Garden Experiments
For the love of gardening and wildlife habitat
Find plants and flowers for gardens with wet or moist soils. Wet soils can be challenging to plant, but some plants like moist soils. Find the perfect one for your garden.
When I reach my limit with the bleakness of winter and cold temperatures, the tiniest pink striped flowers start to poke their heads out of lawns and ditches. To me, the Virginia spring beauty (Claytonia virginica) is a harbinger of spring and warmer weather. These wildflowers bloom just before the false garlic – so they fill up the lawns and …
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I took this photo on a hot, steamy late August day on the banks of the Mississippi River near Vicksburg, Mississippi. The name of this plant just makes me smile. Fog fruit - I can just picture the fog rolling in from the river and resting around this little plant. Some people also call this plant frog fruit - just to be confusing, I …
Despite the name, you’ll find this ‘weed’ in more and more gardens. Joe Pye Weed is a good garden staple for attracting pollinators from bees to butterflies. I planted it last fall and this summer the blooms have been prolific and I have seen all sorts of bees, wasps, and flies feeding on the nectar. Joe Pye weed flowers are gorgeous. The stem …
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A few years ago, I acquired a new plant that has quickly become one of my favorites - Stokes Aster (Stokesia laevis). These stunning purple-blue flowers simply captured my heart. I really like incorporating native plants and flowers into my garden. They are easy to grow and very hardy AND they attract butterflies and hummingbirds. (Read my top …
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In late spring and early summer, scentless mock orange (Philadelphus inodorus) is covered with bright white, 4-petaled flowers with a yellow center. These deciduous shrubs make a great privacy screen and are easy to grow. They can reach a height of 12 feet, so prune them back in summer, just after the flowers are over. (The blooms are produced …
If you've got soil that stays wet most of the time, then spotted jewelweed is the plant for you. It's native to most of the lower 48 states and prefers shade to part-shade - even better! In its native habitat, you'll find it alongside roads in ditches that stay wet most of the time, alongside a river or stream, in wetlands or boggy places, and …
Continue Reading about Spotted Jewelweed: Touch-me-not plant
