Different plants need different amounts of direct sunlight, which is when sunlight is streaming directly onto the plant. Full sun means the plant needs six or more hours of direct sunlight. Part sun is four to six hours of direct sunlight. Shade is less than four hours of direct sunlight.

Often there are ranges to describe a plant’s light needs, such as full sun to part sun, or part sun/shade to shade. Many plants in the latter range will not do well in afternoon sunlight, since it generally feels hotter than morning sunlight. Some shade plants may prefer dappled shade, where the light is filtered through tree leaves, rather than direct sunlight.

The type of habitat where a plant normally grows can give clues as to its light needs. A woodland is generally shade to part shade, while a prairie is full sun. A woodland edge might be sun to part sun.

Working with microclimates

When designing a garden, you need to take microclimates into consideration. Microclimates can make a normally sunny spot shady or make a sunny spot even hotter. For example, if you plant tall and short plants next to each other in a full sun location, the tall plants could shade the short plants depending on how they are positioned in relation to each other. This could cause the short plants to not receive the amount of light they need.

A brighter and hotter microclimate might be created by mulching with gravel or other stones or by planting next to a south or west facing wall. These types of hardscape can influence which plants will do well and which will wither. However, you can use microclimates to your advantage and put in plants that normally would not thrive in a particular location but can because of the extra shade or brighter conditions.

If you want to grow woodland plants, but the garden is in full sun, you might be able to find a microclimate of shade, at least in part of the garden. This might came from shade cast by a lone tree, the side of a house, or a dense shrub line. You can also plant a shrub or use the placement of a container or larger garden ornament to create a small area of shade.

If you don’t have any shade, but you want early spring blooms, there are some spring plants that can grow in full sun, like shooting star, pussy toes, Jacob’s ladder, and blue-eyed grass.

Seasonal changes

Because of the north/south shift of sunlight over the year, the number of hours of light plants receive over a year can change. This can make it challenging to know, for example, if a spot is full sun or part sun. In front of my house, the north-facing foundation beds shift from part sun to shade in the winter to full to part sun in the summer. In early spring, I planted a part sun to shade plant there thinking it would only receive morning sun. By midsummer, the plant was getting morning and afternoon sun, and I had to move it because its leaves were getting burned.

When planning a garden, put the strongest consideration on the amount of light available from June to August. Look at the site several times a day to get an idea of when direct sunlight is reaching the space.

If you need to plan a garden before you can analyze the midsummer light, keep in mind that the trees will leaf out and the sun will shift to be overhead rather than toward the south. This means shade from north-facing walls extends out farther in the winter than in the summer.

Influence of soil moisture

A plant’s tolerance to light might depend on how wet or dry the soil is. Some plants that prefer shade to part sun can tolerate full sun as long as the soil doesn’t dry out.

Light requirements of specific plants

To learn more about needs of specific plants, there are several online sources you can turn to. Here are some reliable ones:

• Prairie Nursery
• Prairie Moon Nursery
• New Moon Nursery
• Missouri Botanical Garden
• Plants.USDA.gov

You might find information that differs among the sites, but this can be helpful as you plan a garden. If all the websites agree, you’ll know you won’t be taking any chances with a client’s garden. If the garden is for yourself, you might be willing to take a chance with a plant that only one of the sites lists as full sun or full shade to see if it will grow in your garden.

The post How Light Influences Garden Design appeared first on Plant Ohio Natives.

Grass lawn replacements can provide an eco-friendly way to have a lawn substitute. By using a seed mix, a uniform look can be created, similar to a lawn, but with more diversity. Since lawn alternatives often grow higher than typical lawns, more animals can find shelter. Roots will grow deeper, holding soil in place and helping the lawn stay greener when regular lawns turn brown during drier times of the year. From the variety of flowers and seeds, insects, birds, and other wildlife will be able to find food. There’s also the benefit of less maintenance, since many of these lawns normally do not need to be mowed more than two times a year.

Unfortunately, the native plant options for lawn replacements are slim. I assume native plant companies would be selling native lawn replacements if they were available, so hopefully someone will be able to develop one in the future. For now, their options provide the benefit of saving time, money, and energy by not needing to be mowed as often or at all.

Here is a review of some grass lawn replacements sold by two popular native plant companies along with the conditions they will grow in. The Plant Ohio Natives (PON) recommendation is included for each option.

OPN Seed

OPN Seed is an Ohio company that mainly sells seeds for plants native to Ohio. They sell six different eco-friendly lawn alternatives.

• Bee Lawn Mix
• Clover Lawn Mix
• Flowering Lawn Mix
• Freedom Lawn I
• Freedom Lawn II
• Freedom Lawn III

Bee Lawn Mix

Requirements: At least 4 hours of sunlight per day.

Pros: Grows 6-12 inches high. Has a lot of flowers. Doesn’t need fertilizer. Contains native common selfheal and common yarrow.

Cons: Most of the species in the mix are not native to Ohio. Hard fescue, alsike clover, and creeping thyme are known to spread to natural areas. White clover is considered to be potentially invasive by the Missouri Botanical Garden.

PON recommends: Look for a seed mix that doesn’t contain white clover.

Clover Lawn Mix

Requirements: 4-6 hours of sunlight per day; I presume it could handle more than that.

Pros: Grows 6-12 inches high. Can be mowed short and will grow back.

Cons: None of the species in the mix are native to Ohio. Hard fescue and alsike clover have already spread to natural areas, and white clover is potentially invasive.

PON recommends: Look for a seed mix that doesn’t contain white clover.

Flowering Lawn Mix

Requirements: Full sun and well-drained soils.

Pros: Includes two native grass species and eight native wildflower species. An abundance of annual flowers give it a lot of blooms the first year.

Cons: Includes nonnative grasses and wildflowers. Some of these grasses and wildflowers have been known to escape cultivation to grow in wild areas. At least half of the longer-lived species are not native to Ohio. Grasses will dominate the planting over time, with less of a wildflower presence (however, note that this would likely be the case for any grass/wildflower mix). Some species will get three feet tall.

PON recommends: If you want to include some native plants, this mix is not terrible. The presence of nonnatives that have naturalized in the environment is a cause to think twice about this mix, however, I didn’t find any information that the included species are potentially invasive.

Freedom Lawn I, II, and III

Requirements: 4-6 hours of sunlight during the establishment phase. Freedom Lawns I and II require mowing once to keep the annual rye from growing too tall.

Pros: A height of 6-12 inches. Freedom Lawn II can be mowed to the height of a traditional lawn. Freedom Lawn III doesn’t need to be mowed at all.

Cons: Freedom Lawn I should be sown in low-traffic areas. I’m not sure if the other two mixes can handle high traffic. There are no native plants in these mixes, and some of the fescues and grasses have escaped into the wild.

PON recommends: Find a seed mix with native species unless your only goal is to mow and water less.

Prairie Nursery

Prairie Nursery is based in Wisconsin and sells native plants and seeds, many of which are species native to Ohio.

No Mow Lawn Seed Mix (with or without rye)

Requirements: No heavy clay soil. Full sun, part sun, or shade (except for deep shade). Dry to medium soil.

Pros: 0.6 inches to 1 foot tall. Tolerates moderate foot traffic and uses little water. The seed mix with rye helps to stabilize slopes and erosion-prone areas.

Cons: None of the plants in the seed mixes are native to Ohio.

PON recommends: Find a seed mix with native species unless your only goal is to mow and water less.

Conclusions About Grass Lawn Replacements

Unfortunately, a reliable seed mix of native species to replace grass lawns has not been developed by two of the larger native plant sellers. The options listed above all contain species that have naturalized into Ohio’s wild areas. I hope attempts will be made to develop a native seed mix, but it’s possible Ohio’s native grasses don’t fit the requirements for a lawn alternative.

If you’re choosing a lawn alternative so you don’t need to mow or water as often, then you have options. But if you want to stick to native species, you’ll need to experiment with them.

Sedges and violets could be good species to start with, especially Pennsylvania sedge in shade. Ohio has one native fescue, nodding fescue (Festuca subverticillata), and it can grow in shadier areas in medium-wet to medium-dry soil. With its two-foot stature and sprawling stems, it could be a good candidate for a lawn replacement.

Sunny spaces may provide more of a challenge to find the right native species. The Flowering Lawn Mix sold by OPN Seed contains side-oats grama grass, and this could be a good start if you’re okay with it growing up to three feet. Since this is a clumping species, the next step would be to use one or more species that could form mats around the clumps, such as wild strawberry. If shorter species that can withstand foot traffic are required, further research and experiments would need to be done to find the right plants.

The post Grass Lawn Replacement appeared first on Plant Ohio Natives.

Full sun plants need at least six hours of direct sunlight a day to thrive, so plant them where the light isn’t mottled or filtered. Many plants that need full sun can also grow in part sun (4 to 6 hours of direct sunlight), but make sure to do your research because some plants will only tolerate full sun.

Species of Flowers That Like Full Sun

A lot of full sun Ohio native plants are commercially available. At the time of publishing this post, Prairie Nursery sold 89 species that fit this category. Here are some popular ones.

Milkweed

• Red milkweed (Asclepias incarnata)
• Sullivant’s milkweed (Asclepias sullivantii)
• Common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca)
• Butterflyweed (Asclepias tuberosa)
• Butterflyweed for clay (Asclepias tuberosa var. clay)
• Whorled milkweed (Asclepias verticillata)

Coneflowers & Susans

• Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)
• Yellow coneflower (Ratibida pinnata)
• Orange coneflower (Rudbeckia fulgida)
• Black eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta)
• Brown eyed Susan (Rudbeckia triloba)

Blazing Star

• Rough blazing star (Liatris aspera)
• Prairie blazing star (Liatris pycnostachya)
• Dense blazing star (Liatris spicata)
• Scaly blazing star (Liatris squarrosa)

Bee Balm

• Red bee balm (Monarda didyma)
• Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa)
• Dotted mint (Monarda punctata)

Benefits of Flowers That Like Full Sun

Butterflies, bees, wasps, and other pollinators congregate on full sun plants, so there’s almost always some kind of activity to watch when the flowers are in bloom. During one observation, I saw ten different types of insects on one small stand of goldenrod. This may not seem like a lot of variety until you consider that the plants were surrounded by lawn in a suburban neighborhood.

If you plant bottle gentian, you’ll get to watch bumblebees pry open the flowers and pop their heads and little bums out when they’re done collecting their food.

Milkweed plants (Asclepias sp.) host monarchs, and the butterflies visit them to lay eggs on the leaves and drink nectar from the flowers. The caterpillars are easy to spot, and it’s fun to watch the life cycle as a caterpillar forms the chrysalis and later emerges from it.

The post Native Ohio Flowers That Like Full Sun appeared first on Plant Ohio Natives.