Ad, I'm no expert on that area, but maybe look into the genus Spartina. There must be one adapted for that area. Also, Virginia wild rye handles moisture and I gotta think it handles Virginia, lol!

Switch grass grows everywhere. Big bluestem has reasonable moisture-handling ability. I know I'm forgetting a bunch of things, but that's a start.

+oM

+om, thanks for your input! Actually, I just dumped a packet of Elymus canadensis there, on top of the moss....to be honest I don't know much about grasses (does it show?). I bought a packet of Elymus canadensis and a packet of Elymus virginicus because I couldn't decide which was better....can you tell me what the difference is between the 2? I kind of smushed the seeds into the very wet mud because I'm sure the birds will get to them if they see what I'm doing! I also threw sedge seeds all over the place...I have some kind of sedge w/quite a few seed heads and it seems to grow quite well here...I found some in another wet area around the house and I swear there was a carpet of sedge seedlings all around it...I usually don't see this proliferation in sedges...maybe what I thought was seedlings...was not?! I'm also looking into spartina and have thrown some Impatiens capensis seeds around....should any of this germinate, at the very least, I'll have some very happy critters around the place!

Look into:

Helianthus angustifolius -- Narrow Leaf Sunflower or Swamp Sunflower.

Andropogon glomeratus -- Bushy Bluestem loves wet areas.

SRG has a couple varieties of large rush marked down in their fall sale, you might want to add more of these?

Here is a link that might be useful: http://search.aol.com/aol/imageDetails?s_it=imageDetails&q=bushy+bluestem&img=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wildflower.org%2Fimage_archive%2F640x480%2FPCD0001%2FPCD0001_IMG0007.JPG&v_t=nscpsearch&host=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wildflower.org%2Fgallery%2Fresult.php%3Fid_image%3D19&width=181&height=135&thumbUrl=http%3A%2F%2Ft0.gstatic.com%2Fimages%3Fq%3Dtbn%3AANd9GcRB76USqWaqZo7TsnEikzLkd-xZkAjPATqA5vUyi8vPEKNHClNrgDSjzIB1%3Awww.wildflower.org%2Fimage_archive%2F640x480%2FPCD0001%2FPCD0001_IMG0007.JPG&b=image%3Fq%3Db%3DimageResultsBack%26v_t%3Dnscpsearch%26oreq%3De0f2d69154964287904f26045ade9d63&imgHeight=480&imgWidth=640&imgTitle=%28Bushy+bluestem%29+%2319&imgSize=138385&hostName=www.wildflower.org

This post was edited by TexasRanger10 on Fri, Oct 3, 14 at 13:10

Yup, T-Ranger has a better feel than I for more southerly items. As for sowing, don't be afraid to do dormant seeding. It's not as necessary with grasses as with forbs, but can still be a dandy way to get seeds exactly where needed for spring germination.

As to the two Elymus you've got, the general rule is virginicus is usually considered better for wet to wet-mesic conditions, whereas canadensis is usually thought of as useful for mesic to dry-mesic conditions. They both will overlap to a degree. I like the Canada wild rye just because I happen to like blue-green plants. Both are useful if somewhat short-lived pioneer grasses. And both are inexpensive enough that, in a sense, they can serve as nurse plants until more long-lived stuff gets going. Up in my northern meadow, Elymus c. got a real strong early toe-hold, but now that same area is full of Indian grass-not a bad thing-and the wild rye is beginning to recede into the background. Just as it should be.

One word of caution-nearly all seeds, whether grass, forb, or woody plant, need some degree of contact with bare mineral soil to do anything. That's one of the reasons why fire can be such a great tool for managing these sites-it burns off the duff layer and provides just the seed-to-soil contact that is needed for germination. Just saying....there are, of course, numerous examples in nature of other situations. I'm reminded of the way yellow birch up in the northern woods nearly always must land on an old rotten stump in order to get going in life. That's why, many years later, there are large yellow birch trees seeming to stand on stilts out in the woods, the underlying stump having long since rotted away completely.

+oM

Woops! I hadn't really thought of these as southern plants since they are so common but low and behold I looked them up and both the Rush and Bushy B.S. are only cold hardy to zone 5 so those might be a bad idea along with the helianthus thats only hardy to zone 6! Blow me down. Its getting them through a hot dry summer that is the challenge in these parts, guess its winter hardiness up there in zone 4/5 (burr-r-r).