ASIAN PERSUASION

There comes a point in every gardener‘s development when certain, seemingly inconsequential co-incidents begin to reveal themselves as the very deliberate patterns that they are. It’s a slow process, but eventually all the disjointed observations made both directly in the garden and indirectly through text begin to weave together, and things that seemed unrelated suddenly, well, relate. Take for example the two vines Campsis radicans and Lonicera sempervirens. While unrelated, both attract hummingbirds with their crimson, trumpet shaped flowers, and (a seemingly unrelated characteristic) both are prone to aphid infestations.... often with accompanying ant shepherds. While making assumptive jumps in logic often bite me in the butt down the road, I think it would be safe to say that these small critters act as an additional incentive to the hummingbirds (who are also small insect feeders). If I had to guess I would say whatever price the plants pays in loss of vigor, pays off in a greater likelihood of pollination.


Aphids on Campsis radicans and Lonicera sempervirens


To get back to my intended point, the more plants I get to know, there’s been a few larger global pattern that have stood out to me not only because of their scale, but mainly because I can't seem to make all the pieces fit together. The one that bugs me the most is the occurrence of closely related species on the eastern coast of Asia, and North America, but nowhere in between (most of the time). Additionally, while I know there are plenty of exceptions that could prove the contrary, the pacific coast Asian temperate plants often have flowers that are larger, more colorful, and just generally more showy then their North American counterparts. The pictures below will speak for themselves.



LEFT: Hydrastis canadensis - Goldenseal (North America)
Zone: 4-8
Purchase from: Amanda's Garden, Companion Plants, Everwilde Farms, Lazy S'S Farm, Prairie Moon Nursery

RIGHT: Glaucidium palmatum - Japanese Wood Poppy (Asia)
Zone: 5-7 (sources are over the place with this one, but given its native range this seems to be the most logical)
Purchase from: Plant World Seeds





LEFT: Symplocarpus foetidus - Skunk Cabbage (North America)
Zone: 3-7
Purchase from: Amanda's Garden, Lazy S'S Farm

RIGHT: Lysichiton camtschatcensis - White Skunk Cabbage (Asia)
Zone: 6-? (not much info out there on this guy)
Purchase from: Rareplants.eu (Could only find a European source for this)
Also check out the landscape this guy is native to... STUNNING!!!





LEFT: Anemone virginiana - Tall Thimbleweed (North America)
Zone: 3-9
Purchase from: Amanda's Garden, Everwilde Farms, Naturally Native Nursery, Niche Gardens, Prairie Moon Nursery, Shooting Star Nursery

RIGHT: Anemone hupehensis - Japanese Anemone (Asia)
Zone: 5-9
Purchase from: Cultivars and Hybrids widely available, Straight species more difficult to come by. Closest to straight species I could find was at Special Plants Nursery





LEFT: Arisaema triphyllum - Jack-In-The-Pulpit, (North America)
Zone: 3-9
Purchase from: Amanda's Garden, American Meadows, Companion Plants, Everwilde Farms, Forest Farm, Lazy S'S Farm, Forest Farm, Naturally Native Nursery, Niche Gardens, Prairie Nursery, Prarie Moon Nursery,Rare Exotic Seeds, Romence Gardens, Shooting Star Nursery, Toadshade Wildflower Farm

RIGHT, TOP: Arisaema candidissimum - Pink Flowered Cobra Lily (Asia)
Zone: 6a-9b
Purchase from: Plant Delights Nursery, Hillside Nursery, Broken Arrow Nursery, Brent and Becky's Bulbs, Digging Dog Nursery, Check out more availability here: Plant Lust

RIGHT, BOTTOM: Arisaema sikokianum - Snow Rice-cake Plant (Asia)
Zone: 5a-9b
Purchase from: Plant Delights Nursery, White Flower Farm, Sunlight Gardens, Lazy S'S
Farm Nursery, Check out more availability here: Plant Lust





LEFT: Dicentra eximia - Fringed Bleeding Heart (North America)
Zone: 3-8
Purchase from: American Meadows, Lazy S'S Farm, Plant Delights Nursery, Lazy S'S Farm, Niche Gardens, Outsidepride.com, Romence Gardens, Shooting Star Nursery

RIGHT: Dicentra (Lamprocapnos) spectabilis - Showy Bleeding Heart (Asia)
Zone: 2-8
Purchase from: Deer-Resistant Landscape Nursery, Lazy S'S Farm, New Garden Plants, Rare Exotic Seeds, Romence Gardens, Sooner Plant Farm, Willow Creek Gardens





LEFT: Hamamelis virginiana - Common Witch Hazel (North America)
Zone: 3b-8
Purchase from: Amanda's Garden, New England Wetland Plants, Nasami Farm, Cold Stream Farm, Forest Farm, Lazy S'S Farm, Greenwood Nursery, Plant and Gnome, Prairie Nursery, Shooting Star Nursery, White Oak Nursery

RIGHT: Hamamelis mollis - Chinese Witch Hazel (Asia)
Zone: 5-8
Purchase from: Many cultivars and parent to many hybrids, but difficult to find straight species. The only 2 sources I could find were both European, Crocus, Burncoose Nurseries



LEFT: Jeffersonia diphylla - Twinleaf (North America)
Zone: 4-9
Purchase from: Amanda's Garden, Companion Plants, Everwilde Farms, Gardens in the Wood of Grassy Creek, Lazy S'S Farm, Nasami Farm, Prairie Moon Nursery

RIGHT: Jeffersonia dubia - Asian Twinleaf (Asia)
Zone: 4-7
Purchase from: Plant Delights Nursery, Hillside Nursery, Keeping It Green Nursery, Lazy S'S Farm





LEFT: Nelumbo lutea - American Lotus (North America)
Zone: 4-10
Purchase from: Everwilde Farms, Flora Exotica, Rare Exotic Seeds, Horizon Herbs

RIGHT: Nelumbo nucifera - Sacred Lotus (Asia)
Zone: 4-10
Purchase from: Flora Exotica, J.L. Hudson, Rare Exotic Seeds


Don’t get me wrong, I love our natives. And I think our “American equivalents” with their simple beauty are somehow more self-possessed than their ostentatious Asian cousins. On the other hand, there is no arguing that the Asian species seem to have been tailor-made for the more obvious beauty of the garden. But when you zoom out a bit contextually, ignoring the superficial aesthetic differences between the two groups, and start to look at things more broadly in terms of our earth’s natural history, certain questions start to arise that aren’t easily answered. And while I’m sure there is some evolutionary biologist or botanist out there that has long ago looked into these things, I have yet to find the answers for myself.

I suppose it’s easiest to start with the facts, or at least the facts as we currently understand them. While vascular plants have been around for a bit (approximately 400 million years) flowering plants, and flowers as we know them came on the scene fairly recently (between 130-125 million years ago) somewhere in present day eastern China. While no actual fossils have been found, it’s believed that the first blossoms would have very closely resembled those of the magnolia family (Magnaoliacea). I can’t help but think if would have looked an awful lot like the flowers of 2 of our native trees: Tulip Tree (Liriodendron tulipifera) and Cucumber Magnolia (Magnolia acuminata), with petals that aren’t too far removed visually from their leafy ancestry (mostly green with only a few streaks of color at the base of the petals to attract insects).


Flowers of Liriodendron tulipifera and Magnolia acuminata


If we look at this evolutionary history in the context of geologic time, specifically Pangea, the former supercontinent, obvious questions begin to arise regarding these plants current distribution. To start with Pangea began breaking apart approximately 200 million years ago, well before the first flowering plants appeared, and by the time they started to diversify at least 70 million years later (a VERY rough estimate), whatever land that might have connected the two continents would have been long gone.


Red areas of eastern Asia and North America indicate the general area where closely related plants can be found on either continent. In addition to those shown above this list includes species in the genus Asarum, Castanea, Catalpa, Chionanthus, Cornus, Diospyros, Disporum, Hepatica, Iris, Lilium, Malus, Polygonatum, Thalictrum, Viola,... and the list goes on.


So assuming all these things to be true, how then did we end up with closely related flowering plants thousands of miles away from each other on two different continents separated by deserts, mountains, tundra, and oceans? Add to this the complexity of multiple ice ages (advancing and retreating glaciers) and the picture only becomes more complex.


TOP: Showing the frequency and number of ice during the past 450,000 years
BOTTOM: Maximum extent of continental ice sheets during the zenith of the last ice age


Aside from the general similarities of relative continental and latitudal location, there is no clear singular answer to the question of how these plants reached their current distribution (or at least none I can find). On the other hand at least the aesthetic differences between the two groups does have (at least seemingly) a fairly logical explanation. Nearly all of northeastern North America, at least during the last ice age, was beneath the Laurentide ice sheet, so a great deal of the genetic diversity of plant populations of this area would have been lost with the advance of the ice, and gradually repopulated by plants to the south once the glaciers began to retreat, approximately 20,000 years ago. Northeast Asia on the other hand remained largely untouched by advancing glaciers, leaving the genetic diversity of these areas intact. This, coupled with the drastic changes in topography and resulting diversity of microclimates of eastern Asia allowed for much more advanced speciation that simply wasn’t possible in northeastern North America.

So the next time you have Asian plant envy just remember that these plants have had tens of thousands if not millions of years more to continue to evolve and diversify in situ, time that the plants of northeast North America simply haven’t had. What people also fail to realize, or conveniently forget is that evolving alongside these Asian beauties was an equally diverse number of foreign disease causing invertebrates, microbes, and viruses. Pests and diseases that their closely related North American equivalents have not had the luxury of spending millions of years evolving defenses for, which, not so surprisingly, often leaves the North American plants vulnerable and defenseless against such pathogens when they are introduced to the Americas. So when these Asian cousins are brought over, at some point, an individual will carry with it a hidden disease or pathogen that has the potential to, if not literally, at least functionally wipe out an entire species (a “great” example of this would be chestnut blight, caused by Cryphonectria parasitica that decimated Castanea dentata aka American Chestnut).



So rather than seek these foreign plants out do your best to appreciate the simple elegance of our natives, and explore the beauty of eastern Asian plant diversity through pictures only. But, if you can't help but give into temptation try to grow these Asian species from seed first, as seeds alone are much less likely to carry disease than entire plants (or at the very least, know where your plant material is coming from and be vigilant when you plant these exotics in your garden!).

WELCOME TO... THE TWILIGHT ZONE... UMMM WAIT, I MEAN MY GARDEN

There was a time, early on in my plant obsession, when I believed that gardening had an endgame. That someday, when I had achieved my idealized vision, I would stop, step back, take a deep breath, and say "done." and while I am still motivated by, well, now what is admittedly a much less idealized vision, I realize that it will forever be a moving target that is just beyond the mind's horizon. Gardening, in many ways, is (borrowing a line from William Cullina) "sowing the seeds of your own immortality." For at some point, all garden's will lose their gardner... and then what? To garden blindly, is to run in place as fast as you can go and then be surprised when you haven't gotten anywhere. You blink and suddenly you arrive at the end of a pointless race spent weeding, planting, deadheading, and fertilizing and come to the sad realization that you have accomplished next to nothing, and when you no longer have the capacity or resources to fuss and primp your work disintegrates before your eyes.

The "and then what moment" luckily happened early on (relatively) for me, around my early middle school years when I was going through a bit of a miniature rose phase.... yes, I know, tasteless, but I embrace it as part of my evolution as a plant geek. It was mid spring and I had just set my miniature rose de jour out in the garden.'Stars 'n' Stripes', with flowers that looked like they were plucked right from that scene in Alice in Wonderland where the Red Queen's guards were sloppily painting the roses (although that might have just been in the Disney version, I never did read the book); white with bright red streaks, about as gaudy and unnatural looking as one would hope a flower to be.


Rosa x 'Stars N' Stripes' - Stars N' Stripes Miniature Rose
This little guy is more of a pet than a plant so consider yourself warned.
Zone: 6-10
Purchase from: Heirloom Roses, David Austin Roses

After a week or two of being outside in a humid New England summer, the ill-fated rose promptly contracted blackspot, and dropped nearly 90% of it's leaves. I, being the nurturer that I am, gently dug him up, potted him, and begun a daily spray application of some home made baking soda concoction that was suppose to help with the black spot. It did help, and eventually new leaves took the place of the ones that were lost, and in a week or two, my baby was back to his full and bushy self. At this point I started to lay off the spraying.... and in a few days the blackspot immediately came back. I went through a few months of this... I'd coddle the rose back to a respectable state, stop coddling, the blackspot would come back, and I'd go back to coddling. By the time September rolled around and I was on the fourth or fifth cycle of blackspot I took a good hard look at the sad sickly little rose, with a few blooms teetering out on the end of bare stems, and just thought "WHY?" Why does it make sense to grow such a plant? One that, as soon as you put it out in the garden, not only does it not thrive, but needs constant intervention to simply survive. Needless to say, at the end of September I put the good ol' Stars N' Stripes' out of its misery, and it was laid to rest in the good ol' compost pile.

The older I've gotten the less and less tolerance I've had for coddling, as I've come to realize that establishing diverse and self sufficient plant communities takes time, especially when these communities include species that have life cycles that operate over decades and sometimes even centuries. My goals as a gardener have moved beyond the mere superficial display of ostentatious blooms, evenly clipped hedges and well manicured lawns that will cease to exist as soon as I leave the garden to its own devices. It is my hope that with careful research and planning I can engage and enhance the diversity of endemic natural communities around my home, and re-establish persistent and resilient plant populations that contribute to the richness and dynamism of these interwoven relationships. And while I may fail at my lofty and nebulous ambitions, it is my hope that the populations I help to re-establish will, rather than being a symbol of my own mortality, be the closest thing to immortality I can achieve, lasting through the generations, weaving and embedding themselves into the place I call home. So when no one is around who remembers me, and my name is forgotten, my memory will continue to quietly grow and thrive along side the plants I grew so many years before.

PENNSYLVANIA SEDGE, AND OTHER WAYS OF UNDERSTANDING THE UNIVERSE

Carex pennsylvanica - Pennsylvania Sedge, Oak Sedge
Zone: 4-7, although I've seen plenty of 3-8
Purchase from: Classy Groundcovers, Everwilde Farms, Greenwood Nursery, Morning Sky Greenery, Prairie Nursery, Prairie Moon Nursery, Santa Rosa Gardens, Shooting Star Nursery, Yellow Springs Farm

Well, at least the botanical universe anyway. In the last few years I've become enamored with Pennsylvania Sedge (Carex pensylvanica), but more importantly, its one of the first plants that made me realize that rarity and beauty aren't one in the same. This was one of the many native species I was first introduced to through the pages of a book, but unlike most of the species I read about, was pretty stunned to find this one growing in abundance along the shady-ish edges of the roads and highways around my home.

C. pensylvanica is one of those few gems that's at its best when its a bit neglected, growing in the in-between where its either a bit too shady, a bit too dry, or a bit too infertile for other plants to thrive. After seeing it where its happy, when it makes soft gently flowing drifts of vibrant green (or warmer slightly duller hues by the end of the season) it occurred to me that most of us landscape professionals are missing the point behind these and other naturally occurring scenes we try to recreate in our gardens, parks, and whatever other manufactured landscape might fill this list of three I'm failing to complete. And yes, we might be able to temporarily fabricate some poor imitation, but it is almost always temporary. What we fail to grasp with all our irrigation, fertilizers, and whatever other noxious chemicals we throw at our yards in a sad attempt to beautify them (I think I need to figure out some way to get around the list of three thing.....) is that these scenes exist as either a result of deficiency or of excess, and are sustainable and persistent not because of some nutritionally balanced, moderately moist, well drained soil, but usually because these environments have either too little or too much of something that suppresses the growth and vigor of other, less specialized species. While these natural scenes of, uuummm, let's call them deficit or surplus, aren't always the most diverse, they are almost always visually compelling.

In fact when we condition our soils, irrigate, and spray clouds of fungicides and pesticides in order to create the perfect garden, what we're actually doing is creating a perfect environment for generalists plant species, aka weeds. From an evolutionary perspective these weedy species have picked the opposite route of C. pensylvanica and in a fight to the death in an "ideal" garden setting the weeds will always win out. So if you've ever wondered why it's always the plants you don't want that always seem to out-compete the plants you want, its probably because you're creating the ideal environment for the unwanted guys; a fabricated moderate in-between that doesn't really exist in nature. The sad truth is, in an attempt to create a garden where everything grows well, the weeds will always grow best. So yes, while the desired plants may grow lushly for a bit while we hack back the thugs that pop up around them, it's only a matter of time before the thugs win out.

And so, in an attempt to embrace my own yards deficiencies, I'm converting the ratty lawn covered leach field at my parents into what will hopefully be a healthy, self sustaining colony of C. pensylvanica (update to follow). Given that the species is notoriously difficult to start from seed, and genetic diversity is never a bad thing in a population, I may have stopped at a few places along the highway and "borrowed" a few individuals to add to the colony to-be (I know, I know, I'm a terrible person). In my defense, like I said before, C. pensylvanica is nearly impossible to start from seed, and since local stock is a nearly impossible to come by, the only way I could get locally adpated plants was to, well...., collect locally adapted plants (side note.... am I going to hell?, jk, kinda, not really,... but I'm not, right?). And to allow for easy reporting to the local authorities I have documented my questionably legal sampling on my crappy camera phone. Anyway, here's hoping I don't go to jail for digging up what is to most people an otherwise boring looking grass.... but even if I do, TOTALLY worth it!.... I think?