Photos from the morning tour. All CC-BY ND credit to Carrie Butcher. Click for larger image.
Signs at the Pollinator Paradise Garden, Hamilton Ontario CanadaThe morning tour crew– volunteers, Master Gardeners and native plant enthusiasts.Group shot from the evening tour. Everyone who registered (all ten) attended.Prairie Dock / Silphium terebinthinaceum bloomed for the first time in 2022, at ~12′ tall. This plant was grown from seed.A shot of the huge leaves of the prairie dock.Baptisia australis, a near-native, planted on a whim in 2019 and thriving. Many seedlings. Coreopsis tripteris / Tall Coreopsis. A Carolinian species, rare in Ontario. A prolific re-seeder.Solidago rigida / Stiff goldenrod. Too tall for the space and blooms very late. Probaly will replace with S. rugosa or S. nemorosa Liatris spicata / Gayfeather / Blazing Star developing seedheads.
From the original 2015 planting. Growing with Asclepias tuberosa, which blooms a little earlier. Verbena stricta / hoary vervain
Blooming for the first time in 2022. Planted in fall of 2021.Verbena stricta / Hoary vervain Agastache nepetoides / Yellow Giant Hyssop. A. scrophularifolia would have been a better choice for this sunny spot. Still, it’s doing well.Physocarpus opulifolius / common ninebark showing spent flowers. This has been a real stalward for the garden.Another shot of the ninebark.Deschampsia cespitosa / Tufted Hair Grass. The carex couln’t hold its own amid the wild strawberry. These clumping grasses can, although they would appreciate a moister site.Zizia aurea / golden alexanders, planted in spring of 2021 and doing well in the front border. Allowing it to re-seed.Scrophularia marilandica / Figwort. Planted in fall of 2021, thriving in August 2022. Prefers more shade but a very adaptable plant.Rudbeckia fulgida / orange coneflower. Not as resilient as the R. hirta (wants more moisture) but it persists.Solidago rigida, blooming. Good candidate for a chelsea chop…Aquilegia canadensis / wild columbine. Allowing this one to seed around to find its happy spots.Geranium maculatum / spotted geranium. A real workhorse. Oenothera missouriensis (syn. O. macrocarpa) sundrop native to southwestern US. A surprising delight in this heavy, northern clay. Diervilla lonicera / northern bush honeysuckle. Doing well in dry shade under the elderberry– what more to say?Asters, probably S. ericoides / heath aster but others have moved in. Sky-blue probably. The aster patch has been moved to the back fence.Vernonia missouriensis / Missouri ironweed. This is a white sport of the usual purple. Probably will be replaced with the ‘normal’ one.Amsonia tabernaemontana / Eastern Bluestar. Near native. Surviving in conditions too dry for its liking. One of the earliest bloomers in the garden.This is a cultivar of Phlox divaricata. Will be replaced with the straight species. Blooms in May under the Elderberry.Echinacea purpurea. Not-really-native poster flower for native plants gardens in Ontario. Still a great, healthy plant in the front border.Ratibida pinnata / Gray-headed praire coneflower. Native to the far southwest of Ontario. A prolific re-seeder in this garden.Sambucus canadensis / Common elderberry. Lots of berries for the neighbours and birds. Not thriving, but doing better with pruning.Sambucus canadensis / common elderberry. Really late bloomSchizachyrium scoparium / little bluestemAsclepias tuberosa / butterfly milkweed. The original planting, still going strong.Senna hebecarpa / wild senna. A carolinian species native to the far southwest of Ontario. Likes it here and wants more space.Physostegia virginiana / Virginia False
Dragonhead aka obedient plant. Aggressive, needs root pruning twice a year.Unsure of this. Probably the Heliopsis helianthoides / sweet oxeye / false sunflower. A bit of a pesky re-seeder in this garden.
