Meehania cordata as ground cover

Is anyone growing Meehania cordata as a woodland ground cover? It is a low creeping mint that is reported to not be aggressive and a good substitute for the none native aggresive Lamium galeobdolan. Since it is a mint I was wondering how to site it.

How to site it? Mints always make me nervous unless they are indigenous to my county. That one isn't indigenous to my county or to my state but it has "naturalized" down south in several counties of my state so I'd probably be leery of it for me. Can you tap into any records for your county or maybe somebody from a local native plant organization? I'm really curious about this one.

I looked up Meehania cordata in "The New England Wild Flower Society Guide to Growing and Propagating Wild flowers of the United States and Canada" by William Cullina . The native range starts a little west of me in Pennsylvania and Ohio south to Tennessee and North Carolina. It is in this book I found the statement".......it will spread about happily; never, in my experience, has it become invasive or a pest." The Garden in the Woods, in Framingham, Mass. is the showcase garden for NEWFS, so I'm assuming that Mass. is were the non invasive statement is relevant.
I want to place the Meehania with ferns, foamflower, and Asarum canadense in a moist shaded low spot behind a garage to hold the soil. Since it's near the fence I was worried it would spread to neighbors property.
I'll try to do further research but would appreciate any input.

This message was edited May 10, 2007 5:31 AM

I just discovered this little plant today, and am quite interested in it. I looked online and many people are out of it...

I hope I can track some down. Looks like a great colorful groundcover for shade...and I just love mints, anyway...

Does it smell like mint??
-T

Seedpicker,I was told, on the Mid Atlantic forum, by one member, that the Meehania cordata was a rapidly spreading aggressive ground cover. For now I'm keeping it in a pot. It has a lemon mint scent when the leaf is crushed, but the scent doesn't linger. It is flowering now and looks lovely. I purchased the plant from Well-Sweep Herb Farm.

I think it is absolutely gorgeous, and is supposed to look similar to creeping charlie, but be more behaved.

I love mint, and actually just bought some variegated glechoma(creeping charlie) from the stepables line, so I guess I'm not too worried about them., lol...

I have a lot of shade, so it is a real challenge to get ANY thing to grow in deep shade.

I read these grow in deep woodlands and still bloom. My kind of plant!!

I must be on a roll this week with discovering great shade plants, because I also just bought two scutellaria ovatas. It is a blue flowering scutellaria for SHADE.

Meanwhile, I googled and found the meehania online at Lazy S Farms...whoohoo! gotta have that one...and mine IS going in the ground. *wink

Thanks for the picture. I just makes me want it even more, lol!
-T

Scutellaria ovata is an awesome plant. Where did you find that for sale?

Hi Lauren!

Can you believe I found some very scraggly plants that happened to be right next to some salvia lyrata 'purple volcano' (another great blue shade plant I found this week!!)

It was the regular green-leaved salvia lyrata I had been looking for, but these were sitting there right next to it, and in bloom! So, I found them quite by accident, but so glad I did!

They looked really ratty, tall, leggy and only had just a few leaves, and a couple of blooms on it, but she said it was perennial, took a lot of shade, and seeded well, so hoping I could at least perpetuate these from seeds, I risked it.

I was really relieved when I came home and looked them up. (She hadn't told me how rare they are). They were listed endangered in several states... Now, I wish I'd gotten the other two they had...

It was a nursery that is really far from me, so probably can't get back there for a while, but they also had the cutest little geranium I'd ever seen. It was an Erodium-(double!)...of course I had to get that one, too,lol...

I really enjoyed that nursery and wish it weren't so far away. It was a real treat!

They also had some of the cutest sedums I'd ever seen. If they were any closer, I'd probably go broke!, lol...
-Taylor

Hey there big T!

Well, I can certainly save some seeds for you. The little guys (I think) have what looks like seed pods forming, already...

I'll go take a picture of them, and post it in a minute...
-T

I neeeeeeeeeeeed a new camera. I'm going nuts. Lemme see your Skullcap photos!

Ok, here is the lot of them...
The scutellaria are the two dinky/scrawny ones on the lower right, the salvia lyrata 'purple volcano' is in the middle, and the super cute erodiums are the two little cuties I just planted in the ground by those violas...

close up of what I think are pods...(sure look reminiscent of venus fly trap thingys), lol...

and here is the super cute and my new LOVE, the erodium...

It was just marked erodium...
Novalisinc.com lists two that are doubles, and I honestly cannot tell which one of them this is, so just calling it double erodium for now...

Nope, not seed pods. You'll be able to collect the actual seeds after the flowers fade. They're real tiny so if you really want the seed, you might want to stick a panty hose over the top of your plant otherwise just let them go to seed on their own. Great plant for you. It can handle dry shade.

Well, I went out and looked it over really well, and those things actually are where the flowers used to be. If you squeeze them, they open like one of those old plastic coin keepers...

Most have a single tiny green seed forming inside, but several were not pollinated, and you can still just see plant parts inside.

Too bad they only have one seed inside. I was really hoping it was an entire pod filled with many seeds.

Anyway, I'll be sure to collect them as they brown.

Sempervirens-
Thanks for letting me blab on your thread. I'm excited I found some meehania.
:0)
-T

Anytime seedpicker. I like the scutellaria you posted, I'll have to look for that one. Oops, the ovata is listed as agggressive and to use it with caution. I think I'll try the serrata, Allegheny skullcap instead. I keep on forgetting that Equil has lots of space. My small garden would be overrun.

Ok, that makes sense. The seeds I have collected from my Marsh Skullcap are a light brown and I'd never noticed seed pods on them anywhere. There are always a lot of blooms so I wouldn't be all that concerned about finding only one seed inside. I stick a panty hose over them so they don't disperse without me being able to get a few. After the flowers fade, I shake the stalk and the seeds stay contained in the pantyhose.

Equil, That's a good trick to collect the seeds, although your plants must look quite amusing in their stockings.

I don't have S. ovata of any variation. I have S. galericulata (Marsh Skullcap) and S. lateriflora (? Skullcap). S. ovata and S. parvula are here in my local vicinity but I don't have them. The ovata that I have occurring naturally here is a different variation than what Big T has. If I actually grew her ovata here, I'd probably be asking for trouble because it could get really weedy. But it is a really pretty plant.

Oops, there we go again, typing over each other. Yes, when I get a run in pantyhose I cut off a leg and slip it over a plant. My plants don't seem to mind ;) That Marsh Skullcap is in the wetlands. Lots of skeeters out there so I only go out for special occassions...like collecting seed.

I use something similar...I use those wedding favor/craft bags from the craft store, that are sheer and have a drawstring closure.

I use them for covering a rose or brug after pollinating it, to keep it true, or for collecting seeds. They are nice and breathable, but still can capture even the tiniest seeds, like nicotiana sylvestris.

Sempervirens-yes, not the most beautiful addition to the garden, but my neighbors are quite used to me by now, (like me, or not, lol...)

Lauren- when you keep saying big T, I hope people don't think that is an indication of my size, or something, lol...

PS-
After reading that the salvia ovata is endangered in many states, I hardly can imagine it being the next kudzu.

If anything, I think it would be good to help the species get back in a proper balance, by helping to increase/conserve it.

...just my thoughts on it...

Taylor from the BIG state of TEXAS... your little tiny body doesn't matter. You'll always be big T to me.

seedpicker,
I didn't mean to imply that either the meehania cordata or the scutellaria ovata was an invasive plant, just on the aggressive side for my small garden unless carefully placed. I think it's wonderful for you to be able to plant a native endangered plant.

There are quite a few subspecies of S. ovata. The subspecies that occurs in my County is very different than the subspecies that occurs in T's county.

http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=SCOV

They may look very similar, but they evolved a tad bit differently.

Wow...that is quite a few!...and they are ALL endangered , and all show to be "wetland"...thank you for educating me.

No wonder they are endangered here in Texas, with our three year drought just ending...it has been so nice to have Oregon's weather for a change... :0)...guess I'll have to be sure and keep them well watered. I should have known by the square stems...

I should call that nursery and see if they can get more...I want more of those epimediums, too.
-T

Just called them and they are holding two more ovatas for me.
:0)
...now if I can just make it all the way over there, again!, lol
-T

Just think of yourself as the "Little Engine Who Could"! You can do it!

Chugga-chugga chugga-chugga
Choo-oo-oo
lol...
Hubby said he'd try to pick them up for me. It is only 30 minutes further from his work, which is much less further than from our house...
yay!

Your husband is a keeper!