Though this arrangement reminds us of autumn’s beauty, none of the plants are from North America.
- The translucent Silver Dollars are the seed pod remnants of Lunaria annua, a flower native to the Balkans and southwest Asia.
- The orange Chinese Lanterns are the papery fruit containers of Physalis alkekengi, a plant native to southern Europe, southern Asia and Japan.
- The woody branches with orange berries are Oriental bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus) originally from Asia, invasive in North America.
These plants are here because they’re pretty.
(photo by Kate St. John)
Beautiful!! The money plant blooms the second year, correct??
Yvonne, some of them are annual, some biennial. The annuals bloom in the same/first year. I don’t know what determines its annual/biennial nature.
I think I read that some thistles are nonnative. (I wish I could find that source of information. It had other seemingly “good” plants listed.) But, the butterflies and other insects seem to enjoy them. I am not sure if they are pushing out other plants that could be more helpful to wildlife or not.