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October 2024 update

“Wow” people and pollinators with native asters and goldenrods. Wow the birds with a mini bird sanctuary.  Please see the two short articles at the bottom of this update and share them as widely as possible. 


Native Trees Month is here! 

Throughout Northern Virginia, people will be planting trees, leading tree walks, giving away free trees, collecting acorns, and participating in other fun ways. See a list of events here. And don’t miss “Bird Sanctuary Planting Weekend,” October 25-28!


Fall is the best time for planting in general for most perennial landscape species and for most trees in particular. This gives them time for their roots to grow out into the surrounding soil long before they have to deal with heat and drought. For more details, see the Plant NOVA Trees website.


Upcoming events

  • Reforesting events in Lewinsville Park - Reforesting events in Lewinsville Park October 14 and 18 - planting 5 tree and 10 shrub saplings in 22 anti-deer enclosures as well as planting individual trees and sowing a meadow.  Meet at 10 am in the front of the park along Chain Bridge Road and work until 1 pm.  RSVP to woltercarol@gmail.com

  • MGNV Fall Festival - Oct 19 - free trees giveaway. Alexandria.

  • Leave the leaves Q&A Oct 20, 2pm with expert gardeners. Join the online session or check out the Falls Church Foward site to learn more.

  • Dranesville Celebrates Trees: Caring for our Canopy.  Sunday, October 20, 4-6 pm, Lewinsville Park (Volunteers needed! Please email plantnovanatives@gmail.com if you can staff a table to tell people about native plants.)

  • Captivating Caterpillars October 23, 7pm  Online. 

  • Fairfax residents: Learn how you can become authorized to rescue trees from invasive vines in your neighborhood parks. October 27, 7pm Join online for a short presentation and Q&A.  Sign up here to receive the Zoom link.

  • Ecosavvy Garden Faire, November 2  Green Springs Garden. 


Grants for improving your neighborhood park in Fairfax County: If your community would like to help Fairfax County Park Authority improve your local park, you can apply for a matching Mastenbrook Grant. Although these grants have often been used for athletic fields, projects to work on natural resources (such as rescuing trees from invasive plants) are also eligible. You can come up with the match yourself in cash or volunteer hours or obtain it from another granting agency, such as the Virginia Department of Forestry, some of whose grants target disadvantaged communities. 


Nice PBS coverage of the Loudoun Invasive Removal Alliance. See the short video here.


Partner of the month: Fairfax ReLeaf is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the mission of conserving, restoring, and promoting sustainable urban forests in Northern Virginia. Staff and volunteers plant new native trees, remove invasive plants, educate the public, and advocate for tree-friendly policies and regulations. Since its founding in 1992, Fairfax ReLeaf has planted over 130,000 trees that improve the quality of life for everyone in our region. 


Report your native tree and shrub plantings

Please help Northern Virginia meet its tree-planting obligations by reporting your tree and shrub plantings here. So far 16,289 have been reported!

 

Report your tree rescues

Millions of trees in Northern Virginia are at risk from invasive non-native vines. You can help by saving them on your own land or by volunteering on public land. (Plant NOVA Natives/Plant NOVA Trees only does educational outreach, so all this work is done under the auspices of our partnering organizations or other landowners.). So far, 15,176 tree rescues have been reported in Northern Virginia. Please add your report here. Let’s get that up to 16,000 by the end of the year!

 

Next Steering Committee meeting – via videoconferencing. Thursday, November 14, 10:00 am – noon. All our welcome. Check our Event Calendar for future meetings.

 

This month’s newsletter articles to share. For social media, please use this link for the Keystone Plants article and this one for Bird Sanctuary Planting Weekend.  


“Keystone” Plants for Fall Gardens 

It’s fall, and most healthy plants are looking rather spent as they go dormant for the winter. But some natives are happily blooming away for the first time this growing season, catching your eye with their intense colors and soothing away year-end gardening blues.

Asters and goldenrods are the stars of this show, providing a beautiful color contrast with each other when planted together. Aside from their lovely, long-lasting blooms, they are “keystone” native plants, so named because they feed the most species of insects, butterflies, birds, and other animals in our area. Along with several other keystone plants and trees, asters and goldenrods are wildlife engines that support many local ecosystems. They are obvious choices for fall gardens.


It is encouraging if not inspiring to know that if you have access to an empty outdoor potting container or a bit of open ground, you can plant a keystone species and … help reinstitute the biodiversity of the continent!  Spend ten minutes on a sunny afternoon watching what visits the blooms on your aster or goldenrod, and you will absolutely believe your efforts have made a difference.


Here are some suggestions for asters and goldenrods to add to your garden.

 

Asters

Aromatic Aster (Symphyotrichum oblongifolium)

Aromatic Aster has emerged in recent years as a fall gardening favorite and a great substitute for non-native mums. In the wild, aromatic aster likes dry rocky outcroppings and is considered uncommon if not rare in the Piedmont. But it has become very popular among growers these days and is rather easy to find.  It is a vigorous, drought-tolerant plant that does as well in a pot as it does in the ground. Aromatic Aster gets its name from its leaves which release a balsam-like smell when crushed, which is pleasant to us and repulsive to deer. As such, the plant is very deer resistant. The plant is naturally mounded in shape and rather well behaved, especially if pruned. It is recommended not to prune an aster during its first year, but older plants respond well to a trim of approximately 1/3 of the stem length in June or July to help maximize flower production in the fall and reduce floppiness.

 

New England Aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae)

New England aster has a sturdy appearance and can grow up to six feet or more. After the first year, it can be pruned down to ½ of its stem length in June. You can also pinch back stem tips every few weeks during the winter and prune its outer stems a bit more than its inner stems to create more of a mounded shape. Monarch butterflies are particularly attracted to it as they stock up for their migration to Mexico for the winter. New England Aster is a host plant for the Pearl Crescent butterfly, one of the most common butterflies across America.  

 

Calico Aster (Symphyotrichum laterifolium)

There are several species of asters that are covered in the fall with small, daisy-like flowers that range from white to light purple and tend to self-seed enthusiastically. They are delicate and airy in appearance when blooming but can be mistaken for weeds in mid-summer.  Calico Aster is an example. The center of the flowers start out yellow and gradually turn to purplish red. Flowers on one plant include both colors at the same time, which is how the plant gets its name. The blooms attract many bees, while the leaves host the larvae of the Silvery Checkerspot and Pearl Crescent butterflies. Plant Calico Aster near New England Aster or Aromatic Aster for a nice structural contrast.


Goldenrods 

There are over 40 species of goldenrod native to Virginia, most of them producing very long-lasting blooms from late summer to fall which are of special value to native bees and many other little pollinators.


Wrinkle-leaf Goldenrod (Solidago rugosa

Wrinkle-leaf Goldenrod, also known as Rough-leaved Goldenrod or Rough-stemmed Goldenrod, is a garden favorite and rather easy to find in native plant and commercial garden centers. It features 2-5 feet long graceful arching stems that are densely loaded with small yellow flowers. In nature you will see the plant growing in large masses in open fields, but it also thrives in gardens as that get plenty of sunlight. Plant it near some blue asters for color contrast, and enjoy the result.


Zigzag Goldenrod (Solidago flexicaulis)

Zigzag Goldenrod, also known as Broadleaf Goldenrod, does not require as much sun as Wrinkle-leaf Goldenrod. It is common in local woodland settings and easy to spot with its characteristic erect, somewhat zig-zag stems that can grow from 1-3 feet tall. In addition, many backyard birds such as sparrows, goldfinches, chickadees, and wrens love to eat its seeds. Zigzag Goldenrod is an easy-care, beautiful, and beneficial choice for your fall garden, requiring little attention once it is established. 


Goldenrods have been saddled with a bad reputation by people who mistakenly blame them for their allergy symptoms. It is actually ragweed species that cause the fall sneezing. As garden plants, some species of Goldenrod such as Tall Goldenrod (Solidago altissima) can be overexuberant in the garden or look weedy. Others, though, are the perfect plant to wrap up the season, both for their color and for their contribution to our struggling local ecosystem. For more information about these and other native plants, see the Plant NOVA Natives website.

 

 Bird Sanctuary Planting Weekend: Building bird habitat made easy!

By Elaine Kolish

Are you a bird lover with bird feeders and bird baths that you keep clean and full and who delights in seeing chickadees, titmice, woodpeckers and more flock to your bird feeders? Or, are you someone who loves birds, but is too busy to keep up with maintaining bird feeders? Or, are you a bad bird watcher (with aspirations to be a better one), who looks up every time a bird flies by but with no idea what species it is?   Whatever category you fall in, you are just the person to participate in Plant NOVA Natives “Bird Sanctuary Planting Weekend,” October 26-29, 2024. You can join other communities and individuals throughout Northern Virginia in creating a sanctuary or adding to habitat already in your yard to support songbirds. It’s simple. All you have to do is plant a native tree and two native shrubs.


Plant NOVA Natives/Plant NOVA Trees has created a simple, step-by-step guide on how to create your own bird sanctuary. It details everything from how much turf you need to remove, what size plants to use, how to space and install the plants, how much mulch you will need, and when and how much to water. It offers great suggestions on where to place the sanctuary in your yard.  Elsewhere in the website are lists of native trees and shrubs that you can choose to fit your yard’s conditions.


If you are wondering why a tree and two shrubs, it’s because planting a tree by itself helps songbirds only so much.  Native understory shrubs and ground level plants are also important for providing habitat for birds and for the insects that are such an important part of their diet. If you love birds, insects are critical to your ecosystem. For example, baby birds cannot crack seeds and depend on their parents to bring them fat, soft sacks of protein, fats and other nutrients—otherwise known as caterpillars. While many caterpillars are found in native trees (with oaks being known to support the largest number of them), some caterpillar species require native shrubs instead, and many birds nest at lower levels. Keep the leaf litter in your sanctuary, as caterpillars need to burrow into the dead leaves to shelter or to spin their cocoons. Where there are not enough leaves, a thin layer of mulch (but not lawn) can substitute.


The bottom line: for a modest amount of work during Bird Sanctuary Planting Weekend (or any time),  you will have a lifetime of satisfaction of knowing you helped our feathered friends and the enjoyment of seeing them use your sanctuary.




 

 



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