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Community Corner

Native Perennials For Connecticut Gardens

Native Perennials Add More Than Color To Your Garden

There are many benefits to planting native perennials in your Connecticut garden. Not only are Connecticut native perennials naturally adapted to our climate and soils, they provide important wildlife habitat for small mammals, birds and insects.

By choosing perennials that bloom throughout the growing season, you can have color in your garden from spring right through fall. Here are several native perennials that can easily be found at local garden centers:

Spring-Blooming Native Perennials

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Foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia): This tough-as-nails groundcover is perfect for shady areas under trees. One of my favorites, T. ‘Running Tapestry’ has white flower spikes, up to one-foot tall, that lightens up a shady spot for almost six weeks. Its heart-shaped leaves with burgundy highlights look fresh all season long. Foamflowers prefer soil that is rich in organic matter and is not too wet or too dry.

Wild Geranium (Geranium maculatum): Pale pink flowers cover this low-growing perennial from late spring to early summer, making it an important early nectar source for butterflies and bees. Wild geranium tolerates partial to full shade and is a vigorous groundcover or even a rock garden plant. As an added bonus, its leaves turn an attractive shade of copper in the fall. 

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Summer-Blooming Native Perennials

Butterfly Weed (Asclepias): If you want butterflies in your garden, plant this native perennial. The brightly colored flowers are a beacon for butterflies. Butterfly weed is a larval host plant for monarch butterflies and a nectar source for many others. Use A. tuberosa, with its bright orange flowers, in sunny, dry locations and A. incarnata, with its pale pink flowers, in spots with moist soil.

Joe Pye Weed (Eupatorium maculatum): This tall perennial sports whorled leaves and light purple flowers from mid-summer right through the fall. Butterflies adore the fragrant flowers and birds use its fluffy seed heads for building nests. Joe Pye weed grows in full to partial sun and prefers moist soil. There are many different cultivars of Joe Pye weed, some growing up to 6’ tall, so be sure to read the label  before you by one and be prepared to give it lots of room to grow.

Fall-Blooming Native Perennials

Goldenrod (Solidago): Several species of goldenrod are native to Connecticut, but one of the best isSolidago rugosa. S. rugosa ‘Fireworks’, one of my favorite cultivars, deserves a spot in every garden because it puts on a show in the fall that is unsurpassed by other fall bloomers. Lacy stems form rounded clumps that explode with yellow flowers in the fall. Don’t worry, this is not the plant that causes hay fever. That’s ragweed, which happens to bloom at the same time as many goldenrods.

New England Aster (Aster novae-angliae): Asters are another long-blooming star of fall gardens in Connecticut. Lilac to deep purple flowers with yellow centers are a welcome nectar source for migrating butterflies. The New England Aster tolerates an array of soil conditions but prefers a sunny location with good air circulation. Cut back New England Aster in June to have more compact fall-flowering plants that will not need to be staked.

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