The Unplantables

The thing that started my love of plants was my mother's sudden obsession with trees. You could say she planted the seeds. (Too good/predictable to let slide!) She, um... would look at trees while driving and try to identify them. I didn't like this, but it made me very curious as to what the big fuss was about.

The problem is, I became better at it. She's not a gardener. She loves wooded areas and wildlife and she knows her oak from a maple and she knows the common names to a few plants, usually invasive ones, but not much else. But that's neither here or there. The topic I'm trying to get to here is i-n-v-a-s-i-v-e-s. So many garden plants still available are unfortunately invasive. Not in the garden sense, but the ecological one. I love the forest, the swamps, the meadows, and I can't with a good conscience plant species that are ecologically damaging. Even ones that aren't (yet) in New Jersey, but I feel could be.

Like:

Photo courtesy of Monrovia

(Pennisetum alopecuroides)

I love that plant. I love the way it looks. So whimsical, light, and airy. It softens other more rigid plantings and looks great with wildflowers. What I don't love about it is that it potentially invasive. Although, I hear that purple fountain grass is fine to plant. It's an annual here anyway.

As far as I know, there is no good native substitute for this. I tried both white and pink muhly grasses (Muhlenbergia capillaris) last year, and although they're meant to be good to zone 7 and sometimes 6, only the largest clump that I found at a local nursery survived. They did incredibly well all summer, tripling in size, and then never came back. I attribute this to improper drainage, maybe. They weren't in a wet area, but maybe still too wet for these xeric beauties. Maybe I could get them to work if I had a sloped area in full sun (spoiler alert: I don't.).

Rip, muhly guys.

Another unplantable:

 Photo courtesy of Missouri Botanical Garden

(Duetzia gracilis)

That one is even on our unofficial state list that I refer to, which you can browse here if you really want to. Deutzia is a beautiful, beautiful shrub. I have a weakness for white flowers. The good news is native Clethra and Philadelphus shrubs can fill the white-flowering-shrub void. 

Last unplantable of the post:

Photo courtesy of White Flower Farm

(Clematis terniflora)

A classic. Sweet autumn clematis, or SAC. You drive me crazy, SAC. You are too pretty to be real, but so damn invasive. I see you strangling trees all the time. Luckily I know of an almost 1-for-1 native alternative. Clematis virginiana, or Virgin's Bower, looks almost identical to SAC. It also blooms around the same time. This will likely be an addition to my garden very, very soon. I hope it's just as vigorous as SAC, because I have a lot of fence to cover.

That's it for now. Here's an extra photo of my monster Supertunias. Note how they've started trying to take over the other plants. There is no escape.

I'm beyond impressed with their (borderline) invasive performance.