Tangled Branches: Cultivated
happenings in and around my zone 6b gardens in northern Virginia and in central Virginia
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Fireflies and Mountain Laurel
Ah, Memorial Day weekend. The psychological start of summer in the mid-latitudes of the United States. So why are we still shivering in the cold? The fireflies think it's summer. We sat on the front porch Friday evening, bundled up in sweatshirts and woolly slippers to enjoy the summer weather, and the fireflies appeared right on schedule. We first saw them last year on Memorial Day weekend. I'll stop whining now, because it's supposed to warm up a lot by Monday.
Let's look at something pretty instead. Don't these Mountain Laurel (Kalmia latifolia) flowers look like they belong to spring instead of summer? The pale pink color and delicate patterns make me think early April instead of late May.
We have a large Mountain Laurel shrub at the edge of the woods. It suffered from having the woods cleared away around it (in order to build the house), and when we first moved here I wasn't sure it would survive. And truth be told, it still looks a bit rough. The height is well over my head (but I'm not tall), and many of the branches are bare. I may cautiously snip it back to see if it will resprout from some of those bare branches, or I may not. I could just plant something shorter in front of it.
The structure of the flower is interesting. See how the stamens support the petals like the spokes of an umbrella? National Geographic magazine, June 1917, reports that "...the mountain laurel has taken care that no visitor shall escape without rendering it the service of messenger. When the flower opens its stigma is erect, but the anthers are fastened down with a trigger-like arrangement, one in each of ten little pockets in the flower. The bee that creeps down into the flower for a sip of nectar releases a tiny spring, like a mouse entering a trap. The released anther flies up and dusts its pollen on the hairy body of the insect."
Mountain laurel nectar is said to be toxic, but apparently not to ladybugs.
There were at least two mountain laurel shrubs blooming last year. I don't see any others this year. I do remember that one had paler flowers than the other, but I don't remember them being white. The photographic evidence says otherwise.
Or could it be that the color was lighter last year because the weather was warmer?
11 Comments:
Great pictures!!
Those are so pretty! Mountain Laurel doesn't like the Chicago area, so I have to enjoy them vicariously. I think this is the latest we've gone without turning off the heat yet. Maybe today.
Hi - its May bank holiday weekend here in the Uk which marks the start of summer but its raining and has been for 12 hours with more forecast tomorrow. Well I suppose rain is synomous with British summer but this is ridiculous
Like MMD, I can only admire but not grow Mountain Laurels, Entangled, and yours are beautiful. But the poisoned honey story was so odd!
I guess settlers in Central Texas missed the Eastern Mountain Laurel a lot, since one of the common names for our completely different Sophora secundiflora is "Texas Mountain Laurel" (another is Mescal Bean). Its seeds are poisonous but I haven't read anything about the pollen being a problem.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Wow. Great pictures, and I also enjoyed the information about the mountain laurel.
I have one, but unlike last year at this time it doesn't appear to have ANY flower buds on it. It is, however, putting forth some new growth at the tips... I think that last summer's drought was tough on it. I know I didn't do a good job of watering it, because it's in its fourth year now and I have a two-and-done rule for most plants. That's as long as I baby them.
Anyway... if it blooms again next year I'm going to have to investigate the flowers, and see if I can use something to set off the "mouse traps" inside. Very fun. :)
Lets Plant: Thank you, and thanks for stopping by!
MMD: I remember wearing a wool sweater one Memorial Day in northern Illinos. I was telling this to a friend from Minnesota and she remembered freezing in MN on the 4th of July. I'm ready for summer weather any time now.
The mountain laurel was a really nice bonus with the house. I bought and killed 2 of them in No. VA, and probably wouldn't have tried again.
Helen: I was in England on the May bank holiday 21 years ago. As I recall it, that Monday was sunny and warm, but it had been cold and damp up until then. We had a good time on that trip - I'd like to go back someday. Hope your weather improves soon!
Annie: Somewhere in looking up mountain laurel info yesterday, I came across a page than claimed mountain laurel was so named because of the resemblance of the leaves to the laurels of the Mediterranean?
I had heard that honey from mountain laurels was poisonous, but wondered how beekeepers are supposed to keep their bees away from it.
Blackswamp Girl: I see mountain laurels recommended all the time as garden plants, but I think they're difficult. Yesterday afternoon, I found the dead branches of the one that had the white flowers last year, but there are a couple of sprouts from the base, so maybe it will come back. That was a sizeable plant too, but not as big as the other one.
I hadn't thought about setting off the mouse trap myself (duh!) - I thought maybe I'd just happen to see a bee springing it.
The one I have is 'Olympic Fire' I think. At my very first garden center job, in 2005, one of my first tasks was to go through the previous year's stock and see what I thought was worth saving. My supervisor there started helping me, and he put this mountain laurel in the "throw out" pile... I bit my lip for a few minutes, and then told him that I thought they were really pretty shrubs, and that one might be worth saving. He told me to take it home and see if it liked my yard any better than it liked living in a pot there. :)
Sorry to hear about the other one, and the two you lost in your other grarden... but it's nice to know that they're difficult. Makes me feel a little bit better about how rough mine is looking right about now.
I love Mt. Laurel but it is very slow growing although it can be found growing wild in the woodlands.
Blackswamp Girl: I don't remember for sure, but one of the ones I killed might have been 'Olympic Fire'. I've always wondered if the red color of the buds in catalog photos is anything like reality.
Layanee: I got very lucky when we bought the central Virginia property with 2 large mountain laurel shrubs right at the edge of the woods in front of the house. But hmm, if they're slow growing I may have to wait a while before the one that died back to the ground flowers again.
Talk about striking flowers! They don't even look real.
That's the most unusual looking flower I've ever seen.
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