Tag Archives: native plants

Will there be any Native Plants for Our Children and Grandchildren to See?

Posted
Filed under Raccoon Creek State Park, PA

I’m now in my 3rd read of Wild America by Roger Tory Peterson and James Fisher. They’ve made me think, and think beyond. When I opened our Media Library of hundreds upon hundreds of images, this one here leaped out to me.

Fisher was visiting the USA for the first time in that year, 1955. Peterson, America’s famed birder, was born here, and he describes and shares his displeasure with the abundance of alien plant species that their trip around the United States revealed.

The Georgia Native Plant Society often spotlights this problem in their Facebook posts. Bradford Pears, alien Privets, alien Wisteria, even the much beloved Buddleia (Butterfly bushes) will soon rival Kudzu and the other infamous alien problem plants. Garlic mustard so displeased me, that in early Springs, I’d walk Petra on those Pittsburgh Frick Park trails in Pennsylvania, pulling hundreds of those invasives, hundreds.

I love native wildflowers, and more and more I don’t get to see them, for aliens muscle them out, and those aliens don’t, they just don’t sustain our native wildlife, be they bee, chipmunk or goldfinch.

Here I am, looking closely at what’s growing trailside at Raccoon Creek State Park in southwestern Pennsylvania. It bothers me that some of what I’m examining is alien, originating in Asia, Europe, south of the border or elsewhere. I wonder if this mix here in America will remain as it is, or will our children see less of our natives and more of these alien plant species in the future?

Me? I puzzle as to why this problem is not presented to our kids, in our schools?

Jeff

Waiting for Vividly Colored Eastern Black Swallowtail Butterflies?

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Filed under Eatonton, GA, Swallowtail

Male Black Swallowtail Butterfly photographed by Jeff Zablow in the Briar Patch Habitat in Eatonton, GA

With February nearly half over, it’s understandable that we are waiting for them. Them? Well, waiting to again enjoy visits from such as this one, an Eastern Back Swallowtail butterfly. His vivid colors appeal and draw us closer to him.

Just the thought of celebrating such visits has us on the alert at our garden centers, native plant markets and even when we’re fortunate enough to be visiting the garden of an accomplished friend Parsley, rue and their parsley types will attract Eastern Black Swallowtails, entice them to lay their eggs on those houseplants. Their caterpillars? Gorgeous. Their own beauty? Find the words.

Butterflies & Blooms Briar Patch Habitat, Eatonton, Georgia, just 7 hours north of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Jeff

An American Native: Coneflower

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Filed under Flowers Loved by Butterflies, Lynx Prairie Reserve, Adams County, OH, Native Plants and Flowers, Wildflowers

Coneflower photographed by Jeff Zablow at Lynx Prairie Reserve, Ohio

Doug Tallamy’s book urged us to stop putting in alien plants, don’t purchase non-American plants for your home gardens. is argument? Compelling. Real. In 2013 that’s exactly what we did. Our new Pittsburgh home gardens, front and side filled with native plants from the northeastern USA. At the time, Sylvania Natives was an outstanding natives nursery . . . and it was in Pittsburgh, 1/2 miles from our home.

In went native plum trees, Pagoda Dogwoods, Obedient plant, Asclepias (common milkweed), Clethra, Cut-leaf Coneflower, Oakleaf hydrangea, Ironwood, Senna, Hawthorne, Cornus Florida, Tulip Poplar and more, so much more.

I was skeptical about one or two of these ‘natives.’ I’d seen Purple Coneflower many, many times in those big-box home improvement stores, Lowe’s and Home Depot, and I’d seen it in several nurseries that stocked alien cultivars. What’s was the truth of Purple Coneflower?

In 2017 I joined a stellar group of folks at Adams County, at the southern tip of Ohio. Angela, Dave, Joe, Barbara Ann A”H and Flower. There, in the OMG!! Lynx Prairie Preserve, there, I found it! Purple Coneflower, native and Spectacular!

Coneflowers. Native and a favorite of butterflies, bees, Ruby-throated hummingbirds and I’m sure more, so much more. Easy to set-in, hardy and a fine, fine investment for you Wall Street types.

Jeff

You Ever See A Giant Swallowtail?

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Filed under Eatonton, GA, Swallowtail

Giant Swallowtail butterfly at rest, photographed by Jeff Zablow at "Butterflies and Blooms in the Briar Patch," Eatonton, GA

My house in Eatonton, Georgia is for sale. Its backyard has many beds, full of Georgia native plants. Georgia butterflies seek native plants that are their hostplants. Hostplants are native plants that offer sustenance and shelter for butterfly caterpillars.

We have Hop trees and Hercules Club bushes/trees in our yard. They are the hostplants for the butterfly shown here, the Giant Swallowtail butterfly.  Drawn by our Hop trees and Hercules Club and Rue, we see many Giants each year! This one was seen very, very early in the morning at the Butterflies & Blooms Briar Patch Habitat in Eatonton.

Mention these huge butterflies to most Georgians, and you come to be surprised, for most tell me that they’ve never ever seen a Giant Swallowtail butterfly.

My Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania natives garden attracted 2 or3 Giant Swallowtails each year. I was ecstatic to see them, and I felt very fortunate to have been visited by such extraordinary Giants.

Most Georgians confess that they’ve never seen one. Have you ever seen one?

Jeff

Backwoods Beauty

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Filed under Browns, Piedmont NWR, GA

Appalachian Brown Butterfly photographed by Jeff Zablow in Piedmont National Wildlife Refuge, GA

Most of our favorite butterflies visit us, in our gardens, parks, roadside botany and fields. Those are the butterflies we know and enjoy. They accept our invite to come and nectar, on our coneflower, zinnias, fruit trees, buddleia and Mexican sunflower.

Show your neighbor/friend a photo you took of a less well known butterfly, and don’t they usually say, “I didn’t know we had these in _____________________ ( pick your state ).”

This is one of those “We have these in Georgia?” butterflies. The Appalachian Brown butterfly. They don’t know or care that you have a spectacular garden full of natives and nectar pumping plants.

This is none of the above, rather it is a Backwood beauty, found in swamps and wet meadows. This immediate one was seen in Piedmont National Wildlife Refuge in middle Georgia.

I’m long on record that I love subtle browns, Love those ‘eyes’ and being kind of a march to your own drummer guy, appreciate such stand alone self-confidence.

Jeff