Joan Treis
Woodmere Wildflower Garden
Missouri

A well developed forest community is found at Woodmere. The spring flora can be quite spectacular with large masses of asters, touch me nots, day lily, blue phlox. Elderberries, mullein, and false rue anemone along the drive and in the back by the dam. Other species grow on limestone rocky hills, in pinetums, woodland and wetland communities as well as plants that thrive in the clay soil. The showy display of wildflowers changes dramatically with the seasons.

The aim is to create a self sustaining healthy population of native species while taking into account aesthetic considerations. What we try to accomplish (to quote Eric Tschanz of Powell Gardens in Kansas City) is "to have the hand of horticulture and the hand of Mother Nature so intertwined that you can't tell where they stop or start." Don't fight the site will be the guiding principle. A decaying tree stump covered with fungi shall become as much as part of the landscape as an elegant statue of St Francis Of Assisi.

A complete list of garden flowers and woodland flora is available in the cabin at Woodmere.

Woodmere has been on three Hermann Garden Club tours. The following list is a sampling of only some of the flora growing in the Natural Habitat Garden. The plant life is amazingly diverse:

Inland Sea Oats, Common Button Bush, Rosa Multiflora, Red Bud, Bittersweet, Dogwood, Persimmon, Staghorn Sumac, Beauty Berry, Asters, Baltonia, Queen Anne's Lace, Goldenrod, Crocus (Remembrance and Jeanne D'Arc), Red Maples, Shingle Oak, Sweet Gum, Walnut, Hickory, Lichen Varieties such as Pyxie Cups, Wrinkled Shell, Reindeer Lichen, Gray Star Lichen, Boulder Lichen, Wild ferns, sheet mosses, Butterfly Weed, Purple Cone Flowers, Brown Eyed Susans, Golden Vicary, ornamental grasses. Wildflower guides are available in the Cabin.

In October 2002 "Woodmere" was certified by the National Wildlife Federation with a Certificate of Achievement and became part of a network of mini-refuges where, because of planning, landscaping, and gardening, wildlife can find quality habitat-food, water, cover, and places to raise their young.

More information on the Cabin at Woodmere: http://woodmerecabin.members.ktis.net

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