Saugus Gardens in the Summer

Here’s what’s blooming in town this week to make your walks more enjoyable

By Laura Eisener

Saugus Garden Club member Nancy Sayles and her husband Lloyd Sayles have a delightful garden throughout the growing season, with all sorts of plants to attract pollinators. Right now it is absolutely full of bright yellow, orange and red flowers, as the yellow sundrops (Oenothera fruticosa), threadleaf tickseed (Coreopsis verticillata ‘Zagreb’), ‘Moonshine’ yarrow (Achillea tomentosa ‘Moonshine’), ‘Vintage Red’ yarrow (Achillea ‘Vintage Red’) and orange butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) are loaded with flowers. Several of these perennials are known for blooming repeatedly throughout the summer. If the faded blossoms are removed regularly, the tickseed will flower continuously from June until late October.

Sundrops (Oenothera fruticosa) are the daytime blooming cousins of the taller evening primrose (Oenothera biennis), which opens its blossoms just before dusk. Sundrops typically grow 2-3 feet tall, and their primary pollinators are bees. Hummingbirds also like the nectar, and the seeds are eaten by a variety of birds, especially goldfinches. They are native to 30 U.S. states, including all of the New England ones. In our area they are likely to keep blooming until August.

One of the perennials most needed by butterflies is the bright orange butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) which is a host plant for monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus). It is one of a few species of milkweed, including common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca), swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) and a few other milkweed species, that can support the young caterpillar from egg hatching until it becomes a butterfly. The diet of milkweed allows the monarch larvae to become bad tasting and even poisonous to potential predators, while supplying all its necessary nutrients. Butterfly weed is also the plant that the famous New England poet Robert Frost wrote about in “The Tuft of Flowers” where he is involved in the hay industry. Someone mowed a field earlier in the morning, and it is his job to turn the mowed grass over to aid its drying. It seems a lonely task since he and the mower before him perform their task without seeing anyone else. When a butterfly calls his attention to the tuft of butterfly weed that the mower left standing, Frost feels there has been some communication of shared feeling for the flowers and, perhaps, for the butterfly between the earlier worker who did the mowing, and he who followed after.

Two species of yarrow, while not native, add color to the garden and supply nectar to pollinators, especially several species of bees. The hybrid ‘Moonshine’ yarrow has bright yellow flowers in flat clusters and silvery foliage. Both add a lot of visual interest over most of the summer. ‘Vintage Red’ yarrow, a taller species with green ferny leaves, is also a long bloomer, and both of these are unlikely to be eaten by rabbits or other wildlife because of the scent of the leaves.

With the hot weather we have had for several days this week, access to water for cooling off has been important for people and wildlife. The birdbath in my garden has had plenty of use by several of the birds who also flock to my feeder. Other birds around town can be seen drinking and swimming in the river, ponds and reservoirs.

One of them seems to have left me a gift a few years ago by planting a European elderberry shrub (Sambucus nigra) near the bird feeder. Some of the seeds from fruits birds eat pass right through them without being digested, with the result that the seed is dropped with “a packet of fertilizer” around it when the bird perches on a branch or the eaves of the house. The elderberry that came up near my bird feeder must have originated as a seed dropped by a bird about five years ago. The seeds are poisonous to mammals but not to birds. The flowers and the outer parts of the fruits are not poisonous, though, and are eaten by many different creatures.

The shrubs also make good nest sites for many songbirds. The shrub that grew from that one seed is already about 6 feet tall and wide, and is currently in bloom with lacy white flower clusters. While this elderberry is not a native species it does provide many benefits for wildlife and is rather attractive, so I am keeping it where the bird planted it at least for the time being.

  Editor’s Note: Laura Eisener is a landscape design consultant who helps homeowners with landscape design, plant selection and placement of trees and shrubs, as well as perennials. She is a member of the Saugus Garden Club and offered to write a series of articles about “what’s blooming in town” shortly after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. She was inspired after seeing so many people taking up walking.