Tangled Branches: Cultivated
happenings in and around my zone 6b gardens in northern Virginia and in central Virginia
Monday, July 27, 2009
Hummingbird at Work
My best photo of a hummingbird. It was just a lucky shot. I was in the garden with the camera when I heard the telltale hum as it zipped past me on its way to the flowers. I thought I was too far away and that the autofocus wouldn't work and that the bird would fly away when it saw the camera and ... well sometimes you get lucky.
Labels: birds, hummingbirds
Saturday, October 04, 2008
We Still Have Hummingbirds
One of these days, I'm going to take a feather-perfect picture of a hummingbird. For now these are the least bad photos from yesterday afternoon.
Labels: hummingbirds
Friday, August 15, 2008
Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day
There are lots of flowers in bloom, but with the recent dry weather many of them are looking weary and parched. However. It's hummingbird season here at Tangled Branches! Let's focus on hummingbird favorites for August's Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day. Maybe this will be the year I get a good photo of a hummingbird.
I've never seen a hummingbird ignore a Cuphea so I just keep adding more Cupheas. They seem to prefer Cuphea llavea 'Tiny Mice'.
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| Cuphea llavea 'Tiny Mice' |
But they visit all the Cupheas.
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| Cuphea ignea |
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| Cuphea 'Totally Tempted' |
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| Cuphea 'David Verrity' |
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| Cuphea 'Summer Medley' this is just one of several colors in the mix |
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| Cuphea laevis |
Last year I learned that hummingbirds like Coleus flowers, and Blackswamp Girl mentioned that she thinks Coleus flowers look better on dark-colored Coleus. I think she's right.
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| The dark-leaved Coleus is 'Palisandra' and the chartreuse-leaved one is 'Pineapple Wizard' |
I was hoping the hummers would like this Celosia and as of today, I know they do. 'Cramer's Amazon' is indeed an amazon. I planted these in several places to find out where they grow best and the tallest ones are about 6 feet tall. Those get a bit of afternoon shade, but where they're in full sun, they're not quite that tall. The small (for a Celosia) magenta-pink flowers are the hummingbird draw, but the burgundy and green leaves look good while you're waiting for the flowers and the birds.
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| These are the tops of the tallest 'Cramer's Amazon' Celosias, along with 'Red Shield' Hibiscus. I liked the combination until the Celosia bloomed. |
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| Burgundy and green foliage of 'Cramer's Amazon' Celosia |
Other hummingbird plants in bloom at Tangled Branches South are:
Verbena bonariensis
Monarda citriodora
Lantana 'Dallas Red'
Lonicera sempervirens 'Leo' (Coral Honeysuckle)
The rest of the Bloom Day list for Tangled Branches South:
Thai Red Roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa)
Mexican Mint Marigold (Tagetes lucida)
Salvia patens
Horehound
Lavender 'Ellagance Sky Blue' and 'Munstead'
Rudbeckia 'Prairie Sun'
Rue (rebloom)
Bronze Fennel (just a few flowers left)
Salvia farinacea 'Evolution' and 'Strata'
Achillea 'Summer Berries' (rebloom)
Garlic Chives
Variegated Lemon Thyme
English Broadleaf Thyme
various Basils
Origanum vulgare
Sweet Marjoram
Chrysanthemum carinatum
Celosia 'Sylphid'
Dill 'Vierling' (just a few flowers left)
Rosemary (I didn't think this was its blooming season)
Petunia 'Balcony' and 'Dolce Flambe'
Calamintha nepeta
Agastache foeniculum 'Golden Jubilee' (and the plain green-leaved species too)
Wormwood
Verbena hastata 'Pink Spires' (just a few flowers left)
Dianthus 'Rainbow Loveliness' (reblooming after being cut back hard)
Nepeta transcaucasica 'Blue Infinity' (I don't think much of this, but no critters eat it, ever)
Origanum heracleoticum
Eupatorium purpureum
and a few straggly Violas
It was pouring down rain (yay!) when I left Tangled Branches North. That list will have to wait until next week.
I wish it would rain here at Tangled Branches South, so I'd have more time to look at all the lovely flowers blooming elsewhere on this Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day.
Labels: hummingbirds, in bloom
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.
Labels: annuals, hummingbirds, potager, wildflowers
