This photo really doesn't do enough credit to Lonicera sempervirens, the native honeysuckle we saw at Bartram's Garden on Sunday. I've seen this plant online and in catalogues but it is far more beautiful in person. You can tell this is the native, not the Japanese, honeysuckle a couple of ways - not just by the flower.
The leaf is very distinctive. It's single, surrounding the stem, and it's a silvery green. It's a much better bet than the ubiquitous Japanese honeysuckle, which was introduced into the U.S. (as so many of the invasives were) in 1806 to be a ground cover in the garden. It's a ground cover, all right, and a tree cover and a garden cover. Birds love it and spread the seeds everywhere. You'll see Japanese honeysuckle in fields and woods, draped over plants and wound around trees.
The native variety, for my money, is not only better behaved but much prettier.
And this is a Celandine or wood poppy, a native plant that grows about a foot high, blooms in spring and spreads quickly. Friends in Fort Washington have it growing in their woods and it's a marvelous sight, but they caution against letting it roam. The yellow flowers do glow nicely, though, and the foliage is fun. They had Celandine poppies mixed in with Virginia bluebells.
I'm thinking this poppy might be a good plant in certain gardens in the city, such as those tight little strips between sidewalk and curb. No place for it to roam there.
This coming weekend is a big one for plant sales. I have at least three I'm considering, all in different parts of the region. Don't clear the shelves before I get there, please.
