Spring discoveries, anxieties, and lessons

By Marsha Gebhardt

I am the lucky caregiver for a seven-month-old Missouri natives garden. As with children, seven-month-olds bring wonder, worry, and a need for much education and effort. It is not easy to walk the Missouri Evening Primrose path, but it is a walk filled with pleasure and purpose.

In late October, 2013, Native Landscape Solutions, Inc. installed a native landscape in my front yard. Simon and Monica Barker designed it after developing a plant list which included more than 200 shade plants (23 species), more than 400 sun-lovers (29 species), and about 10 bushes and trees. The transformation was very exciting, but all too quickly winter came. Five long months later, I started spending inordinate amounts of time bent over to look closely at the tiny beginnings of…what?! The adventure was beginning in earnest.

The discoveries. Everything is new and surprising. Oh, the Wild Geranium is so sweet.  Look how big the Missouri Primrose flower is! Here comes the fringe on my Fringe Tree! Did you see that?! That hummingbird was on the Monarda!

The anxieties. Is the mole/vole/squirrel going to destroy everything? Nothing is happening with the Beauty Berry, the Redbud, and the Itea…. Did they survive the winter? I don’t see any sign of the milkweeds. How about the Indian Pink? Should I water? Is this a “weed,” or an intended plant? Should I be seeing caterpillars and butterflies by now?

The lessons. I am so lucky to have a native plant learning lab in my front yard. It offers me daily ponderings: Why are plants called Coneflowers sometimes Echinacea, sometimes Rudbekia, and sometimes Ratibida? If the new growth of the Beauty Berry starts from the ground, should I leave the branches from the previous year standing? I study. I attend our Wild Ones meetings and yard tours, asking lots of questions. I frequently visit Missouri Botanical Garden (MBG) and Shaw Nature Reserve (SNR) taking pictures of labeled plants that are on my “plant list” so I can better recognize them in my yard. I study my books and catalogues. I practice the names of the plants as they appear. Why do I struggle to remember Celandine Poppy?

The experience of having this huge jump-start into native plants is not as intense as being a first-time parent, but there are similarities: the joy, the worry, the efforts to learn enough to properly support those in your care. There is another piece of the analog: These “babies” have the potential to change the world in tiny, positive ways. I am excited to be part of this adventure.

Here are some photos of the process. Click any image for a larger version.

Plant inventory
Below is the plant list Simon and Monica Barker developed and implemented in this yard. The list and design took the following into consideration:

• Sun and shade. There was a need for large numbers of both sun and shade plants. (The house faces North, so the west side of the yard receives considerably more sun than the east side, which is also heavily shaded by a large Sweet Gum tree.)
• Structure and “intention.” I wanted the design to be more naturalistic than structured, however since it is a front yard they recommended using some non-native plants that would “stay in place” and provide a sort of frame and suggestion of “intention.”

Editor’s note: Click a column heading to sort the list by that value.

Plant type	Latin Name	Common Name	Sun/Shade	Native or Not?	# planted	Size
Forb	Aquilegia canadensis	Wild Columbine	Shade	Native	10	1qt
Forb	Asarum canadense	Wild Ginger	Shade	Native	10	1qt
Forb	Aster oblongifolius	Aromatic Aster	Shade	Native	5	1gl
Sedges/Rushes	Carex albicans	Oak Sedge	Shade	Native	10	1 qt
Sedges/Rushes	Carex euburnea	Cedar Sedge	Shade	Native	10	1qt
Sedges/Rushes	Carex muskingumensis	Palm Sedge	Shade	Native	10	1 qt
Sedges/Rushes	Carex pennsylvanica	Common Oak Sedge	Shade	Native	10	1 qt
Sedges/Rushes	Carex rosea	Curly-styled Wood Sedge	Shade	Native	38	plug
Perennial	Dicentra spectabilis	Bleeding Heart	Shade	NOT	1	1gl
Perennial	Dicentra spectabilis 'Alba'	Bleeding Heart	Shade	NOT	5	1gl
Forb	Echinacea pupurea	Purple Coneflower	Shade	Native	15	1qt
Forb	Echinacea pupurea 'White Swan'	Coneflower	Shade	Nativar	5	1gl
Grass	Elymus hystrix	Bottlebrush Grass	Shade	Native	10	1qt
Grass	Elymus villosus	Silky Rye	Shade	Native	38	plug
Forb	Geranium maculatum	Wild Geranium	Shade	Native	5	1qt
Forb	Heuchera villosa 'Autumn Bride'	Hairy Alum Root	Shade	Cultivar	15	1gl
Forb	Mertensia virginica	Bluebells	Shade	Native	10	1 qt
Fern	Onoclea sensibilis	Sensetive Fern	Shade	Native	5	3gl
Forb	Polemonium reptans	Jacob's Ladder	Shade	Native	2	1qt
Perennial	Polygonatum 'Variegatum'	Solomons Seal	Shade	Nativar	6	1 gal
Fern	Polystichum acrostichoides	Christmas Fern	Shade	Native	5	1qt
Forb	Senecio obovatus	Squaw Weed	Shade	Native	5	1qt
Forb	Spigelia marilandica	Indian Pink	Shade	Native	5	1qt
Shrub	Amorpha canescens	Leadplant	Sun	Native	1	1 qt
Forb	Amsonia ciliata	Thread-leaved Blue Star	Sun	Native	1	1gl
Forb	Asclepias tuberosa	Butterfly Weed	Sun	Native	5	1qt
Forb	Aster laevis	Smooth Aster	Sun	Native	38	plug
Forb	Aster oolentangiensis	Sky Blue Aster	Sun	Native	38	plug
Forb	Baptisia australis	Blue Wild Indigo	Sun	Native	3	1gl
Grass	Bouteloua curtipendula	Sideoats Grama	Sun	Native	38	plug
Ornamental Grass	Calamagrostis ar. 'Karl Foerester'	Feather Reed Grass	Sun	NOT	10	1gl
Shrub	Ceanothus americanus	New Jersey Tea	Sun	Native	1	3gl
Forb	Coreopsis palmata	Prairie Coreopsis	Sun	Native	10	1qt
Forb	Echinacea pallida	Pale Coneflower	Sun	Native	38	plug
Forb	Eryngium yuccifolium	Rattlesnake Master	Sun	Native	3	1qt
Forb	Glandularia canadensis	Rose Verbena	Sun	Native	10	1qt
Forb	Helianthus occidentalis	Western Sunflower	Sun	Native	5	1qt
Forb	Monarda bradburniana	Woodland Bergamot	Sun	Native	38	plug
Forb	Oenothera macrocarpa	Missouri Evening Primrose	Sun	Native	10	1qt
Forb	Penstemon digitalis	Foxglove Beardtongue	Sun	Native	38	plug
Forb	Phlox paniculata	Summer Phlox	Sun	Native	4	1qt
Forb	Pycnanthemum tenuifolium	Slender Mountain Mint	Sun	Native	3	1qt
Forb	Ratibida pinnata	Gray-head Coneflower	Sun	Native	10	1 qt
Forb	Rudbeckia missouriensis	Missouri Black Eyed Susan	Sun	Native	10	1qt
Perennial	Salvia nemerosa 'Blue Hill'	Hardy Sage	Sun	NOT	6	1gl
Perennial	Salvia nemerosa 'Caradonna'	Hardy Sage	Sun	NOT	6	1 gl
Grass	Schizachyrium scoparium	Little Bluestem Grass	Sun	Native	10	1 qt
Perennial	Solidago 'Golden Baby'	Goldenrod	Sun	Nativar	10	1qt
Grass	Sporobolus heterolepis	Prairie Dropseed Grass	Sun	Native	30	1qt
Perennial	Stachys 'Grandiflora'	Stachys	Sun	NOT	2	1qt
Perennial	Stachys 'Hummelo'	Stachys	Sun	NOT	8	1qt
Forb	Zizia aurea	Golden Alexanders	Sun	Native	38	plug
Flowering Tree	Amelanchier canadensis	Shadblow Serviceberry		Native	1	15 gl
Flowering Tree	Rhamnus caroliniana	Indian Cherry		Native	1	7gl
Small Tree	Asimina triloba	Paw Paw		Native	2	5gl
Shrub	Buxus 'Green Gem'	Boxwood		NOT	7	3gl
Shrub	Callicarpa americana	American Beauty Berry		Native	2	3gl
Flowering Tree	Cercis canadensis	Redbud		Native	1	clump
Shrub	Hydrangea arborescens	Smooth Hydrangea		Native	3	3gl
Shrub	Hypericum prolificum	Shrubby St.John's Wort		Native	1	2gl