Master Gardeners of Northern Virginia
Over 40 Years of Growing Gardens and Gardeners
This April marks the 150th anniversary of Arbor Day, the national holiday dedicated to planting trees, and it is the perfect occasion to discuss the importance of maintaining the health of trees in our natural areas and adding trees to our home landscapes.
Tried and True Native Plant Selections for the Mid-Atlantic
When planted en masse, the graceful, nodding flowers of Uvularia grandiflora (large-flowered bellwort) create a lovely visage when they peek from under foliage, which also is attractive, especially to white-tailed deer. Even if deer are not a bother, foliage may disappear as temperatures heat up. Depending on where it grows, this native perennial may act like an ephemeral and enter early dormancy.
Featured Glossary word: Wort
Tried and True Native Plant Selections for the Mid-Atlantic
This showy trillium, with flower diameters up to four inches, is a familiar spring native wildflower in the Mid-Atlantic* woodlands of the Blue Ridge Mountains and Appalachian Plateaus. The Virginia Native Plant Society named Great White Trillium Wildflower of the Year in 1996.
Featured Glossary word: Foliaceous bracts
Tried and True Native Plant Selections for the Mid-Atlantic
This small and delicate native ephemeral blooms early spring in rich, moist, open woodlands and meadows throughout the Mid-Atlantic Region. As tree canopies leaf out and temperatures rise, its foliage fades away and will not reappear until the next year. The Virginia Native Plant Society honored Spring Beauty as Wildflower of the Year in 1990.
Featured Glossary word: Ephemeral
Tried and True Native Plant Selections for the Mid-Atlantic
Lady Fern (formerly A. filix-femina) typically grows in wooded ravines, moist woods, and floodplains from southern New England to the southern United States. This native is common throughout the Mid-Atlantic Region, except for northern/northeastern Pennsylvania where it is mostly absent. The delicate and graceful appearance of feathery fronds gives rise to its name.
Featured Glossary word: Ramentum
Tried and True Native Plant Selections for the Mid-Atlantic
Why plant English Ivy, Vinca, or Liriope when you can enjoy this southern semi-evergreen gem? Fragrant white flower spikes in spring, later become camouflaged by a new flush of gorgeous, crisp green foliage. Leaves have a scalloped margin and take on an attractive mottling.
Featured Glossary word: Procumbent
Tried and True Native Plant Selections for the Mid-Atlantic
This slow-growing, but long-lived, large tree is indigenous to river banks and flood plains and makes an attractive ornamental specimen for large landscapes with its good fall color and distinctive exfoliating bark. It also provides excellent support to a variety of wildlife.
Featured Glossary word: Lanceolate
Tried and True Native Plant Selections for the Mid-Atlantic
Found throughout much of the Mid-Atlantic, this drought-tolerant, adaptable shrub grows in open woods, river and stream banks, and rock outcroppings. Ninebark provides seasonal interest with showy flowers, winter-persistent fruits, and papery bark, which molts in thin strips on older branches to expose reddish to light brown underlayers.
Featured Glossary word: Persistent
Tried and True Native Plant Selections for the Mid-Atlantic
While this native member of the Rose Family is found naturally in clearings, glades, woodland borders, and roadsides, it is a tough, adaptable tree that does well in urban settings. Its name refers to its long spines, which are said to resemble the spurs of a cock.
Tried and True Native Plant Selections for the Mid-Atlantic
This native of much of North America was once one of the dominant grass species of the tallgrass prairie. It is a good choice for erosion control on slopes and combines well with robust wildflowers such as butterfly-weed, purple coneflower, orange coneflower, and other native grasses.
Tried and True Native Plant Selections for the Mid-Atlantic
Sweet Birch, also known as Black or Cherry Birch, finds a home* on the cool north and east slopes of mountain woods. It shows off in fall with its golden-yellow color–among the best of the birches–and in winter with the sheen of its young bark. Its fragrant foliage and twigs were historically a source of wintergreen flavoring.
Some of our most visited pages, Tried and True Native Plant Selections for the Mid-Atlantic, get a new look! Besides an index that features a picture along with the Latin and common names of each plant, the individual species pages are arranged in a more compact and user friendly format.
A little over a year ago, we announced The Glossary Project and “Word of the Week.” As we worked to build a glossary of horticultural and botanical terms supplemented with photographs and diagrams, we shared our progress every Monday in 2021 with a “Word of the Week” (WoW) post. So, what happened to those posts in 2022 you may wonder?
Tried and True Native Plant Selections for the Mid-Atlantic
Christmas Fern is a forever plant, a lifetime fern with beautiful leathery lance-shaped fronds growing in arching, circular clusters from the crown. The common name is derived from its evergreen nature and from the shape of its pinnae which suggest Christmas stockings. This native is common throughout the Mid-Atlantic Region.
Tried and True Native Plant Selections for the Mid-Atlantic
This native holly of the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains displays lustrous evergreen foliage, which, along with its adaptability to varying light and moisture conditions, makes it a desirable alternative to finicky boxwoods. Wildlife favor its fruit and honey bees its nectar.
Tried and True Native Plant Selections for the Mid-Atlantic
Noted for beautiful, exfoliating bark and multiple trunks, River or Red Birch is an excellent food source for wildlife, supporting hundreds of species of moths, butterflies, and songbirds. It is commonly found in the Piedmont and Coastal Plain of the Mid-Atlantic Region from Pennsylvania to Virginia.
For many gardeners, reading about gardening and plants is the next best thing to working in their own garden or tending their containers or houseplants. If you are looking for a special book to give your favorite gardener this holiday season, consider one of the following Extension Master Gardener favorites.
Parents often feed their chicks even after they fledge, similar to what some human parents experience these days with their Millennial fledges. And while local parents have recently been confronting scarce supplies of paper products and frozen pizzas, these poor bird parents will tell you they’ve been suffering caterpillar shortages in this urban area for years.
Woody plants can be identified upon close examination of their bark. Variations in color and texture of bark, as well as other characteristics, provide helpful clues to a plant’s identity. Read on to learn more about bark.
Check out the lovely mint exhibit at the U.S. Botanic Garden!
Mountain mints are members of the Lamiaceae family native to the Americas. Like others in the mint family, they have square stems and a distinctive smell when crushed or brushed against. They generally grow to 3 feet in clusters spreading by rhizomes.
In 2008, I attended a lecture by Dr. Douglas Tallamy about how suburban gardeners can make a significant positive impact on our environment by using native plants. His talk was full of fascinating facts and examples. It spoke to my long-held concern for the problems facing the natural world , and gave me hope that I could actually make a difference just by how I gardened – something I loved doing.
Mechanical damage is the most preventable of bark injuries because it is often due to impatience, inattention, or ignorance. Careless maintenance practices can damage trees that take decades, not weeks, to grow. While we cannot control the weather, which can cause irreparable bark injury, we can control what plants we purchase and where we choose to locate them—the right plant in the right place increases its chances of surviving weather extremes. Enjoy the amazing photographs in this article on preventing mechanical and weather damage to trees.
Thinking of planting more trees? It's not too early to plan for next year!
Both Alexandria and Arlington support the idea of maintaining and increasing the tree canopy of our highly urbanized area, and offer residents assistance through either free or reduced rate young tree. While fall is an ideal time to plant trees, our local governments offer trees sales or deliveries in spring as well. One such program in Arlington requires application by January 7, so we are offering information to help you plan.
