evaluating native plants at mt. cuba center, with george coombs

Illinois has a wonderful biodiversity. It is the habitat to many species of plants that harmoniously live and adapt to each other. This article will provide a Complete List Of Illinois Native Plants. Jump right in and lets start this journey!

The study of native plants, the ecosystems of South Carolina, and sustainable landscaping practices form the focus of the South Carolina Native Plant Certificate Program. A partnership between the South Carolina Native Plant Society and the South Carolina Botanical Garden, this program gives participants insight into South Carolina’s rich and complex botanical heritage, and offers ways to bolster the states’ biodiversity. This program began in July 2015, and to-date over 300 participants from all over the state, from all walks of life, and of all different ages, have enrolled in the program.

If you said Heuchera, you’re right. Perhaps you’re going to reshuffle some shady beds this spring, and know that Heuchera, with their great foliage, can help make garden pictures work–but wonder which ones, and how best to use them. I invited George Coombs, trial garden manager at the must-visit Mt. Cuba Center in Delaware, with 50 acres of native-plant display gardens and 500 acres of natural land, back to the radio show to help make the best choices and grow them to perfection.George knows from Heuchera, having trialed 83 varieties side by side (the exhaustive results are in this pdf). “I say to people, ‘I’m doing Consumer Reports for plants,'” he explains. Though there are countless varieties on the market, many are duplicative in appearance or just not distinctive. “I can honestly say that when it

Native bees species (like the mining bee above on the wildflower boneset) don’t get as much attention, and other insect pollinators even less, but without our wild pollinators we’d enjoy far less biodiversity, both in plants and animals—because they’re key to the food web, which would otherwise break down. To get to know some of these unsung heroes and the critical roles they play, I spoke with Heather Holm, author of the book “Pollinators of Native Plants,” which teaches us how to identify and attract and appreciate them in our gardens and beyond. (Enter to wi

Read along as you listen to the June 26, 2107 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).evaluating monarda with george coombs of mt. cubaQ. We’ve talked before on the show about your past trials of other native plants like Baptisia and Heuchera—and native plants are the mission of Mt. Cuba, which is both a garden for visiting and a research center, right?A. Mt. Cuba Center is actually a former du Pont family estate, the Copeland family estate, and they left their estate to become a public garden. What kind of sets us apart from others in the area is that we focus on native plants. We broadly define our nativity region as the Eastern United States.We do a lot of work promoting plants in a display capacity in the gardens itself, and then we also do research like what I do, trying to help

10 AM-4 PM: Margaret Roach garden open, plus Broken Arrow Nursery plant sale, Copake Falls; suggested donation at door to the Garden Conservancy, but no reservation required (and no donation to just shop the plant sale). (Directions to the garden, in tiny Copake Falls, NY, 12517, will be on the Garden Conservancy Open Days website.)native plant events with dan jaffe9:30 AM-11:00 AM: “For Us and Them: How Native Plants Can Feed Us and Pollinators,” with Dan JaffeWant to create a garden that is inviting, and delicious, for “us and them” — people, and pollinators alike? Join Dan Jaffe, co-author of Native Plants for New England Gardens and longtime ecological horticultur

George Coombs managed the Trial Gardens at Mt. Cuba Center native plant garden and research facility in Delaware. In past conversations, George–who in 2019 was promoted to Mt. Cuba’s Director of Horticulture–has helped me make our way through the daunting selections of Heuchera, Monarda, and Baptisia. George and the trial garden team spent three years evaluating 94 different sun-loving selections of Phlox for eye and butterfly appeal and mildew resistance, plus 43 shade-garden choices, too.  Read along as you listen to the February 26, 2018 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).phlox q&a with george coombsQ. Whenever one of your reports arrives I feel very lucky to

We talked about matching plants to habitat, of course, but also why evaluating their habits–do they spread by rhizomes, or are they clumpers?–is key, too, among other considerations. Not all goldenrods (or milkweeds, or fill in the blank) are created equal).Read along as you listen to the June 3, 2019 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Spotifyor Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).getting to know native plants, with uli lorimerMargaret Roach: Congratulations on your recent change of job, Uli, and-Uli Lorimer: Thank you. Yes, it’s very, very exciting times.Margaret: Before we go on kind of a virtual walk among the wildflowers together, tell us about the new job and the new name for the former New England Wild Flower Society.Uli: Sure. The organization made the first moves to change the name a

That’s my rex begonia vine up top, Cissus discolor, one of my recent victories in last winter’s experiments in finding the right offseason storage spot for the right plant.Read along as you listen to the Sept. 24, 2018 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).begonia boliviensis and eucomisQ. We’ve have our first taste in the Northeast of fall in some recent days. So I thought it was a good time to sort of talk about bringing things in and getting ready, even if it’s not time urgently yet. We had a question from Amy, who wrote in

Plus, various butterflies use the foliage as their host plant, and bumblebees find the flowers particularly delightful.George Coombs of Mt. Cuba Center in Delaware is one gardener who has not overlooked baptisias, the so-called false indigos, at all.In fact, he has planted and evaluated 46 selections with genetics from 11 different species as part of the trials conducted at Mt. Cuba from 2012 to 2015, and when the full-color report on those side-by-side assessments arrived recently in my mailbox fro

Landscape architect Thomas Rainer is co-author with Claudia West of a new book called “Planting in a Post-Wild World” that inspires us to design plantings that function like naturally occurring plant communities. It also instructs how to manage them, not doing painstaking and often impractical garden maintenance, plant by plant, as in traditional horticulture. (Enter to win a copy of the book in the comments box below.)Washington-based Thomas Rainer teaches planting design at George Washington University, and has designed landscapes for the U.S. Capitol grounds; the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial; and The New York Botanical Garden, as well as more than 100 private gardens. He is also a keen—and daring–home gardener.I welcomed him back to my public-radio show and podcast. Read along as you listen to the Sept. 21, 2015 edition of my

Yes, plants die, even in the care of experienced gardeners (and others just need to be gotten rid of). Plants we’ve known, but no longer grow for one reason or the other, is the subject today of a conversation with my friend, Ken Druse.Ken needs no introduction except to say he’s the author and photographer of 20 garden books, including most recently “The Scentual Garden,” about S-C-E-N-T. He joined me via Skype to talk about all the plants we’ve loved before (including Phlomis russeliana, above; photo from Wikipedia). Plus: Tell us in comments at the bo