Bill's Favorite Native Plants: August

Allen, Sterling & Lothrop's nursery manager Bill Kennie has been working with the Falmouth Open Space committee to help eradicate invasive plants from the Maine landscape. Bill believes that it is very important to include native species in ornamental landscape gardens. Indeed, the more native plants a garden has the better--native plants are typically low maintenance, they provide food and shelter for wildlife and are visually in keeping with our native "wild" landscape.

Senna hebecarpa                                                             Wild Senna

Height: 3-4’

I planted Wild Senna in my field garden along with Veronica, Rudbeckia and Eupatorium.  It rewarded me with bright yellow pea-type flowers from July to September.  It has soft green leaves on sturdy stems and the flowers develop into nice seed pods.  I also noticed that beneficial wasps were really attracted to this plant…not to me!