Margaret S. Hamilton
Summer in
Cincinnati represents weeks of heat and humidity under a blazing midwestern
sun, punctuated by violent thunderstorms. And this year, a bumper crop of
chigger mites.
Tired of
spending my days draped over the air conditioning vent, when I discovered that
the Shaker Trace Seed Nursery, part of the Hamilton County Parks system, would
hold their annual open house on August fourth, I was up for the adventure.
Coated with bug spray, sunscreen, and armed with water bottles and sunhats, we
headed for the Miami Whitewater Forest near the Indiana line.
Compass Flower
Once upon
a time, prairie wildflowers grew in southern Ohio meadows and forests. In 1992,
the Hamilton County Parks Department purchased a six-hundred-acre farm in the
large Miami Whitewater Forest to use as a propagation site for the native
flower and grass genotypes that used to grow wild in the area. Indigenous bird
species—lark sparrows, marsh hawks, and short-eared owls—would benefit, as
would bees and butterflies.
Milkweed
In anticipation
of the seed farm, in the fall of 1991, volunteers spread over a hundred-mile
radius gathered seeds from native species. Shaker Trace Nursery opened the
following spring, when the first 43,000 seedlings, which had been propagated involunteer greenhouses all over the county, were hand-planted. Those original
plants still produce seeds, which are harvested every year.
Brown-eyed Susans
The
nursery relies on a large number of volunteers. Seeds of more than two hundred
plants are sown into flats in the late fall and are periodically put outside to
“stratify” (freeze and thaw) as they would in the wild. The sprouts are raised
in a greenhouse all winter and then in the spring, six to ten thousand
seedlings are planted in the nursery’s prepared 140 beds. Volunteers keep the
beds weeded all summer. Prairie flowers have deep root systems and no need for
additional irrigation. In early fall, the flowers are cut, sorted and dried
before the seeds are harvested in an old barn on the property. The harvested
seeds are stored in a temperature and humidity-controlled environment, until
they are dispersed as needed to the many parks in the Hamilton County system. The
seeds for purple coneflowers, Joe Pye weed, compass plants, varieties of
milkweed, liatris, ironweed and many other plants are genetically acclimated to
the Hamilton County climate and yellow clay soil.
drying seed heads
seed sorter
I have an
Eastern Prickly Pear Cactus in an overgrown perennial bed in my yard. My
neighbors periodically ask for the “satellite” offshoots. I was astonished to
learn that the cactus is native to this area. It is propagated by seeds and
cuttings. I weed around it and otherwise keep at a respectful distance.
Cactus
In
addition to beds of prairie and woodland wildflowers, Shaker Trace has fish
ponds lined with bentonite, a natural clay. The farm raises hybrid bluegills, which
are a cross between green sunfish and northern bluegills, from fingerlings, and
then harvest the half-pound fish for children’s activities in a nearby lake. We
watched the water churn as the bluegills swarmed for food pellets. They are
bred to bite anything.
Coreopsis
The
red-tailed hawks soared overhead and barn swallows flitted in and out of the
barns. Bees and butterflies swarmed the flower beds. The disease-resistant
wildflower meadows in county parks are successful in choking out invasive
species. I wish more residential gardens had Queen Anne’s lace, goldenrod, and
milkweed. In my gardens, I keep “volunteers” until I can identify them. Ragweed
doesn’t make the cut. Milkweed is toxic to dogs, so I moved it out of the
backyard.
Milkweed pods
Readers
and writers, have you visited a wildflower meadow or do you have wildflowers in
your garden?
Joe Pye Weed
