Garden Talk: Good Gardens All Start With Good Soil
Healthy soil is the foundation for a healthy garden and essential to our planet’s food web. Come tour the Glencarlyn Library Community Garden with an Extension Master Gardener to learn about the elements of good soil and practical ways you can care for the soil in your own garden.
We are excited to announce the NEW Beatley Library Plant Clinic!
If you live on the west side of Alexandria, you can now bring your plant questions to the library every other Tuesday evening and get help from our talented Master Gardeners!
August 13, 2019 – November 12, 2019
7:00 to 8:30p.m. on every second & fourth Tuesday
Tried and True Native Plant Selections for the Mid-Atlantic
Eutrochium dubium (Eastern or Coastal Joe Pye Weed) flower buds in July. Photo by Elaine L. Mills, 2018-07-05, private garden, Arlington, Virginia.
Eutrochium dubium (Eastern or Coastal Joe Pye Weed) in July. Photo by Elaine L. Mills, 2015-07-26, private garden, Arlington, Virginia.
Eutrochium dubium (Eastern or Coastal Joe Pye Weed) in August landscape. Photo by Elaine L. Mills, 2015-08-08, private garden, Arlington, Virginia.
Detail of Eutrochium dubium (Eastern or Coastal Joe Pye Weed) flowers in August. Photo by Elaine L. Mills, 2015-08-08, private garden, Arlington, Virginia.
Detail of seed heads of Eutrochium dubium (Eastern or Coastal Joe Pye Weed) Photo by Elaine L. Mills, 2017-09-28, private garden, Arlington, Virginia.
This more diminutive Joe Pye Weed is native to the eastern coastal plain and can be found in swamps, shores, and wet meadows. Its beautiful pink-headed stems wave in the summer breeze and provide landing platforms attractive to butterflies and other insect pollinators. Eupatarium dubium is now called Eutrochium dubium by Virginia Flora.
So small I missed it on the first pass, the mint exhibit at the U.S. Botanic Garden is worth a stop if you’re down on the National Mall.
Crammed into ten feet of space along the corridor between the cactus and medicinal plant rooms is a colorful display of many of the Lamiaceae family members. Ranging from Salvia through coleus, basils, oregano, thyme, mountain mint, and more, the display refreshes your memory of how many plants are part of this diverse family, and how their uses range from culinary to ornamental.
In signage titled “It’s Hip to Be Square,” visitors are reminded that “when you see a plant with square stems, and leaves growing opposite each other, there is a good chance it belongs to the mint family.” Other surprising details revealed in the exhibit include the fact that of the more than 7,000 species in the Lamiaceae family, some 400 plants are native to the United States. Monarda (Beebalms) and Pycnanthemum (mountain mints) are two popular mid-Atlantic native ornamentals on display.
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The mint exhibit runs through November 23, 2019, so there is plenty of time to work it into your next visit to Washington, D.C. On your way out be sure to make a quick stop in the Botanic Garden’s West Gallery to see the poster exhibit “Celebrating New American Gardens,” open through October 15, 2019, and plan your next green road trip.
Public education events are open to all, but space may be limited. To reserve a spot, please REGISTER ONLINE.
