Native plants for a Cape Cod garden

October 1, and there is still hummingbird action in the woodland garden. Prior years had fall storms and hurricanes bringing the torrential rain and wind, and that usually meant the end of hummer season. Last year they were gone by September 6th – I can’t recall the storm but it meant they moved south – hopefully without too much harm done. Hummer action was put to a halt, and the flowers they fed on were beaten down and ripped apart by the elements. Right now I still have some cardinal flowers and blue lobelias blooming, providing some sugars and sustenance. By “some” I mean 10% or so – most have gone to seed. But these plants are very successful in the garden, only being upstaged by the common wood aster. I must have at least 500 or so blue lobelias and cardinal flowers this year (90 to 10 respectively on the 100 scale) – I certainly did not expect this proliferation having started with 5 plants of each species. While in years past I have let nature do its thing, this fall I have resorted to cutting off the seed pods and in some cases I have cut the plant all the way down to the basal leaves. Even then I suspect to see many more Lobelia sp. popping up in the beds and the lawn next spring.