Lemongrass

My favorite herb (this week) is easy to grow lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus). It shines in the garden in these hot, hot humid hazy summer days. It looks great, smells great and tastes great - what more do you need? Lemongrass is a clumping grass, so it won't spread and overrun your garden. It gets 3 feet tall by 2 feet wide, doesn't need constant water and is very showy as a landscape plant as well. Plant it in full sun and well-drained soil. It’s a fairly hardy perennial here in Tallahassee if you mulch it well in the winter.

I use lemongrass in salad dressing, teas and Thai recipes. It’s also used in homemade insect repellants, and you can add it to bath water for a refreshing, lemony soak. Be careful when you cut it for use though. The leaf margins are very sharp and will give you a nasty cut.

Be careful also to be sure you purchase real lemongrass. There’s a pseudo lemongrass on the market which doesn't have much scent or flavor. Our source at Native Nurseries is O'Tooles Herb Farm in Madison with the original stock coming from Julie Neal in Thomasville. It is the real thing!

How to make lemongrass tea:

An easy way to enjoy lemongrass in tea is to simply add it (I use the blade and stalk) to your steeping tea. It’s delicious – or try a recipe such as this one:

Collect approximately 4 stalks of lemongrass for each quart of tea you plan to make. Boil some water. Remove the green grass-like part of the stalks. You will use only the whitest part for your tea. Use a tenderizer or hammer to gently smash the stalks on a cutting board. Pour the water over the lemongrass and steep for five minutes. Your lemongrass tea can be served hot or cold or sweetened or not. Adding some sliced, peeled fresh ginger to the water while your tea is steeping makes for a tasty variation.

Cut-leaf Rudbeckia

Native to North America, cut-leaf rudbeckia (Rudbeckia laciniata) is thriving in my perennial garden. Further north it’s an herbaceous perennial, but here in Tallahassee it is usually evergreen. This edible wildflower, most often found in flood plains and moist soil, shoots up rapidly in spring. The new foliage can be used as a salad green or steamed. This time of year it is 4 to 5’ tall with robust, glossy green foliage and flower buds showing. It won’t be long until it blooms profusely with beautiful, yellow-green coneflowers.

Give cut-leaf rudbeckia full to partial sun and regular waterings – it is not drought tolerant. It’s a great perennial to divide and share with friends, and it holds up well as a cut flower.  It’s a good one to add to your butterfly garden – quite pretty alongside red pentas.

My co-worker, Mary at the nursery, likes it even when it’s not blooming because its knee-high basal foliage is very attractive. She cuts the flower stems out at the base once it’s done blooming so it won’t reseed. Cut-leaf rudbeckia does spread, but I do not consider it to be overly aggressive.

At Native Nurseries, we typically stock Rudbeckia laciniata (cut-leaf rudbeckia) in quarts and 1-gallon pots. Currently we have quarts only. As always, give us a call to check availability before making a special trip (although we’re always happy to see you). Sorry . . . we do not ship plants.

Plant A Goldenrod For Pollinators

It’s National Pollinator Week! In celebration I wanted to highlight a family of wildflowers that is one of the most beneficial for our native pollinators: the Goldenrods.

Florida has dozens of native goldenrod species, all in the Solidago genus. They all bloom in late summer, fall and sometimes through the winter in warmer climates. The genus is known for it's stalks covered in clusters of small, sunny yellow blooms. Goldenrods are often incorrectly blamed for seasonal allergies because the showy blooms open at the same time as the ragweed plant-the real culprit. Goldenrod pollen is not airborne, it relies on pollinators to move it from plant to plant and rewards these busy insects with rich nectar and pollen to eat. The goldenrods are an indispensable source of nectar and pollen in the fall and I rarely see a plant in bloom that isn’t being used by bees, butterflies, beetles, wasps or other insects.

We have a few of our favorite native goldenrod species in stock now. They are all reliable perennials and bloom in late summer through fall;

• Seaside Goldenrod, Solidago sempervirens- adaptable to many soils, salt-tolerant. Tolerant of wet soils and drought tolerant once established. Very showy stalks of blooms 3-6ft tall. Plant forms a clump and will reseed, but not aggressively. Full to part sun.
• Sweet Goldenrod, Solidago odora- pretty pyramidal clusters of yellow blooms atop stalks 3-4ft tall. Average garden soil, adaptable to clayey soils. Anise-scented foliage is used in teas. Clump grower, reseeds. Full to part sun.
• Downy Goldenrod, Solidago petiolaris- one of the most uniform and ornamental, forms a clump 2-3ft tall-doesn’t spread. Average soil and water needs. Full sun.
• Wand Goldenrod, Solidago stricta- sends up tall, thin ‘wands’ 2-4ft tall topped with blooms. Adaptable to many soil types. Full to part sun.
• Wreath Goldenrod, Solidago caesia- arching branches of blooms on 2ft tall stalks. Reseeds and spreads by root. Full sun to part shade.