Native Illinois Flower Garden
Many people view the sight of a robin as a sure sign that spring has arrived in Illinois. For me it's when green sprouts of columbine and nodding onion start to appear in the garden. Many times these plants will begin to pop up even before the last snowfall. Fortunately they don't seem to be too sensitive to frost.
My patch of columbine blooms early and goes to seed rather quickly. The picture to the left shows the plant during the first week of June as the purple petals are beginning to drop off leaving behind green seed pods. Later in the month when the pods dry out a good stiff wind (or a little human intervention) will send seeds scattering about resulting in new sprouts popping up throughout the summer.
The light purple flowers of nodding onion last longer than columbine, usually well into July, before going to seed. The photo on the right was taken in late August and shows the petals dried and receded revealing the small, black seeds inside. Although these seeds scatter easily the nodding onion does not seem to be nearly as prolific as the columbine. Besides nice flowers nodding onion has a scent that is said to discourage the wee creatures who enjoy snacking on my plants.
Purple Coneflower seems to be a favorite snack among the local rabbit population. The photo on the left is coneflower that has returned from last year. Apparently the year-old plants are not as tender as the new sprouts which tend to have to heads eaten off the flowers before they get very tall. Fortunately, coneflower is easy to spread by cutting off the dried flower heads in late fall and smashing them into the soil. So next year I'll either have a much bigger coneflower patch or the rabbits will start inviting friends over.
One of the later bloomers in my garden is butterfly weed. It usually produces clusters of orange flowers starting in late July and keeps blooming into the fall. The plant gets its name from the fact that migrating butterflies often stop to feast on the butterfly weed pollen during their autumn flight to Mexico. I have seen a few butterflies and even a humming bird.
Summer is on its way out by the time Goldenrod begins to flower. If you look closely at the photograph on the left you will see an example of what I call "bi-level goldenrod." The yellow flowers in the back are about eighteen inches tall while the parts of the plant in front that are not blooming yet are about six inches tall. This "bi-level goldenrod" is not some rare species of plant it's just another favorite rabbit snack. The short parts in front have been chomped down by bunnies. They will still bloom, but it happens a few weeks later.
Natural prairies are consumed by fire every so often. This chars the plants, but doesn't kill the root system because they go so deep. In fact, the burning is actually beneficial because it adds nutrients to the soil. This presents a problem for me as a native flower gardener. I would like to go one-hundred percent natural, but don't think setting fires around my house is the smartest thing to do. As a compromise I cut all the plants down to a height of about four inches in the late fall and sprinkle a fine layer of fireplace ash over the soil. This seems to work well since the plants keep coming back in the spring.