August 2025

Kollar Nursery Newsletter - August 1, 2025

Several weeks ago, we had the pleasure of hosting the Wild Ones of Baltimore for a small tour of the property. As an introduction, we described our landscaping approach as "controlled chaos", which is another way of saying "messy". It is by necessity that we arrive at this situation, because as gardeners, we would all love our properties to be as neatly organized as Longwood Gardens, Mt. Cuba or Cylburn Arboretum, but nature intervenes, sprinkling seeds and spores a little bit of everywhere. Some of the more adventive species, like wild petunia (Ruellia carolinensis), blue mistflower (Conoclinium coelestinum), Joe Pye Weed (Eutrochium) and common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) are both beautiful and are pollinator favorites, but warrant control, either by cutting back or by deadheading prior to letting them go to seed.

Gardening is a joy and a healthy endeavor, but it won't always be easy. Competition and succession happen. Our dense stand of Virginia bluebells dies back by late May and if we don't over plant with something like blue lobelia, Ruellia, or Rudbeckia, it looks a bit unkempt. We love the early to late summer resplendent presentations of cow parsnip, prairie dock (Silphium connatum), joe pye weed, and thoroughworts (Eupatorium spp), (and so do the pollinators) but we have learned to remove the seed heads before they mature in order to constrain them from coming up in our pots and gardens in even greater profusion. Even if you have a small lot, you can grow some of these larger, more bold species if you have a backdrop of forest, a fence or some other prominent feature.

Each species and their habitat create their own challenge. Our first milkweed garden gradually disappeared (milkweed uses up resources in an area and the rhizomes "walk" to adjacent spaces) and evolved into goldenrod (Solidago), garden phlox (Phlox paniculatum) and Silphium connatum. It's still changing, but we let it evolve, in part out of fascination with what it might become.

In one area, wild ginger (Asarum canadensis) looks beautiful until mid-July when a hole in the canopy of the hickory above lets the full intensity of the sun blast through. Although it wilts if subjected to those conditions for too long, it comes right back after a good watering. In another area that used to be considered perfect with nice, gentle shade created by redbuds and serviceberry, better adapted "weeds" such as Rudbeckia, garden phlox and Conoclinium are taking over and must be removed in oder to maintain the habitat. Think about how important actual environmental stability and optimal conditions are the next time you see a naturally occurring stand of ginger, trillium, Solomon's seal or any other wildflower in the woods (free of invasive weeds or competition). The habitats that we create in our gardens may not perfectly reflect the ideal conditions for the species that we plant, or the species that depend upon them, but we are giving them the opportunity to occupy spaces that they would not otherwise have.

The monarchs arrived in numbers this week, as did 4 species of swallowtail (pipevine, zebra, tiger and spicebush). The pollinators in general have been dazzling in numbers. Native bees and wasps, butterflies, sphinx moths, hummingbirds; the more native plant species you have the more you will be rewarded by the bounty of common, rare and unusual "wee beasties" (I know, I'm stretching the definition a bit). Remember that although the monarchs need the milkweeds for the purpose of feeding their larvae, once the caterpillars metamorphose into the adults, they begin their migration  to Mexico where they will overwinter. And for that they will need fuel: nectar from goldenrods, Joe Pye weeds, asters and the many other summer and fall-blooming wildflowers that are available to plant.

The following are just a few of the plants that we still have available that can bring more pollinators to your garden:

Aster oblongifolius                 Baptisia spp.                              Aster novae-angliae

Eupatorium perfoliatum         Conoclinium coelestinum         Echinacea purpurea

Joe Pye Weed spp.                Solidago odora                          Eurybia macrophylla

Rudbeckia spp .                      Solidago shortii 'solar cascade' Helianthus angustifolius

Silphium spp.                          Agastache foeniculum               Callicarpa americana