July 2025:  Eastern hay-scented fern, Dennstaedtia punctilobula.

Eastern hay-scented fern is not for every garden, but in the right place, its feathery, light green fronds have a magical aura.

Perhaps you have painstakingly cleared a lightly wooded area that was once thick with invasive (and non-native) ground covers such as English ivy, vinca, or Oriental bittersweet and would like to introduce a deer-resistant native ground cover to prevent those invasives from re-establishing a foothold. 

Perhaps you want to plant an understory layer around trees such as maples whose shallow roots impede the planting of perennials or shrubs.

Or perhaps you need to stabilize a bank with plantings that will fill in relatively quickly.

Hay-scented fern could be the answer.  It spreads by underground rhizomes, sending up fronds at close intervals that first emerge as little fiddleheads in spring.  By mid-summer, the fronds are fully extended and stand one to two feet high. 

Over time, this fern’s rhizomes will colonize the space available until they reach a physical barrier, such as stone walls or metal edging, or unsuitable soil or sun conditions.  Its sweet spot is filtered sunlight or partial shade in loamy soils that are dry or moist but not wet. 

Because of these colonizing properties, hay-scented fern is not a plant for small spaces.  Nonetheless, should it advance too far in the landscape, it is easy to dig or pull up, much easier than the invasives it may have replaced. 

In the meantime, hay-scented fern lends drama to the woodland floor, ensuring that trees and shrubs with white or light bark pop against its soft green.  It also provides a lush and cooling accent along a stone walkway.  In autumn, the fern turns appealing shades of yellow and orange.

June 2025:  Yarrow, Achillea millefolium.

Yarrow may be the most widespread wildflower in the United States.  Not only is this perennial found in the wild in every one of the 48 contiguous states, its presence is recorded in virtually every county, according to the Biota of North America Program.  It also inhabits temperate regions in Europe and Asia.

Yarrow’s broad distribution suggests that you can probably grow it successfully in a sunny spot in your garden.  It thrives in dry sandy, rocky or poor soil.  In fact, soil that is too rich and moist may cause its stems—up to three feet tall—to flop.  Yarrow is also salt-tolerant, making it a natural fit for Cape Cod.

Yarrow grows relatively quickly, helped along by its deer resistance.   As clumps grow larger, they can be divided and replanted. 

While there are yarrow cultivars that produce flowers in yellow, orange, pink and red, there is no compelling reason to stray from the straight species.  Its flat-topped, horizonal white flower clusters have strong appeal for both humans and pollinators.

The Native Plant Trust classifies yarrow as a “pollinator powerhouse,” because the caterpillars of 15 or more butterfly and moth species have been documented to feed on its delicate ferny foliage.  Adult butterflies, bees and other pollinators also enjoy yarrow’s nectar.

The flowers, which last for about a month starting in late spring or early summer, blend well with those of other perennials, but also look wonderful on their own against a green backdrop, where they seem to float.

Yarrow figures in legends and folklore because it produces a compound that promotes blood clotting.  Its scientific name comes from its association with the mythical Greek hero Achilles, whose mother famously missed his heel, when she dipped him, as a baby, in waters flowing by yarrow plants. 

May 2025:  Golden Alexander, Zizia aurea.

Golden Alexander forms billowy leafy colonies topped by lace-cap blooms (umbels) like those of carrots and Queen Anne’s lace, fellow members of the Apiaceae family.  

The cheerful yellow flowers of this perennial appear in mid-spring when the earliest bloomers of the season, such as golden groundsel, are beginning to fade and many other garden plants are still weeks away from producing their first blossoms.   

In the wild, golden Alexanders are found in moist meadows, streambanks and woodland edges.  However, once established, they tolerate drought, especially if they have relief from the hottest rays of the sun. 

They are not particular about soil type.  While loamy is best, they can make do with sandy or clay soils.  Indeed, they are found in the wild in just about every county in New England and in ecoregions as diverse as the Florida panhandle and eastern North Dakota. 

Individual golden Alexanders grow relatively rapidly.  The specimens pictured here were mere plugs two years ago when they were planted 15 inches apart.  They are now hip height and blanket the formerly bare ground between them. 

Although individual plants are relatively short-lived, golden Alexanders naturalize easily by seed; plantings can also be expanded by divisions. 

Besides making the gardener look good without much effort, golden Alexanders offer ecological services.  They are host plants for swallowtail butterflies, and their shallow flowerets are appreciated by various short-tongued native bees searching for nectar. 

This violet may be called “common,” but it’s actually pretty special.

The Native Plant Trust calls the common blue violet a “pollinator powerhouse,” for it hosts the caterpillars of numerous Fritillary butterfly and native moth species.  These caterpillars, in turn, attract songbirds searching for food for their young.  Hummingbirds, bees and butterflies are drawn to its nectar.  

There is much for humans to love, too.  In humus-y soil in open woodlands or in the shade of taller perennials in more formal gardens, this diminutive perennial provides purple, white or lavender flowers in April and May and sometimes later in the season.  

In addition, the flowers and leaves are edible.  Creative chefs can decorate cakes and other confections with the flowers and toss the tender springtime leaves, high in Vitamins A and C, into salads.

Gardeners striving for uniform grassy yards sometimes malign common violets that pop up in these confines.  Those with more relaxed standards, though, can enjoy the “flowery mead” look they impart to lawns.  

Violets prefer a little shade and moisture and will look their best in those conditions, but they are fairly adaptable.  During droughts, especially under full sun, they may appear to decline or die back, only to reappear next spring.  And while individual plants are short-lived, they can reproduce and spread via underground rhizomes and, with the help of ants, by seed.  

Perhaps because of this adaptability, common blue violet can be found in the wild in a vast portion of the continental United States, stretching from Maine to Florida in the east and from North Dakota to eastern Texas in the west.

March 2025:  Golden groundsel, Packera aurea, and Running groundsel, Packera obovata.

Golden groundsel (packera aurea) and running groundsel (packera obovata), two closely related perennials native to southern New England, are multi-taskers.

Their daisy-like golden yellow flowers appear in late March or early April when native bees are hungry for nectar after emerging from hibernation and when humans are impatient for springtime blooms.

Golden groundsel’s flowers top approximately one-foot tall stems that arise from rosettes of heart-shaped, dark green leaves that stay low to the ground.  Running groundsel’s flowers rise about half as high, and the overall plant is somewhat daintier in appearance with smaller, egg-shaped leaves.

In sunny or partly sunny locations, both species spread quickly via underground rhizomes to form leafy carpets that suppress weeds but play well with other garden plants. Both plants, given their low profiles, are recommended as “green mulches” that can fill in bare spots under shrubs and taller perennials.

Another welcome feature is that they are evergreen, even under snow or extended sub-freezing temperatures.  The pictures at left and below show golden groundsel and running groundsel at the end of January in a Zone 7 climate after a week when temperatures rarely rose above freezing.

Since both species prefer moist soil, they tend to be happiest in partial or filtered shade where the soil is less likely to dry out between rain spells.  The full sun locations that suit them are often along streams and ponds where the  ground remains reliably moist. 

If these conditions are met, however, they don’t require much more from the gardener.  

February 2025:  Paper birch, Betula papyrifera, and River birch, Betula nigra.

Paper birch, an iconic tree of New England and the northern reaches of the United States, flourishes where summer temperatures do not often surpass 75 degrees and where snow blankets the ground much of the winter. 

Sadly, those conditions no longer describe Cape Cod.  As recently as 20 years ago, the Cape was in USDA plant hardiness zone 6, historically the warmest extent of paper birch’s range; today the entire peninsula is in zone 7.  As summers get hotter, paper birch becomes stressed and vulnerable to the bronze birch borer, a native insect that otherwise would do little harm.  

Still, for those who garden with their hearts as well as their heads, the allure of paper birches is powerful.  They are undeniably beautiful, with their arching trunks up to 60 feet or more, typically in groups of two or three, and the black on white patterns of their peeling bark.

Cape gardeners willing to take a chance should plant paper birch saplings in north- or east-facing woodland edges where they will be shaded from the afternoon sun and where decomposing leaves will cover their root zones.  

Alternatively, gardeners can turn to river birch, which is perfectly happy in heat and humidity.  Cape Cod marks the approximate northeastern edge of its historical range, which extends as far south as northern Florida and eastern Texas.  

Each tree typically features three arching trunks that grow up to 50 feet tall.  River birch also has attractively peeling bark, but in shades of pink and salmon.  Like paper birch, it has bright yellow to bronze fall foliage.  

The trick, though, is to site river birch close to ponds, streambeds or other areas where soil remains damp.  It is not drought-tolerant.

The Native Plant Trust classifies both trees as “pollinator powerhouses.”  Across their ranges, they host the caterpillars of more than 300 butterfly and moth species.  

January 2025:  Wintergreen, Gaultheria procumbens.

In winter, wintergreen not only keeps its leaves, which may turn purple or bronze, but it also sports bright red berries that provide sustenance to wildlife.  Throughout the year, this low, creeping shrub—just a few inches high—is a cheerful green presence in our woods.

Wintergreen is a member of the heath family (Ericaceae) in which mountain laurel and blueberry are also classified, and it often grows at the feet of these taller botanical cousins.  On Cape Cod, it appears in pine-oak woods and hardwood forests where decomposing leaves and pine needles provide some moisture and loam to our sandy, well-drained soils.  

Wintergreen looks somewhat like bearberry, another native evergreen shrub with red berries, but is easily distinguished by the fragrance its leaves emit when crushed.  Wintergreen is the natural source for oil of wintergreen, the compound used to flavor chewing gum and as an ingredient in topical muscle pain relievers.  Oil of wintergreen (methyl salicylic acid) is chemically similar to aspirin (acetyl salicylic acid).  

The native Americans of New England, recognizing these properties, used wintergreen as an analgesic, cold remedy and soothing tea.  Another common name for wintergreen, in fact, is teaberry.  

To thrive, wintergreen needs partial to deep shade and the coolness shade provides.  If these conditions are met, though, wintergreen can survive drought.  USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 7, which includes Cape Cod, is the warmest climate wintergreen can tolerate.  Its historical range in the United States encompasses New England, the Great Lakes states, the mid-Atlantic and the mountains and piedmont as far south as Kentucky and Tennessee. 

For gardeners, wintergreen can replace non-native and invasive English ivy in shady areas, since small plugs will eventually spread to form a dense ground cover.  

(Source for bottom photo:  Blue Stem Natives)

December 2024:  Winterberry, Ilex verticillata.

Winterberry, unlike other native hollies such as inkberry (Ilex glabra) and American holly (Ilex opaca), is not evergreen, but the bright red berries on its naked branches provide a welcome pop of color in the winter landscape.

The berries start forming on the females of the species in August provided a male winterberry is within about 50 feet, but are easy to overlook among the shrub’s green oval leaves.  

Even before the berries appear, though, winterberry’s graceful, rounded form is pleasant to behold.  It typically grows about six to 10 feet tall and as wide.

Winterberry prefers moist to wet acidic soils in sun or part shade.  In the wild, it is often found along streams and in other damp places, making it a good candidate for rain gardens.  However, winterberry is adaptable to drier conditions, and gardening sources invariably describe it as “low maintenance.”  The filtered sunlight and salt air of Cape Cod woods seem to suit it.

The extent of winterberry’s geographic range underscores its adaptability.  In the United States, it is native from Maine to the Florida panhandle and west as far as eastern Minnesota and Louisiana.

Throughout the year, winterberry provides food and shelter for wildlife.  Native bees flock to the nectar of its small greenish white flowers. Rabbits nibble the leaves, which also host the caterpillars of a native butterfly called Henry’s Elfin.  Dozens of bird species, including robins, mockingbirds and cedar waxwings, as well as small mammals, eat its berries.  However, we humans should let the animals have their fill:  the shrub’s leaves and berries, if ingested, are mildly toxic to our species.

November 2024:  Sassafras, Sassafras albidum.

Cape Cod’s sassafras trees are bare this month, but they were ablaze with color a few weeks ago.  

Sassafras is notable not only for unusually shaped leaves and autumn hues, but also for the bark’s aroma of baking spices and vanilla.  Female trees produce yellow flowers in spring that ripen into blue berries that birds and other wildlife enjoy.  The leaves, host to the spicebush swallowtail butterfly, generally have three lobes, but can also be mitten-shaped or oval.  

Safrole, the aromatic oil in the bark, was prized both by Native Americans and the English colonists.  Indians used the root bark for restorative teas and treatments for colds and fevers.  English explorer Martin Pring, commissioned In 1603 to assess the commercial potential of New England, noted the abundance of sassafras, then used to treat syphilis and ague, and loaded sassafras into his ship for the voyage home.

The association of sassafras with healthfulness continued into the late 1800s when pharmacist Charles Hires formulated “root beer” from sassafras root bark and other ingredients as an alternative to alcoholic drinks.  (Today, safrole is identified as a potential carcinogen, so root beer uses other flavoring agents.)

Sassafras can grow into a single-trunked tree about 60 feet high or become a multi-stemmed thicket, especially in sandy, poorer soils, where it may be more likely to produce suckers.  However, gardeners can remove the suckers and even prune the tree to the ground every few years to maintain it at shrub size.

Another way to enjoy the sassafras experience is simply to walk along the trails of the Baker’s Pond Conservation Area where sassafras grows among oaks and red maple.  In summer or early fall these woods are a visual and olfactory delight.

October 2024:  Virginia creeper, Parthenocissus quinquefolia.

Virginia creeper gently knits the woods and fields of Cape Cod together.  During the growing season, this vine is in the background, its green five-pointed leaves spreading to form a drought-resistant ground cover or hiding among the foliage of the trees it climbs. 

In September and October, though, Virginia creeper’s leaves turn orange, deep red and a hue approaching Day-Glo pink.  Its blue berries, enjoyed by numerous bird species, also appear.

Virginia creeper supports local wildlife as well through its leaves, which host the caterpillars of the Virginia creeper moth and Pandora sphinx moth.  Chipmunks, mice and skunks nibble the leaves, too. 

The US Fish and Wildlife Service recommends Virginia creeper as a substitute for English ivy and vinca, two non-native vines increasingly recognized as invasive.  Unlike English ivy, Viriginia creeper is deciduous, so it doesn’t add dangerous water weight from winter storms to native trees.  Compared with vinca, which over time forms a dense mat that wildflower seeds cannot penetrate, Virginia creeper has a looser habit.

Virginia creeper can grow more than four feet a year, so it may not be welcome where space is limited.  Nonetheless, it is relatively easy to control since it attaches to surfaces by adhesive tips on its tendrils rather than by penetrating rootlets.  One can simply lift and cut back any advancing strands.  Virginia creeper can be deployed to add a leafy screen to a fence or trellis, but should not be allowed to climb house walls, where it can damage gutters or painted surfaces. 

September 2024:  Great blue lobelia, Lobelia siphilitica.

Great blue lobelia, a stunning but easygoing perennial loved by native bumblebees, merits consideration even though it might not be truly native to Cape Cod.  

While the Native Plant Trust says that great blue lobelia is native to New England’s Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens ecoregion, comprised of Cape Cod and the Islands, the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife conjectures that any lobelias found in the wild here resulted from human intervention. 

The Biota of North America Program, generally considered the authoritative source on these questions, suggests that blue lobelia is native, but rare, in every county in Massachusetts except those of the Cape and Islands.  Indeed, the plant has become rare enough to have earned protection under the Massachusetts Endangered Species Act.  Should we find it in the wild, we may not kill or collect it.

Cape Cod gardeners can therefore do much good by cultivating great blue lobelia.  The flowers, arranged vertically on stalks about three feet tall, delight native bumblebees, who use the lower three petals as landing pads in their search for nectar.  Butterflies and hummingbirds also visit. 

In late summer, great blue lobelia produces long-lasting and intensely violet-blue blossoms.  The plant does well not only in full sun, but also in just a few hours of filtered sunlight.  Because it prefers moist soil, it may require supplemental watering in dry periods, especially in sunnier locations.  It is mildly toxic, enough to discourage rabbits and deer from nibbling on it. 

Although individual plants are short-lived, they will self-seed if the garden bed is not heavily mulched, a character trait that gardeners can encourage or control as they choose. 

August 2024:  Purple lovegrass, Eragrostis spectabilis.

Sometimes a native plant has such a wonderful name that you can't help but be intrigued.  Such is the case with purple lovegrass. 

Who cannot love a grass whose seeds, and the stalks bearing them, are tinged with purple at the height of summer, giving the entire mound a hazy pink glow?  As summer gives way to fall, the pink fades to shades of blush and beige, and the finely textured stalks capture morning dew. As the Latin name also suggests, this grass is spectacular.

The geographic range of purple lovegrass is impressive, too.  It can be found in the wild in just about every US state east of the Continental Divide (skipping just Montana), and also in Arizona.

Purple lovegrass thrives in full sun in sandy soil, as the photo at left, taken on the Salt Pond trail in Eastham, demonstrates.  It shrugs off the hot, dry spells of peak summer that make many other plants wilt.  In moister and more fertile soils, in fact, it will be outcompeted by taller perennials. 

For all its toughness, purple lovegrass is delicate in appearance.  It makes a neat mound about 12 inches high excluding the seed stalks, which may reach another foot in height, and the seeds create a scrim-like effect before and between taller plants.  To ensure it pops in a garden bed, purple lovegrass should be planted in small groups.

For those of us with “Cape Cod lawns,” purple lovegrass may be a solution if planted on a larger scale.  The North Carolina extension service says purple lovegrass “can be mowed a few times a year if it is being used as a lawn alternative that is exposed to light foot traffic.”

What’s not to love?

July 2024:  Lowbush blueberry, Vaccinium angustifolium.

Lowbush blueberry is a hardworking little shrub—just six inches to two feet high—that delights a host of creatures, including humans. 

It prefers chilly climates.  Its US range includes all of New England and extends west as far as Minnesota.  South of the Mason-Dixon line, however, it is generally only found in the wild in Maryland and in the mountains of Virginia and West Virginia.

Within this range, lowbush blueberry thrives on sandy or rocky balds and in open woodlands dominated by pines or other conifers.  On and around Mayflower Point, it luxuriates in areas with dappled sunshine and pine needle beds, where it can form large colonies.

These colonies provide a lush ground cover of glossy foliage in spring and summer that turns vibrant shades of red and maroon in the fall.  The pink-tinged white blossoms in spring and the berries in summer provide further visual interest.

Lowbush blueberry provides important sustenance to native bumblebees, who feed on the nectar in its blossoms, and to the caterpillars of several moth and butterfly species, who nibble its leaves.  The Native Plant Trust classifies the shrub as a “pollinator powerhouse plant.”

We humans must stoop to pick the small sweet berries.  If we tire of this labor, however, the birds will be happy to eat the berries we leave behind, as will chipmunks, squirrels, foxes and raccoons.

June 2024:  Mountain laurel, Kalmia latifolia.

Mountain laurel, the state flower of Connecticut and Pennsylvania, can be found all along the eastern US from Maine south to Florida and as far west as Indiana and Louisiana.  In the southern part of its range, this broad-leaved evergreen shrub prefers north-facing slopes and higher elevations.  On Cape Cod, it is happiest in humus-y soil in open woodlands and other locations that are shielded from the hottest rays of the afternoon sun.  It can handle sunnier spots provided the soil remains somewhat moist and cool.

Typically, the straight species is a multi-stemmed shrub that reaches four to 10 feet in height, but it can also develop into a small single-trunked tree and grow several feet taller.  Almost every plant database describing mountain laurel mentions its “gnarly” branches and peeling bark, which can give it a wild and even scruffy appearance before it bursts into bloom in late spring in a stunning transformation.  As if touched by a fairy godmother’s wand, mountain laurel becomes a cloud of white to pale pink blossoms that attract bees and butterflies.  Some cultivars flower in deeper shades of pink.

The blossoms eventually mature into seedpods that also provide visual interest, and the leathery leaves are attractive year-round.  Gardeners should be aware that mountain laurel leaves, flowers and stems are highly poisonous to humans and other mammals, but this attribute also discourages deer from browsing on them.