Mondays with Martha

Happy National Pollinator Week! In celebration, I highlight a beautiful, bee-friendly native wildflower, common spiderwort (Tradescantia ohiensis). Learn how best to incorporate this prairie plant into your landscape and offer pollinators important resources during that tricky early to mid-June lull in flowering. I also describe ways you can use this edible species on your own table!
For more information about National Pollinator Week events near you:
www.pollinator...

[@butchpedit4871]

Thanks for this video. There is a well established bed of Spiderwort along one of our fence lines. It was planted by a former neighbor. There is a corner area that two of the plants spread to. I want to encourage the spread and have the corner area taken over by the spiderwort. What is the best way to encourage propagations and spread. Dig up roots from the established beds and replant?

[@natureniche1822]

you're welcome! You can dig up little seedlings around your established plants or dig up a few of the established plants and separate them into smaller chunks in the spring or fall and transplant to the new corner. Also make sure there is some bare soil available for the plants already in that corner to reseed themselves. You can also take mature seed heads and shake the seeds into that corner. Weed out existing competing weeds, if necessary.

[@butchpedit4871]

@@natureniche1822 Thank you. I will try to do both. The groupings by the fence are pretty tight and could use some breaking up.

[@ChristopherAustin-vj9uu]

I was given two cuttings of this from a friend, do you know if it’s possible to root from cuttings? I’d like to have it in my Garden

[@natureniche1822]

Per this resource: nature-niche.com/collections/plant-guides/products/gardeners-guide-to-native-plants-of-the-southern-great-lakes-region, starting from stem cuttings is possible any time of the growing season. It also germinates readily from seed, if sown in cool soils in fall, and from divided plants in early spring or after flowering has ceased.
We have successfully transplanted seedlings all the time, as long as you can keep them watered while their root systems establish in the new location.

[@ChristopherAustin-vj9uu]

Thank you so much

[@natureniche1822]

@@ChristopherAustin-vj9uu You're very welcome!

[@staceygianoplos6381]

Where is your store located and what type of merchandise do you sell?

[@natureniche1822]

Midland, MI; we sell nature-related gifts and supplies from bird seed and feeders, pollinator habitats, native plants and seeds, cards, ornaments, jewelry, pottery and dish towels, to environmental education items for kids and adults. Here's a link to our website--hope you can visit in person! nature-niche.com/

[@jimmiller6704]

What other specific plants do you let take over after spiderwort?

[@natureniche1822]

Native sunflowers like Helianthus divaricatus and H. occidentalis, false sunflower (Heliopsis helianthoides), vervains like Verbena hastata and V. stricta, butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa), swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata), bee-balm (Monarda fistulosa), horsemint (Monarda punctata), purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) and pale purple coneflower (E. pallida), wild senna (Senna hebecarpa), culver's-root (Veronicastrum virginicum), rosin weed and cup plant (Silphium integrifolium and S. perfoliatum), early goldenrod (Solidago juncea), and leadplant (Amorpha canescens) are great next-in-line bloomers, depending on your site conditions. Don't forget about our native grasses: switchgrass (Panicum virgatum), Canada wild rye (Elymus canadensis), and purple love grass (Eragrostis spectabilis) all show their lovely seed heads in late June into July!