 |  |  |
We moved to Signal Mountain in wintertime, leaving a garden I’d lovingly cultivated for 14 years back in Mississippi. It was a bleak time to arrive, botanically speaking, and moving to a newly built home meant there would be no perennials to brighten the landscape in the spring. By the time we had settled in, however, I was greeted by a soul-soothing surprise: Tennessee had different wildflowers! Not just different, but seemingly more and a greater variety too.
Cheerful ox-eye daisies lined both sides of Taft Highway starting in late spring. The unfortunately-named daisy fleabane popped up on roadsides and in our backyard soon after. This is the tiny “daisy-like” flower with fringed petals, in shades of white and the palest lavender. It is often called a weed, but it serves as a valuable resource for pollinators when most plants are still waking up from winter.
As summer rolled around, I was awed by the profusion of butterfly weed on the side of the road. One of many milkweeds native to Tennessee, this variety is brilliant orange with large clusters of tiny flowers. The same habitat supports the golden-yellow coreopsis and the first state wildflower, the passionflower. (The Tennessee echinacea, a type of coneflower, is the second state wildflower.)
Passionflowers are otherworldly in their complexity, yet easy to miss because their vines often sprawl across the ground. Another summer wildflower that is easy to miss is the fire pink, which is actually red. This magical little flower is often found on the border of woodlands.
The forests around Chattanooga boast unique flowers as well, many in bush form. Mountain laurels, rhododendrons, and sweet shrubs bloom into early summer. A little later, you can’t miss the smooth hydrangeas on the blue loop at Shackleford Ridge Park. The cream-colored blooms have a more delicate appearance than the “mophead” hydrangeas many of us have in our yards.
A very unusual shrub that I first saw at Big Soddy Gulf is the strawberry bush. Unfortunately, it doesn’t produce anything a human would want to eat, but it’s still fun to behold when the claw-like pods open in early fall, revealing bright red seeds.
Very tall wildflowers deserve a category of their own. Seemingly oblivious to the broken thermostat of peak summer, joe pye weed and ironweed shoot up through the crispy grass. Joe pye weed can grow 6-8 feet tall and has light pink flowers. (There is a slightly shorter version for home gardeners on the market.) Ironweed has deep purple flowers.
Both are often seen near goldenrod in bloom. If the mere mention of goldenrod makes you sneeze, take heart that it is probably not the cause of your pain. Usually, ragweed is the real culprit when goldenrod is blamed.
Goldenrod is a pollinator powerhouse; I saw an uncountable number of bees enjoying goldenrod along the Guild Trail on Lookout Mountain last fall. Next time it pops up in your flowerbed, consider keeping it around!
Jewelweed and cardinal flower (or lobelia) are two other late summer flowers for your checklist. Jewelweed is orange with red spots, and what looks like a tiny orange gnome’s hat on the back of the bloom. Cardinal flower is red and dramatic, with fringe-like petals on a spire.
These wildflowers are a small sample of the natural bounty of our state. If you would like to see many in one place, McCoy Farms has a beautiful garden including many native species. You can also consider adding wildflowers to your own yard. Reflection Riding has a dedicated native plants nursery, and Signal Mountain Nursery sells a large selection of native plants as well.
Wherever you find wildflowers this summer, may they bring you the same happiness they brought me our first year in Tennessee.
by Ginger Gibson
Cheerful ox-eye daisies lined both sides of Taft Highway starting in late spring. The unfortunately-named daisy fleabane popped up on roadsides and in our backyard soon after. This is the tiny “daisy-like” flower with fringed petals, in shades of white and the palest lavender. It is often called a weed, but it serves as a valuable resource for pollinators when most plants are still waking up from winter.
As summer rolled around, I was awed by the profusion of butterfly weed on the side of the road. One of many milkweeds native to Tennessee, this variety is brilliant orange with large clusters of tiny flowers. The same habitat supports the golden-yellow coreopsis and the first state wildflower, the passionflower. (The Tennessee echinacea, a type of coneflower, is the second state wildflower.)
Passionflowers are otherworldly in their complexity, yet easy to miss because their vines often sprawl across the ground. Another summer wildflower that is easy to miss is the fire pink, which is actually red. This magical little flower is often found on the border of woodlands.
The forests around Chattanooga boast unique flowers as well, many in bush form. Mountain laurels, rhododendrons, and sweet shrubs bloom into early summer. A little later, you can’t miss the smooth hydrangeas on the blue loop at Shackleford Ridge Park. The cream-colored blooms have a more delicate appearance than the “mophead” hydrangeas many of us have in our yards.
A very unusual shrub that I first saw at Big Soddy Gulf is the strawberry bush. Unfortunately, it doesn’t produce anything a human would want to eat, but it’s still fun to behold when the claw-like pods open in early fall, revealing bright red seeds.
Very tall wildflowers deserve a category of their own. Seemingly oblivious to the broken thermostat of peak summer, joe pye weed and ironweed shoot up through the crispy grass. Joe pye weed can grow 6-8 feet tall and has light pink flowers. (There is a slightly shorter version for home gardeners on the market.) Ironweed has deep purple flowers.
Both are often seen near goldenrod in bloom. If the mere mention of goldenrod makes you sneeze, take heart that it is probably not the cause of your pain. Usually, ragweed is the real culprit when goldenrod is blamed.
Goldenrod is a pollinator powerhouse; I saw an uncountable number of bees enjoying goldenrod along the Guild Trail on Lookout Mountain last fall. Next time it pops up in your flowerbed, consider keeping it around!
Jewelweed and cardinal flower (or lobelia) are two other late summer flowers for your checklist. Jewelweed is orange with red spots, and what looks like a tiny orange gnome’s hat on the back of the bloom. Cardinal flower is red and dramatic, with fringe-like petals on a spire.
These wildflowers are a small sample of the natural bounty of our state. If you would like to see many in one place, McCoy Farms has a beautiful garden including many native species. You can also consider adding wildflowers to your own yard. Reflection Riding has a dedicated native plants nursery, and Signal Mountain Nursery sells a large selection of native plants as well.
Wherever you find wildflowers this summer, may they bring you the same happiness they brought me our first year in Tennessee.
by Ginger Gibson
RSS Feed