I'm a native perennial wildflower, 2 to 4 feet tall. In open areas, I branch out and have a bushy appearance. My leaves can be simple, opposite, whorled or alternate. My flowers are ½ to ¾ inches across, consisting of a tubular corolla with five widely spreading lobes. I have a very short calyx with five triangular teeth. My corolla is mostly pale blue and its lobes are narrow and starlike. My blooms appear from mid-spring to early summer and last for about a month. They are beautiful, but have no scent.

Each of my fertilized flowers are replaced by a pair of cylindrical follicles, which are four to five inches long. Each follicle contains a single row of small cylindrical seeds. By splitting along one side, I reseed myself. My root system consists of a tap root. I can grow in moderate sun to deep shade, and I like moist soil, making me ideal for rain gardens.

My flowers attract ruby-throated hummingbirds and long-tongued insects such as the large carpenter bees, hummingbird moths, and many butterflies. My foliage contains a white latex that is toxic to mammalian herbivores. I share this toxicity with one of my much larger cousins, the oleander.

​One of my relatives grows on the shady side of one of the log cabins at the Caroline Dorman Nature Preserve. Another colony exists in a wet meadow near the Lafayette Visitor's Center. I have no serious insect or disease problems. I am normally available only in native plant outlets, or as a pass-a-long plant through clump divisions and seeds.

Do you know what plant I am? 
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Amsonia tabernaemontana Eastern Bluestar, Dogbane

May 2014 AHHH, SPRING – FINALLY! Dare I really say it this time? I couldn’t believe we had freezes in mid-April; although, my great-grandmother said that she remembered snow in May. This time I really am moving ahead as though we are finished with cold. I can actually use the same words that I did last month, “The past few days have been absolutely glorious. I have been unable to stay indoors.” In fact, I want to be outdoors right now, but I have to write instead. Oh, well, there’s always tomorrow.

I have finished adding all the compost goodies to the beds. I planted a variety of squashes down the center of one 4 x 25 foot bed and waited. The more I looked at that bed, the more the empty space annoyed me, so I planted parsley along the edges of the bed at the mid-point between the squash plants. There was still too much bare ground, so I put radishes in an arc around the squash plants, figuring that the radishes would be up and harvested before the squash plants filled out enough to need that space. This is inter-cropping (or companion planting, if you prefer) in time. Time, because two crops will utilize the same space, but one will be mature and harvested before the other needs the space. There was still too much bare space to suit me, so I thought of the ‘Three Sisters’ and decided to use that concept. I planted corn in the bare spaces. As soon as the corn is up, I will plant pole beans around the corn stalks.

You probably have heard of the ‘Three Sisters’ used by Native Americans, but most people don’t think of all the different features provided by and taken from each type of plant. For example, people usually think that the corn gives the beans a place to climb, and the beans fix nitrogen for the corn and squash, but there is a lot more to it than that. Corn and squash have fibrous root systems, which mean that their roots are shallow and stay near the surface. This makes them easily prone to drying out, and they are unable to mine deeply into the soil for nutrients. The bean roots not only fix nitrogen, making it available to itself and the other plants, but they also mine for nutrients all the way down into the fourth foot of soil. The bean plants use these nutrients to form roots, leaves, stems, flowers, and fruit. When these plant parts die, (some rootlets only live a matter of hours), those nutrients become available to the corn and squash. The beans also stabilize the corn plants against wind damage.

​The third part of the trilogy features the squash, the big leaves of those squash plants help keep the ground cooler and conserve water, protecting all three plants from drought. The shade provided by the squash leaves holds down weeds, and the spines on the squash deter certain pests. The cooperative nature of this plant combination continues on to the table. The combination of corn and beans yields complete protein for humans, and the squash adds vitamins and carbohydrates. When the plants die at the end of the season, that large amount of green mass turned into the soil improves the tilth and nutrient availability for the next crop. So, you can begin to see how these plants help each other when planted together. This combination of cooperative plants placed in close proximity is called a ‘guild’ in permaculture, and there are many other combinations in addition to the ‘Three Sisters’.

​Deep-rooted plants like daikon radish are called ‘dynamic accumulators’ or ‘miners’ because their roots go down into the soil and bring up nutrients that are then released to other plants when the radish dies. Plants like comfrey are great for mulching in place. They are perennials that grow quickly and have large fleshy leaves. These leaves can be cut off and dropped to create a mulch that breaks down relatively quickly to provide nutrients to the other plants in the guild. Every guild also should have a ground cover to hold down weeds and keep moisture in the soil. Plants that have strong smells, like onions, chives, and strong-smelling flowers, can help to repel insect pests. Having climbers in the guild helps to make maximum use of the available space by using space in all dimensions. Guilds are just a way to replicate nature.

So, what’s happening in the garden now? The broccoli is about done. I cut back all the flower stalks, added compost and watered well. If they start producing side shoots again, great. If not, up they come. The peach trees are now covered with peaches just a little smaller than a golf ball. I really need to thin them to make it easier on the tree and to get large, flavorful fruit instead of a lot of small, insipid fruit. One of the small citrus, the Improved Meyer Lemon, seems to be coming back, but the growth is all from the base, and I’m not sure if it’s coming from the root stock or the graft. I’ll wait a little while to see before I decide whether to pull it out or not. The blood orange seems to be gone though.

I’ve recently bought more citrus to replace those two and added two more. I created a guild around each one with comfrey, narcissus bulbs, garlic chives, multiplying leeks, pole beans, and daikon radish.

Plans notwithstanding, my first planting of cucumbers did not do well at all. So, I’m starting again. I’m putting them on teepees this year because the trellis area was used for cucumbers last year, and I didn’t want to plant them in the same area again. So over the winter I let some trash trees grow around the edge of the property instead of taking them down when they were small. One day, after I’d pulled up all the weeds in the beds and paths, I spend a couple of hours cutting these trees down. They were 7 to 9 feet long, nice and straight, and perfect for making the teepees I wanted for the beans and cucumbers. And they were free.

Insect Bulletin. What I’ve seen so far is aphids, mostly on a few young pea pods and the flower stalks of a few weeds (good trap crop maybe?). As I was cleaning up the massive weeds in March, I saw a few very large leaf-footed bugs. I assume they had overwintered in the weeds, but they truly were huge. Fortunately, they were also very slow, so I treated them to my variation on the ‘two-bricks’ method of insect control, the ‘Louisiana Stomp’. I continue to see the occasional assassin bug, and I see ladybugs everywhere.

The first planting of peas are producing really well. I’ve served them, frozen them, and dehydrated them, I still have a lot coming on the plants, and the second planting is just starting to produce. I should be well set with peas for the season. The dewberries are covered with berries. I picked about a gallon and didn’t even get to all the bushes. The blackberries are in flower and just setting fruit. Having both dewberries and blackberries doubles the length of the harvest because the dewberries flower and set fruit before the blackberries do. Just about the time that the dewberries are fading, the blackberries are starting to produce. The only bad thing about the dewberries is the thorns. I love the fact that the blackberries are thornless. The strawberries are producing well, and the blueberry bushes are loaded with tiny berries and flowers.

I hope you are all enjoying this great weather as much as I am. I hope it continues all summer – I know that won’t happen, but I can hope can’t I?

Until next time, Good gardening. 

Hello Gardeners,

A lot of calls have been coming into the Lafayette Parish LSU AgCenter office regarding various landscape/gardening topics and I thought I’d share them with Master Gardeners this month.

Many questions and comments address knockout roses which seem to be providing gardeners with a spectacular display of lush green foliage and gorgeous blooms. I contacted Dr. Allen Owings at the Hammond Research Station and he is witnessing the same performance from knockout roses. He feels that, because of our long winter with below average temperatures, knockout roses went through a longer and more complete rest period. When they finally came alive, they were rejuvenated. The results are seen in the foliage and flowers being more concentrated, instead of like in mild winters. Where the rest period is shorter and less complete, folage and bloom activity is spread over a longer period of time. As we say, Mother Nature did us a favor. Let us enjoy this spectacular display from reinvigorated knockout roses. Keep in mind, however, that as temperatures rise and place more stress on all roses, they will probably not look as spectacular.