Article by: Lynn Kunstman, Jackson County Oregon Master Gardener
Posted by: Carlotta Lucas, AGC Member
Horticulture Report: Red Twig Dogwood
Tag Archives: Creating a Butterfly Habitat
Horticulture Report: Rudbeckia hirta
Rudbeckia hirta
Black-eyed Susan ‘Prairie Sun’
Type: Herbaceous perennial – CULTIVAR
Height: 2.50 to 3.00 feet Spread: 1.50 to 2.00 feet
Bloom Time: June to frost
Bloom Description: Yellow-tipped orange rays with green center disk
Sun: Full sun Water: Medium Maintenance: Low
Suggested Use: Annual, Naturalize
Flower: Showy, Good Cut
Attracts: Butterflies Tolerate: Deer, Drought, Clay Soil
Culture
Biennial or short-lived perennial that is winter hardy to USDA Zones 3-7. It blooms in the first year from seed planted in early spring, and is accordingly often grown as an annual. It is easily grown in average, medium moisture, well-drained soils in full sun. Best in moist, organically rich soils. Tolerates heat, drought and a wide range of soils except poorly-drained wet ones. For best result from seed in the St. Louis area, start seed indoors around March 1. Seed may also be sown directly in the garden at last frost date. Some varieties are available in cell/six packs from nurseries. Set out seedlings or purchased plants at last frost date. Deadhead spend flowers to encourage additional bloom and/or to prevent any unwanted self-seeding. Whether or not plants survive from one year to the next, they freely self-seed and will usually remain in the garden through self-seeding.
Noteworthy Characteristics
Ruudbeckia hirta, commonly called black-eyed Susan, is a common Missouri native wildflower which typically occurs in open woods, prairies, fields, roadsides and waste areas throughout the State. It is a coarse, hairy, somewhat weedy plant that features daisy-like flowers (to 3” across) with bright yellow to orange-yellow rays and domed, dark chocolate-brown center disks. Blooms throughout the summer atop stiff, leafy, upright stems growing 1-3’ tall. Rough, hairy, lance-shaped leaves (3-7” long). Plants of this species are sometimes commonly called gloriosa daisy, particularly the larger-flowered cultivars that come in shades of red, yellow, bronze, orange and bicolors.
Genus name honors Olof Rudbeck (1630-1702) Swedish botanist and founder of the Uppsala Botanic Garden in Sweden where Carl Linnaeus was professor of botany.
Species name of hirta means hairy in reference to the short bristles that cover the leaves and stems.
‘Prairie Sun’ grows to 3’ tall on stiff, upright, leafy stems. It produces a long summer-to-fall bloom of large, daisy-like flowers (to 5” diameter) featuring orange rays tipped with lemon yellow and greenish center disks. Flowers bloom singly atop strong, sometimes-branching stems. Rough, bright green leaves (3-7” long) in basal clumps with smaller stem leaves. ‘Prairie Sun’ is an All-America Selection winner in 2003 and a Gold Medal winner at the 2003 Fleuroselect trials in England.
Problems
No serious insect or disease problems. Susceptible to powdery mildew. Watch for slugs and snails on young plants. Can self-seed freely. Deer tend to avoid this plant.
Garden Uses
Borders. Annual beds. Cottage gardens. Wild gardens. Meadows. Groups or mass plantings. Good cut flower.
Article by: Lynn Kunstman, Jackson County Master Gardener
Posted by: Carlotta Lucas, AGC Member
Photo by: Bluestone Perennials https://www.bluestoneperennials.com
Just say NO to Fall Clean Up
While diseased plants and leaves should be removed from your 
flowerbeds, leaving plant debris, seed heads, plant stalks, and leaf litter provides much needed winter shelters and food for beneficial insects and birds.
Forging urban birds like juncos, sparrows and chickadees need your plant’s seeds for food, and beneficial insects, like butterflies and moths, winter over on flower and ornamental grass stalks. So, by cutting and cleaning out flowerbed debris you are doing more harm than good by disrupting your garden’s natural habitat.
Rethink fall clean up, resist the urge to remove all the debris, keep it until spring because the wildlife depends on it! It also provides mulch to protect plants during cold weather.
Carlotta Lucas, AGC Member
Photo by: Carlotta Lucas – Caterpillar on Salvia Stalk (10/22/2020)
Oregon Native: Red Elderberry
Plant Name: Sambucus racemosa
Common name: Red Elderberry
Plant Type: Deciduous Shrub or Small Tree
Plant Height: 10’ – 20’
Width: 8′-10′
Bloom Time: April – July
Flower Color: Creamy White Flowers Followed by Bright Red Berries.
Exposure: Sun to Part Shade
Soil Requirements: Moist, Well Draining Loamy, Silty, Nutrient Rich.
Water Needs: High Moisture
Attributes: Nectar for Hummingbirds; Fragrant Flowers; Attracts Butterflies; Deer Resistant.
Note: Susceptible to Viral Canker, Powdery Mildew, Leaf Spot, Cane Borers.
Uses: Soil Stabilization; Wildlife Garden; Hedge.
Native to: Most of North America
Oregon Native: YES
USDA Hardiness Zone: 3 – 7
” Warning: Red Elderberry Fruits are not edible when raw, but when cooked they make a good jam, pie, and wine.” (Oregon State University)
Report By: Viki Ashford, AGC member & Master Gardener
Photos from: Oregon State University https://landscapeplants.oregonstate.edu/plants/sambucus-nigra-subsp-cerulea
Attracting Pollinators: Part 3
Food: A pollinator garden, with carefully chosen plants, will provide pollen and nectar for pollinators, but you can also supplement with special feeders for birds, hummingbirds, and even butterflies with Butterfly Feeders.
Water: Birds, bees, butterflies, all living creatures need water!
Make a Butterflies mud puddle!
For butterflies: Butterflies are attracted to water along the edge of rivers and creeks, which provides them with salt and nutrients. You can create a “mud puddle” watering station for them. Use a shallow dish such as a plastic or terracotta plant saucer in a sunny area of your garden that is protected from the wind. Fill the bottom of the pan with sand, gravel, and a few small stones, add water to the dampen sand.
Bees: Bees drink water, but they also gather up to a gallon of water a day in hot weather to create “air conditioning” to cool the hive. Bees can drown while gathering water, so it’s important to provide them an escape; this can be done by adding pebbles, rocks, wood, or other types of “bee rafts” into a dish of water, birdbath or bucket of water. Bee rafts can be anything that floats like wine corks, small pieces of wood even packing peanuts.
Birds: provide a bird bath, a dish of water, install a water garden or a fountain.
Submitted by: Carlotta Lucas
Attracting Pollinators: Part 2
Grow Organically
Pesticides, even organic ones, can be toxic to bees, beneficial insects, birds, animals and other organisms. If you must use pesticides then take the organic approach, it’s a safer method. You can also work with nature to control pests and diseases by using plant ecology and soil management, such as planting disease-resistant plants, practice companion planting, rotating your plants in the vegetable garden, and applying organic fertilizers and mulch. These methods create a healthier garden thereby creating strong plants and creating unfavorable conditions for pests.
Shelters
All pollinators need shelter to hide from predators, get out of the elements and rear their young.
Ways to create shelters:
- Leaving a dead tree standing for butterflies, native bees and birds to make homes.
- In the fall don’t rake your leaves out of your flowerbeds. Many beneficial insects use leaves for winter protection. You can shred your leaves then put them back into your flowerbeds as mulch, this benefit plants, worms and insects.
- Also in the fall, leave dead flowers standing. Many beneficial insects hibernate or lay eggs on flower stems and leaves. Birds also feed on the seeds, so wait until spring to clean out your flowerbeds.
- Provide undisturbed spaces for pollinators to overwinter. Leave a log, or a pile of pruned branches lying on the ground in a sunny location, even a pile of leaves can create a winter shelter.
- Providing a natural habitat is best, but creating artificial nesting boxes are can be helpful to pollinators, especially in the case of Mason bees, bats and some birds.
-
- Mason bees will use a wooden block for nesting if it has the
Insect house in Parkend, the Forest of Dean, UK (photo from Wikipedia)
proper-sized holes drilled into it, or you can build a fancier Mason Bee House.
- For mosquito control buy or build a Bat House.
- Click here for Birdhouse Plans
- Butterfly houses can be built or purchased but they are less successful than creating natural habitats.
- Mason bees will use a wooden block for nesting if it has the