Welcome
The Eklund Native Species Garden is located at 10 Oak Valley Road, Shelton, Connecticut, on the site of a former upscale log cabin built in the 1930's. The cabin, pool, and other buildings are gone, but the garden beds and stone work remain. 2009 is a big year for the garden thanks to a grant from the Iroquois Company for the purchase of native perennials. Please see the Eklund Garden Blog for news about the garden.
Photo: Perennials in the Butterfly Garden.
Photo: Rock Garden, steps, walk, and terraces in the background.
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Is Eklund Garden a Wildflower Garden?
This depends on your definition of wildflower. Strictly speaking, the term "wildflower" just means any untended flower (i.e. not in a garden), so the term "wildflower garden" is a bit of an oxymoron. Many of our most common roadside wildflowers originated from Europe or Asia and therefore are not native (like Daisies and Day Lilies). On the other hand, many common garden plants are native to the Northeast or Midwest (such as Phlox, Coreopsis, Bee Balm and Black Eyed Susans). As you can see, "native" and "wildflower" mean two completely different things.
Many native species are attractive, hardy and an excellent addition to landscaping around the home. Please consider incorporating these species into your landscaping.
Please don't take plants from the wild. Many native species can be purchased by local nurseries.
An Island of Biodiversity
Many of our native woodland species were lost during colonial times, when nearly the entire state was clear-cut and farmed. As farmland was abandoned over the past century and fields have reverted to woodlands, some plant species, such as pink lady slipper and red trillium, have returned.
While new subdivisions and roads have certainly impacted our native flora, a much greater threat is the growing deer population. In nearby communities such as Ridgefield and Redding where the deer population has swelled to unsustainable levels, the deer have stripped the forests of nearly all vegetation except for a few invasive species.
Unless population control measures are taken, the deer population can be expected to rise in Shelton. Eklund Garden and the area immediately surrounding it will be protected by deer fencing, safeguarding an island of biodiversity that can serve as a seed reservoir if the deer population is reduced.
What is Native?
Eklund Garden is stocked with plants that are native to the northeastern United States, with an emphasis on plants that are thought to be native to Connecticut. Natural ranges for a particular plant species are not always well-known due to poor records, and various botanical resources may conflict with each other. We do our best.
Due to climate changes, plants that once survived in Connecticut at the southern edge of their range may now find the climate too hot and dry, and plants that once grew only as far north as New Jersey or Pennsylvania may now find Connecticut to be within their new "natural" range. Our plantings reflect the realities of a warmer, dryer climate than what colonists found several hundred years ago.
We also focus on plants that are native to the acidic Oak-Hickory forest that surrounds Eklund Garden. Such plant will be more likely to thrive in Shelton than plants which require "sweet" limestone soils.