Staghorn NYC blog: native plants

Showing posts with label native plants. Show all posts

Saturday, April 30, 2016

Awesome Native Spring Bloomers

It's finally spring! The trees are all colorful with flowers and lots even have leaves already! I love when the leaves come back. The bulbs are all in full force. We like to plant native perennials in our gardens because we believe if we are going to change our environment then we should try to coexist with nature rather than compete with it. Native gardens promote biodiversity, they provide food and shelter for local birds, insects and mammals. Native gardens also need less maintenance because the plants are better adapted to the area.

Here are some of our favorite spring blooming, native perennials that you could use to brighten up your garden!

Amsonia, Eastern Bluestar

Amsonia blooms March through May with little blue clusters of flowers. This is no one-season trick plant though. In the autumn it turns dramatic orange- yellow.

Aquilegia canadensis, Eastern red columbine

Columbine Genus: Aquilegia spp. Zones: 3-9 Bloom time: May; then six weeks later. To prune: Cut the stems all the way back to the foliage. Good to know: After the second bloom, leave the blossoms on the plant to reseed.:

Columbine's are the coolest looking flower! Look at them! Like weird little alien spaceships. They're show starts early. They can bloom from March through July.

Baptisia australis, Blue false indigo

Black swallowtail that instantly came to
Baptisia we planted on a Brooklyn rooftop

Baptisia can bloom from May through August. They attract awesome butterflies like the black swallowtail above!

Phlox stolonifera, Creeping Phlox

I love phlox & once it takes hold, there's no stopping it.:

Who doesn't want a flower carpet? Because I sure do. Creeping phlox is such a show off. I've seen lots of it lately and it always makes me giddy. It blooms from April to May.

Friday, September 18, 2015

A Visit to Brooklyn Botanical Gardens- Autumn is Coming!

We've all felt the shift. It's coming! Autumn.

It dropped down to 60 degrees Sunday night!

Ehhh- I wasn't ready for that. I've been a bit anxious about the shift. To me it just means soon winter will be here and I am very far from ready for that.

But! This week has been beautiful. So, I have come to terms with accepting Autumn's arrival. After all, it is the most beautiful(maybe tied with Spring, in my opinion) and definitely the best smelling season. This week really was like someone hit a switch and boom the season changed. Last week was a crazy, muggy, heat wave. Monday brought cool nights, fresh drier air, clear skies and that smell! You can smell the leaves! I could be making that up but I feel like it's the leaves I'm smelling.

I want to get the most of this season change so I decided to visit the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens for a stroll through their Native Flora Garden. I am ashamed to say that this was my first visit (and I live very close by)! But I wanted to get in there and check everything out now so I can see how everything changes in the next few weeks.

On Sunday, I went and took a guided walk with Uli Lorimer, the curator of the new section of the Native Flora Garden. It was a great informative intro to the garden. Here is some of what I saw:

Jewelweed

Jewelweed, Impatiens capensis, also goes by the name 'touch-me-not' because of it's awesome seedpods that when touched uncoil like a spring and shoot out their seeds. Very cool.

End of season blooms in the understory of the old section of the Native Flora Garden. The bees are busy gathering as much as they can before the cold comes.

Entering the meadow

The meadow is the newer expanded section of the Native Flora Garden. On the walk, I learned that most of the plants in this new area were started from seeds collected in the wild from the surrounding NY- NJ area.

The grasses! Autumn is the time for ornamental grasses to shine. They are dramatic wispy rays of sunshine. The meadow has so many different species such as Little Bluestem, Schizachyrium scoparium, which turns reddish and then bronze later in the fall.

I spent twenty minutes chasing around some monarch butterflies trying to get a photo but this is as close as one would let me. It's there! That small sliver in the upper middle of the photo on the white flowers.

I did find a monarch chrysalis though on some Tall Boneset, Eupatorium altissimum. It was near the swamp milkweed, which is the monarch caterpillar's food source.

Some Milkweed bugs going to town on the milkweed.

The Eupatorium plants smelled sooo good that ALL the insects had to visit. I took a video to show how active it was but I'm not sure it'll work here.

Let's see:

Here are a few other random facts I learned on my walk:

Spicebush is the sole larval host of the spicebush swallowtail. That means no spicebush, no swallowtail.
Native Americans used the resin of the Sweetgum tree medicinally.
May Apples, which are dormant now but bloom in the spring, have little low hanging fruits that box turtles eat and then spread the seed.
Cherry birch is actually what they used to make root beer from, not sassafrass like I always thought,
The pond in the Native Flora Garden is no longer covered in algae but now is covered with the smallest flowering plant on Earth, Wolffia.

Friday, August 28, 2015

Before and After: Bed-Stuy Backyard

I might have to say this was the most labor intense and awesome backyard we have done so far. This one is an extreme before and after! We have done some hardscaping before but this was our first huge hardscaping project and I'd say it turned out beautifully. The clients wanted their downstairs neighbor to have their own backyard space so the yard was sectioned to give each their own space. They are all very excited about their new backyard garden.

BEFORE:

DURING:

The new fence! The front part is what separates the downstairs tenants space.

The bluestone delivery! Holy cow.

Oi. That's a lot of huge heavy rock. No problem. We got this.

Bringing in and fitting together the puzzle of stone

Permeable aggregate for optimal rainwater absorption added between the irregular bluestone

Stone in front laid

We had to level and clear the back. Colin and Vladimir find a huge boulder!

Stone in the back laid! The far back square is aggregate that will be covered with artificial turf lawn which remains green all year - zero maintenance, and a permeable surface for rainwater absorption

Planting! We chose a mostly native plant palette with evergreen shrubs around the existing mature Magnolia soulangeana.

Laying the artificial turf. Colin is fabulous.

AFTER:

TA- DA!

Dana posing after our hard work!

Kat admiring and Colin relaxing.

Friday, May 22, 2015

Before and After: Bedstuy, Brooklyn Backyard Garden

It's time for some before and after photos of a yard we recently transformed in Bedstuy, Brooklyn!

This yard started out as completely bare construction-fill dirt and turned into a beautiful oasis for a family to enjoy. It is full of hardy native plants that provide new habitat for important pollinators to enjoy as well.

BEFORE

Bare dirt and rock

DURING

Bringing in the plants!

The plants chosen for this yard are beautiful, mostly native plants that bloom from April through October, providing a new habitat for many birds, butterflies and other pollinators. These plants are low maintenance and tough.

Pea Gravel layout

We had a pea gravel patio with metal edging laid out.
Pea gravel is a great permeable option that allows for water drainage and helps prevent runoff.
Then we added much needed nutrients to the soil with compost, planted all the plants and mulched.

AFTER

We also added some edible veggies and herbs to the back porch right outside the kitchen door.

This fringe tree smells amazing!
It has a sweet honey-suckle smell.

Friday, April 17, 2015

Pollinators

Pollinators are very important to our environment and our food systems but their populations have been on a sharp decline.

Planting a pollinator garden is a great way to help pollinator populations!

First, let's start with the basics.

What is pollination?

Pollination occurs with angiosperms, flower bearing plants. It is the act of transferring pollen from the male part of the flower, the anther, to the female part of the flower, the stigma.

This is how the ovary of the plant is fertilized to create seeds to pass on their genetic information to future generations of plants.

Who are pollinators?

Animals and insects which transfer pollen from one plant to another are considered pollinators. This transfer is an unintended consequence of the pollinator passing by or visiting a flower. The pollen becomes attached and when they visit or pass another flower, the pollen is transferred.

According to the Great Pollinator Project, bees account for 68 percent of visits to flowers in New York City parks and residential neighborhoods. Other pollinators important to NYC's urban landscape are flies, wasps, butterflies, beetles, various nocturnal pollinators, and the Ruby-Throated Hummingbird.1

Why are pollinators important?

According to the USDA, "Three-fourths of the world’s flowering plants and about 35 percent of the world’s food crops depend on animal pollinators to reproduce. More than 3,500 species of native bees help increase crop yields. Some scientists estimate that one out of every three bites of food we eat exists because of animal pollinators like bees, butterflies and moths, birds and bats, and beetles and other insects."2

Why are pollinators on the decline?

Habitat loss is a major threat to all species. It is important to have a diversity of species to have a healthy working ecosystem. This is sometimes hard to come by in urban environments. The overuse of pesticides has had a large effect on populations. Pesticides are meant to kill off 'pest' insects but they do not discriminate and they kill off beneficial insects as well.

How can we help?

Plant a pollinator garden!

Here are a few tips for your pollinator garden:

Choose native pollinator-friendly plants. Choosing native plants is very important because these are the plants that pollinators chose to visit. Years of evolution have made local species of plants and pollinators adapt to one another for mutual benefits. The plants provide food and habitat for the pollinators and the pollinators.. well they pollinate!
Have a variety of plants. Diversity is key for a successful garden. Choosing plants with different blooming times will allow pollinators to visit all season long.
Don't prune away all plant damage. It may be hard to leave that dead stem or branch but these damaged areas may provide habitat for butterfly and moth larvae.
Eliminate pesticide use as much as possible. Try incorporating plants that will attract beneficial insects for pest control. For example, adult ladybugs can eat as many as 50 aphids per day. Each hatched ladybug larva will eat some 400 aphids before entering its pupal stage.3 They are attracted to flat white or yellow flowers such as yarrow, dill, or marigolds.

Here are some beautiful options for your garden:

Trees and Shrubs - These are great options because they provide pollen or nectar, or both, early in spring when food is scarce.