What to do about those wet spots ... 🤔

Wool Grass in bloom

Rather than mow or let weeds grow in those wet areas in your yard, consider installing native plants.  Here are a few that would be thrilled to populate your saturated spots:

Actually a sedge, Scirpus cyperinus is called Wool Grass because of its grass-like foliage.  In a sunny, wet environment, Wool Grass grows up to 5 feet tall and features long, slender stalks that blow gracefully in the wind and wool-like flowers that last well into winter.  Wool Grass is an aggressive spreader and will easily fill in your damp areas.

Cattails

Broad-leaved Cattail, Typha latifolia, is not to be feared!  Yes, it’s an aggressive spreader.  But wouldn’t you rather have a plant critical to the health of the ecosystem rather than the invasive Phragmites australis, which is

outcompeting Cattails all over the place?   Plus, Cattails are beautiful, gaining heights up to 5 feet and featuring those brown cylindrical blooms that look a little like a cat’s tail.

Native to wet meadows, Fringed Sedge, Carex crinita, is evergreen and at home in wet meadows, marshes and bogs, even standing water–although it adapts to drier sites. 

Fringed Sedge grows up to 3 feet tall and spreads gradually via rhizomes. It's drooping flowers appear in spring. Fringed Sedge is resistant to deer and rabbits. It's best grown en masse and makes a great accent plant.

A lover of sunny, wet areas, Swamp Rose Mallow, Hibiscus moscheutos, has one of the most striking blooms of all the natives.  These blooms can get as large as a salad plate and add a tropical feel to the landscape.  Swamp Rose Mallow attracts butterflies and hummingbirds and with self-seeding eventually will fill in a moist to wet area.  Swamp Rose Mallow adapts remarkably well to drier sites.

Swamp Milkweed, Asclepias incarnata, prefers moist soils but not necessarily standing water.  It also adapts to drier sites.  It will get 2 to 4 feet tall and bushes out but is not aggressive.  A larval host for the Monarchs, it features fragrant, purplish flowers that bloom all summer long.

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About the author

Jennifer Anderson owns Tree Talk Natives, a native tree and plant nursery in Rochester, Mass. A former news reporter, she loves to talk native plants. Jennifer also gives presentations on native plants and can be reached at jennifer@treetalknatives.com.

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