Wildflowers Family Plot - Expert Plant Man

- Alright, Andy, let's talk a little bit about wildflowers. - Great, it's one of my favorite things. - I could tell. I see you've brought us to come here to look at today. - I did, and I also wanted to talk about it a bit. Lichterman Nature Center, our mission focuses on the interpretation of native wildlife. And we do a lot of interpretation on butterflies, particularly Monarchs. And I think every garden should have some milkweed in it. - (Chris) Nice. - You know we covered that all the time. So today, I wanted to talk to you about sturdy, reliable plants for our area. That is good for the garden, for the birds, the bees, and just for their beauty. - Okay, so these are native? - These are native plants. Native plants are plants that were, well, there are a million different definitions. - (Chris) I'm sure. (laughs) And you really can get stuck in the mud if you just fight over it. But most people say plants that were here before European colonization. - (Chris) Okay, I've heard that. - But you know, some have naturalized. You know, Queen Anne's Lace and that sort of stuff. A lot of native plants, I mean, a lot of native insects only eat, and by eat, I mean, talk about eating the leaves of native plants, so they're very important in the environment for bugs and such. A lot of hummingbirds, and bees, and butterflies will get nectar from almost any plant. Anything that's blooming, all that sort of stuff. But if you want to have butterflies, and even beetles, that's all-important for biodiversity, you really need a variety of different native plants. - (Chris) Okay. - Unfortunately, native plants have been oversold. Just because they grow in this area, they may or may not be a good choice for your backyard. - (Chris) Okay, that's a good point. - You know, some plants are easier to grow than others, and so I want to talk about three of my favorite plants, in regards to how to grow them, how to grow 'em with minimal muss and fuss, and how to grow more of 'em. - Okay. - So the first plant I want to talk about blooms in early spring. There are variations every season, some things bloom early, middle, and late. And the plants I'm gonna talk about always bloom in the same sequence. But if we have an early spring, they may bloom early, earlier than later times. It's one of my favorites, it's called Baptisia. Well, I call it Baptisia. The common name, although it's not that common, is False Wild Blue Indigo. - (Chris) Okay. - Indigo was a plant they used for dye, to dye blue jeans and such. It's a legume, it's part of the pea family. They have remarkable seed pods. - (Chris) They do, that's impressive. -

They're green now, they'll eventually turn black if they last long enough for the birds to eat 'em. If you open 'em up, I don't know if they can see that on camera, but you can see little baby peas, and as the season goes on and they mature, they'll be almost as big as English peas that you get at the grocery store. - (Chris) Wow. - I don't know if they're edible, but they're really pretty that way. If you don't want them to re-seed, which they will, you can simply clip the seeds off. Baptisia also has a really pretty color, it's kind of blue-green. - (Chris) Yeah, I like that. - If you grow it in full sun, it's a sturdy plant and doesn't need staking. But if you cut it back by a third after it blooms, and you'll probably get a lot of these off if you cut off by a third, it makes a nice, round blue-green shrub that stands up without staking the entire season. - Okay, okay. - And let's say after it blooms and such, but you can cut this back, it makes a nice shrub, so it gives you early spring pretty, blue blooms. Later on, you'll have the green seed pods that'll turn to black, and you'll have a blue-green shrub. Right now in Memphis, there's another form of Baptisia, it's another species, Baptisia alba that's White Indigo. It's not quite as bushy, but it has spectacular tall white blooms. The second one and this one is blooming right now, and what's not to like about this? Purple Coneflower. - (Chris) Yeah, those are beautiful. - The scientific name is Echinacea purpura, and what's not to like about it? I mean, it's just beautiful. It's got purple leaves, a yellow seed head that turns black. Parts of the plants have medicinal uses. In fact, you go to the health food store, you can buy all sorts of Echinacea-type supplements. I believe they're good for colds and other things. People ask me, "Well, how can I grow enough of this plant for herbal use?" Say, well, "You have to have a field." If you're looking for medicinal plants and like that, your backyard's probably not big enough. - (Chris) Oh, wow, okay. - The seed heads are also good bird food. About the time that the seed heads start maturing the Goldfinches are in their breeding plumage, they're brilliant. And it's really something to look in your yard and see them eating the seed heads of the Echinacea. I clip this off, this is gonna have lateral blooms coming off. You do fun things with Echinacea as far as pruning. Like if it's blooming purple, and you got something next to it you think looks terrible. Well, you can clip it back in the middle of May and it will delay the blooming, and sometimes it'll even bloom more. It will encourage both lateral and basal growth on the plant. - Oh neat, neat, okay. - So it gives you different effects. Also, if you've got it, like Baptisia, if you have it in full sun, it's gonna stand upright, unless you have a wind or something. But if you do pruning at various points you can give a sturdier plant that doesn't need staking. - (Chris) Okay, nice. - The last plant is New England Aster. It's for fall bloom. This one, I don't know if they'll be able to see it on the camera, but it just happens to have a single flower. In the fall, these are covered in masses of flowers. - (Chris) Okay. - And it's just really spectacular having the blue with the yellow centers. It also gives you a late-season food source for bees, Monarch butterflies coming through, and that sort of stuff. Just like the other plants, if it's in full sun it doesn't need as much staking. But during the year, and I particularly cut this off, guess what, on July Fourth. -

(Chris laughs) But I'll go back and clip back the top to make bushier, smaller plants. - (Chris) Okay. - And this is particularly important if you get the wild, true New England Aster because those are six-foot-tall plants. So a lot of us don't necessarily want or have the room for six-foot-tall plants in your yard, and so buy named cultivars, you know, the cultivated variety that has been bred for more profuse flowering and shorter stature. This particular cultivar, we call it Lichterman Mystery. - (Chris) (laughs) A mystery! - Actually, about 10 or 15 years ago, a volunteer gave us the start of this plant and we know it's New England Aster, we know it's a cultivar, but we don't know which one, so we just call it the Lichterman Mystery. But most reputable garden centers have named cultivars, and the big advantage of the named cultivars is they stay lower and they're bred specifically for bright, intense colors and a low-mounding habit. - (Chris) Wow. - With the Echinacea and the Baptisia, they both re-seed in your garden. If you save the seeds, you'll want to read online about scarification. - (Chris) Yeah. - Wildflowers, just 'cause you can grow 'em in your yard, don't mean they won't take sometimes. It's harder than you think. But there's a couple of easy steps, like with Echinacea, about storing them in wet sand in the refrigerator. These sorts of things that you can read about online for both Baptisia and Echinacea if you collect the seeds to grow later. My technique is less formal. Particularly the Echinacea has a 200% germination rate. Not really, of course. (Chris laughs) But every seed that the birds don't eat seems to germinate. - (Chris) Oh, okay. That's pretty good, though. - So with Baptisia and Echinacea, I've just about run out of friends to share them with. So what I've done, I dig them up, we sell them at our annual plant sale. - (Chris) Yes, yes. - It's good if you like them, but of course, if you cut these back before they go to seed, that reduces the seed count. The Asters reproduce differently, particularly named cultivars. Named cultivars are cross-bred of different types of plants, and so the seeds, I don't think there's a particularly high germination rate for Asters, but they may not come true from seed, but they grow through your garden, you gotta be prepared to keep the Aster in bounds after it fills out the space you want it to. Which is easily done. But you propagate the Asters by root division. - Root division. - Yeah, you just basically look at a plant, and you cut off chunks that you want, you move them elsewhere. Sometimes in groups of plants, you have the middle of it starts failing on you. And so it's really easy to rearrange your tough plants, I do recommend, doing that work in spring. Certainly well before the Fourth of July. - Well before the Fourth. I was waiting for you to say that. Andy, we appreciate that information about wildflowers, and I can tell these are your favorites. - Oh, they are. All these plants are in my yard, blooming their heads off right now. - All right, well thank you much.