years, an herbivore (rabbit?) would nibble them down to the nubs repeatedly. Last year, they didn't get to flower at all, and I thought the rabbit had nearly killed two of the three clumps. But they eventually all came back and seem to be flourishing -- this is a clump that I thought was toast just a month ago. It doesn't quite fit with theme of this post as I haven't seen any pollinators on it yet, but it should attract hummingbirds with its long, tubular, red flowers with yellow throats.

Look closely and I believe you'll see two hoverflies mating on the leaf of this 'Golden Jubilee' Agastache foeniculum

Bumblebee hanging on to Agastache foeniculum (anise hyssop)

Which is fuzzier - the bumblebee or the 'Fuzzy Wuzzy' lamb's ear (Stachys byzantina)?

Small bee on Coreopsis lanceolata (lanceleaf coreopsis)

No pollinators in sight here, but the seedpods swelling suggest that something has succeeded in pollinating this redwhisker clammyweed (Polanisia dodecandra). Recent research from the University of Alberta suggests that redwhisker clammyweed provides both nectar and pollen resources for pollinators.

Rabbit.
Perhaps the culprit in the destruction of the smooth asters (Symphyotrichum laeve)?

Where there be pollinators, there be spiders...

Can you spot the spider here?
(The spider's camouflage is enhanced here by my inability to focus correctly. Sorry about that.)

The small bee on the Mexican hat (Ratibida columnifera) in the foreground is packing a lot of pollen on its legs!

Which plants are attracting the most pollinators in your garden?

Late March in the Garden of Aaron - Crabapple, Threadleaf Coreopsis, Yaupon Holly, False Sunflower and More!

New leaves on Vitex agnus-castus (chaste tree) are adorable! Chaste tree is native to the Mediterranean. It tends to leaf out a bit later than many of our native trees and shrubs, but the foliage is still susceptible to late frosts and freezes. (Our average last frost date is still two weeks away.) In 2014, temperatures dipped into the high 20s in mid-April, killing back all the newly emerged Vitex foliage. The damage turned out to be just temporary, with Vitex fully leafed out and looking fantastic a month later.)

Beautiful new foliage on a native Viburnum dentatum (arrowwood viburnum)

Teucrium chamaedrys 'Prostrata' (creeping germander) looking great. A couple of weeks ago I posted a photo (second to last in this post) showing how creeping germander stays semi-evergreen and attractive through the winter. It's fun to see how much it has leafed out and greened up since that previous post.

Newly planted Heliopsis helianthoides, our native false sunflower or ox-eye sunflower. (It's not a 'true' sunflower, which would be in the Helianthus genus.) I tried growing a cultivar of this plant a few years back and was never super impressed with its performance. On the other hand, it was well-behaved, tough and did not give me any problems. I decided to give it another chance and planted three specimens of the straight species close together. Last time, I was disappointed that false sunflower did not attract many pollinators. I'm hoping a larger patch of flowers from three plants clustered together will do a better job of catching the attention of bees, butterflies, wasps and other pollinators.

Newly planted Ilex vomitoria, yaupon holly. According to BONAP, yaupon holly is barely native to Tennessee (there's a waif population in the extreme southwestern corner of the state, around Memphis), but it's certainly a regional native throughout the Deep South. I would have liked to start with a larger plant, but as usual, it's very hard to find natives at our local nurseries, so this is a 1-gallon mail order plant. I find myself charmed by the reddish new foliage and (I believe) flower buds.

Physocarpus opulifolia, our native ninebark, I was so unimpressed with ninebark's performance last year that I almost shovel-pruned it over the winter. Still, learning from past mistakes (i.e. overly-hasty judgments), I decided to wait. So far, I'm very pleased with the new foliage on this plant. (For the life of me, I can't recall whether it's the 'Diablo' or 'Summer Wine' cultivar...)

Salvia guaranitica, anise-scented sage or hummingbird sage. The new foliage looks better this year than it ever did in the past. (In fact, I was so unimpressed with its first-year performance in 2014 that I shovel-pruned it --- or tried to. It came back anyway in 2015 (typical zombie plant behavior) and I decided to give it a reprieve. Feeling quite good about that decision so far and hoping it will be bigger and better than ever this year. 

'Queen of the Night' tulip from Easy to Grow bulbs. Whereas the earlier 'Pink Impression' tulips got chomped by some herbivore (let's blame the deer), so far these seem unmolested. 'Queen of the Night' is a really dark-flowered tulip. I had to use a flash to illustrate the interior of the bloom. I do think it's nice that there are early-flowering and late-flowering tulips so it's possible to spread out the tulip season over a month or more. (I'm guessing the deer might be less interested in late flowering tulips since there's probably more for them to eat in the woods this time of year now that many plants have leafed out.)

Crabapple coming into bloom! This 'Sugar Tyme' crab has pink buds that open into white flowers. Charming :) 

Newly emergent foliage on threadleaf coreopsis Coreopsis verticillata (in this case the 'Zagreb' cultivar) looks like a miniature forest if you get down on the ground and look at it sideways. This is another plant that is a regional native (barely native to far southeastern Tennessee, but quite widespread in the Carolinas and Virginia.

Here's a close-up on the newly emergent foliage on the evergreen Aucuba japonica.

Love the fresh new foliage on this Agastache foeniculum, anise hyssop. Despite the fact that this plant is native to the far Northern plains, it seems to thrive in Middle Tennessee. Of course, it's no surprise that it survives the winter with flying colors and emerges early in the spring. What is surprising to me is that it seems cool as a cucumber during our hot, humid summers. Based on my experience, the Agastaches are a highly garden-worthy genus, especially if you like to attract pollinators who flock to their long-blooming purple summertime flowers.

Ready, Set, Go!

With unusually warm weather through the first half of March (10 to 20 degrees above normal), Spring is bursting out all over!

One of the things that interests me - and one factor for me in plant selection - is the speed with which a perennial, shrub or tree leafs out in the Spring.

Maybe that seems silly, but by the time late February rolls around, I'm desperate for some greenery and signs of life in the garden.

Here are some sights that gladdened my heart:

An expert told me not to count on Agastache rugosa 'Honey Bee Blue' acting as a perennial in Middle Tennessee. But the plant itself begs to differ. All three of the specimens I've planted have been returning reliably for a couple of years.

And this year I even have a few Agastache rugosa seedlings. (Or they could be hybrids, since I'm growing some other Agastache species in the garden. Not sure how easily they hybridize. But this one is growing right next to the other Agastache rugosa plants and its leaves look the same, so I'll call it A. rugosa for now!

Aronia arbutifolia (red chokeberry)

Clematis 'Crystal Fountain'.
I think I've butched the training and pruning of this plant, but it survives and blooms despite me.

'Sugar Tyme' crabapple.
You can see some old, dried apples still hanging on the plant, but the robins and other birds ate quite a bit of the fruit over the winter. That was nice to see.

'Johnny Jump Up' (Viola tricolor) has been self-sowing here and there in the garden ever since I planted it back in 2012.
 

Philadelphus x virginalis 'Natchez' (mock orange)

The rosy buds on the redbud tree (Cercis canadensis) gleam even on a cloudy day.

Physostegia virginia 'Miss Manners' - an obedient plant that really is supposed to be well-behaved.
I planted this little guy last autumn and the basal foliage stayed evergreen through the winter, although it recently seems to have put on some additional new growth.

Echinacea purpurea (purple coneflower), appearing amid leftover stems and seedheads from last year's purple coneflowers that I broke off, crushed and left to 'compost in place'. 

Pycnanthemum tenuifolium (narrow-leaf mountain mint) - I have high hopes for this guy. It looks capable of spreading and functioning as a groundcover, plus it's supposed to have flowers that are appealing to pollinators. This will be the second full year in the garden for this plant (and the two other specimens of P. tenuifolium that I planted at the same time). I'd say this clump is at least four times bigger than it was when I planted it last Spring.

Eryngium yuccifolium (rattlesnake master). This is another perennial that I added to the garden in 2015. It's supposed to need or prefer good drainage, so I'm relieved to see that it survived a typically wet winter in heavy clay soil in a part of the garden that drains even more poorly than most. Don't these adorable early toothed leaves remind you of a Venus flytrap or some other carnivorous plant?

Another contender in the groundcover sweepstakes, this is Teucrium chamaedrys (creeping germander). It stayed more-or-less evergreen through the winter and has started putting on some new growth. I like how the stems trapped fallen leaves, which hopefully will help built and improve the soil over time.

Strawberries! Helpfully appearing next to its ID tag, this charming tripartite leaf belongs to Fragaria virginiana, our native wild strawberry! I planted several specimens of F. virginiana in the garden last autumn. This will be their first growing season in the Garden of Aaron!