OK, I'm gonna tackle this as much as possible. Maybe we need a gardening forum?
JoyBT: Much appreciate your thorough answers with beautiful photos!--will look into them. My rock-garden site doesn't get a lot of sun for very long each day, but more than my photo shows. We had a run of gray overcast for about a week, so I had to take photos regardless. -- Am thinking also of creeping phlox, both colors--do you like it?
Love creeping phlox. It's another of those plant's that's too little to survive without cultivation, but with minimal care it does amazingly well. It's actually two different species with very similar habits -
Phlox stolonifera and
Phlox subulata. They actually come in 7 solid colours and endless bi, tri, and "splash" colour combinations. One of my faves is
Phlox subulata 'Candy Stripe.' The flowers look like someone dropped little peppermint candies all over some lush moss.
Jeez, I'm not sure about the USDA zone, as dumb as that sounds. All I know is that we lie in the narrow middle band (east to west) of the three shown for the US.
A lot of people don't know their hardiness zone, and that hardly makes them dumb! There are many more than three hardiness zones for the US (11 of them, actually) and then each zone is broken down into 2 subzones, just to add more confusion. The Great Smokies straddle zones 6b and 7a. I suggest you take a look at the map i've included and estimate your zone from it. It's good info to have if you ever order plants from a catalog (and never order from catalogs that don't include hardiness information - they're not reliable):
USDA Hardiness zones for South Eastern US
In the meantime I've noticed a lovely gray moss that grows in Brillo-like pads on tree twigs. Will experiment to see whether I can successfully move some of it to strategic spots.
Ahh, if it looks anything like
this it's not a moss at all, but rather a lichen (which is a strange hybridization between fungus and algae).
Here's a list of filamentous lichens in your area. That site doesn't show pictures, but you can google any of the names to find exactly which one you have. If you have lichens, it means your in an environmentally happy area, since lichens DO NOT tolerate polution.
Lichens are very fragile. I'd recomend you break off the twig it's attached to as gently as possible, and then tie that twig to the twig of a tree you want it on. If you're successfull, in a couple of years you'll have lichen colonizing the area where you introduced it.
Now the really fun part!
Yep, you've nailed the roses right on the nose, to mix metaphors...described them perfectly. And I do need the luck--it's been a long (and often bloody, as you mention) battle. Another exotic that's extremely troublesome here is Japanese honeysuckle--also deadly to other vegetation...but with beautiful blossoms and swooningly sweet scent, especially on summer nights. It's especially difficult to eradicate because of its hardiness and my dogged resolve to pull it by hand--don't want to introduce herbicides into the environment.
Multifloras are evil.
This site has some very good recommendations for control. Just be very persistent, because it does take a long time to kill the bastards. As for the honeysuckle - it is a close relative of the native
Coral Honeysuckle Lonicera sempervivens. If you have japanese honeysuckle, you may also have coral honeysuckle. They look the same until they bloom, and then you can tell the native one easily because it has longer, more trumpet shaped, and very noticibly coral orange flowers. It also smells nicer, IMHO.
Then there's poison ivy, which I also pull by hand--wearing a mask because of its blistering volatile oil; but of course birds are constantly dropping seeds all over. You also mention kudzu, which I fortunately do not have--none within several miles, so far as I've seen. It's the worst killer of other plants, even huge trees, that I've ever run across. There are wide swaths of forest in this region that have been rendered desolate and erosion-prone by it, hanging in long, ugly ropes in the winter and concealing the skeletons in summer. But there's a new exotic killer that's just been here two or three years, at least on my property...and may become as devastating as kudzu. I call it strangler vine (nobody's been able to give me a name for it), since it acts much like tropical strangler fig: climbs and twines itself tightly around any stem or trunk, literally squeezing its victim like a boa constrictor...doesn't budge at all as the sapling grows. Can't describe it, really, though its leaves are very attractively shaped and a brightish green, its roots a light brick reddish. As with poison ivy, it's quite hardy and birds scatter it relentlessly.
Poison Ivy is one of those double edged swords. Believe it or not, it's a native and ecologically important species. Definitely pull it out of any cultivated areas, and anywhere else you explore regularly. Just leave some in more wild areas so the birds and animals that rely on it can still have some food.
I'm glad you don't have Kudzu! We have some of it in our area, but it's at the very northern limit of its range, so the winters seem to keep it relatively in check. Still, i've seen a handful of trees that have been smothered.
I think the "strangler vine" you mention is probably
Oriental Bittersweet Celastrus orbiculatus. It's well known for girdling trees. A lot of nurseries still sell it as an ornamental. It is kinda pretty, but it's habit of killing everything it comes in contact with is far from pretty. If that isn't it, this site has a list of exotic vines in your area:
SERAMBO - Exotic Species - Vines
To continue my litany, there's the prolific herald of spring, which I believe is also an exotic. Can grow at least 12 or 15 feet high, spreads prolifically from seeds, and crowds out just about any other vegetation, including wildflowers...and sucks up the moisture of light rains with its shallow, wide-spreading roots before the water can sink into the ground.
I'm clueless about this one. I've never heard of "herald of spring," and can't find any info on it anywhere. Do you have any pictures?
And finally, the wimply little wild onion...grows and spreads like the inedible weed that it is. I'll have to use a little targeted herbicide on them, or lose even the forest floor and its desirable flowers and vegetation to their pushy, almost carpet-solid numbers if left unchecked. Farmers hate it, by the way, because it spoils cows' milk when they feed on it.
Long-winded, I know. But I like to present my woes and to garner advice wherever I can find it. And find a great deal of it I did from you--thanks a million. Much appreciated!
Wild Onion
Allium canadense is actually native. There's a myth about it being garden onions that reverted to their wild form and became a weedy pest - simply not true. Now, just because it's native doesn't mean it's good. By all means, get rid of what you can. It spreads like chives do, by making baby bulbs from old bulbs, hence the carpetlike habit. It needs too much light to make it in dense shade, so I wouldn't worry about it crowding out woodland wildflowers, but in dappled shade and full sun it's in hog heaven and can easily outcompete desired flowers. And yes, it does make cows milk taste like onion! YUCK!
OK, so, now that i've hijacked the thread.... let's get back to posting pictures of flowers/gardens!
and loads of ivy, lol.
