Native Plants, with Joey Howlett (episode 15)
“Can I tell you about one more plant?” could be my catchphrase at this point, but thank god I got someone to listen--my brother Joey! After we chat about the wonders of Wikipedia, I explain how I accidentally bought and subsequently learned about native plants. We get into the whole native plant debate as well as the conversation about whether cultivars of natives really count. I name some of my favorite native plants of the East Coast, and we decide that when it comes down to it, we’re all annuals.
Was this whole episode an excuse to show you a pic of my blue flag iris? Maybe! Here’s my iris clump in bloom in its first year, when I had no idea why the petals were so skinny.
SHOW NOTES:
The wikipedia page for Mary Kay Bergman is indeed as sad as Joey claimed. Keep listening to this podcast, because Joey’s other wikipedia page is getting its own episode. And, as Joey mentioned, the wikipedia page for Natalie Wood gives an overview of her very sad and mysterious death.
Bearded Iris vs. Blue Flag Iris!
Bearded Iris (left) from a site called Easy to Grow Bulbs; Blue Flag Iris (right) from a site called Rare Roots
Both daisies and asters come from the same family, Asteraceae (of which sunflowers are also a part!). Though daisies grow all over the U.S. at this point, they are native to Europe and Asia, whereas the majority of what we call “asters” (now classified in the genus Symphyotrichum, which is confusing) are native to North America.
Left: photo of a daisy from Country Living Magazine (in particular, these are shasta daisies - a common type found in gardens). Right: the New England Aster (Aster novae-angliae), photo by Tom Potterfield, from the Longwood Gardens website.
“Peachy Pie Rose” is not a real name for a type of rose but here are some actual rose cultivar names:
Cherished Pet
Miss Congeniality
Love Always
Eyes for You
You can look up the studies on native species vs. native cultivars on PiedmontMasterGardeners.org.
The article “The Native Plants Debate" outlines both sides and recommends some books if you want to read the anti-native plant movement point of view.
Boneset (image from Everwilde Farms)
Philadelphia Fleabane (image from MissouriPlants.com)
Trillium Grandiflorum (image from Gardenia.net)
I was fairly correct about the life cycle of trillium! They take five to seven years to bloom, and they actually spread seed once they start blooming, but then, of course, it takes another several years for that seed to grow into other mature, flowering trillium plants.
Follow me at @vhowlett on instagram if you want more of this sort of thing.