Garden Experiments
For the love of gardening and wildlife habitat
The obedient plant is native to most of the U.S.. It produces lovely pale purple blooms in the fall when most things are shutting down. It's also easy to dig up and divide. Deer-resistant AND it can grow in clay soil - what's not to love about obedient plants? Like all native plants, it is particularly suited for the growing conditions of its …
Continue Reading about Obedient Plant – Physostegia virginiana
Summer is the time of the year that you’ll see the bright yellow flowers of partridge pea blooming along the side of the road or along streams and ditches. They will continue to flower from late summer to early fall. Creates Food for Pollinators & Wildlife This little plant packs a mighty punch when it comes to benefiting …
Continue Reading about Partridge Pea: Butterfly Host Plant & Pollinator Plant
Spring comes early in Mississippi. While my friends who live in states to the north continue to fight through snow and ice, I start to see the fresh green of new plant growth emerge from my lawn in mid to late-March. The early arrival of spring weather is one of my favorite things about living in Mississippi – the early respite from the cold, …
Continue Reading about Lyreleaf Sage – Mississippi Wildflower
Nature produces some interesting shapes, which is true for the flower of the buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis). Common buttonbush (or buttonwillow) produces these crazy-looking little spiky ball-like blooms of compound florets. They’re pretty cool, actually, and both bees and butterflies agree. I recently caught this skipper butterfly …
Continue Reading about Buttonbush for Wet Soils and Cool Blooms!
The windflower, also known as Carolina anemone or prairie anemone, produces small white flowers and can be found in fields, lawns, and open areas. It's scientific name is Anemone caroliniana and it is in the buttercup family (Ranunculacea). This wildflower blooms as early as February and may continue flowering until April. The flowers have 10 …
Right when the balloon flower, Platycodon grandiflorus, is about to bloom, it does its best impression of a balloon. It's so good at it, I have to work really hard to keep myself from trying to squeeze it and make it pop! In addition to having a really fun bud stage, this is a hard-working perennial. I love a plant you can put in the ground and …
Continue Reading about The Flower That Thinks It’s a Balloon
