Tangled Branches: Cultivated

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

Saturday, April 19, 2008

The Woods Awaken: Native Azaleas

Except for the tree pollen, I love this time of year in the woods. The shrubs start to leaf out, then the trees take on a green haze and the light becomes diffuse but still bright. Last year, I almost missed the native azaleas while looking for spring ephemerals on the forest floor. This year, I've been watching them for 2 months and now they've begun to bloom.

Native azalea (Rhododendron periclymenoides)

I believe all the ones I've found are members of the same species (Rhododendron periclymenoides), but the flowers show some color variation. I just found this key, and I'm going to go double check my conclusion after I publish this. Why not before? Good question, but I'll update the post if I got it wrong the first time.

Native azalea

The dogwood flowers are all unfolded now. They have a lot more flowers when they're in the sun, but I like them best in a lacy swath through the woods.

Dogwood (Cornus florida)

Some of the moss is "flowering" too.

Moss, unknown species

The leaf buds are as varied and interesting as flowers, and I recently learned a bit of folk wisdom about the Beech tree. It's said that when the Beech trees finally drop last year's leaves and begin to open the new ones, there will be no more frost. Looks like we're not quite there yet.

Leaf buds of American Beech (Fagus grandiflora)

Labels: azaleas, beech, dogwood, wildflowers

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Zillions of Virginia Bluebells

Yesterday afternoon the clouds lifted and I jumped in the car to go look at the Virginia Bluebells at Bull Run Park near Centreville. I fear I won't be able to adequately describe the scene, but I'll try.

As you slog along the muddy trail towards the river, the forest floor looks as if a sudden snow flurry just started to stick. The tiny white and pink Spring Beauties (Claytonia sp.) cover the ground on both sides of the trail. As you approach the Cub Run river, you see a haze of blue. For the full effect, click through the photos to Picasaweb and then click the magnifying glass at the top right of the photo for a larger view.

From the time you reach the river until the time you leave it, there are huge drifts of Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica) all around you.

They crowd in at the sides of the trail and the dense stands continue far into the woods.

The flowers are lovely individually, but the sheer numbers of plants make an impression. There are thousands upon thousands of flowers here. I took 101 pictures, edited that down to 30 for posting on Picasaweb, and to 5 for showing here.

The stars of the show are the Bluebells, but in addition to them and the Spring Beauties, there are a few other wildflowers to be found. I didn't have to hunt to find Toothwort, Purple Violets, Yellow Violets, and a personal favorite - Trout Lilies aka Dogtooth Violet (Erythronium americanum, I assume).

Midweek, midafternoon, I had the place practically to myself, although there were three intrepid women pushing two toddlers in strollers. Considering the mud, this was a real accomplishment. Depending on weather, the Bluebells should be in good form for another week. I last visited the park exactly two years ago and posted a very similar review. I think my photos from that trip show that the flowers were blooming a bit ahead of this year's. If you go, just be prepared for a very muddy trail.

Labels: bluebells, wildflowers

Friday, March 28, 2008

Too Cute To Be a Weed

Just yesterday I planted some HUGE pansies, and then I find these blooming in the vegetable garden. I'm going to let them stay (for now) because I think they're adorable.
Viola arvensis

The flowers are tiny, smaller than my fingernails and I have small hands.

A couple of small patches of Bluets are now in bloom, but no sign of Spring Beauties yet.
Bluets (Houstonia sp.)

Yesterday turned out to be a good day for gardening, but we could use some rain. The basil post I had planned will have to wait, but here's a preview - I sowed seeds of a dozen or so different varieties this week.

Labels: bluets, violas, wildflowers

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

How is a Maple Tree Like a British Soldier?

British Soldier Lichen, that is. Give up?

They both wear red hats in the spring.

I thought I had no wildflowers at all to show for Week 8 of Wildflowers in Winter, but how about if we broaden the definition a bit? This maple tree is 1) wild, and 2) flowering. So it's a wildflower.

Calling the British Soldier Lichen a wildflower is more of a stretch, but I think the bright red fruiting body is pretty. Just about a year ago - the first time I saw it - it took me by surprise, but now I know where and when to look for it. This one is growing next to the frog stream and I found it while looking for the source of the very loud frog songs. I never did find a frog, despite hearing them very close by.

Or could we count dandelions as wildflowers? I found the first one of the season yesterday.

Thanks to Elizabeth Joy of Wildflower Morning for this pleasant diversion from winter.

But stop by here in a few weeks and I should have some more-traditional wildflowers to show. I just saw an entire hillside covered with bluets this afternoon. Well, I think they were bluets - it was hard to tell at 65 MPH. I pointed them out to the spouse, but he didn't volunteer to stop.

Labels: lichens, maples, weeds, wildflowers

Friday, February 29, 2008

Grandma's UFOs (Wildflowers in Winter 5-6-7)

I'm way late for week 5 of Wildflowers in Winter, but I didn't want to let February slip away without mentioning Grandma Gordon's UFOs. UnFinished Objects. If you are involved in any kind of creative endeavor, I'll bet you have some. My great-grandmother apparently intended to make a friendship quilt and asked her relatives and friends to each stitch a block for it, but then she never quite got around to putting it together. Most of the blocks are a crazy-quilt style, but at least one is appliqu�ed. I picked out all the ones with any kind of floral design for this photo.

From my family history studies, I recognize some of the names as relatives but others I don't know at all. The Barfuss family is one of those I'm not familiar with, but they had at least one talented embroiderer.

For week 6 of Wildflowers in Winter, I defer to my cousin - a genuine artist. The flowers in his paintings are generally not the main subjects, but they're often present. Celestial Seasonings recently abandoned their long-established look in packaging, but you can see an illustration he did for one of their boxes here. Those daisies look like wildflowers to me.

Week 7. Childrens' art? A tough one. I may possibly have some of my niece and nephew's childhood artworks around here (put away someplace safe for posterity), but then again maybe not. I'm going to take a pass on Week 7.

Head over to Wildflower Morning and see the flowery artworks others have found.

Labels: off-topic, wildflowers

Saturday, February 09, 2008

Dish Flowers

Wildflowers in Winter's week 4 theme (dishes or other decorations made by you or someone else that you have in your home) left me wondering what I could show. I have lots of floral dishes, but not specifically wildflowers. So I was wondering...until I read Jodi's entry. Her teapot led me to my spring tea mug. Not wildflowers, but wild flowers.

This mug looks so springy to me that I rarely use it except in spring. Do you change the decorations in your house according to season? My great-grandmother had a large collection of pretty dishes and glassware, too many to display all at once, so she rotated them. The cup and saucer below belonged to her, and actually does have a wildflower decoration - violets. (Note to photographer: you should have focused on the back of the cup so people could see the violets.)

I have a collection of sorts, too. Early-mid 20th century Japanese lustreware. These are 2 of the wilder pieces.

My first real set of dishes also has a flower theme. They could be wildflowers, I suppose. And bringing us back to tea, on a plate from that set I've placed 2 of my favorite flower-scented teas - Jasmine Pearls and an Osmanthus-scented Oolong.

Now I'm headed off to visit Elizabeth Joy and see the flowers other Wildflowers in Winter participants have in their houses.

Labels: off-topic, wildflowers

Saturday, February 02, 2008

Wild Flowers Worth Knowing

Can you imagine any publisher agreeing to that title today? Field guides have changed a lot in the last hundred years.

For week 3 of Wildflowers in Winter, we were asked to find Literary Wildflowers - stories, quotations or poetry about wildflowers - or to review a field guide. But what if there was a literary field guide? Our modern guides are somewhat clinical (just the facts, ma'am) but earlier generations put some personality into it. The writers' personalities shine through and they ascribed personality to the plants. I have two such books on my shelf. One was handed down to me and one I bought for myself.

Neltje Blanchan's Wild Flowers Worth Knowing was taken up and adapted by Asa Don Dickiinson as part of The Nature Library series. I used to love to look at the pictures in these books before I could read the text, and wouldn't you know, that was exactly one of the selling points of this series.

full page ad for an earlier edition

Now I find the pictures a bit fuzzy (color printing has improved a lot since then), but the writing is vivid. For example, this passage on Bluets (one of the first spring wildflowers here):

Millions of these dainty wee flowers, scattered through the grass of moist meadows and by the wayside, reflect the blue and the serenity of heaven in their pure, upturned faces. Where the white variety grows, one might think a light snowfall had powdered the grass, or a milky way of tiny floral stars had streaked a terrestrial path.

Through the magic of the internet and the goodwill of volunteers, you can download this book, including those fuzzy pictures, from Project Gutenberg.

Maybe a bit less sentimental and a bit more literary is How to Know the Wild Flowers by Mrs. William Starr Dana. There are no color pictures here, but the black-and-white line drawing are clear enough to be used for identification. Here's a passage from her entry on violets:

It seems as if no other flower were so suggestive of the dawning year, so associated with the days when life was full of promise. Although I believe that more than a hundred species of violets have been recorded, only about thirty are found in our country; of these perhaps twenty are native to the Northeastern States. Unfortunately, we have no strongly sweet-scented species, none "...sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes, or Cytherea's breath, ..." as Shakespeare found the English blossom.

My copy is a reprint edition by Dover Publications, but I can't find it in their catalog now. This book has been around a long time - The New York Times reviewed it when it was first published in 1893.

Join Elizabeth Joy as she takes us on an internet tour of Wildflowers in Winter.
And Happy Groundhog Day! I'm sure the Groundhog saw his shadow here today. I wish it had been yesterday instead.

Labels: wildflowers

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.

Labels: orchids, wildflowers

Saturday, September 08, 2007

Fungi, Flowers, Firmament

The tomato tide has turned, and I can get back to exploring the woods and fields.

Starting with the last rain (August 26), mushrooms began popping up everywhere. Ordinary-looking mushrooms, mushrooms that look like molded plastic foam, inverted mushrooms, and these storybook mushrooms. I haven't the faintest idea what any of these might be, and I don't intend to taste any of them, but I noticed that some of them had been gnawed on. And there was a kind of dried-porcini truffle-y odor about, but I don't know where it was coming from.

The woods' edge has surprised me with some very pretty wildflowers lately. This one is a beauty. Truly. It's called Virginia Meadow Beauty, and the entire plant is attractive. The opposite leaves with prominent veins form a very regular pattern; the fruit capsule is an interesting urn shape, and the bright yellow stamens/anthers are very striking against the soft magenta-pink petals. In another spot, grows her cousin - the Maryland Meadow Beauty. Not quite as pretty, perhaps, because the flowers are much lighter in color. Maryland seems more compact and bushier than Virginia, but that may be because my spouse weed-whacked Maryland earlier this year.

Then there's this thing. I know it's an Aureolaria (formerly Gerardia?), but I'm having a hard time getting the species. It's apparently quite tasty, because most of the leaves have been chewed off one of them, and also some of the flower stalks. I haven't gotten a really good picture of it yet, either, but this is an open flower that's fallen to the ground. This genus is said to be parasitic on the roots of white oak trees, but I'm wondering if it's more of a symbiotic relationship than parasitic. Need to do some reading about this.

A couple more woods' edge plants now in bloom are the very tiny Curtis' Milkwort and a Lobelia which may or may not be L. siphilitica. The inflorescence doesn't look as dense to me as the pictures I've seen of L. siphilitica, and some of these are very tall (close to 5 ft. where they're growing up through some small sweet gum trees). So I don't know yet, but I'll spend some time with the field guides and try to get a positive ID.

Up in the field, there are bright yellow billows of a Bidens, either aristosa or coronata, or maybe both. These were aflutter with butterflies yesterday, and they have the same honey fragrance that I've noticed in my 'Fireworks' goldenrod. There are patches of Eupatorium coelestinum or Blue Mist Flower, and nature provided a pretty combination with magenta legume that I've not identified.

Those are the wildflower highlights. Some of the tree leaves are starting to turn, but I don't want to talk about it yet.

We enjoyed our evening beverage last night by starlight. The Summer Triangle and Milky Way were high overhead, and I saw 3 shooting stars in about 20 minutes.

Labels: astronomy, fungi, wildflowers

Monday, June 25, 2007

Parasitic Plants

This is cool. I had never seen this before, except in photographs, but I knew immediately what it was because it's on the cover of one of my most useful wildflower books. Indian Pipes, aka Ghost Plant, aka Monotropa uniflora is a parasitic plant, getting its living not on the roots of other plants, as was once believed, but on the mycorrhizae attached to the roots of other plants. This site does a wonderful job of explaining it all.

I found this plant while checking up on my Illicium floridanum (one of which is doing fine, BTW). It had probably been flowering for a while, because according to missouriplants.com, the flowers open white and darken as they age.

Labels: CeVA, wildflowers

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

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless because I don't know what most of these plants are. I photographed these last weekend in the country, and haven't tried to put a name to them yet.

Update: With a lot of help from my friends, I can now identify several of these. I need to check the leaves on some of these to nail down the species.

Deptford Pink (Dianthus armeria)

Ragwort (Senecio sp.) and Erigeron

Galium tinctorium?

Venus's Looking-glass (Triodanis perfoliata)

Deptford Pink again (Dianthus armeria)

And the ones I know - a much shorter list.

Blue-eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium sp.)

Mountain Laurel (Kalmia latifolia)

Partridgeberry (Mitchella repens)

Labels: CeVA, wildflowers

posted by Entangled at 10:12 AM ::: Permalink ::: Leave a Comment

13 comments from: Pam, Entangled, Ki, Nicole, Marci, Anonymous, Anonymous, Entangled, Entangled, Ki, Entangled, lisa, Entangled,

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.

Labels: azaleas, CeVA, ferns, wildflowers

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

The Eviction of Phoebe

A few weekends ago, I noticed an Eastern Phoebe checking out our porch ceiling fan at the country house. The weekend after that, a pair of them showed a lot of interest in the front porch, but they didn't seem to want to share it with me. Last weekend, I found their nest on the porch light by the front door. What a snug little thing - stuck to the top of the light with mud and lined with soft moss - just the perfect place to bring up a family. Well....I really didn't want it there (they got mud all over everything - walls, door, floor, doormat) but I think I'm incapable of destroying a bird's nest, so I just told DH about it. He was unhappy (like I thought he would be) and a short time later the nest was gone. To the best of my knowledge there were not any eggs in the nest. I asked DH if there were, and his response was "Would you leave it there if there were?". Translation: "I can't believe you would leave a thing like that on the front porch". I hope they find the perfect nesting spot - away from the house - but from what I read it seems that's their preferred location.

I'm fiddling with Photoshop Elements slideshows. They use Flash 9.0, and I don't know how well they would work for users with dialup connections. And I'm not sure if the additional overhead is worth it just for the special effects. I'd love to have some feedback (good or bad) - just leave a comment.

Still not much in the way of wildflowers at the country place. In the woods there were a few spring beauties, and the ferns are starting to unfurl. We're making a path through the woods with wood chips, and I'd hate to cover up any good plants, so in a way I'm glad I haven't found many. In a field across the road, I found field pansies. I had never seen these before and I thought they were just the cutest things - imagine a Johnny-Jump-Up, but more delicate-looking. How could they be weeds?

Labels: birds, wildflowers

Subscribe :::

Recent Photos :::

Recent Birds :::

My Other Blogs :::

Archives :::

Garden Blogroll :::