Wild garden | The Press

Pollinating insects are becoming increasingly rare. To help them, we advise above all to serve them native plants. Which is not always easy, because they remain little known and sometimes difficult to find in garden centers. While it is true that hybrids of our natives are often more attractive than the originals, several wild species, each more beautiful than the other, should find a place in the garden. Here are a few.

From nature to the nursery

Where to find native plants? There is no question of pillaging the forest as was the case in the past with the marketing of wild garlic, which is now banned. Collecting a few plants of goldenrod, Canadian anemones or even eupatoriums from fields or ditches where there are thousands of them remains a personal decision. On the other hand, the vast majority of native plants of horticultural interest are grown today for commercial purposes and offered on the market, often on a large scale, some in specialized nurseries. Furthermore, many are easy to obtain by seed.

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The spring ones

Many of the most notable natives flower in spring, as trees finish leafing out, and will spend the summer in shade. The very early Canadian bloodroot will compensate for its often ephemeral flowering with original foliage which will persist all summer.

The white or red trilliums, the little preacher, the yellow virgin’s slipper and the uvular, two splendors, as well as the seal of Solomon will give their floral spectacle until the beginning of June. Those who have a basin of water or a portion of moist soil will probably be delighted with the intense yellow of the flowers of the marsh population and its round, very dark green leaves, which will persist all summer or even the foliage smelling of Labrador tea. Our national flower, the multicolor iris, will also thrive in this environment, but will usually flower at the beginning of June and even a little later, depending on the amount of sunshine.

Wild garlic

Wild garlic is a special case. It is easy to transplant in the garden, in rich soil, but grows in the shade, as is the case in maple groves. Remember that the regulations allow the picking of 50 bulbs annually. The foliage appears in spring and disappears at the end of June. The flowers and fruits appear discreetly in August. A sparing domestic picking will allow you to eventually obtain a beautiful colony.

The summer ones

Plants of semi-shaded environment, cohosh bloom in spring, but it is in summer that they appear at their most beautiful. Their clusters of fruit will persist for several weeks. Perched on a 70 cm flower stalk, the fruits of the cohosh will reveal themselves around mid-June while those of the cohosh with large pedicels will wait a little. These little white balls topped with a black dot are absolutely beautiful. But the other summer natives are not left out. In mid-June, here are the orange hawkweeds, the pigamon and its diaphanous white clouds, then the delicacy of the orange bells of the Canada lily. The dazzling continues with the giant eupatory, the blue of the large verbena, the yellow of the autumn helenia, the bristly rudbeckia and its orange daisy flower with its black eye, without forgetting the white flowers whose texture recalls the paper of the Virginia immortelle. In August comes the turn of autumn asters or even the three-lobed rudbeckia, a short-lived perennial, but which reseeds happily.

The ambitious

However pretty they may be, some natives require a good deal of thought before their introduction to the garden. This is because they have great territorial ambitions. Common milkweed (A. syriaca) is one of them. Since it is the essential food for the monarch butterfly caterpillar, several organizations recommend its establishment to favor the insect. Its fragrant pink flowers, which turn into edible fruits, are seductive. But be careful, you must limit its territory or have the appropriate space. This also applies to the irresistible Canada anemone with its pretty and delicate white spring flowers that sometimes proliferates in ditches. The goldenrod, the hooded dicenter, a cute white bleeding heart as well as a fern, the sensitive onoclea, also tend to spread beyond our hopes.

In the shade

Some ferns stand out for brightening up shady corners. The best known is the ostrich fern, the one that gives us fiddleheads in the spring. It spreads quickly, but has a slight tendency to invade that some gourmets will probably appreciate. The most attractive is the maidenhair fern with its harmonious fan-shaped foliage. As for the small beech fern, it is among the most graceful. It even thrives in the sun if the soil is damp.

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