Posted on by Maryland Grows
Want to support nesting songbirds? Shoot for a minimum of 70% native plant cover in your landscaping, and 94% would be better, according to a recently published study by the University of Delaware’s Desirée Narango and others. For their study,…
Read MoreCategory: Lawn & Garden Tags: Author: Sara Tangren, Native Plants
Posted on by Maryland Grows
Black-eyed Susans are easy to grow and will attract many pollinators to your garden. The dark center or eye of the flower head holds 250 to 500 individual flowers, and to pollinators, each one of these is a shallow nectar…
Read MoreCategory: Lawn & Garden Tags: Author: Sara Tangren, black-eyed susans, Insects, Native Plants, ornamental plants, Pollinators, Wildlife
Posted on by Maryland Grows
Q: I planted seeds of what I thought was a milkweed (Asclepias). The plants look somewhat like milkweed, but they are close to 4 feet tall with no sign of flower buds to confirm their identity. There are leaf buds…
Read MoreCategory: Lawn & Garden Tags: Author: Sara Tangren, Butterflies, butterfly garden, monarch, Native Plants, ornamental plants
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Elymus hystrix got its common name, Bottlebrush Grass, by having seed heads in the shape of a bottle-washing brush. Both the seed heads and the stems are coated with a white wax, making this a gorgeous ornamental grass for your…
Read MoreCategory: Lawn & Garden Tags: Author: Sara Tangren, Native Plants, ornamental plants
Posted on by Maryland Grows
You may know Yarrow as a great garden plant for attracting small pollinators and beneficial insects. But there’s a lot more to it than that! Yarrow, Achillea millefolium, has been used as a medicinal for a very long time. No,…
Read MoreCategory: Lawn & Garden Tags: Author: Sara Tangren, Native Plants, sustainable gardening, Yarrow
Posted on by Maryland Grows
The wet, gray days at the end of winter seem like they may never end. But this is actually the perfect time of year to get out and appreciate those mysterious ‘plants’ encrusting everything from sidewalks to treetops – the…
Read MoreCategory: Lawn & Garden Tags: Author: Sara Tangren, lichen, lichens
Posted on by Maryland Grows
Chinese silvergrass, Miscanthus sinensis, is a beautiful ornamental grass. In its native range, it inhabits disturbed areas and meadows. Here in North America, it escapes cultivation to occupy similar types of places, and, given enough time it can displace native…
Read MoreCategory: Lawn & Garden Tags: Author: Sara Tangren, invasive plants, invasives