​Scrophularia marilandica, Late or Eastern Figwort

(Also goes by the names Late Figwort and Carpenter’s Figwort)

A species with many common names, this one came home from a road trip to Peterborough that included a stop at the GreenUP Ecology Park there because of the common name Carpenter’s Square, which comes from their very square stem. My spouse enjoys woodworking in his spare time and it was too perfect a name, so one came home with us.

That particular plant was tucked into a nursery bed in the Perth gardens that year and promptly forgotten about. The next summer I was left wondering whether this large leaved plant, which didn’t have a visible tag nearby, was one I had put there or a vigorous volunteer. So, I waited for blooms. I was still unsure when blooms appeared, I couldn’t recall ever seeing a plant quite like this so off to Google. Their botanical name and description didn’t ring a bell, until I came across a page that included ‘Carpenter’s Square’ as one of their many common names. Ah-ha mystery solved. I had definitely planted this particular plant.

Even beyond their collection of intriguing common names, there is much to recommend this species for pollinator gardens. They are very adaptable, growing in sun or shade, are quite tolerant of dry conditions and they bloom in mid summer, often sending out successive small re-blooms from the same main stem.

Their small urn-shaped blooms are filled with nectar and they are loved as a food source by a huge range of nectar feeding insects, as well as by humming birds. If you are working to cultivate a pollinator supporting ecosystem in a dry, shaded space, including this species can go a long way toward ensuring that everyone has a steady food supply through the middle of summer, when a lot of other shade adapted plants aren’t in bloom.

Despite their airy flowering stems, and their surprisingly fragile young seedlings, these are quite robust plants. They develop a thick, fleshy root system within their first few months of germination and appear in subsequent springs as strong, often purplish, shoots that will stretch to 4’ to 6’ in height by the start of July (I need to remember to photograph them next spring). They are fairly bushy at their base and their recommended spacing is two to three -you can tuck some groundcovers in around them though, to be sure that all the soil is well covered.

Companion species for a garden below a mature shade tree would include Black Snakeroot, Thimbleweed, Poke Milkweed (if you can find them), Downy and Hairy Wood Mint, Wild Basil, Bigleaf Aster, American Alumroot, White Rattlesnake Root, Bluestem and Zigzag Goldenrod, Calico and Heartleaved Aster and Golden Alexanders.