I hope you're well and bearing up as well as possible at home under the daily onslaught of coronavirus news. I’m going to keep writing about gardening, because I hope it can be a solace during this difficult time.
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| Glory of the snow is opening this week |
So, happy spring! In addition to starting a cutting garden and siting new native pollinator plants around the garden pond, I’m planning to shoehorn two new native flowering shrubs into the garden this spring: buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis) and coralberry (Symphoricarpos orbiculatus).
I’ve been wanting to try both of these shrubs for a while now. They keep showing up on lists of native plants valuable to wildlife. Buttonbush, according to the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Plant Finder app, has June flowers that are “very attractive to hummingbirds, butterflies, and other insect pollinators.” The common name comes from the globe-shaped flower heads, which are distinctive and adorable. Long styles extend from the petals, making the flower head look ready for space travel (The style is the stalk that connects a flower’s ovary to the stigma, the part that receives pollen; together the three make up the pistil).
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| Doesn't this buttonbush flower head look like it belongs on the Jetsons?-photo Jim Evans |
I got my little buttonbush from the plant swap run by our local plant conservation society, Native Plant Trust. Last September, when the Trust’s director of horticulture checked the offerings, he separated local ecotypes—native plants that grow naturally in our area—from North American natives from farther away. I was embarrassed to see that some of the perennials I’d contributed didn’t fit into this most desirable group.
Even so, I got to take home some choice plants from other members’ gardens, including the 4-inch buttonbush in its little pot. It’s not showing any leaf buds yet, but buttonbush reportedly leafs out late in spring.
If this buttonbush proves viable, I’ll need to plant it in relatively wet soil, which is scarce in my yard. The best spot would be the lowest lying area opposite the vegetable beds, where water pools when I drain the fish pond. Buttonbush needs at least part sun, so I’ll site it as far as possible from the shade of nearby evergreens. It can grow to 12 feet high. It may be a good choice for screening the recently installed chain-link fence.
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| A possible space for a buttonbush |
Coralberry, on the other hand, needs room to run. It’s described as a “dense, suckering” shrub that “spreads by runners to form impenetrable thickets in the wild” and does well in “open woodland areas where it can be allowed to spread.”
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| Coralberry loaded with fruit-photo Severnjc |
That sounds like the area in the back corner of the yard where we took down a big hemlock. There’s a steep slope down to the back fence where coralberry could have plenty of space. I’ve ordered a bareroot plant to set in this spring.
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| Buying bareroot avoids the plastic pot-photo from Gardening Know How |
I’m looking forward to seeing it covered with coral-red berries. If all goes well, that corner could be a bird paradise in a few years. By then, I hope I can invite guests over to see it.
Stay strong!
Becky
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