Around the Grounds Archives - Nature Center at Greenburgh

April 2, 2026April 2, 2026 Cathy Ludden Around the Grounds, Native Plants

Before the Bulbs

Is it spring yet?

For many gardeners, the earliest signs of spring are snowdrops, crocuses, and daffodils. But if you know where to look, you can find blooming flowers — and the little critters who need them – even before those bulbs come to life. One of the earliest bloomers in the Northern half of the US also happens to be one of our most interesting and valuable native shrubs: Salix discolor, or the amazing Pussy Willow!

In February, Pussy Willows are already producing the adorable, fuzzy flowers that give them their common name. This type of flower has no petals or fragrance, and is known as a “catkin” from the Dutch word “katteken,” which means kitten. Just as soft to the touch as they look, the silvery catkins are popular in spring flower arrangements and delight children of all ages.

**Pussy Willows start blooming in February**

**The soft hairs on catkins protect the inner flower parts from cold and snow**

Over the next month, the catkins will gradually open revealing numerous string-like filaments. Pussy willow shrubs are dioecious, meaning the shrub holds either male or female flowers. On the male plants, the filaments hold quantities of pollen that give the catkins a bright yellow appearance. The female flowers look more like spiny caterpillars than kittens, so for ornamental purposes, the male shrubs are preferred.

**By mid-April, the catkins have opened and leaves begin to emerge**

Pussy Willows typically are large, multi-stemmed shrubs or small trees, topping out between 15 and 25 feet. Unlike most trees, however, they can benefit from being severely pruned, or “coppiced,” to keep them shorter. Cutting back the branches after blooming will generate multiple slender new stems, increasing the fullness of the shrub and the number of catkins within easy reach in the following season.

Humans have used the flexible young branches of willows for basket-weaving, arrows, rustic fencing, and many other purposes for hundreds of years. One of the most important traditional uses of willow bark was medicinal. Willow bark tea contains salicin, a pain-killer and fever reducer, now synthetically produced as aspirin.

**Pussy Willow’s natural form is a large, multi-trunked shrub, but it can easily be pruned as a hedge or privacy screen**

By far the most important use of Pussy Willow in our gardens, however, is to support native pollinators and other insects. As one of the very earliest plants to bloom, Pussy Willow provides nectar and pollen for early-emerging native bees. In fact, the Andrina family of native bees are willow “specialists” – they must have willow pollen to feed their young. The nectar of willow catkins also supports many other insects in early spring when food is especially scarce.

**A tiny ant finds what it needs on Pussy Willow**

All summer long, the leaves of Pussy Willow feed the caterpillars of more than 450 species of moths and butterflies — second only to oak trees in providing caterpillars for baby birds! Willow is a host plant for a huge number of our most spectacular butterflies: Viceroy, Red-spotted Purple, Mourning Cloak, and various hairstreaks, fritillaries, and dusky-wings.

**Mourning Cloaks are just one of hundreds of butterfly species that depend on willows**

In addition to Pussy Willows, there are at least 90 species of willows native to the US, and 20 or more native to the Northeast. Unfortunately, there are also many non-native species sold in the nursery trade, including the well-known weeping willow (Salix babylonica), that do not provide the same value to our native birds and insects. Be sure to check the scientific name before you add a willow to your landscape. Pussy Willow (Salix discolor), Black Willow (Salix nigra), Shining Willow (Salix lucida), and Silky Willow (Salix sericea) are all good native shrubs, but Pussy Willow is likely the easiest to find.

Pussy Willow is a great choice for sunny wet areas, including rain gardens. It is an ideal solution for a soggy lawn area where rainwater tends to collect. All willows have extensive root systems that seek out water, so they should not be planted near a septic system, but they are perfect near a stream or pond or anywhere you want to stabilize a slope eroded by stormwater.

Deer will browse Pussy Willow, but because the shrub actually benefits from winter pruning, the nibbling is unlikely to harm the plant. Pussy Willows grow fast and are very resilient. In fact, many people propagate them simply by cutting off a dormant stem in winter and sticking it in the ground, or even a glass of water, until roots appear. Hardy in Zones 2 through 7, the only thing Pussy Willow does not tolerate well is shade. You’ll need at least a half day of sun, and plenty of water until the roots are established.

Pussy Willow is an all-around winner: easy to grow, interesting and attractive, incredibly valuable for the ecology, and a real problem-solver for a troublesome spot in the landscape.

So, where will you put it?

November 26, 2025December 3, 2025 Cathy Ludden Around the Grounds, Native Plants

The Berry Best!

Would you like your yard to be the neighborhood hot-spot for birds? Just serve up some delicious native berries and your place will be hopping!

Watch birds flock to Winterberry!

It’s so much fun to see big crowds of robins, mockingbirds, blue jays, cardinals, and catbirds decide that your yard is the place to be. In late fall, the berries on native trees and shrubs are where the action is!

See robins feasting on Eastern Red-cedar berries!

Summer berries are popular, too, and native plants like blueberry, elderberry, shad bush (Amelanchier), black cherry, plums, and dogwoods see plenty of action from June through September.

But as the weather turns cold and insect populations decline, the fruit of late-producing native trees and shrubs becomes critical for many birds. Birds preparing for long migrations need to fuel up for the journey, and winter resident birds need the most durable berries to get them through to spring. Small song-birds like finches, warblers, chickadees and sparrows can fill up on the seeds of perennials and grasses, but raucous gangs of bigger birds will go where the berries are.

How about them Crabapples?!

While it’s true that birds will eat berries from some species of non-native trees and shrubs, that’s not a good thing. The berries of Oriental bittersweet, Japanese barberry, English ivy, Korean dogwood, and burning bush are not as nutritious for local birds as berries of North American native plants. It makes sense that over millennia, birds and plants co-evolved to give birds what they need when they need it. The fruits of native trees and shrubs supply the correct balance of fats and carbohydrates to fuel migration and winter survival.

But, if adequate North American berry plants are not available, birds are forced to scavenge non-native berries to survive. Not only will they suffer from poor nutrition in that case, they end up spreading the non-native seeds through their droppings into natural areas where the resulting plants become invasive, replacing essential native plants in the environment, and further reducing quality food supplies for winter birds.

That’s why it’s so important to plant native trees and shrubs in your yard!

And why wouldn’t you? There are so many choices that offer beautiful seasonal interest for your landscape while also feeding the birds. Here are some of the berry best:

Green Hawthorn (Crataegus viridis)
In the wild, Green Hawthorn is a tough, thorny, small tree native to forest edges from Delaware to Florida, and in the Midwest along the Mississippi River valley. A modern cultivar called ‘Winter King’ is nearly thornless, disease-resistant, and produces very ornamental fruit, making it an excellent choice for even small suburban yards.

Hawthorn in spring bloom.
*Photo: Mt. Cuba Center*

Typically no more than 20 to 30 feet tall and wide, with an attractive vase shape and interesting exfoliating bark, ‘Winter King’ Hawthorn blooms with small white flowers in spring. In summer, its dark green leaves are an important host to numerous species of butterflies. The tree has an open habit that will not shade out underplanting or lawn. In fall, the berry-like fruit turns bright red and adds a great touch to the autumn landscape. If birds are very hungry, they will start working on the berries in fall, but Hawthorn fruit is known to be long-lasting and will likely provide for birds well into winter.

American Holly (Ilex opaca)
The festive winter look of American Holly, with its bright red berries and deep green leaves, appeals both to humans and birds.

Cardinals, mockingbirds, catbirds, and blue jays are all fans of Holly berries. If the birds don’t completely devour them by the end of the year, the berries can hang on until spring when robins come back to finish them off.

Even rain can’t stop the Holly berry feast!

American Holly is one of our finest evergreen trees, and is native all along the Atlantic coast from southeastern Maine to Maryland and even in parts of Florida. In suburban New York, Hollies will slowly reach 30 to 40 feet tall and 10 to 15 feet wide. They are ideal for adding depth and variety to otherwise monotonous property-line rows of Arborvitae. A mixed border of Holly, Arborvitae, Eastern Red-cedar, and Rhododendron is a great privacy screen and supplies both food and shelter for a wide variety of birds. Because Hollies are dioecious (separate male and female plants), it’s a good idea to include a male Holly within 50 feet or so of the female to get a good berry crop. For more on American Holly, click here.

Eastern Red-cedar (Juniperus virginiana)
Some associations between birds and their favorite plants are so strong they even find their way into the bird’s name! The magnificent “cedar waxwing” is such a case. More accurately called juniper berries, the fragrant fruit of the Eastern Red-cedar is favored by robins (see the second video above), as well as cardinals and mockingbirds. But the possibility of attracting a late-winter flock of cedar waxwings is reason enough to plant this tree in your yard.

With a large flock of friends, this cedar waxwing descended on a Red-cedar during a March snowstorm

For a more detailed description of Eastern Red-cedar as a landscape tree, click here.

Crabapples (Malus spp.)
Certainly, one of the most popular small flowering trees in residential landscapes is the Crabapple. It’s a good choice for many reasons. Although there are only a few species of native Crabapples, the Malus genus, including non-natives and hybrids, seems to be one of the few trees found all around the world that is as well-accepted by North American insects and birds as our native species. Crabapple leaves are known to host over 300 species of butterflies, and the fruit is enjoyed by birds, squirrels, deer, and other wildlife. (See the third video above for the Crabapple feast.)

There are so many Crabapple varieties available in such a wide range of tree size, flower color, and fruit size and color, that there is bound to be one that will become a favorite in your yard. These lovely trees provide year-round interest and wildlife watching: bumblebees in spring, butterflies in summer, and flocks of birds in fall and winter.

While the birds in my yard seem to go for other berries first, that just means Crabapples stay on the tree longer, looking great even in the depth of winter. By spring, returning migrating birds will clean up the remaining fruit long before the tree starts blooming again.

In addition to the trees described above, several native shrubs are also outstanding late-season berry producers.

My favorite is Winterberry (Ilex verticillata). The feeding frenzy in the first video above explains why. An easy-care shrub with cultivars available in a range of ultimate sizes, Winterberry really belongs in every garden. See a full description here.

Northern Bayberry (Myrica or Morella pensylvanica) is another good shrub for winter bird food. The berries are sturdy and can stay on the plant for as long as two years. Small enough to be attractive even to warblers, the berries also appeal to larger birds. As a landscape plant, Bayberry is durable, attractive, and a great choice for hedges. See the blog post here for more information.

Viburnum nudum, commonly called Possumhaw or Smooth Witherod, is my all-around favorite shrub, and its berries are just part of the reason why. The berries change color from pink to blue to black as they mature, and in their final stage, they look almost like raisins.

Birds will eat them at every stage, but the berries somehow last for months until they are finally picked clean just as winter really sets in. With its big white flowers in spring, shiny leaves in summer, and spectacular fall color, this is a shrub for all seasons – as well as for the birds! For more info, click here.

So, berry-up! Adding a few of these handsome native trees and shrubs to your yard will turn it into the ultimate bird hang-out. And you’ll love having the whole gang stop by!

October 29, 2025November 5, 2025 Cathy Ludden Around the Grounds, Lawn Care

How to Do Fall Garden Clean-up

I prefer to do my fall garden clean-up with a good book and a glass of wine. But it works just as well with a nice cup of tea, followed by a nap.

The point is, the less garden work you do at this time of year, the better!

Sure, you can blow or rake fallen leaves off of driveways and patios, and move leaves from lawns to flower beds, shrub borders, and under trees. If you’re a real over-achiever, you can do a final weeding job, and maybe spread some compost around woodland plants. Then wrap up the fall chores by spreading fallen leaves over the soil to keep everything warm and snug over the winter. But you don’t really have to.

Fallen leaves are good for the garden, and a few leaves on the lawn are harmless

There are very good reasons to simply let leaves stay where they fall. And intentionally spreading fallen leaves, especially on plants along streets and driveways where salt application is expected, or where dogs visit to leave pee-mails for friends, adds some valuable protection for plant roots and stems. Fallen leaves are better than any sort of commercial mulch for that purpose because they are free, untainted by chemicals, and they add nutrients to soil and plants. In addition, those fallen leaves are likely hosting beneficial (and adorable) insects like butterflies that you’ll want to have around in the spring, and they protect valuable (and even more adorable) insects like fireflies and ground-nesting native bees.

Mourning Cloak butterflies spend the winter in fallen leaves and emerge in early spring

Bagging leaves is so much work, and so unnecessary. But it does make it easier for those of us who need more of them to cart them away! We routinely swipe bagged leaves from around the neighborhood to mulch around plants in common areas, like traffic islands, for winter protection.

A bag of leaves “borrowed” from a neighbor and put to good use

If you have way too many leaves for your own garden, consider using the excess to expand into parts of your lawn for new beds for shrubs and perennials in the spring. Simply define a section of lawn for a new planting area and pile the excess leaves 3 to 6 inches deep. Put up a simple temporary fence, if you like, to contain the leaves over the winter, and let them sit there until spring. A deep layer of undisturbed leaves will eventually kill the lawn, enabling you to plant directly into the soil the following season. If you still have too many leaves, adding them to a compost pile or bin is a great way to turn them into excellent, and free, fertilizer.

Another chore to skip in the fall is cutting plants back. Native grasses and perennials, in particular, are loaded with nutritious seeds that birds can forage all winter long. Cutting these valuable sources to the ground, while buying commercial seed mixes for birdfeeders, is counter-productive. I have been endlessly entertained watching song sparrows and dark-eyed juncos repeatedly jumping up from the ground to grab seeds from the tops of Switch Grass and Prairie Dropseed. And goldfinches adore the seeds of Coneflowers and Black-eyed Susan. Masses of tall perennials and ornamental grasses left standing also provide essential cover for songbirds hiding from predators and stormy weather.

Perennials left standing can provide food for birds all winter

For many years, suburban gardeners considered “neat and tidy” to be the proper garden aesthetic, but that view is rapidly changing. Modern landscape designers very intentionally include grasses and perennials specifically for “winter interest.” The movement of these plants in the wind, and their muted winter colors and interesting shapes, make their inclusion in contemporary designs essential. Cutting them to the ground destroys that beauty, resulting in a barren landscape all winter. Wait until spring — the best time to cut back grasses and perennials is early spring, just before new growth begins.

Switch grass (*Panicum virgatum*) catches the afternoon sun

So, garden friends, take it easy! Leave the leaves. Don’t put down shredded bark or wood chip mulch. Let plants go to seed. Stop dead-heading and tidying up. Let Nature do its own thing for the plants, insects, and birds we want to have around in the spring.

And it’s a lovely day to take a nap!

September 17, 2025September 18, 2025 Cathy Ludden Around the Grounds

Where’s Autumn?

The Northeastern United States is famous for fall foliage. “Leaf peepers” come from all over the world to see our native plants in their dramatic fall colors.

Why, then, should a walk around suburban neighborhoods, in the same region during the same season, be so disappointing? Where are the colors?

The plants that thrill “leaf peepers” grew in abundance before the suburbs were developed, and they would still thrive here – if only they were planted! It seems that every suburban yard uses the same non-native “foundation plants” — boxwood, pachysandra, ivy, and hedges of yew or privet or even bamboo! – all completely devoid of our famous fall colors!

C’mon people! We can do so much better than this! Why not plant our yards with the same trees, shrubs, and perennials that make this region a tourist attraction in the fall? Let’s add some color, life, and seasonal interest beyond pumpkins! There are so many great choices with our incredible abundance of Northeastern native plants.

Red maple (*Acer rubrum*)
Photo: Michael Martini

The undisputed rock-stars of fall color are our native Maples, and Oak trees are a close second. If you have a lawn, you probably have room for a Maple or a native Oak. Oaks have enormous value for wildlife — and for homeowners! [See this blog post] Both Maples and Oaks are beautiful year-round, but autumn is their glory season.

Our native flowering trees are also brilliant in the fall. Nothing beats the American Dogwood (Cornus florida) with its intense maroon foliage and vivid scarlet berries. Crabapples (Malus spp.) also produce colorful fruit, and American Witch Hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) starts blooming in October!

The Northeast is also blessed with native shrubs that produce kaleidoscopic colors in the fall. While evergreen foundation shrubs are useful, why not add some of the flowering and fruiting native shrubs that bring color and interest in both spring and fall? Here are some easy choices to add to your yard. All of the shrubs pictured below are locally available, easy to grow, valuable to wildlife, have beautiful flowers, and are spectacular in the fall.

Oakleaf Hydrangea (*Hydrangea quercifolia*)

Possumhaw Viburum (*Viburnum nudum*) pictured with
American Witch Hazel

Low Bush Blueberry (*Vaccinium angustifolium*)

American Cranberrybush (*Viburnum trilobum*)

And don’t forget fall flowers and grasses in gorgeous colors!

Aromatic Aster (*Symphyotrichum oblongifolium* ‘Raydon’s Favorite’)

Switch Grass (*Panicum virgatum* ‘Cheyenne Sky’) shown with Ironweed (*Vernonia lettermanii* ‘Iron Butterfly’)

Not only are these plants beautiful, they are incredibly valuable to the ecosystem of the Northeastern US. So many suburban landscapes use non-native plants that offer nothing to birds, butterflies, bees and other insects, and many are destructively invasive as well. If your only fall color is coming from burning bush or Japanese maple, you may want to consider native alternatives for those reasons. Privet, bamboo, ivy, vinca, and pachysandra are all known to be invasive plants and can be replaced easily with native plants that are beautiful in the fall, and year-round.

And wouldn’t you enjoy an autumn view like this?

Willow leaf oak (*Quercus phellos*), American dogwood,
and Pin Oaks

And this?

Oaks, Inkberry (Ilex glabra), Blue Star (Amsonia tabernaemontana and A. hubrichtii), High Bush Blueberry(Vaccinium corymbosum), Common juniper, and Possumhaw Viburnum

The fall glory of native plants lies within your reach!

THIS BLOG IS AUTHORED BY CATHY LUDDEN, CONSERVATIONIST AND NATIVE PLANT EDUCATOR; AND BOARD MEMBER, NATURE CENTER at Greenburgh. FOLLOW CATHY ON INSTAGRAM FOR MORE PHOTOS AND GARDENING TIPS @CATHYLUDDEN.

July 2, 2025July 31, 2025 Cathy Ludden Around the Grounds, Lawn Care, Native Plants

The All-American Yard

Summertime, and it’s the 4^th of July! American Independence Day!

We love celebrating the Stars & Stripes — flying the flag, draping patriotic bunting on the porch, and decorating everything with red, white, and blue.

But wait! Is your landscape part of the theme? Is it proudly American? Or is it decorated with English Ivy, Norway maple, Chinese silver grass, New Guinea impatiens, Korean dogwood, and Japanese honeysuckle? It’s a shame that so many suburban landscapes today are decidedly…. un-American!

Look around your neighborhood.

Do you see big open lawns extending right up to the house? That’s 19^th Century British style!

In the 1800’s, British aristocracy used cheap manual labor to maintain expansive lawns in a display of wealth and power.

Are there yards in your neighborhood with tightly-clipped evergreen shrubs arranged in rows? That style goes all the way back to 17^th Century France!

French royalty favored shrubs clipped into artificial shapes

Should we really be trying to copy that?

American history is closely tied to wilder, natural landscapes and a vast bounty of beautiful and useful plants. Those plants tell our American story!

For example, if you have an Eastern Red-cedar (Juniperis virginiana) in your yard, you should know that in 1584, English explorers were so awed by the incredible beauty and fragrance of Roanoke Island’s Eastern Red-cedars, they decided to make Roanoke the very first colonial settlement in America.

Many of our best native landscape plants today were critical to the life and survival of early American settlers. They used Witch-hazel (read more here & here), Arborvitae, Bee Ba l m, and hundreds of other plants for medicine. They learned which native plants were good for food and which were useful as building materials. They used native plants to improve their lives — native junipers made good pest repellents, and Bayberry scented their candles and removed odors in their homes.

The common names of many native plants still tell us so much about our past. In New England, colonists relied on the bloom time of Amalanchier shrubs to alert them to the beginning of the shad run as fish started migrating up-river from the sea, so they called the plant “Shadbush.” In other towns, settlers called the same plant “Serviceberry” because its bloom time marked the season when traveling ministers who performed wedding and funeral services could begin using local roads again as the snow melted. Those uses may be gone, but the names still link us to our history.

*Amelanchier*, “Serviceberry” or “Shadbush”

You could show your patriotism on Independence Day by planting a White Pine in your yard. Before the Revolution, the English Crown claimed exclusive use of all American White Pines for the British Royal Navy for ship masts. The Crown’s over-reach triggered the first violent protest by Americans against the British, which likely served as inspiration for the Boston Tea Party. In another practical act of rebellion, colonists started making their own ink and cloth dyes from Pokeweed, an American plant, thereby avoiding British taxes on imports.

Indigenous people introduced colonists to Joe Pye weed as an effective treatment for typhus, and so it was named for a highly-respected indigenous leader. Amsonia or Eastern Blue Star was named for a physician who once treated George Washington, and two early American botanists named their discoveries of indigenous woodland plants, Jeffersonia diphylla and Franklinia alatamaha, after our founding fathers. Both Thomas Jefferson and George Washington were hobby botanists, and when Washington lost interest in European plants, he began collecting and growing native American Redbud trees, among others, for his own estate.

From the first Thanksgiving through the War of Independence, America’s native plants supported settlers and, quite literally, built America. But today, as more Americans have moved to suburban areas, landscapes composed mostly of lawn grass, with a few tightly-clipped, non-native shrubs, have become standard.

The resulting loss of insects, birds, and wildlife is well-documented and tragic. By eliminating pesticides, reducing lawn, and planting native trees, shrubs, grasses, and perennials, homeowners and gardeners can help save and rebuild American biodiversity.

But we can also reclaim American history! Learning about native plants teaches us about our past. The best landscapes give us a sense of place and connect us to what is truly American.

Let’s celebrate the 4^th of July by planting a few great American plants! Many have been featured in this blog over the past several years. Maybe the Goldenrod called ‘Fireworks’ would be appropriate?

So, buy American! Plant American! Go USA!