Northern Virginia Piedmont, Zone 8A
In the last week, my dwarf Witch Alder (Fothergilla) went from nothing to buds to flowers to A LOT of fully open flowers. One awake plant quickly became 4 (2 are behind me). I bought and planted them last year, so it was a delight to discover they survived the winter and woke up for spring!
P.S. Does anyone know what the Native Americans called this plant? It really bugs me to call it after some British botanist who never lived here.
P.P.S. Pro tip on attracting native bees: I'm digging up a stump and using water to soften the soil, which means lots of mud. Every time I watered, the bees just showed up out of nowhere en masse and had a field day crawling in the mud. 🐝
by GlitterFallWar
4 Comments
*sigh* and its native to my area too, adding that to my list to buy and plant lol.
It’s likely that native Americans called the plant many different things. They spoke many languages, and many of those languages were quite different even in close geographies.
I call my Mt Airy the Gilla Monster. And sing the chorus to the King Gizzard and the Lizard wizard song Gilla Monster in my head while I stroke the flowers. Yup.
This fuckin plant man. I get the whole, “don’t let perfect be the enemy of good,” but this plant seems to be the new landscaper special here in the Midwest for people who want generic ass landscaping but don’t want boxwood. I guess it’s progress.