Prairie Plants: Cup Plant and Rosin Weed

Verie,
I am always amazed at how nature adapts (i.e. the flower cupping itself to catch water). Everything seems to serve a purpose. It looks like the Rosin Weed is wild? Would this be something that avid gardeners would poo-poo in their own gardens or something that is welcome? I'm always curious as to what is considered acceptable to someone who is an expert gardener. Although the cultivated varieties are beautiful in color and arrangement, I have friends who have put together beautiful "wild flower" gardens that are stunning.

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Jennifer is the Associate Editor of Gather.

Hi Jennifer-

You might want to take a look at

http://www.illinoisprairie.info/InternatBoulevard.htm

Jim

Jennifer, there are lots of wild flowers, including prairie plants, that can be used in a garden. And it's wise to use plants that are native to the area where the garden is planted because they have adapted to the conditions in that area. More wild flowers or cultivars of wild flowers are becoming available for home gardens. Example in my area: Purple coneflowers. (Echinacea species)

However, while cup plant and rosin weed can be planted as they have been in the two locations in these pictures, they can grow very tall and might not be appropriate for some gardens.

My eyes have come to prefer a wild-looking landscape more than a manicured look.

Thanks for your interest.

Our yard is more manicured than I would like. I have read about programs to plant more native species that are adapted to the climate here in southern California. Many of the native plants attract birds and butterflies and require much less water than traditional gardens like ours with lawns, roses and other water-dependent species.
We do love our roses, though...

Verie,
My neighbor just introduced me to Cup Plant a few days ago. It is evidently native to Iowa, as well. I'm new to gardening and would like to incorporate some native plants and tall grasses into our landscape. For now, we have mostly grass that needs to be mowed as we had to get something growing on our new lot to prevent erosion. I'm hoping I can do a mix of native and otherwise and make it all work. I'll keep an eye on your articles for more ideas.

so interesting, verie! i didn't know this!!

Bert, I think roses are deeply loved for several reasons. 1. They are beautiful. 2. They hold symbolic significance, which has been evolving over time, but affects our unconscious mind. 3. Roses often are fragrant. 4. A lot of horticultural effort has been put into developing roses for profit. The flowers of our native wild roses and the invasive, imported multiflora rose are open and only have one layer of petals in contrast to the rolled-up petals of most rose cultivars.

Nearly everyone thrills to receiving a rose or a bouquet of roses or looking at a rose in its prime. So your love of roses says you are normal.

You are right about the advantages of gardening using native plants. We need to do more of that.

Marcia, most of Iowa, like Illinois, was tall grass prairie prior to European settlement so many of the prairie plants we have here could be found somewhere in Iowa if humans haven't interfered too much.

There's nothing like prairie plants to stabilize soil and hold erosion down because mature prairie plants have very deep roots. There's a poster on the Internet that shows this. Go to:

http://images.google.com/images?q=roots%20prairie%20plants%20conservation&hl=en&lr=&client=safari&rls=en&sa=N&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&tab=wi

Click on the left image titled Root Systems of Prairie Plants to enlarge it. It still may be too small to read the names of the plants, but the plant on the farthest left is Kentucky blue grass, a typical lawn grass in my area. The other plants are prairie plants. Note that the roots of Kentucky blue grass are only a few inches deep whereas the roots of these prairie plants extend from 2 to 15 feet. If you want to know the names of the other plants, let me know. I have that poster hanging right here in my office.

Good luck in your landscaping efforts.

Verie,
Thanks for the info! I had no idea the root system on native plants were so deep. I'm starting with just a few plants and will keep adding new ones a little at a time. One of our local shops had a big sale so I bought a few flowers (some native, some not) to get us started. I found a couple of small trees on the internet I'd like to plant this Fall. And my husband loves tall grasses so I'm on the lookout for those, preferably native.

Now, I'm off to check out your link. Again, thanks so much!