As announced, we travel local this weekend trough Eastern and Central North American woodlands with:

Amphicarpaea bracteata, American hog-peanut
Asclepias exaltata, Poke Milkweed
and Aronia melanocarpa, Black Chokeberry – counting as new for this season, so we’ll stop for a few seconds to talk about it.

The Black Chokeberry is a great shrub for the wildlife garden, with white flowers in the spring, glossy green leaves which turn red in the fall and black/blue edibles berries. It usually grows as a shrub and it also spreads by root suckers.

Black Chokeberry is a very tough shrub that can be grown in full sun or part-shade, and adapts well to a wide range of soils; the more moisture has the more vigorous will grow.
Usually seen growing/sold as a medium size shrub, in less than optimal conditions in the wild, it can be dwarfed by the winds and snow. So, we have the option to keep it pruned and use it as a featured shrub in a large rockery, for example (or other garden situations).

Mitchella repens (Partridge berry) stock was almost depleted, and more seeds are also now available. The same goes for Lilium michiganense. The partridge berry (in the featured image) is a hard to beat evergreen, very low groundcover for rather moist locations.

The Seeds List

Happy Thanksgiving to all celebrating!