A Cup Half Full: Meet Silphium Perfoliatum

Sometimes I see a garden, and it's beautiful, perfect even, but it does nothing for me. I realize and appreciate all the work that's been put into it, but I cannot help it -- if it doesn't pull me in, it just doesn't.

This is one of the gardens that pull me in.

I guess I'm more into the wild, natural, meadow-look.

I've planted grasses, and coneflowers, and I'm on the lookout for the dotted with tiny white blooms mountainmint, and perhaps bee balm's splashes of red to add to my garden.

One of the plants I've "inherited" from the previous owner of the house and yard turns out to be Silphium perfoliatum (cup plant) mentioned in the article I've linked to above:

See the plant that looks a bit like a green dove perching on a leaf behind the angel statue? Here's why it's called cup plant:

Apparently, native flies drink the rainwater collected in the cups, and birds feast on those flies. The circle of life. Moves us all.

Live for the Love of it,

Sasha A. Palmer (aka Happy)