Tangled Branches: Cultivated

happenings in and around my zone 6b gardens in northern Virginia and in central Virginia

Saturday, May 05, 2007

Need Fern Expert!

Anybody know anything about ferns? I spent some time plant-scouting in central Virginia yesterday and I have several pictures with no IDs, several pictures with shaky IDs, and approximately One picture with a positive ID.

I know Christmas fern (Polystichum acrostichoides) because I planted some myself in my northern Virginia garden. These particular ones are at the country house, growing in the side of the streambank under a tree root.

I think I've correctly identified the Cinnamon Fern.

Not so sure about Bracken.

Then there are these. This one is a nice thick stand growing near the stream.
This one is a cute little fragile-looking thing, growing nearby the Uvularia I wrote about several days ago. The first picture in that post is the suspected Cinnamon fern, by the way.

So, while I'd love some help with IDs here, I'm really looking for a good field guide. The recently updated Peterson Field Guide appears to be a good one or at least this article thinks so. Any recommendations?

Labels: CeVA, ferns

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

CeVA Journal: Wildflowers

This started out to be a post about our long weekend in the country, but a long weekend leads to a long post, so I decided to break it up.

When we bought the country place last fall I couldn't wait for spring to discover all the wildflowers that were just bound to be springing up in the woods. And I'm still waiting. Yesterday afternoon, I was determined to do a thorough search. Who ever heard of a woods without spring flowers? There must be some somewhere. So I crisscrossed the woods with my gaze firmly on the ground. I'd already found a few patches of bluets several weeks ago - I'm skipping over them here, but they're still blooming and even more numerous.

In front of the house, there are lots of ferns. We're going to regard ferns as honorary wildflowers for this discussion. Christmas fern was with us all winter and is now putting up new fronds. Then there are several others that are new to me. I don't know what this one is but it's going to be big.
I think this is bracken, Pteridium aquilinum, but I welcome corrections.
Near the stream, I found this. It looks like Solomon's Seal to me, but it's much smaller than the ones in our suburban woods.
I've been watching the shrubs that I think might be blueberries. Very early in the spring, the tall white-flowered ones bloomed. This one is a low-growing thing that's part of a thick colony towards the back of the lot.
At first I thought this was another Solomon's Seal, but it appears to be Uvularia sessilifolia, or Sessile Bellwort.
A closer look at the Uvularia flower.
But while I had my nose pointed at the ground looking for tiny flowers, I almost missed this, which was above my head.
I believe this is Rhododendron periclymenoides. There's only one shrub like this blooming back in the woods, but there are several others nearby with just foliage. I may try to take a few cuttings and get it growing closer to the house. I liked it so much I went back and took more pictures today.