I love the urban wilderness of our backyard, but the truth is it’s filled with non-native, invasive plants that have been left to their own devices for decades.
Close to the city, shaded by trees, private. There are many reasons I am fond of our little chunk of paradise. Thickets of Chinese privet, blankets of English ivy and roving wisteria vines are not among them. (These plants are pretty, of course; they’re just not so great in a foreign land where they compete fiercely and choke out everything else.)
The journey to restoring the back section of our property to something resembling a native Alabama woodland will be a long one. I have a lot to learn and even more to do. For the time being, I am doing the only thing I can—starting small. The tiny patch you see in the photo at the top of this post has been one year in the making. It’s a humble beginning, but I hope it will be the first of many chapters in this story.
Before I tell you about the plants, I’d like to point out two events where you can purchase native plants, for shade or sun, if you live in or near Birmingham, Alabama.
- The Ruffner Mountain Native Plant Sale takes place April 7, 2018.
- The Birmingham Botanical Gardens Spring Plant Sale takes place April 13-15, 2018.
To date, I’ve planted the following native Alabama perennials in my woodland garden.
Solomon’s seal (Polygonatum biflorum): This was my first purchase for the woodland garden last spring, and I’m happy to see it back and thriving this year. You can see flower buds hanging from the largest stem. I can’t wait to show it again when it’s in bloom.
- Light requirements: shade/part shade
- Soil requirements: moist
- Size: 1-3 feet
- Flowers: white, April-May
- Rhizomes
- Attracts birds and butterflies
Purple trillium (Trillium cuneatum): I have long observed and admired this plant along nature trails, and I’m a little giddy about having one. Plus, it has cute nicknames, including little sweet Betsy, toadshade and whip-poor-will flower. I just purchased it, so I missed bloom season this year.
- Light requirements: shade
- Soil requirements: moist, woodsy humus
- Size: 10 inches
- Flowers: maroon, March
- Rhizomes
Bleeding heart (Dicentra eximia): The blooms are small, but so pretty. The foliage is delicate and feathery. I accidentally broke off a stem during planting, and I am now attempting to root it.
- Light requirements: shade
- Soil requirements: moist, rich woodlands humus
- Size: 18 inches
- Flowers: pink, spring-summer
Alabama phlox (Phlox pulchra): I purchased three of these when I found out they are rare in the wild. This species will have a little haven in my yard.
- Light requirements: shade
- Soil requirements: average
- Size: 12 to 14 inches
- Flowers: pink, April-May
- Rare in wild
Bottlebrush buckeye (Aesculus parviflora): I planted this shrub off to the side of the garden since it will grow quite large in the years to come. It’s in the sun at the moment, but won’t be once the oak tree above it leafs out.
- Light requirements: part/full shade
- Soil requirements: average, humus rich
- Size: 8-10 feet
- Flowers: white
- Deciduous multistem shrub
- Attracts butterflies
Resurrection fern (Pleopeltis polypodioides): This is the one plant I did not buy. It fell, along with the branch, from an oak tree in the yard about a year ago. I actually have a few such branches, and I placed the two largest on either side of the woodland garden as a border. This fern shrivels in dry weather and bounces back after a good rain. I feel pretty confident about this ID, but I will update this post if the iNaturalist community produces another ID.
I hope the plants I’ve introduced to my woodland garden thrive and multiply as I continue to clear invasive species and bring in more native plants little by little. What native plants do you have in your gardens at home?
T's Southern Garden Blog 
Really interesting post. I really sympathise with you if you are ivy-wrangling! I can’t imagine wisteria being invasive. I remember my dad coddling his pathetic little wisteria stump and willing it to grow! Plants in the wrong place are a menace. I had to go into battle with bamboo, which just has no place in any UK garden in my opinion! Three years on and I found a shoot yesterday popping up amongst my (native and planted to replace the wretched bamboo!) cornus stems. But it does pay to tackle these things. You are making your part of the world a lovelier place and restoring its natural balance.
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Thank you, Ali. I’m so glad you enjoyed this post! Bamboo is a problem here, too, and I am thankful to say that is one invasive plant that is not invading my yard. I hope that random shoot you found is the last of it!
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Gathering a few more sacks of ivy is on my urgent list, as our welcome rain has made the ivy fling out its arms in a WIDE embrace.
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I wish you luck with the ivy! So glad you are getting needed rain in your corner of the world.
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