My re-wilding project in the Niagara Frontier

[biigblueyes]

Originally Posted by amelanchier

Heh, heh... Well, actually, there's a fair bit of moss under the privets now that I've removed the periwinkle, and it seems to be expanding. Looks great when the light hits it just right.

That's great planning on your part.

[TheLorax]

I dragged out my garden hoses to create outlines. Extension cords would have been much easier. Wish somebody had mentioned that before I created a few flower beds.

Flagstone has a nice look about it. I would have picked the fieldstone for a path. Flagstone is more for patios and walls I think. It has a more formal look and feel.

So you were able to have your moss and eat it too. Moss is very much underused. It has a velvety look and feel to it that is timeless. Have you thought about trying to add a few larger fieldstones to your woodland area to try to get moss growing on them?

[Equilibrium]

Holy cow! You fell for native plants hook line and sinker. You ARE a poster child for natives. Tell me what got you so motivated? It needs to be bottled and sold what ever it is. You are doing beyond a bang up job with your property. What all exactly have you planted? This is incredible. Did you join a native plant society for your seed or did you find good online sources?

[amelanchier]

Originally Posted by TheLorax

So you were able to have your moss and eat it too. Moss is very much underused. It has a velvety look and feel to it that is timeless. Have you thought about trying to add a few larger fieldstones to your woodland area to try to get moss growing on them?

Well, now that you mention it, there are some big, flat-topped rocks (part limestone I think) in one corner of the garden. I've planted a bunch of ferns there, but if moss comes, I will try to encourage it. I've been itching to get out there & take some closer shots of different parts of the garden to get some feedback & put some images to the descriptions, but it's been very rainy the last couple of days.

I saw some little Dicentras peeking out of the earth yesterday, and the bold, fresh foliage of a Monarda has shot forth in another spot. Spring is tentatively starting here, even though we're supposed to get more snow in a couple of days.

[amelanchier]

Originally Posted by Equilibrium

Holy cow! You fell for native plants hook line and sinker. You ARE a poster child for natives. Tell me what got you so motivated? It needs to be bottled and sold what ever it is. You are doing beyond a bang up job with your property. What all exactly have you planted? This is incredible. Did you join a native plant society for your seed or did you find good online sources?

*chuckle* Thanks for the encouragement! Yes, I suppose I have been a man obsessed lately.

It's funny how I got motivated to do this. I was tentatively starting to plant some bulbs & things of that sort to brighten up the yard in front & back, just doing the conventional homeowner thing. This place was really stark & blank when we arrived, apart from the arborvitae, hollies, and two gaudy peonies in the back. So I hopped online & did some reading about proper planting & care of spring bulbs. I read about how you should really divide tulips (or was it daffodils? who knows anymore?) every couple of years, and fertilize them, and basically go to a bunch of trouble because these are not native species and don't tend to survive well in North American climates.

I thought to myself, Well, what about native North American flowers then? They'll be well adapted to the climate and then I can be a lazy gardener, just stick them in the ground & watch them grow. Let me just do a little searching for North+America+native+plants and see what comes up...

It was all downhill from there. A little Googling can be dangerous thing! I discovered wildflower.org and did a bunch of searches to build up a species list for my area. I got the book Natural Landscaping by Diekelmann & Schuster, and the color photos of prairies - especially the early autumn with fiery little bluestem and deep purple blazing stars - blew my mind. On my hikes I started trying to identify plants & discovered just how much of our wildlands have succumbed to alien invaders. Learning about the biology of native plant communities & how they support wildlife was the icing on the cake, and I went from being a lazy gardener looking for a way to stop mowing the lawn & fertilizing the plants to an avid gardener lusting after plants and yearning to get my hands dirty all winter.

I have a spreadsheet with all the species I've planted/sowed & hope to plant/sow in the future & their general locations. I've done most of my seed orders through Prairie Moon (who else?), and also ordered a few plants from them. However, there's a good, though small, native woodland plants nursery about 60 miles from here, and I've traveled out there to buy as much as I can, to get something close to local genotype. Some of the harder-to-find species I've mail-ordered from a variety of nurseries around the country: Seneca Hill Perennials near Syracuse, Shooting Star Nursery in KY, Oikos Tree Crops in MI, etc. There are still some things I haven't been able to find, though.

[amelanchier]

Here's the list of species I've gotten as plants:

actaea pachypoda actaea rubra anemone canadensis aralia nudicaulis arisaema triphyllum asarum canadense asclepias incarnata asclepias tuberosa athyrium filix-femina carex pensylvanica carex plantaginea caulophyllum thalictroides clematis virginiana cystopteris bulbifera dennstaedtia punctiloba Dicentra cucullaria dryopteris marginalis erythronium americanum eupatorium purpureum eurybia divaricata gaultheria procumbens geranium maculatum hepatica nobilis var. obtusa hibiscus moscheutos kalmia latifolia lilium canadense maianthemum racemosum mertensia virginica mitchella repens parthenocissus quinquefolia penstemon pallidus podophyllum peltatum polystichum acrostichoides prosartes lanuginosa rosa carolina sambucus canadensis sanguinaria canadensis solidago odora symphyotrichum novae-angliae thalictrum dioicum thalictrum thalictroides thelypteris noveboracensis tiarella cordifolia tradescantia virginiana trillium erectum trillium grandiflorum uvularia grandiflora viola labradorica viola pedata

And here's a list of species that I've gotten as seeds & sowed this past winter (OK, I did sow some trillium seeds that I collected in the local forest, so I confess that part of my original post was wrong!):

allium cernuum allium tricoccum aquilegia canadensis aralia nudicaulis asclepias incarnata bromus ciliatus campanulastrum americanum carex hystericina carex lupulina carex plantaginea carex platyphylla castilleja coccinea caulophyllum thalictroides chamaecrista fasciculata chamaelirium luteum claytonia caroliniana claytonia virginica clematis virginiana elymus canadensis elymus hystrix eupatoriadelphus maculatus eupatorium purpureum gaultheria procumbens gaylussacia baccata geranium maculatum hepatica nobilis var. obtusa hibiscus moscheutos impatiens capensis iris versicolor jeffersonia diphylla lespedeza capitata liatris pycnostachya linum sulcatum lobelia siphilitica lupinus perennis lysimachia quadriflora lythrum alatum mitchella repens monarda fistulosa penstemon digitalis penstemon pallidus phlox divaricata polemonium reptans polygonatum biflorum pycnanthemum virginianum sanguinaria canadensis schizachyrium scoparium sisyrinchium angustifolium solidago nemoralis sorghastrum nutans spiraea alba latifolia symphoricarpos albus symphyotrichum novae-angliae taenidia integerrima thalictrum dioicum thalictrum thalictroides tiarella cordifolia trillium erectum trillium grandiflorum uvularia grandiflora vaccinium angustifolium vitis riparia

And here's what I still haven't been able to track down:

Species apios americana asclepias quadrifolia cardamine concatenata carex laxiculmis clintonia borealis cypripedium reginae fragaria virginiana galearis spectabilis osmunda cinnamomea packera obovata rosa virginiana Viola ×palmata waldsteinia fragarioides

The Cyp and the Galearis are really long-term aspirations, probably never to be realized. If the rabbits ate them, I think I would do something I would later regret.

[NEWisc]

Wonderful list of plants! It's really exciting for me to see someone take on a project like this. I do hope that you will continue to post your experiences and some photos so we can all share this adventure with you; even if some of us can only do it vicariously.

I have some Apios americana; for a project like this I could spare a couple of young tubers.
http://plants.usda.gov/plantguide/pdf/cs_apam.pdf

For your long term Cyp aspirations, try this site:
olsplst
His seedlings are ethically produced - there's no collecting of plants from the wild. He grows them from seed in the lab. The seedlings are small and need a lot of care, but he produces a good product.

[amelanchier]

Originally Posted by NEWisc

I have some Apios americana; for a project like this I could spare a couple of young tubers.
http://plants.usda.gov/plantguide/pdf/cs_apam.pdf

I appreciate the offer! I'd be happy to send something in return. I'm getting a number of tree & shrub seedlings in 2 weeks, most of them destined for the utility land, & could easily spare some of these species:

Amelanchier canadensis
Prunus serotina
Sambucus canadensis
Cornus sericea

For your long term Cyp aspirations, try this site:
olsplst
His seedlings are ethically produced - there's no collecting of plants from the wild. He grows them from seed in the lab. The seedlings are small and need a lot of care, but he produces a good product.

Yes, I have come across that site before & definitely have my eye on it for a possible future splurge.

[TheLorax]

And here's what I still haven't been able to track down:

Species apios americana asclepias quadrifolia cardamine concatenata carex laxiculmis clintonia borealis cypripedium reginae fragaria virginiana galearis spectabilis osmunda cinnamomea packera obovata rosa virginiana Viola ×palmata waldsteinia fragarioides

I had some seed and spread it around to a few members here. I will have some seedlings of the Clintonia in a few months I could share with you and possibly some of the others. I can collect some Osmunda spore for you or divide a whole plant. Depending on how my Cardamine fairs this year, I might have more seed of that later on.

[amelanchier]

Originally Posted by TheLorax

I had some seed and spread it around to a few members here. I will have some seedlings of the Clintonia in a few months I could share with you and possibly some of the others. I can collect some Osmunda spore for you or divide a whole plant. Depending on how my Cardamine fairs this year, I might have more seed of that later on.

I'd be happy to take a few seeds or seedlings of the Clintonia or the Cardamine at some point when it's convenient for you. Thanks for offering! My local forest has cinnamon fern and I will certainly try to grab part of a fertile frond & try my hand at fern propagation this summer. Last year I tried to propagate New York fern & it didn't go well, got mold. I followed, or tried to follow, Bill Cullina's precise instructions, but I might have gotten the mix too moist.