A note about rescued plants
Most of the plants at the Constructive Plant Rescue Nursery have been dug up from sites that are going to be cleared for construction.
We do our best to dig up plants in a manner that will maximize their chances for survival. When digging up a plant, we try our best to minimize disruption to the plant's root system. Our heavy clay soil helps with this-- many times, when we dig up a plant, we are able to dig up a big clump of clay in which many of the plant's roots remain ensconced. This enables some of the plant's roots to remain intact so that the plant can access water and nutrients after removed from the soil. The more the roots are damaged, the tougher it will be for the plant to survive.
We pot up the plant immediately, using soil from that spot where the plant was removed from the ground. Many plants have obligate relationships with microscopic organisms in the soil that help them access nutrients. Using soil from the spot where the plant was removed from the ground ensures that the plant will have some of those organisms with it in its new habitat, increasing its chance of survival.
Because our rescued plants are potted with soil from the spot where they were removed from the ground (rather than commercial potting soil), the soil in the pots may contain seedlings of plants other than the one(s) for which the pot has labels. The CPR volunteers do their best to remove any undesirable plants that are in the pot with the focal plant. There may also be dormant seeds of other plants; these may sprout at some point in the future. The seedlings that sprout in the soil from the rescued area may be pleasant surprises, such as trillium, lady's tresses orchids, or sassafras. On the other hand, there may be invasive plants like Japanese stiltgrass or Japanese honeysuckle that sprout up.
Please keep an eye on the soil around your rescued plants to ensure that there are no non-native invaders that have, unbeknownst to us, hitched a ride with the desired native plants.
We hope the information on this page will be helpful in that regard!
This is Japanese stiltgrass, Microstegium vimineum. It is an invasive grass spreading very quickly in our area. It gets into natural wooded areas and covers the ground so thickly that nothing else can grow there.
Its seeds are sometimes present in bales of hay and straw, which contributes to its spread. It is an annual plant, which means that if you can prevent it from setting seed, you will have a good chance of eliminating it. It has very shallow roots and is very easy to pull up. (In fact, if you have a plant that you suspect is this species and tug on it, if it does not come up easily, it is most probably not this plant.)
To learn more about it, go here.