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.
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Ask Mr. Smarty Plants
Ask Mr. Smarty Plants is a free service provided by the staff and volunteers at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
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Thursday - October 04, 2012
From: Queens, NY
Region: Northeast
Topic: Plant Lists, Water Gardens, Planting, Grasses or Grass-like, Herbs/Forbs
Title: Propagation information from Queens NY
Answered by: Barbara Medford
QUESTION:
Hello. I would appreciate information on when to plant the following plants. I found on the USDA website that all these plants could withstand the cold. ALthough they can withstand harsh weather, can they all be planted only at certain times? These plants are schedule to be planted in mid-October. Plant names: 1) Calamagrotis canadensis 2) Iris virginica 3) Scripus cyperinus 4) Peltandra virginica 5) Sagittaria latifolia 6) Saururus cernuus 7) Scirpus validus 8) Nuphar luteum 9) Scirpus acutus 10) Sparganium eurycarpum 11) Typha latifolia 12) Cephalanthus occidentalis THank you and I very much appreciate your response.ANSWER:
Since these are all wetland plants, we assume they are being planted by someone who specializes in wetland plants. If they say the plants can be planted in October, who are we to argue? What we have are dryland plants in Texas. Anyway, the way that you can find all that we know about the various plants is to follow each plant link to our webpage on that plant. Most have Propagation Instructions, but if you are not satisfied with what they tell you, scroll down that webpage to Additional Resources, and click on the link to Google on that plant. You will find a great many more links there. These all appear to be native to North America and to New York. The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, home of Mr. Smarty Plants is dedicated to the growth, propagation and protection of plants native not only to North America but to the area in which they are being grown, so if we discover any of these that are not in our database, we will link you to information on them.
To save you waiting for our answer, if you wish to research a list of plants native to North America, go to our Native Plant Database. Type the common or scientific name into the Search Native Plant Database box, click on GO, and you will get our webpage on that plant. If you misspell by even one letter or it is not a plant in our database, you will get a message saying you have zero results. You can then try going to Google, which forgives mistakes and will take you to sites with information on that plant. We find that the Wikipedia website can usually tell if your plant is non-native to North America.
1) Calamagrostis canadensis (Bluejoint)
2)Iris virginica (Virginia iris)
3) Scirpus cyperinus (Woolgrass)
4)Peltandra virginica (Green arrow arum)
5)Sagittaria latifolia (Broadleaf arrowhead)
6) Saururus cernuus (Lizard's tail)
7) Scirpus validus - This is not in our Native Plant Database, but we believe it is native to New York, so follow the link to another website on it.
8) Nuphar lutea (Yellow pond-lily)
9) Scirpus acutus - not in our database, but native to North America
10) Sparganium eurycarpum (Broadfruit bur-reed)
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