Tangled Branches: Cultivated

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

Monday, May 05, 2008

More Natives: Salvia and Chionanthus

Over the weekend I noticed the ditch near the road had turned blue. I don't know how I missed these last year because the entire roadside is covered with them.

A few minutes with the wildflower books told me that they're Salvia lyrata, maybe a bit weedy (but native!) and hummingbirds will sip from them. And while I was sitting on the deck looking this up, a hummingbird came by to investigate some arugula that had started to flower but soon left in search of something better. Wait, wait, I do have something better! So I dug up a few Salvia plants from the ditch and moved them to the edge of the woods - one group where I can see them from the deck and one group in front of the house.

I thought the Salvia might look good next to this - another thing I missed last year - Fringe Tree or Chionanthus virginicus.

I feel sure that it didn't bloom last year and that's how I overlooked it, because it's right at the edge of the woods very close to the house. It's only about 3 feet tall now, but through my Gardeners' Glasses I visualize it as 15 feet tall and covered in white fringe.

Here's another curiosity at the edge of the woods - fuzzy oak galls. They look like some craft project from the 1960s involving spray paint - mostly white but just tinged with pink or red.

If anybody knows what they are, please tell me. A few Google searches didn't give me an answer, but I can tell you that the first hit for "fuzzy oak gall" is this post from Ki last fall. Not the same thing, however.

I hope to keep exploring the woodland over the summer and not ignore it when I get busy with the kitchen garden (like I did last year). Purely by chance yesterday, I found some foliage that looks very like orchid foliage. No photo yet, but I have high hopes.

Labels: chionanthus, hummingbirds, oak galls, salvia

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Better Hummingbird Pictures

If you like pictures of hummingbirds, then you have come to the wrong place. I'll point you instead to Rob's album. And then read his story about the one in the house.

Once again, as I type this, there's a hummer a few feet in front of me at the coleus flowers. The camera is in the house.

Labels: hummingbirds

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Hummingbird Update

On cue, just after I posted that I'd not seen any humminbirds in northern Virginia this year, one showed up at the feeder this morning around 7:15.

Speaking of feeders, I wish I could find an attractive and functional hummingbird feeder. I've been using the Droll Yankees Little Flyer for several seasons now, and I'm generally happy with it. Except when I go into a store where they sell those beautiful blown glass feeders that would look so lovely dangling from the oak tree, catching the early morning sunlight. But I've had that kind of feeder before and the only creatures it fed were ants and bees. So I stick with the functional, but not beautiful, one.

Labels: hummingbirds

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Country Weekend

Last weekend in the country was quiet and relaxed. The heavy-duty digging and the frantic planting are finished for now. Friday was the hottest day of the year so far, and it felt like it. We got a spectacular thunder and lightning storm on Friday night, and the rest of the weekend's weather was beautiful.

The infant shrubs and trees I planted early in the spring are growing and fairly happy and not yet eaten. I don't know if I've been lucky, or I made wise choices, or a little bit of both. My current favorite is Zenobia pulverulenta.

It's still very small - maybe 8-10 inches tall - but I really love the dusty blue foliage. I certainly wasn't expecting any flowers this year, so they're a bonus.

The potager still doesn't look like much, I know, I know.

But cut me some slack here. A couple of months ago this was nothing but an unmowed field. The only energy consumed in the digging of the plot was mine. I intended to keep whatever vegetation was already there mowed short for the paths, but the mowing lost all its charm on the first 90 degree day. So now we're covering over the paths with newspapers and wood chips. Only the central section of that is done so far. Those green trellis-things are tomato ladders. Maybe not the most attractive way to stake tomato plants, but I don't think it's the ugliest either. I used these last year and liked them and didn't see any reason not to use them again.

In front of the house, I made a crazy-quilt bed of Coleus and Mimulus (and some bracken I dug up from the woods). I'll post a picture of the whole thing once it fills out a bit, but I wanted to show you the Mimulus.

I'm still infatuated with these flowers, even though the ones I grew last year swooned (OK, died) in the heat of midsummer. So far, this year's crop is looking very nice. They're called 'Mystic Mix' and the flowers are brighter colors and more velvety than last year's, but without the heavy splotches I liked so much then.

Even if I didn't feel like planting any flowers, I'd still have some.

The spring woodland wildflowers may have been disappointing, but the summer field flowers are making up for it. Newly blooming this week is Scutellaria integrifolia, or Hyssop Skullcap. Black-eyed Susans were just beginning to bloom, and if my spouse didn't mow them over, I should have pictures of those next week. The suspected dyers woad is no longer blooming, or I couldn't find the plant again anyway, so that's going to have to wait until next year for a positive ID.

And lastly, the hummingbirds seem to have deserted me in northern Virginia, but in central Virginia they're practically pestilential. No, I'm kidding - I love to have them around, but they're much bolder about coming close to us than I've ever experienced. I had a red shirt on, and one buzzed me - presumably investigating the color. My spouse was sitting on the deck and one came right under the patio umbrella and hovered in front of his face. (He'd been in the sun, but I don't think he was that red.) Next weekend's project is to get some nectar plants growing so the hummers stick around.