Sculptural Joe-Pye weed emerges proudly from a cascading border of “fireworks” goldenrod and woodferns. Photo by Ken Moore.

By Ken Moore

I enjoyed assisting artists place their sculptural art among the plants of the North Carolina Botanical Garden this past weekend.
In her quiet enthusiasm, Greensboro-area sculptor and horticulturist Carolyn Owen focused my attention with: “Now Ken, there’s a worthy sculpture right there.” She was referring to a single stemmed Joe-Pye weed, Eupatorium fistulosum, standing majestically along the entry walkway.

It made me reflect on past year’s sculpture shows; effective placements of the sculptures amongst the diverse vegetation encourages onlookers to become more aware of the plants. We begin to appreciate the sculptural and artistic qualities of the plants themselves. I so appreciated Carolyn’s channeling my attention to the art of nature during this day focused on human-created art.

I’ve always admired the artistic arching lines of the rough-leaf goldenrod cultivar, Solidago sempervirens, “fireworks.” This vigorous growing perennial usually presents itself as a cascading hedge-like border plant. Now and then, you’ll spot one that has escaped the crowd and is standing tall, simulating a single rocket-burst of fireworks for which this particular variety is aptly named. It stops me in my tracks every time I pass it.

A single stem of fireworks goldenrod draws attention to its spectacular aerial burst of tiny flowers. Photo by Ken Moore.

Another stop-in-your-tracks sculptural plant is woolgrass bulrush, Scirpus cyperinus. A sturdy clump will capture your eye as you walk along the coastal plain habitat boardwalk.

You will be well-rewarded if you visit the garden several times this season to admire the sculptures and to note how the character of each one changes as the plant surroundings change with fall’s progression. You’ll find as much to admire in the sculptural qualities of the plants as in the engaging sculptures sited throughout.

If you visit the garden this Saturday morning, the official beginning of the Sculpture in the Garden 2009: Celebrating Life Forces show, which runs through Nov. 15, you’ll have a double experience. The Botanical Garden also is hosting its annual fall plant sale on Saturday morning. Bird, butterfly and pollinator lovers will find this a Mecca of native species for planting during this traditional Fall Is for Planting season.

Butterfly lovers will find five species of milkweed and several lesser-known climbing milkweeds that are essential food plants for butterfly larva. There are more than 150 species of native perennials, trees, shrubs and ferns, and most of them provide the specific fruit, seed, nectar or leaves upon which our native insect pollinators and birds rely.

Woolgrass bulrush is just one of many plants of sculptural proportions seeking attention at the N.C. Botanical Garden. Photos by Ken Moore

Two of my favorite plants continue to be cardinal flower, Lobelia cardinalis, and coral honeysuckle, Lonicera sempervirens, because they attract hummingbirds. I have the coral honeysuckle on a trellis at the edge of my deck and cardinal flowers in pots sitting in trays of water, ensuring that hummingbirds fly in for close-up viewing, particularly now, as they are stocking up on nectar before their long early-fall migration.

Now is the perfect time to plant those special plants you will need for the bird and insect visitors you hope will return next year.

Don’t miss this year’s one-day biggest selection of native plants, and while doing it take your first of several nature art walks along the pathways to view the sculptural arts of humans and nature.

Dave Otto, organizer of the monthly Friends of Bolin Creek walks, and I had considered rescheduling due to predicted rain. Impulsively, I suggested we proceed as planned and enjoy exploring nature in nature’s conditions.

Some hardy individuals showed up at Wilson Park appropriately attired and we charged off to the Adams Tract trailhead kiosk where we borrowed one of the laminated trail map/tree description guides, a nice amenity provided for trail walkers.

Once in the woods our pace frequently slowed to a standstill as various ones paused to take “closer looks” or pose some kind of “I wonder” idea.

Noticeable as we walked up through the mixed forest of pines hardwoods was an extensive shrub cover of invasive exotic Chinese privet, Ligustrum sinense, and two species of Russian olive, Eleagnus umbellata and evergreen E. pungens, threaded together at ground level with Japanese honeysuckle, Lonicera sempervirens, and high above with the tree strangling Chinese wisteria, Wisteria sinensis. We all expressed willingness to help out whenever an organized workday is scheduled to remove these undesirable exotics.

Sadly missing from our group on this wet day were young people. We see so much more when led by their eager minds and alert eyes. So we challenged ourselves to see with the eyes of children Our eyes were sharpened by someone pointing to clusters of pale brownish-yellow and purplish pencil-thin stems, six to 12 inches tall, rising from the leaf litter beneath some of the beech trees. Beech-drops,
Epifagus virginiana, are blooming now. The barely open purplish flowers at the top are sterile, but the closed (cleistogamous) flowers lower down are fertile and will produce seed. This little leafless plant is parasitic on the roots of beech trees and it doesn’t seem to harm the giant trees above. Some of the beech drops were far away from the beech trunks, emphasizing to us how far reaching are the surface roots of trees.

Though stopping frequently to admire the fall colors and big trees, our attention kept returning to the forest floor. The mossy patches were interrupted with evergreen leaves and lush green rosettes scattered about as if carefully planted in miniature gardens. A special discovery was a mossy ledge covered with the trailing evergreen partridge berry, Mitchella repens, with a single brilliant-red berry still hanging on. We thought back to the spring when the beginning of that little berry was the base of two small, fused-at-the-base, white trumpet-shaped flowers.

The rainy morning passed quickly and we thanked one another for showing up to share the woods ramble. Personally, I’m looking forward to the winter months. The forest is very special then; without all those leaves, one can really see and study the forest landscape.

Note: In some future Flora columns, I will announce occasional woods walks. You will be welcome to join me; and if you don’t have a kid of your own to bring along, borrow one from a friend. We’ll discover a lot more with the young ones leading us.

Right now I celebrate the native trumpet vine, Campsis radicans. Some folks call it trumpet creeper or cow-itch vine. There are likely other names associated with this common weedy vine with bright-orange, tubular flowers that are guaranteed to attract hummingbirds. Keep an eye out for the occasional peach- or yellow-colored variations. The flowers seem to hang in the air, singly or in clusters, at the tips of long stems reaching down from varying heights, be it low fence posts or abandoned barn chimneys.
One of my favorite specimens is a vine on a utility pole on Weaver Dairy Road between Carol Woods and Timberlyne Shopping Center. That vine-covered pole looks like a mop-headed giant having a bad-hair day when it’s covered with those orange flowers reaching out all around.
Equally dramatic is the trumpet vine-covered privet hedge in front of Peck and Artisans Studio between Auto Logic and Akai Hana restaurant in Carrboro. Owner Tim Peck is sophisticated enough to allow it to creep onto his building.
I am fortunate to have one that sprouted at the base of the tall cedar post on which my mailbox is mounted. It’s now reached the top, and is sending orange flowers out from way up high as well as having some lower-reaching stems to tickle the postman at the letter box.
My very favorite urban specimen trumpet vine is the robust one along the front driveway on Rosemary Street just opposite Padgett Station. I enjoy watching it produce flowers for weeks during these long, hot, dry, summer days.
The trumpet vine provides a special winter season bonus. Don’t prune it back in the fall. Leave the bare stems reaching out into the winter landscape for architectural interest with the four-to-seven-inch-long brownish, dry, beanpod-like fruit hanging at the tips. In early December, keep a keen eye on those seed pods. This past winter, I enjoyed watching goldfinches hanging onto those pods energetically extracting the papery winged seeds from within those barely open pods. If you feel the need to prune the stems back, hold off until late February.
To see more drought-tolerant native vines worthy of cultivation in the home landscape, visit the vine-covered arbor along the south side of Coker Arboretum along Cameron Street. In addition to the trumpet vine, you’ll find the red tubular flowers of coral honeysuckle, Lonicera sempervirens, and the orange-red flowers of cross-vine, Bignonia capreolata, both of which also attract hummingbirds. In contrast, you’ll find blue-flowered clusters of the re-blooming native wisteria, Wisteria frutescens. Watch closely. Hummingbirds most likely will also go for the nectar in the fat clusters of blue flowers, because those flying nectar-lovers aren’t restricted to tubular red and orange flowers.
If you aren’t lucky enough to have these native vines occurring naturally for you, the local nurseries carry one or more of them, including named cultivars. Southern States in Carrboro has a great cultivar of trumpet vine as well as the other vines described here. Also check out Niche Gardens, which usually has native vines in stock. These dramatic vines are too satisfactory not to have one or more growing in your garden.

By Ken Moore

We’ve finally had some killing frosts and winter is beginning to settle in. This is the season we are accustomed to being the hosts of garden mums, Chrysanthemum x morifolium, with their neon-like orange, yellow and red colors, as well as the quieter colors of pink and white of Sasanqua Camellia, Camellia Sasanqua, cultivars. Also noticeable, more often smelled than seen, is the very fragrant, very tiny, flowered evergreen Sweet Olive, Osmanthus x Fortunei.

So it is often a surprise and a joyful relief to happen upon something different in flower this late in the season. For years, I have enjoyed the several specimens of Climbing Aster, Aster carolinianus, (Ampelaster carolinianus) that have remained in full flower after killing frosts through the Thanksgiving holidays. This is one of our native asters; it occurs infrequently in our Southeastern coastal plain and more commonly further south down to Florida. It is somewhat surprising that it is such a hardy and sturdy grower in our Piedmont, a bit beyond its natural occurrence. It does not seem to pose a threat of spreading rampantly in gardens and in the wild because its characteristic late flowering doesn’t find many pollinating insects buzzing around to assist it in setting viable seed.

I have difficulty adequately describing the flower color. The buds of each flower head begin as a rosy pink before opening to shades of lavender and blue. Over the years, I have become aware that I tend to be more appreciative of plants in bud than in full flower. I’m curious why the anticipation of a flower can be more rewarding than the open flower itself – but I encourage you to focus as much on flower buds as the flower.

It will definitely extend your number of days of watching and appreciating an individual plant.

A gardening friend recently called my attention to a particularly dramatic specimen of Climbing Aster along the pathway of North Boundary Street over in Chapel Hill. It’s worth a visit. This plant is a mound at least six feet wide and almost as high. Climbing Aster does in fact climb, almost like a vine. If it doesn’t have a trellis on which to climb, it will simply make a big mound by climbing on itself. At the Botanical Garden, the giant specimen behind the aquatic tanks is scrambling up the high lattice fence behind it, and elsewhere another specimen is happy to climb even higher by hanging its angled woody stems on the limbs of an old cedar snag.

Last week at the Garden, I also noticed the native Coral Honeysuckle, Lonicera sempervirens, still sporting clusters of little red tubular flowers, a happy find, I’m sure, for any chilly hummingbird who’s late moving on southward. The Coral Honeysuckle routinely flowers off and on during mild weeks throughout the winter. This native red honeysuckle is frequently seen in local gardens, but the Climbing Aster is seldom seen. It’s time to plant one in your garden and place it out front so others can enjoy it.

By Ken Moore

Our roadsides are so filled with flowering wild plants that it frustrates me to focus on just one or two for description in The Citizen.

Right now, I have to celebrate the Trumpet-creeper. Some folks call it Trumpet Vine or Cow-itch Vine. There are likely other names associated with this common native weedy vine, of which the bright orange tubular flowers are guaranteed to attract nearby hummingbirds. Keep an eye out to find occasional peach- and yellow-colored variations. The flowers seem to hang singly or in clusters in the air at the tips of long stems reaching down from varying heights, be it low fence posts or abandoned barn chimneys.

One of my favorite specimens is a vine on a utility pole on Weaver Dairy Road between Carol Woods and Timberline Shopping Center.

That vine-covered pole looks like a mop-headed giant having a bad-hair day when it’s covered with those orange flowers reaching out all around. Equally dramatic is the Trumpet-creeper-covered Privet hedge separating Auto Logic and Akai Hana restaurant in Carrboro. I am fortunate to have one that sprouted at the base of the tall cedar post on which my mailbox is mounted. It’s now reached the top, and is sending orange flowers out from way up high as well as having some lower-reaching lengths to tickle the postman at the letter box.

That vine-covered arbor along the south side of Coker Arboretum is now colorful, with red, orange and blue flowers of North Carolina native vines worthy of cultivation in our home landscapes. They are all easy to grow, will put up with our typical droughts, and the tubular flowers of the red Coral honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens), orange-red flowers of Cross-vine (Bignonia capreolata) and orange flowers of Trumpet-creeper (Campsis radicans) all attract hummingbirds. The blue-flowered clusters of the re-blooming native wisteria (Wisteria floribunda) most likely will also have hummingbirds visiting, because those flying nectar-lovers never learned to visit only tubular red and orange flowers.

If you aren’t lucky enough to have these native vines occurring naturally for you, the local nurseries carry one or more of them, including named cultivars. If they don’t have them, request them. They are too satisfactory not to have one or more growing in your own garden.

Fire station Holly tree update
The people assembled in the Town Hall board room last Thursday for a second public discussion of the Homestead Road Carrboro Fire Station site seemed genuinely pleased to have been part of a real planning and design work session. Much serious discussion and energetic moving around of little paper models of building components engaged all participants in creatively thinking together.

In addition to town staff, fire chief Travis Crabtree and some of his crew, Mayor Mark Chilton and board member Randee Haven-O’Donnell were in attendance during the entire afternoon. Those present appreciated that among the participants were some with design expertise. Several thoughtful scenarios that met the program needs and saved several of the big trees on the site were developed.

We were pleased to learn at the beginning of the session that new site considerations indicate that the big 200-year-old Holly on the edge of the site can be avoided during construction of the fire station. In addition, the tree was given a relatively good bill of health by an arborist with the Bartlett Tree Company, with an evaluation that the tree is worth saving.

Indications are that Ken Newell and Associates will come back with some design recommendations reflective of the many ideas developed by the individuals working together at the gathering. It is hoped that preserving some of the other big trees on the site can be included in the design to provide immediate significant shade as well as provide mature landscape features that are reflective of the character and heritage of the old farm homestead that used to be there on Homestead Road.

So a sentiment has been voiced that the 200-year-old Holly tree can be saved and perhaps some of the other half dozen or more mature specimen trees can be preserved within the design. We are appreciative that the town board and staff provided more opportunity for citizen input. We now have a responsibility to remain active to help the town ensure that whatever specimen trees are designated for preservation on the site are not destroyed or injured during the many long months of site preparation and construction.