Native Plants Archives - Page 17 of 18 - Nature Center at Greenburgh

December 30, 2021February 14, 2025 Cathy Ludden Around the Grounds, Native Plants

‘Tis the Season to be Holly

Holly has been associated with winter holidays since long before Christmas celebrations began. It is thought that ancient Romans decorated with holly for Saturnalia, the winter feast in honor of Saturn. Druids and Celts believed the plant had magical powers because while all other trees lost their leaves, the holly not only stayed green, but displayed brilliant red berries in the darkest days of winter. So, holly branches have been cut and used for winter decorations for thousands of years. Our seasonal color scheme of red and green no doubt originated with holly.

Midwinter sunlight catches American holly near the Meadow

How fortunate that European settlers in the American colonies found a new species of their favorite winter plant growing here! American holly (Ilex opaca) differs from European holly in subtle ways and it can be difficult to tell them apart. The leaves of the American holly are not as shiny as the European variety, and the berries are often single rather than in clusters.

American holly trees typically grow 15 to 40 feet tall and 8 to 15 feet wide, but they can reach 60 feet where they are happy. They prefer well-drained, moist, acidic soil, and full sun for best berry production. Like other hollies, they are dioecious with male and female flowers on separate plants. For best fruiting, a male tree should be within 50 feet or so of the female.

An American holly tree in the suburban landscape

American holly is well-adapted to our area, of course, because it evolved here over thousands of years. It is less vulnerable to winter winds than many of the European varieties and it enjoys our acidic soil. It is a care-free evergreen and makes an effective year-round privacy screen. In a mixed evergreen border with Rhododendron maximum, White pine, and native junipers, it is not only attractive, but provides food and safe nesting habitat for birds.

A native mixed evergreen border with American holly

And when the winter holidays are here? What better combo than White pine, Winterberry, and American holly for the cheeriest “winter interest” in the neighborhood?

American holly, Winterberry, and White pine at the entrance to the Meadow at the Nature Center

We think that’s just jolly!

This blog is authored weekly by Cathy Ludden, local expert and advocate for native plants; and Board Member, Greenburgh Nature Center. Follow Cathy on Instagram for more photos and gardening tips @cathyludden.

December 24, 2021February 14, 2025 Cathy Ludden Around the Grounds, Native Plants

Deck the Halls…and Gardens

Every landscape needs “winter interest,” and several of our favorite native shrubs are real show-offs this time of year.

Without a doubt, the star of the season is Winterberry (Ilex verticillata). Winterberry is a holly, but unlike most hollies, it is deciduous – meaning it loses its leaves in the fall. And that’s a good thing! The berries start turning red in October while the leaves are still green. Weeks later, the leaves drop off revealing brilliant clusters of berries that remain all winter.

Or, at least, the berries could remain all winter unless the local birds have other ideas. We assumed for a long time that the berries needed all winter to ripen, because neither rain nor snow nor dark of night caused them to disappear until robins returned in the spring.

But in some years, mockingbirds, blue jays, and cardinals seem to celebrate the holidays with Winterberry snacks. So, we can’t totally promise the berries will remain all winter. But the robins definitely will finish up whatever is left in the spring.

If you have a boggy area on your property, Winterberry is a great choice – it will live in standing water and will happily send out shoots to form a thicket. So, it’s a great choice for a rain garden or a problem wet area. It does well in average garden soil as well, with full sun and regular moisture, and can be controlled easily by removing new shoots.

Like other hollies, Winterberry is dioecious, meaning both male and female plants are necessary for berry production. Bees visit the flowers on the male plant and carry the pollen to the flowers on the female plants to fertilize the ova and produce berries. Your local nursery will sell you a male shrub to plant somewhere near the female so bees can find both plants when they bloom in the spring. The flowers are small and white and not very noticeable, but the shrub is a lovely deep green all summer long.

Winterberry can grow 8 to 12 feet tall, but can be pruned for shape and size. There are cultivars that naturally stay much smaller – ‘Red Sprite’ takes a rounded shape and stays 3 to 4 feet tall. You’ll need ‘Jim Dandy,’ the male pollinating plant, to get berries on ‘Red Sprite.’ We suggest avoiding the recently-introduced Asian hybrids of Winterberry. The value of their berries for native birds and the risk of them becoming invasive are unknown.

Full-sized Winterberry in front of the Manor House at the Nature Center

‘Red Sprite’ is a compact form of the native shrub

This time of year, you may find whole branches of Winterberry mysteriously disappearing when it’s time to decorate for the holidays. The Garden Club of Irvington recently collected Winterberry and other foraged materials from our grounds to decorate the Nature Center. The impact of Winterberry on our fireplace mantles is spectacular! (Word of caution: the berries can be toxic to dogs, cats, and toddlers, so it’s best to keep them out of reach.)

A member of the Garden Club of Irvington decorates the Manor House mantel

Deck the halls with boughs of Winterberry

Winter solstice is nigh, and the Winterberry is bright!

December 9, 2021February 14, 2025 Cathy Ludden Around the Grounds, Native Plants

Season of the Witch-hazel

We were very excited at the Nature Center last week to discover a beautiful Witch-hazel (Hamemelis virginiana) — in full bloom!

It was “discovered” when Guy Pardee of Suburban Natives, LLC freed it from a thicket of invasive shrubs and vines that had hidden it from view. Guy has been working for the past few years removing invasive plants on our grounds. Since restoring native plant life on our 33-acre preserve is one of our top priorities, it is especially gratifying to find a wonderful native tree right at its peak.

Witch-hazel is a fascinating plant. It’s a multi-trunked shrub or small tree that evolved as an understory plant in the forests of the Northeast. You might not notice it at all in the spring or summer when it modestly sits under bigger trees in part shade. But in early winter, when all the leaves are down and most plants are going to sleep, Witch-hazel starts blooming. Its flowers are fragrant, and bright yellow with tiny streamers reaching out in all directions.

The leaves, bark, and twigs of Witch-hazel contain tannins and flavonoids that Native Americans used for centuries to treat skin ailments. European colonists soon adopted the practice, and today Witch-hazel is one of the few plants the Food and Drug Administration has approved for use in over-the-counter products. Many cosmetics companies use Witch-hazel in toners, diaper rash remedies, acne treatments, pore reducers, and after-shaves.

Blooming Witch-hazel stands out against an evergreen background

A more questionable early use of Witch-hazel was the practice of using forked branches as dowsing or divining rods to search for underground water. A “water witch” would hold the forked end of a Witch-hazel branch and walk until the flexible tip supposedly dipped when underground water was detected. Dowsing with Witch-hazel branches for well-digging was a common practice right into the 20^th century.

The real mystery of this plant still isn’t settled. Why does Witch-hazel start blooming in winter when pollinators are already hibernating? And what insect does pollinate the flowers? Some researchers have pointed to a moth species that survives freezing temperatures by shivering so hard that its body warms above surrounding air temperature. Others have suggested that a small and very late-acting bee is the pollinator. Still others have theorized that swarms of tiny gnats do the job. More research is required.

But the coolest thing about this fascinating plant? Because of its strangely late pollination, there isn’t time for the fruit to ripen in the same year the flowers open. It takes the whole next summer for the seeds to slowly ripen in their pod. Then, just as the flowers start blooming in the freezing cold, the pod explodes throwing the ripe seeds 10 to 20 feet away, where hopefully they will rest until spring weather is warm enough for germination.

Lately, we’ve seen nurseries offering non-native hybrids of Witch-hazel for sale. These varieties with orange or red flowers are recent introductions of hybridized Asian species, so their value to our native wildlife and potential for invasiveness are unknown. Our view is that it’s always safer to go with species that evolved in our region.

Hamemelis virginiana, our native Witch-hazel, is a garden-worthy plant that brings late-season interest to suburban landscapes. Try it against a background of evergreens in a partly shaded area. On a cold winter’s day, you won’t be sorry.

Native Witch hazel brings winter interest to the garden

November 24, 2021February 14, 2025 Cathy Ludden Around the Grounds, Native Plants

From Ho-hum to Home Sweet Home

People call these ornamental shrubs. But are they? Ornamental, really?

All around us we see the same limited palette of non-native, often dangerously invasive, and dull landscape choices. In pursuit of the aesthetic of “neat and tidy,” these shrubs are often hacked into unnatural shapes that do little to inspire or attract. Most of these plants offer less than two weeks of landscape interest (looking at you, forsythia and burning bush) and just occupy space the rest of the year.

Two years ago, when we re-designed the foundation plantings around the Manor House at the Nature Center, we included under-used native shrubs that can beautify and diversify typical suburban plantings while providing necessary food and shelter for pollinators and birds. These are plants that look good while doing good.

A variety of all-native plants in our foundation landscape design

Under windows, or anywhere you need shrubs that stay fairly low, consider Itea virginiana (Virginia sweetspire). Itea blooms with delicate, but showy, white flowers in spring, attracting lots of butterflies. It has lush green leaves on arching stems all summer and rarely needs pruning. In fall, the leaves turn multiple shades of purple and red and hang on until the very end of the season. Itea will tolerate a half-day of shade, but its fall color is best in full sun.

In a spot where you can use more height, try the magnificent native Viburnam nudum, also called Witherod or Possum Haw. This shrub attracts butterflies in spring with big fans of white blossoms. Its leaves are shiny and deep green. Then, in late summer, it produces berries in multiple colors that ripen into raisin-like fruits birds love. And for its last act before winter, the shiny leaves of Witherod Viburnum turn fall colors that put burning bush to shame.

Viburnam nudum gracefully grows 6 to 12 feet tall

Late summer berries will ripen from white to pink to blue

For mid-summer razzle dazzle, you can’t beat Shrubby St. John’s wort (Hypericum prolificum). This shrub is a great foundation plant with a naturally rounded shape and airy grey-green leaves on warm grey stems. Its fall color is mostly yellow, but it holds its leaves until very late in the season. It is one of the first plants to leaf out in the spring, so it looks great all year.

Shrubby St. John’s wort near the Manor House entrance

But its real star power shines in mid-to-late summer when it produces loads of bright yellow powder-puff flowers for at least a month. The flowers have no nectar, but are loaded with pollen. Bumblebees nuzzle into the flowers making all of the little stamens tremble and vibrate.

But you don’t have to worry about the bumblebees stinging – they are so obsessed with collecting pollen, they don’t notice you at all. It’s fun to watch them, and you can almost hear the shrub buzz as you walk by.

Foundation plantings should be interesting, diverse, and useful to the ecology. If we can have multiple-season interest with native shrubs, why limit ourselves to the same old/same old “ornamental” plants we see too often?

November 18, 2021February 14, 2025 Cathy Ludden Around the Grounds, Native Plants

Oh Fother, Where Art Thou?

Specifically, oh Fothergilla gardenii, where art thou? And where all the other really interesting native shrubs?

Why is it, we wonder, that a walk through any Westchester neighborhood reveals the same repetitive collection of uninteresting plants? Yard after yard, and in every park and golf course and commercial zone, we see the same boring plants: forsythia, burning bush, taxus, barberry, boxwood. Worse, none of these plants are native to North America, so they have no value to wildlife. And much worse, some of them are incredibly invasive, taking over forests and replacing native plants essential to biodiversity.

Even if that weren’t a priority, wouldn’t it just be fun to have shrubs you don’t see in every yard on your street? And shouldn’t we want plants in our landscape that are interesting for more than two weeks a year?

Forsythia blooms in early spring, but does nothing interesting in summer or fall. Burning bush turns red in the fall, but does nothing interesting in spring or summer, and it’s so invasive that its sale is now regulated or banned in New York and other states.

Dwarf Fothergilla, on the other hand, is a gorgeous native shrub with three seasons of interest. It blooms in early spring, and unlike forsythia, its flowers are fragrant – they smell like honey! And they attract and nourish pollinators.

All summer long, Fothergilla catches the eye with pretty bluish-green, rounded leaves. It can be used as a hedge, but rarely needs trimming. It tops out around 4 feet and naturally maintains a rounded shape. It is not vulnerable to disease and needs no regular maintenance. It may need supplemental water in periods of drought, but it does not need fertilizer.

Fothergilla’s blue-green leaves contrast with other summer greens

A hedge of Fothergilla just starting to turn in Autumn

In fall, Fothergilla is nothing short of spectacular, especially if it is planted in full sun. To really show it off, you can plant it in front of evergreens. At the Nature Center, we have it in front of the native Inkberry (Ilex glabra), where it stands out as a specimen shrub in all three seasons. You can find it on the patio in front of the Manor House at the top of the stairs.

Fothergilla gardenii in Autumn at the Nature Center

Not boring! Try this beautiful native shrub!

Check back next week to learn about other “not-boring” native shrubs!