Japanese Garden

Helping rare spring wildflowers bloom at my park!



My non-profit’s website: https://colonialcanopytrees.org/
In my township, this woodland is the only place left on public (and probably private) land where some native spring ephemeral wildflowers bloom. These are not rare wildflowers in intact ecosystems, but natural areas of high quality are unfortunately not common in my area. We’ve been working to remove the aggressive invasives that are threatening these valuable native plants.

There are lots of other locally-rare plants here including post oak (Quercus stellata), American prickly-ash (Zanthoxylum americanum), and various wildflowers.

If you have a cool area like this in your community that could use some help, I encourage you to try this out in; try to set up a volunteer event!
#plants #invasiveplants #invasiveremoval #englishivy #honeysuckle #bloodroot #lily #troutlily #flowers #spring #wildflowers #nativeplants #trees #woodland

This is the only spot left in my town that native spring ephemerals like bloodroot and yellow trout lily still grow wild and still Bloom sadly though this Woodland floor is being overrun by invasive ground cover plants like English ivy and Japanese Honeysuckle so last weekend my nonprofit held an event

Here to remove as much of that as we could we focused on the areas where these locally rare spring wild flowers are growing hoping that they will spread more once these invasives are removed luckily the ground is moist at this time of year and these ground covers are

Really easy to pull from the roots without disturbing too much of the soil of course this isn’t a oneandone thing we’ve been working in this Woodland for a few years to remove these invasives and to restore natives we put all of the invasives into one big pile here near

The path in the sun where they’ll dry out and die and we’re hoping this will become a nice Wildlife brush pile

29 Comments

  1. I saw yellow trout lily blooming for the first time this May in the Fore River Sanctuary in Portland, ME. They were spectacular and the leaves were so cool! I love that the invasives will have a secondary positive impact for wildlife, rather than just being disposed of

  2. That pile looks so gratifying! Would love to see a follow up response in the spring time! Keep up the great work!

  3. I so want to clear the local woods by my house. There’s an astonishing amount of English Ivy. Saw a video of a guy making baskets from it, so I might try that this winter.

  4. I go to local frisbee golf parks with my dog to explore and notice privet and English ivy everywhere. I garden muscle. How do you go about warning parks and rec about these and getting approval to remove? I would do the same here.

  5. Love it! Thanks for IDing the trout lily for me. I know a handful of spots in my town where I can find bloodroot and trout lily (and a surprising abundance of jack-in-the-pulpit). I keep a mental inventory of the locations and like to check in on them every few years. In my area I battle common buckthorn, guelder rose, shrub honeysuckle and Japanese knotweed. I wage the war I can.

    It's been a long time since I had anyone discuss wildlife brush piles. I love the work you're doing.

  6. Hello , i have a few chestnut seedlings. When transplanting them i noticed a large portion of the taproot had rotten and fallen off. They still have a bit of taproot , will they survive?

  7. Its very fascinating to hear about this; where i live in guelph, ontario, those plants are extremely common in wild woodlots and come up commonly even in peoples yards. I hope youre able to help them spread far and wide.

  8. What a wonderful project! I wish your abundant success.

    In my area, “goatscaping” has been incredibly successful at limiting invasive species while rejuvenating soil and encouraging native species to re-establish. I wonder if it would be effective in your neck of the woods.

  9. I have yellow trout lily and English ivy in my yard. Ironically enough I thought the trout lilly was invasive and the ivy was native as I've never seen trout Lily and English ivy is everywhere.

  10. In Colorado it would be Russian Olive, purple loosestrife, & butter and eggs… Oh, salt cedar also.
    Maybe Virginia creeper I'm not sure about that but it certainly can get into places it shouldn't get into!

  11. Would a controlled burn not be better? Not sure if you have seen it heard of him but there's a great guy on YouTube who is all about protecting and restoring just like this. He very much believes in using controlled burns. It's a natural and effective way to restore AND add nutrients back. I can't be sure it's right for your area but maybe you can look into it or reach out to this guy. His channel is called Native Habitat Project.
    Thank you for being a steward to our mother earth!!❤

  12. Wow, didn’t realize trout lily was something rare. Another edible plant to add to the list of the ones that need more tlc

  13. Have you ever tried using goats to get rid of that ivy? My neighborhood rented some goats for that purpose a few years ago and it worked well.

Write A Comment

Pin