Tangled Branches: Cultivated

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

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Updates, a Life Bird, and Potager's Progress

It occurs to me lately that much of the good stuff on this blog happens in the comments, and as a result, doesn't get the prominence it deserves. Also, I tend to write of mystery plants, birds, bugs, etc. and then don't update the post when I learn the ID. Soooooo.....this post is to tie up some loose ends.

Thanks to bek, I now know that the mystery oak galls are Wool Sower Oak Galls.

Thanks to the kind folks at bugguide.net, I believe my first bizzare-o insect of the year was the caterpillar of a Red-Spotted Purple butterfly.

Thanks to Squirrel, I knew that yesterday (or was it Thursday?) was International Migratory Bird Day. I celebrated it by doing some front-porch birding and saw a life bird. But Ms. Smarty-pants here was so confident of the ID that she failed to observe all the field marks and now is uncertain. When I first saw the all-blue bird in the treetops, I immediately thought Indigo Bunting, and kept right on thinking that until just before I lost sight of the bird. In those last few seconds, I thought I saw a rusty red streak on the flanks. Hmmm, well, the Blue Grosbeak has a rusty red wing bar, and furthermore, this seemed larger than a finch-sized bird. So now I'm about 70% sure that I saw a Blue Grosbeak, with a 30% chance that it really was an Indigo Bunting. Either way, it's a life bird for me.

Other birds of note yesterday were Great Crested Flycatcher very close to the house in the morning, and in the afternoon by the vegetable garden 2 Pileated Woodpeckers in some kind of altercation, with one pursuing another across an open field. They're even more awesome in flight with red crested head and bold black and white wings.

Still no ID on the big mystery seed pod, but I found another just like it while working on the vegetable garden yesterday and ta da! - it has at least one seed in it. I'm going to plant it and see what sprouts.

Wild orchid foliage? This is what I noticed last weekend, and recently found another one some distance away. I was waiting for a good sunny day to take a photo, but had to settle for using the flash.

And when I said the ditch had turned blue with Salvia lyrata? This is what I meant.

Lastly, Happy Birthday to my vegetable/herb/cutting garden and/or nursery bed. I'm going to keep calling it a potager. Early in May last year, we starting digging. One year later, we're still digging, but there's visible progress. We're messing up the symmetrical layout this year by adding a column of beds along one side and potato bins on the other. I plan to bring it back to some kind of symmetry, but probably not this year. And I've just discovered that the lower part of the garden has a drainage problem. Last year, no rain, no drainage problem. This year, lots of rain, big drainage problem. The sage, rosemary, horehound and shallots are all drowning, but the garlic doesn't seem much affected. Four rosemarys were supposed to anchor the corners of the design, but one got chewed off last fall and the drowning one looks like it's on the way out. I either need to fix the drainage problem or rethink my design, or both. (Disclosure: I cropped out the poor suffering waterlogged plants on the left side of the photo.)

A few closeups from the potager:

The Mexican mint marigold either self-sowed or lived through the winter sheltered by Provencal thyme.

We're going to have some very large garlic bulbs this year.

The rue is just starting to bloom.

The black swallowtail caterpillars are back! This year I hope they come visit when they're grown up.

Labels: birds, butterflies, oak galls, orchids, potager

Monday, January 28, 2008

Cranefly Orchid

Wild orchids! I was so excited to find this foliage, then so disappointed to find out what the flowers look like.

Tipularia discolor is known as the Cranefly Orchid, presumably because the flowers look like craneflies? Nothing like big beautiful tropical orchids, or even some of our showier native orchids - just a brownish-purplish stalk with small greenish-brownish-purplish flowers. Perfect for making itself invisible in the woods.

I'm not sure what made me think orchid when I saw this. I was in the midst of whacking down greenbriar where it had resprouted after last winter's whackage; happened to look down and there it was. If it was growing there before last winter, it would have been impossible to see because it was right in the middle of one of the biggest greenbriar tangles. This past summer, I was busy with the vegetable garden and didn't venture into the woods much, but I need to put a reminder on my calendar to go look for the flowers later this year.

Updated January 30: I discovered after I posted this that it fit in with the Week 2 Theme of Elizabeth Joy's Wildflowers in Winter. Visit her to find out what other wildflower fans are doing to mark time until spring.