Native Plants
Q. Who is Mr. Smarty Plants?
A: There are those who suspect Wildflower Center volunteers are the culpable and capable culprits. Yet, others think staff members play some, albeit small, role. You can torture us with your plant questions, but we will never reveal the Green Guru's secret identity.
Did you know you can access the Native Plant Information Network with your web-enabled smartphone?
Ask Mr. Smarty Plants is a free service provided by the staff and volunteers at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
rate this answer
Wednesday - September 02, 2009
From: Gloucester, VA
Region: Mid-Atlantic
Topic: Wildflowers
Title: Grass in mixed wildflowers in Gloucester VA
Answered by: Barbara Medford
QUESTION:
I have a acre of mixed wildflowers which is in its 3rd season. I now have some grass issues. I have sprayed for just the grass but still have too much. Should I bush hog, disk and replant ??ANSWER:
Grasses appearing in wildflowers is a natural progression. If you felt you had to spray an herbicide, we hope you sprayed an herbicide for monocots, or grasses. If you sprayed a wide spectrum herbicide, you may have wiped out your wildflowers, too. Without knowing what grasses you have, we can still bet they are as native to your area as the wildflowers are, and will certainly prosper there. If you manage to exterminate the grasses, they will come back, from wind blown or bird borne seeds. If you have grasses you feel are non-native or overly invasive, pull them out or mow them before they go to seed. We have two How-To Articles we would like for you to read to help you understand our approach to wildflower gardening. The first is Meadow Gardening and the second is Recreating a Prairie.
Consider this, when your wildflowers are dormant or have died after seeding, what is your property full of? Is there anything there to hold off erosion, to give forage and protection to wildlife, like birds and butterflies? If you want to choose your own grasses, you can go to our Native Plant Database, go down the page to Combination Search, select Virginia on the drop-down menu for State, "grass or grass-like plants" under Habit, and then click on Submit Combination Search. When we did that, we got 349 results, which is probably more than you want to plow through. So, go through the same process, but select Light Requirements, "sun" being 6 or more hours of sun a day, "part shade" 2 to 6 hours, and "shade" 2 hours or less of sun a day. You might want to choose between "perennial" and "annual" under Duration, and certainly choose whether you typically have dry, moist or wet soils under Soil Moisture. We did this, selecting "perennial,""sun" and "moist" and got 49 possibilities. You can go through this list, clicking on the scientific name of any grass you are interested in, and go to the webpage on that individual plant, where you will learn what size it should be, propagation, etc. There will also be pictures of many of them, and a link to a search on Google for that plant. You may very well find some of the grasses on your property, and can decide if you want to keep them or not.
We don't recommend you remove grasses from your garden, but if you insist on trying, mowing and pulling is about the safest thing you can do. And they will still come back.
More Wildflowers Questions
Earliest spring wildflower from Richardson TX
September 29, 2009 - What spring wildflower is consistently among the first to bloom in North Texas?"
view the full question and answer
Castillea indivisa as Texas native Indian Paintbrush
February 05, 2007 - Upon researching the Texas Indian-Paintbrush I have satisfactorially come up with the latin name Castilleja foliolosa, funny thing is on the plants.usda.gov site it shows that this plant grows ...
view the full question and answer
Grow bluebonnets in Virginia
September 04, 2007 - I want to ATTEMPT to grow some Texas Bluebonnets in VA because I am homesick and both our kids are back in Austin. That said, the site says " it may be necessary to inoculate the soil with a rhizobiu...
view the full question and answer
Invasive Indian paintbrushes in Grawn MI
June 04, 2012 - I have lots of Indian paintbrushes crowding my lawn and taking over the grass..what kills it without killing the grass?
view the full question and answer
Plant Suggestions for Shady Site under Trees in Alabama
April 03, 2014 - I live in Montgomery, AL and have a bare area (20' x 5’) that's shady and soil erosion is a problem. Grass stops growing at the drip line of the trees here. Do you have any suggestions for growing s...
view the full question and answer
Support the Wildflower Center by Donating Online or Becoming a Member today. |