by Jackie Grennon Brooks
I’m restoring my backyard patch by patch. I’m following the Doug Tallamy rule of 70%. He has found that if we can restore our landscapes to 70% native plants, we can pretty much bring back the other native wildlife. I’ve said goodbye to the garlic mustard, am still working on that pesky English Ivy, and am tackling the barberries this spring. I am replacing them with natives.
Through a conversation about wild geraniums at a local farmers market, Mindy Block, who grows and sells native plants for Quality Parks, was questioning just how native her wild geraniums really were (see photos Mindy took below). They were blooming later than Geranium maculatum are “supposed to bloom” and they were producing flowers with a much deeper color than expected.