#beebalm-and-honeysuckle

[beebalm-and-honeysuckle]

One evening, Katniss casually strolls to the house coming back from a hunt, when she hears screaming coming from inside. She runs in and in the living room she finds Haymitch, Peeta and the toastbabies.

The kids run around with outstreched chubby arms, screaming with joy as they chase after each other, trying to catch as many bubbles as they can.

Peeta has streaks of paint in over a dozen of colours all over his hands, arms and face; brush betweens his fingers and a beaming smile on his lips as his gaze switches between the canvas and the scene in front if him that he is trying to capture.

Haymitch, leaning against the couch while sitting on the floor, just draws in a deep breath to blow another big batch of bubbles, adding more and more of the glistening litte bubbles. (his lungs are on the edge of giving out, but he doesn't care)

She just grins and shakes her head in affection as she flings the five squirrels she shot over her shoulder to bring them into the kitchen, before she joins her family. 🫧🫧

[upthewitchypunx]

We had a rare sunny February day yesterday and when that happens you have to get your hands in the dirt. We are dismantling our hummingbird garden and moving the plants around the whole yard. i am awaiting the wrath of the tiny angry bird creatures, but the honeysuckle is still there. We moved the giant salvia and hyssop to the parking strip. The cold killed off a lot. I need a new beebalm. I moved the foxgloves, violets, columbines, and a few other things left and put them in buckets.

We are taking the whole back area and making it into a set of keyhole style veggie beds, sort of like a giant E, but with 4, not 3 parts that stick out. We are also trying to use all old materials so we'll see how that goes.

There's so much garden work to do this year. As soon as we have some nice days in a room I have to do up ALL OF THE IRISES. It's os exhausting, but it's been 4 years and we need to do it. Our whole yard is ringed with irises. This will require digging up all the stuff planted with the irises too. There's bulbs and other stuff in there too and I 'm going have to move.

Also, i put in a chip drop and it came within days! They are free and we had to wait months last year so I put it in early and it came in days! It appears to be willow chips? I could tell by those cute fuzzy willow buds. It smells really nice too.

[libraryofmoths]

Moth of the Week

Hummingbird Clearwing Moth

Hemaris thysbe

The hummingbird clearwing moth is a part of the family Sphingidae or the hawkmoth family and was first described by Johan Christian Fabricius in 1775. The name Hemaris Thysbe is thought to be a reference to Thisbe, one of the doomed lovers in Ovid's Metamorphoses, due to the color of Thisbe’s blood-stained scarf and the maroon color of the moth. Additionally, the name hummingbird clearwing is due to the humming noise created by the rapid flapping of the moth’s transparent wings.

Description The hummingbird clearwing moth typically has an olive green and maroon back with a white or yellow and maroon underside. It has pale legs and no stripes, which is how you tell this moth apart from other in its genus, Hemaris. Its wings are transparent with a maroon border. After hatching, the hummingbird clearwing’s wings are a fully opaque dark red to black. Then the wing’s scales fall off when the moth takes flight, resulting in a clear wing with maroon borders and visible veins. However, a moth’s color and wing patterning varies between individual moths. For example, moths born in the south or later in the mating season are darker in color, and different populations have varying wing border shapes.

Average wingspan of 4.75 cm (≈1.9 in)

Up to 70 wingbeats per second

Can fly up to 12 mph (≈19.3 kph)

Diet and Habitat When in their caterpillar stage, these moths eat the leaves of cherry trees, European cranberry bushes, hawthorns, dogbane, honeysuckle, and snowberry bushes. Adult hummingbird moths feed on the nectar from flowers such as the Wild Bergamot and beebalm, red clovers, lilacs, phloxs, snowberry, cranberry, blueberry, vetch and thistle. The hummingbird clearwing prefers purple and pink flowers. They use their long proboscis or feeding tube to collect nectar from the flowers while flying in front of it like a hummingbird.

The average proboscis is 20 mm (≈0.8 in)

These moths are the most common in southern Ontario and the eastern United States. Their habitat ranges from Alaska to Oregon in the west and from Newfoundland to Florida in the east. They migrate northward from April to August and southward in late spring and the fall. They inhabit forests, meadows, and suburban gardens.

Mating The hummingbird clearwing has two broods a year in the south, but only one in the north. Mating takes place in May and June as females attract males with pheromones produce from glands at the tip of the abdomen. Female hummingbird moths will lay 200 eggs that will hatch in only 6 to 8 days.

Predators Hummingbird moths and caterpillars in general are hunted by birds, mantids, spiders, bats. To help protect themselves, these types of moths resemble hummingbirds or bees to fool predators.

Fun Fact Adults hummingbird clearwing moths are most active during the hottest parts of the day and have no hearing abilities due to a lack of “hearing organs.”

(Source: Wikipedia, Life On CSG Pond, United States Department of Agriculture, Georgia Wildlife Federation, Beyond Pest Control)

[bumblin-bees]

plants that attract pollinators: (butterflies, bees, hummingbirds)🌻💐🌿🌱🌸🌹

trumpet honeysuckle🦋🐝✨

beebalm🦋🐝✨

butterfly bush🦋

goldenrod🦋🐝✨

dandelion🦋🐝✨

geranium🐝

marigold🦋🐝✨

cow parsnip🐝✨

thistle🐝✨

queen anne’s lace🐝✨

lavender🦋🐝✨

aster🦋🐝✨

sunflower🦋🐝✨

(there’s no hummingbird emoji so we’re stuck with ✨ hahah)

[emlenvs3000f21]

The Hummingbird Clearwing Moth

This summer I had the opportunity to work at a garden center and I honestly loved it. I felt great doing hard work every day and being surrounded by all kinds of wonderful plants. I learned about a ton of plant species, their scientific names, growing conditions, how to prune them back for the winter or during the summer to promote bushier growth, and how they reproduce. It was so interesting to see plants (especially the annuals) go through their whole life cycle from seedling all the way back to seed in August, but what was also fascinating was the relationship these plants had with native pollinators. There were beautiful honeybees, small pollinating flies, butterflies (it was so exciting when the monarch butterflies arrived), and moths. By far one of the coolest pollinators I saw this summer was a hummingbird clearwing moth (Hemaris thysbe). One day I was walking through the rows of flowers when I spotted something taking a drink of nectar from some of the annuals. At first glance, it appeared to be an actual hummingbird, which got me very excited, so I got closer. My next thought was “Oh! This hummingbird has horns!”. It was a smaller creature with brown, fur-like feathers and a flared tail that almost looked like a shrimp’s tail. Its wings were flapping so fast they were a blur and it had two long “horns” which I then understood to be antennae. I watched as this creature unraveled its proboscis and took a drink from a flower, then quickly buzzed over to the next one. I was in awe of this mystery creature because it was unlike anything I had ever seen before, and it definitely wasn’t a hummingbird. I ran over and asked one of my coworkers what it could be and they said it was probably a hummingbird moth.

(These are pictures of a Hummingbird moth that visited me at home! The flower is a Bougainvillea.)

From the family Sphingidae and the genus Hemaris, these moths are also known as hummingbird clearwing moths because of their resemblance to hummingbirds and their wings which feature clear, glass-like patches (Mass Audubon, 2021; Moisset, n.d.). They are only around 1-2 inches long, but they buzz around like a real hummingbird would and use their long tongue to feed on flowers that have long necks such as verbena, honeysuckle, and beebalm (Mass Audubon, 2021; Moisset, n.d.). I find it so incredible that this creature has evolved to mimic hummingbirds which could help defend them from predatory birds and their long proboscis allows them to access flowers that many other pollinators can’t take advantage of.

From then on, anytime I would see the moth hovering around, I would grab any customer nearby just to show it to them because I just couldn’t get over how incredible they were and I wanted to share my new knowledge with as many people as I could. This week our readings talked about the importance of citizen science (when nonprofessionals assist with scientific research (Merenlender, 2016)) and I firmly believe that the more people know about our natural world, the more they will interact with it in a positive and constructive way. There is always a place for those who have been formally educated in scientific fields to lead the way forward, but without the help and cooperation of every individual, environmental research and conservation will only get so far. This is why I will always and forever share my knowledge with anyone who is interested because we should never gatekeep information about the world we live in. We all share in the beauty of this planet, whether we are in a scientific field or not, and things like the hummingbird clearwing moth are too incredible to ignore.

Works cited

Mass Audubon. (2021). Hummingbird Moth (Clearwing Moth). https://www.massaudubon.org/learn/nature-wildlife/insects-arachnids/hummingbird-moth

Merenlender, A.M., Crall, A.W., Drill, S., Prysby, M., and Ballard, H. (24 April, 2016). Evaluating environmental education, citizen science, and stewardship through naturalist programs. Conservation Biology, 30(6), 1255-1265. https://doi-org.subzero.lib.uoguelph.ca/10.1111/cobi.12737

Moisset, B. (n.d.). Hummingbird Moth (Hemaris spp.). U.S. Forest Service. https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollinators/pollinator-of-the-month/hummingbird_moth.shtml  

[blackswallowtailbutterfly]

Smoothie Ideas

Unasked for, but liked by some! If I had access to all of these (and under responsible circumstances) and a good amount of space to work with as well as room in a freezer, and a good blender/food processor, this is what I would do. All plant parts in equal amounts. Plus plain yogurt and silky tofu for texture. And honey, tulip tree nectar, and syrups of sugar maple, boxelder maple, red maple, black maple, silver maple, mountain maple, swamp maple, yellow birch, sweet birch, water birch, paper birch, gray birch, bog birch, butternut, black walnut, American sycamore, basswood, silver linden, green alder, mountain alder, American elm, slippery elm, and rock elm for added sweetness.

Canada Day smoothie

honey: summer

American chestnut

American ginseng

aster petals: fringed blue heart-leaved New England panicled smooth

avens roots: purple prairie smok white yellow

bayberry fruits and leaves: northern sweet gale

beebalm flowers: horsemint scarlet wild bergamot

blackberries and raspberries: Allegheny blackberry American red raspberry arctic raspberry black raspberry blue raspberry Canadian blackberry cloudberry common dewberry dewberry glandstem blackberry leafy-bracted blackberry loganberry Pennsylvania blackberry purple-flowering raspberry salmonberry setose blackberry sphagnum dewberry swamp dewberry thimbleberry trailing raspberry

bluebells: tall Virginia

blueberries and cranberries: bog bilberry common blueberry deerberry highbush blueberry hillside blueberry large cranberry lingonberry lowbush blueberry small cranberry

Canada buffaloberry

Canada ginger root

Canada yew berry

cattail hearts: broadleaf narrowleaf

cherries and plums: American plum Canada plum black cherry chokecherry pin cherry sand cherry

chokeberries: black red

columbine flowers: Canada smallflower

common hop

common yarrow flower and leaf

cow parsnip stalk

cranesbill flowers: herb robert wild geranium

crowberry

cucumber tree flower

currants and gooseberries: American blackcurrant American gooseberry Canadian gooseberry golden currant northern blackcurrant northern redcurrant prickly gooseberry skunk currant

dogwood fruits:

blue-fruited bunchberry flowering gray red osier

eastern hemlock tip

eastern white cedar tip

elderberries: American red common

false Solomon’s seal berries: Canada mayflower false Solomon’s seal starry false Solomon’s seal

fireweed

fleshy dandelion flower

forget-me-not flowers: largeseed smallflower spring

goldenrod flowers: Canada gray prairie sticky

goldenseal

greenbrier berries: blue ridge carrionflower bristly common Illinois smooth carrionflower upright carrionflower

groundcherries: clammy common Virginia

hackberries: dwarf hackberry hackberry

haws: cockspur fireberry dotted downy

hazelnuts: American beaked

hickory nuts: bitternut pignut shagbark shellbark

honey locust pod pulp

honeysuckle fruits and flowers: black twinberry Canadian fly haskap mountain fly

hyssops: anise purple giant

Jack-in-the-pulpit berry

juniper berries: common creeping eastern

Kentucky coffee tree pod pulp

kinnikinnick berry

lily flowers: Canada Michigan wood

linden flowers: basswood silver

maple blossoms and seeds: black boxelder mountain red silver sugar swamp

mayapple

milkweed pods and flowers: butterflyweed common fourleaf green comet oval leaf poke prairie purple redring swamp tall green whorled

mints: Canada peppermint wild

mountain woodsorrel flower, leaf, and fruit

Oregon grapes: creeping Oregon grape

partridgeberry

pawpaw fruit

pine tips and young cones: eastern white jack pitch ponderosa red

pokeweed berry juice

prickly cucumber juice

prickly pears: fragile devil’s tongue

ramps flower

red mulberry

redbud flower

riverbank grape

robin runaway flower

rose mallow flowers: Halberd-leaf swamp

rose petals and hips: climbing wild pasture prairie prickly wild shining smooth swamp Virginia woods’

roughfruit fairybells berry

sarsaparillas: American spikenard bristly wild

sassafras

serviceberries: Allegheny Bartram juneberry Canadian downy inland low shadbush pigeonberry roundleaf saskatoon

silverberry

snowberries: coralberry snowberry western

spicebush

spruce tips and young cones: black red white

stinging nettle top

strawberries: Virginia woodland

sumac berries: fragrant shining smooth staghorn

sunflower petals, tubers, and seeds: cheerful giant narrowleaf Nuttall’s pale-leaf stiff sunchoke woodland

sweet crabapple fruit and blossom

sweetfern leaves

sweetgrass

tamarack tip

twisted stalk berries: rose twisted stalk watermelonberry

unicorn root

viburnum berries: arrowwood highbush cranberry mapleleaf nannyberry snowball tree squashberry witch’s hobble-bush witherod

violets: arrowleaf bird’s foot Canada crow-foot downy yellow early blue Labrador long-spurred marsh marsh blue New England blue northern bog northern woodland small white sweet white wood

Virginia creeper berry pulp

walnuts: black butternut

wild savoury and wild basil leaves

wild yam

wintergreens: American creeping snowberry

witch-hazel

[rjalker]

[ID: A screenshot from google earth, showing the streetview of a three way intersection, with a small area of trees making up the fourth side. End ID.]

99 Forney Avenue, Hanover, Pennsylvania.

do you know how many different species are in this one spot

Black Walnut tree

American Elm Tree

Bitternut hickory tree

Boxelder maple tree

Unidentified blackberry

a different species of unidentified blackberry

Black raspberry

unidentified goldenrod

Blackhaw viburnum

Unidentified grapes

unidentified mulberry

Invasive species:

-Wineberry (invasive)

-Garlic mustard (invasive)

-Japanese honeysuckle (invasive)

Stuff I planted April 2021:

Butternut tree

Pawpaw tree

wild bergamot / beebalm 

common milkweed

Liatris

And this is just the stuff visible from the sidewalk!!!

[walkinthewoodsllc]

What’s in my cup today? Beautiful Beebalm, honey bush, and Japanese honeysuckle flowers. Its fragrance is magical, the flavor, divine,and it looks so lovely in the cup! I am doing some herbal inventory, ‘n’ shelf rearranging, and the botanicals in three jars whispered, “Make tea with me.” So I did. What’s in your cup today? 🕊🫖🕊 https://www.instagram.com/walkinthewoodsllc/p/CXjKpM3L2t5/?utm_medium=tumblr

[thinaiir]

If you want to help hummingbirds while bringing them to your yard, an arguably easier and better choice is to fill your yard with plants (preferably native to your region) from which these birds can get nectar. 

Trumpet vine (Campsis radicans): native to southeastern United States. Blooms July to September.

Trumpet honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens): native to the eastern United States. Blooms May-June.

Red Cardinal Flower (Lobelia Cardinalis): native to eastern Canada and almost the entire lower 48 states. Blooms mid to late summer.

More information on these plants and more plants here!

Beebalm (Monarda spp., not pictured) is a popular choice for attracting hummingbirds, but I would argue it’s not the best choice since it is native to China, not the U.S.

The USDA Native plant search tool can also help you find plants native to your region.

-HELP SAVE THE HUMMINGBIRDS-

“Many people are unaware of the harmful effects that the red dye in the store bought nectar has on these tiny birds. It leads to kidney failure and eventual death. We are taking donations to continually help in educating people all over the world to stop using the premade nectars and to simply make your own by using 1 cup of granulated sugar in 4 cups of water that has been boiled. Please help fund this important campaign. Every amount will help in a huge way.

I have created a GoFundMe page for donations to help our bird rehabber who works 24-7, 365 days a year using their own money to help save these lives. This money will be sent to her to use to continue to provide resources for the birds. Rehabbers who also help others in other countries such as Mexico who have limited resources to save these lives. We can all help. If we reach our goal and go past that goal, there is a chance we could have an autopsy done on one of the hummingbirds to prove the deadly effects of the red dye on them. 100% of the funds donated will go towards helping the hummingbirds. We are their voice! Thank you everyone! PLEASE SHARE!

Lisa Meyers Swanson”

https://www.gofundme.com/savehummingbirds

_________________

Please reblog, share on Facebook, on twitter, share anywhere you can.

If you can’t donate it’s ok, just spread the world so more people know about it.

People, please do not use red dye néctar on hummingbird feeders.

[jayrockin]

Hello dear followers, did you know the flowers of the following plants are edible?

Okra, pineapple guava, hollyhock, chives, garlic chives, dill, chervil, snapdragons, begonias, Bellis perenis (petal base bitter), borage, calendulas, cornflowers (calex bitter), Californa redbud, chrysanthemum (petal base bitter), chicory, citrus, squash, dianthus, galium, gladiolus, baby’s breath (calex bitter), sunflower buds, day lilies, hibiscus, impatiens, lavender (calex bitter), lovage, honeysuckle, apples, chamomile, mint, beebalm, grape hyacinth, basil, oregano (only petals), scented geraniums, petunias, scarlet runner bean, most peas (perennial sweet pea is toxic), portulaca, plums, cherries, peaches, rose, rosemary, pineapple sage, sage, elderberry, lilac, marigold, dandelion, thyme, basswood, clovers (only florets), nasturtium, tulips, violets (not African violets), pansies, yucca, and zinnias (petal base bitter).

As always with foraging: research anything before actually eating it, make sure your target plant is correctly identified and FOR SURE edible, don’t eat anything from roadsides or where it may have had chemicals sprayed on it, and eat a small quantity first to test for possible allergies. Researching flavor is important too, many of the plants here have different flavors between different varieties.

[wendyimmiller]

Natives here, natives there, natives, natives everywhere…

Is there any garden center that doesn’t carry coneflower?

Now and again, someone asks me where they can buy native plants. Sometimes they go on to complain that native plants are hard to find in today’s nursery industry. My hackles rise, and I know at that moment that they have no real knowledge of plants, yet have simply heard this somewhere and felt it worth repeating. It’s just another example of industry bashing without investigating the facts. In fact, in a chat with plant guru and renowned nurseryman Bill Barnes just the other day, he said that he personally surveyed the industry and that three of every four plants in the landscape industry were native or derived from natives.

Many selections of the native smooth hydrangea are available.

    I know I can walk into any local garden center and find a large number of natives. Are these peevish people unaware that the ubiquitous blackeyed Susans and coneflowers are native? That’s just for starters. You may choose to speed read the next two paragraphs to match how quickly my fingers typed the many native plants that are commonly found in our region’s  local garden centers. Please don’t be vexed that I am choosing not to use binomial nomenclature for the sake of brevity.

Southern magnolia is a staple offering in southern states.

Specifics are important, as there are often native and non-native species of the plants that I have chosen to list by the most broadly accepted common names in this region. I am also not going to get into the controversy over cultivars of natives at this time, but will on a later date. I’m certain I can find both smooth and oakleaf hydrangea, ninebark, sweetshrub, inkberry, fothergilla, clethra, sweetspire, beautyberry, blueberry, serviceberry, winterberry and deciduous holly, yaupon holly, rhododendron, native azalea, bayberry, redbud, dogwoods, southern and sweetbay magnolia, bald cypress, red and sugar maple, tulip poplar, several species of native oak, river birch, Carolina jessamine, coral honeysuckle, beebalm, several phlox, butterfly weed, blanketflower, Joe-pye weed, yucca, panicums, coreopsis, perennial hibiscus, yarrow and mealy cup sage. Pant, pant… Somewhat less common, but often found in the better garden centers include buttonbush, sumac, bottlebrush and red buckeye, witch-hazel, pawpaw, hornbeam, anisetree, poplarleaf leucothoe, chokeberry, baptisia, spigelia, obedient plant, asters, tiarella, muhly grass, crested iris, autumn sage, amsonia, snakeroot , columbine, liatris, cardinal flower, bigleaf magnolia, blackgum, asters and…you get it, so I’ll stop.

This was a long route to point out that the folks that say native plants are hard to find, wouldn’t know a native if they were standing on it. I shouldn’t be surprised in this era, when It’s no longer important to inform yourself on topics before passing judgement. Silly me, to think folks might research a topic before forming an opinion. but then, look all around us at today’s America, where sorting truth from spin has fallen from fashion.

Wrenching the wheel back from that political veer, here is my complaint about native plants. Some of the easiest to grow and most useful native plants have not made their way into mainstream markets. I’m faced with my own ineptitude when I look at a couple of decades of trying to convince growers to grow these, retailers to carry them, and consumers to ask for them. It’s a chicken or the egg sort of dilemma.

Lemony blooms of spicebush light up this wild slough in late winter.

Stunning, lush, loved by wildlife, so why let a few thorns stop you?What’s not to want about a late winter blooming shrub/small tree that will grow in sun or shade, isn’t picky about soil, has golden fall color, can provide red berries for wildlife or for your own culinary use, and produces wonderfully fragrant foliage that provides food the caterpillars of beautiful butterflies? Who wouldn’t want that? Yet spicebush is largely absent in the trade. When I’ve been able to find it, the plants are seed grown, and there is no way to know the gender on the young specimens. I’d like to have several females and a male for pollinating, maybe one more male as a backup stud. Instead, the seller tells me to buy several, and hope there will be at least one of each gender in the lot. I don’t like this suggestion, but I summon a smiling response, since I’m told by those that have tried that our native spicebush is not easy to root from cuttings. Tissue culture could be an option, but since there is so little demand, there has been little interest. Another pet native is devil’s walking stick, Aralia spinosa. This glorious plant is billowing into clouds of creamy blooms alongside most country roads in late summer in west Tennessee, but the foliage alone is exquisite. Each enormous leaf flutters with intricate bi- to tri-pinnately compound leaves that can span up to five feet in width, the largest of any temperate tree on the continent. Many pollinators are attracted to the beach ball sized panicles of small ivory flowers, but these blooms seem to be especially prized by the larger swallowtails. The dark purple berries are relished by birds, and by that time the stems of the infructescence has turned a brilliant deep pink that will remain on the plant for weeks.

Sure, its suckering nature is a drawback to some, so if you don’t have the space to let it colonize, remove those as they appear. I’ve seen individual stems get to 30 feet, and add strong vertical drama to the vignette. Other drawbacks? I’ve seen the “are you crazy?” look on people’s faces when they realize I mean the plant with the rings of wicked thorns on the trunks. These are people who have just shown me pictures of their yards, crowded with landscape roses or barberries. Hypocrites.

A few die-hard native plant nurseries carry it. Trees by Touliatos was the only mainstream nursery I knew that did, and that fabulous destination garden center is now erased from the planet.

Plato, I miss you every day, but you are always riding along with me every time I pass a stunning colony of devil’s walking stick on a country road. You were always ahead of the curve…

Natives here, natives there, natives, natives everywhere… originally appeared on Garden Rant on July 26, 2018.

from Gardening http://www.gardenrant.com/2018/07/natives-here-natives-there-natives-natives-everywhere.html via http://www.rssmix.com/

[beebalm-and-honeysuckle]

unpopular opinion:

President Snow being shown like this pathetic pile of weakness in SOTR was necessary and not at all taking from his image as the evil dictator that he is

[turfandlawncare]

Natives here, natives there, natives, natives everywhere…

Is there any garden center that doesn’t carry coneflower?

Now and again, someone asks me where they can buy native plants. Sometimes they go on to complain that native plants are hard to find in today’s nursery industry. My hackles rise, and I know at that moment that they have no real knowledge of plants, yet have simply heard this somewhere and felt it worth repeating. It’s just another example of industry bashing without investigating the facts. In fact, in a chat with plant guru and renowned nurseryman Bill Barnes just the other day, he said that he personally surveyed the industry and that three of every four plants in the landscape industry were native or derived from natives.

Many selections of the native smooth hydrangea are available.

    I know I can walk into any local garden center and find a large number of natives. Are these peevish people unaware that the ubiquitous blackeyed Susans and coneflowers are native? That’s just for starters. You may choose to speed read the next two paragraphs to match how quickly my fingers typed the many native plants that are commonly found in our region’s  local garden centers. Please don’t be vexed that I am choosing not to use binomial nomenclature for the sake of brevity.

Southern magnolia is a staple offering in southern states.

Specifics are important, as there are often native and non-native species of the plants that I have chosen to list by the most broadly accepted common names in this region. I am also not going to get into the controversy over cultivars of natives at this time, but will on a later date. I’m certain I can find both smooth and oakleaf hydrangea, ninebark, sweetshrub, inkberry, fothergilla, clethra, sweetspire, beautyberry, blueberry, serviceberry, winterberry and deciduous holly, yaupon holly, rhododendron, native azalea, bayberry, redbud, dogwoods, southern and sweetbay magnolia, bald cypress, red and sugar maple, tulip poplar, several species of native oak, river birch, Carolina jessamine, coral honeysuckle, beebalm, several phlox, butterfly weed, blanketflower, Joe-pye weed, yucca, panicums, coreopsis, perennial hibiscus, yarrow and mealy cup sage. Pant, pant… Somewhat less common, but often found in the better garden centers include buttonbush, sumac, bottlebrush and red buckeye, witch-hazel, pawpaw, hornbeam, anisetree, poplarleaf leucothoe, chokeberry, baptisia, spigelia, obedient plant, asters, tiarella, muhly grass, crested iris, autumn sage, amsonia, snakeroot , columbine, liatris, cardinal flower, bigleaf magnolia, blackgum, asters and…you get it, so I’ll stop.

This was a long route to point out that the folks that say native plants are hard to find, wouldn’t know a native if they were standing on it. I shouldn’t be surprised in this era, when It’s no longer important to inform yourself on topics before passing judgement. Silly me, to think folks might research a topic before forming an opinion. but then, look all around us at today’s America, where sorting truth from spin has fallen from fashion.

Wrenching the wheel back from that political veer, here is my complaint about native plants. Some of the easiest to grow and most useful native plants have not made their way into mainstream markets. I’m faced with my own ineptitude when I look at a couple of decades of trying to convince growers to grow these, retailers to carry them, and consumers to ask for them. It’s a chicken or the egg sort of dilemma.

Lemony blooms of spicebush light up this wild slough in late winter.

Stunning, lush, loved by wildlife, so why let a few thorns stop you?What’s not to want about a late winter blooming shrub/small tree that will grow in sun or shade, isn’t picky about soil, has golden fall color, can provide red berries for wildlife or for your own culinary use, and produces wonderfully fragrant foliage that provides food the caterpillars of beautiful butterflies? Who wouldn’t want that? Yet spicebush is largely absent in the trade. When I’ve been able to find it, the plants are seed grown, and there is no way to know the gender on the young specimens. I’d like to have several females and a male for pollinating, maybe one more male as a backup stud. Instead, the seller tells me to buy several, and hope there will be at least one of each gender in the lot. I don’t like this suggestion, but I summon a smiling response, since I’m told by those that have tried that our native spicebush is not easy to root from cuttings. Tissue culture could be an option, but since there is so little demand, there has been little interest. Another pet native is devil’s walking stick, Aralia spinosa. This glorious plant is billowing into clouds of creamy blooms alongside most country roads in late summer in west Tennessee, but the foliage alone is exquisite. Each enormous leaf flutters with intricate bi- to tri-pinnately compound leaves that can span up to five feet in width, the largest of any temperate tree on the continent. Many pollinators are attracted to the beach ball sized panicles of small ivory flowers, but these blooms seem to be especially prized by the larger swallowtails. The dark purple berries are relished by birds, and by that time the stems of the infructescence has turned a brilliant deep pink that will remain on the plant for weeks.

Sure, its suckering nature is a drawback to some, so if you don’t have the space to let it colonize, remove those as they appear. I’ve seen individual stems get to 30 feet, and add strong vertical drama to the vignette. Other drawbacks? I’ve seen the “are you crazy?” look on people’s faces when they realize I mean the plant with the rings of wicked thorns on the trunks. These are people who have just shown me pictures of their yards, crowded with landscape roses or barberries. Hypocrites.

A few die-hard native plant nurseries carry it. Trees by Touliatos was the only mainstream nursery I knew that did, and that fabulous destination garden center is now erased from the planet.

Plato, I miss you every day, but you are always riding along with me every time I pass a stunning colony of devil’s walking stick on a country road. You were always ahead of the curve…

Natives here, natives there, natives, natives everywhere… originally appeared on Garden Rant on July 26, 2018.

from Garden Rant https://ift.tt/2NOhhJN

[wildozark]

What I mean by ‘Nature Farming’ is not the same as ‘natural farming’, ‘organic farming’, or ‘natural farming methods’. Explanations for all of these things come up when you do a search online for ‘nature farming’. But nothing turns up for true nature farming. Hopefully this post will show up in the search engine results list soon.

I am literally farming nature.

I’m not doing conventional farming using natural techniques, or practicing organic or permaculture farming (although where I do actually grow things on purpose, I do adhere to those principles).

What I’m farming is already there.

For the most part, the plants I use in my business already grow here naturally. I encourage some of them to multiply by dividing or transplanting or seeding them in more areas, but the habitats to support them already exist here. No tilling involved, though sometimes I do make nursery beds by creating rock wall terraces on the hillsides.

The terraces are in the deep shade under trees with the kinds of leaves that make good mulch for ginseng. They keep the pots from washing away during rains and when the creek floods, provides easy access for seedlings when I need to fill orders, and is a staging/holding area for the items I bring with me to market.

A ginseng habitat in a pot! This one includes a 3-year old American ginseng with a handful of companions for $75. Available only for local pickup at the nursery, or the farmers market booth (check schedule). Reserve in advance to make sure I have one with me by emailing madison@wildozark.com. Bare root collections can be shipped in fall.

American ginseng seedlings are the main things that use the terraced beds. I transplant the seedlings to the other habitats and I also put them in pots sell them at market. When it’s not growing season, I sell them as dormant, bare root plants. Wild Ozark is the only certified ginseng nursery in Arkansas. Wild ginseng lives here naturally, and I’ve purchased seeds to grow even more of it. I keep the wild populations separate from the wild-simulated.

When I say ‘wild-simulated’ that means I’m growing the ginseng in the same way it would grow in the wild. All I do is plant the seed in a space where it can flourish. I do have one small area set aside as a teaching environment. It’s my Ginseng Habitat Demonstration Garden. It’s not quite a natural area yet, because it is still recovering from being logged many years ago. As the trees get bigger it will return to a natural dense shade forested habitat.

In addition to the ginseng seedlings and habitat pots, I also keep many of the companions in propagation beds so I can easily transplant them to pots and sell them, or harvest bare root plants for dormant shipping. Those plants include goldenseal, bloodroot, black cohosh, blue cohosh, a variety of ferns, spicebush plants, pawpaw tree seedlings, and doll’s eyes. I also keep some of my other favorites like trillium, Dutchman’s breeches, and trout lilies, too.

Stewardship of Mother Nature versus Stewardship by Me

The Ginseng Habitat Demonstration Garden is not left completely to nature because I’m taking out things like honeysuckle and wild roses. I’m thinning some of the trees I don’t want there to favor some of the ones I do. The reason for that is to speed up the process that will make it a better habitat for the American ginseng and the companion plants that also grow in the same sort of environment. While the rest of Wild Ozark is pretty much left up to the stewardship of Mother Nature, this demonstration garden is being tended by me.

While the garden isn’t an ideal environment yet for the ginseng, it will eventually be so and the plants are doing well enough in the meantime. My process of doing this is helpful to others who want to do the same thing on their own property. Additionally, and the main reason I chose this spot, is because it is in a location close to the front gate and I don’t mind sharing that location with visitors.

Nature Farming means Harvesting Nature

I harvest things provided by nature. Things naturally growing, dropped to the ground, or dried on the stem. Wildcrafting is the gathering of wild plants. I’ll make ointments or extracts and teas from the medicinal plants. Some of them I’ll sell, and some of them I keep for our own household use. The parts I gather include fruits (persimmons, pawpaw), flowers (echinacea and beebalm), berries (elderberries, spicebush berries, raspberry, blackberry, etc.), seeds (lobelia), nuts (hickory, acorns), stems (witch hazel) or roots (ginseng, goldenseal).

  Using Nature Farming Products to Create Art

So here’s where my nature farm departs from what most people normally think of when they think ‘farming’. The bulk of what Wild Ozark produces is botanical items most people barely notice. Usually it’s lying on the ground in the process of decomposing so it can return to the soil. Sticks, vines, leaves, bits of bark that fell from a tree… all treasures to me.

These harvests include things I use in my arts and crafts, like mosses and lichens and bark. These are things I simply pick up and put in my bucket during my morning walks.

I use all of these things to create my Forest Folk, Fairy Houses, and Fairy Gardens. These are very popular and I even hold workshops on how to make these things so anyone can learn how a bit of nature farming can lead to beautiful Nature Art. I sell the small ferns for fairy gardens, bags of moss and preserved leaves, too. You can see where I’ve used twigs, acorns, leaves, dried grass, moss and small ferns in the following photos.

“The Wild Ones”, a pair of Forest Folk musicians and a dancer.

Reading Sitting Man Forest Folk

A twig chair for Forest Folk

A wee little fairy house made from Wild Ozark nature farm botanicals.

Woodworker Forest Folk

A Wild Ozark Fairy Garden

At a Forest Folk Workshop, if the table isn’t messy, we’re not having enough fun.

Forest Folk Chair

Bark from the Shagbark Hickory

One of our Nature Farm harvests is the bark of a certain tree. Burnt Kettle, my husband’s company, uses the bark from Shagbark hickories to make a delicious syrup. These trees grown naturally all around here.

Eventually we’ll harvest the wood from certain trees for my husband’s woodworking projects. He needs a bandsaw and sawmill to make boards from the abundant cedars that grow here.

Indirect Harvests from my Nature Farm

Art, photography, stories and workshops. Being around nature all of the time inspires me to write, draw, and take photos. I love sharing what I learn and enjoy with others, so I’m always happy to be contacted about doing workshops on topics like nature journaling, ginseng growing or habitat identification, and creating nature art. I’m not an expert on photography, so I’ll leave workshops on that to the ones that are. The outstanding photos from the ones I take are available for sale but I don’t have most of them listed at the shop yet.

Thanks for visiting with Wild Ozark website and taking the time to read about what I do here. Come by and visit the Ginseng Habitat Demonstration Garden if you’re in the area during spring and summer or come by the market booth to see the Forest Folk and Fairy Gardens! The market schedule will be kept current so you’ll know where I’ll be and when, but you can always email in advance if you like. Click here to get all of my contact information.

What is Nature Farming? What does a Nature Farmer Grow? What I mean by 'Nature Farming' is not the same as 'natural farming', 'organic farming', or 'natural farming methods'.

[addcrazy-blog]

New Post has been published on Add Crazy

New Post has been published on https://addcrazy.com/jewel-of-nature%e2%80%88tips-for-attracting-hummingbirds/

Jewel of nature: Tips for attracting hummingbirds

One of the joys of life is looking at nature. One of the jewels of nature is hummingbirds. Looking them hover over a flower taking in its sweet nectar is a pride. To peer them feed at a hummingbird feeder flying in, playing chase backward and forward is even more amusing. Closing summer season, my husband and I even gave each of them names as they visited us in the course of every day at our hummingbird feeders.

Hummingbirds are drawn to purple, crimson vegetation, purple components of a hummingbird feeder, a purple glazed flower pot, even the red hat or blouse of a non-suspecting gardener. They commonly arrive in March or April and leave in October or November.

If your gardening objective is to attract hummingbirds without a doubt plant some plants that appeal to them and offer a protein food plan of small bugs, placed up and maintain a hummingbird feeder and provide a water feature of some kind. If you need them to nest and locate refuge for your garden, encompass shrubs or bushes where they are able to find a home. To cause them to experience honestly welcome, offer a water source, along with a birdbath or water fountain, that gives a twig of water.

Once hummingbirds discover your red flowering flora, they may find flora of different colors in your garden which are similarly as delightful. In keeping with http://aggie-horticulture.Tamu.Edu, the plant life of preferred flora are “formed in this type of way that it can accommodate their whirring wings. The general structure of flower petals has a tendency to be thick enough to resist the beaks of different birds. Here are just a few flowers which might be suggested as proper hummingbird attractors and some they totally enjoy, even though they may not produce crimson blooms. For quick garden coloration, a few annuals are counseled. In line with the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, hummingbirds are interested in annual phlox (Phlox Drummond), Indian paintbrush (Castilleja individual), beebalm (Monarda citriodora), pink sage (Salvia cocaine). purple zinnias and orange-crimson marigolds will also attract hummingbirds due to their pink color. Those are only a few annuals which are suggested, there are numerous others that still will entice our playful friends.

There are hundreds of perennials that hummingbirds enjoy. Right here are some Texas natives that are earth kind and are easy to keep. Autumn sage (Salvia Greg), pass vine, coral honeysuckle, Texas lantana (Lantana corticoids), Turk’s cap, yellow bells (Tacoma sans), flame acanthus, and local hibiscus are listed inside the loose Texas Parks and Natural world Hummingbird lawn brochure to be had at Those Texas natives will be available on the Bell County Master Gardener Spring Plant Sale on Saturday, March twenty-fifth from eight a.M. to one:00 p.M. at the Bell County AgriLife Extension Workplace study room positioned at 1605 N. Principal, Belton, Texas.

Hummingbird feeders are with ease available at many shops and gardening centers. Make sure they have got crimson features. The food used to fill These feeders is an easy recipe of 4 components water and one part sugar (one cup of water and ¼ cup sugar). The water needs to be boiled earlier than measuring. it could also be boiled in the microwave for three mins earlier than including the sugar, stir until the sugar is dissolved. Permit the aggregate cool before filling the feeder. I like to make up a batch of greater than I want to fill my hummingbird feeders and put the relaxation inside the fridge for while the feeder needs to be crammed again.

The feeder wishes to be cleaned and refilled approximately two times every week or greater regularly if empty so that the combination does no longer sour. Do now not upload purple food coloring to this combination. It is believed that red dye is harmful to our feathered pals.

And an interesting bit of facts found on One of the hummingbird internet sites is that If you discover that your hummingbird feeder is not attracting hummingbirds otherwise you find that bees and wasps are playing the food you are imparting, attempt painting any yellow features in your feeder crimson. Bees and wasps are interested in the yellow coloration and stay far away from purple. I have no longer examined this but, however, I did a word that wasps had been attracted to my feeder Final summer.

With a touching attempt, you possibly can revel in the fruits of gardening and the visits of our stunning and playful tiny feathered buddies that help to pollinate flora as they soar from one flower to the next filling their tummies with scrumptious nectar.

Bell County Master Gardeners will have a sales space at the home and garden Show at the Bell County Expo Center this, weekend February 24 (evening), 25 & 26. Here you will discover licensed Master gardeners who can solution your precise gardening questions. There will be gardening brochures to be had and extra information about the upcoming Spring Plant Sale. There will also be seminars on gardening topics that you may enjoy.

Kottayam – Kerala’s Hidden Jewel for Nature-Fans

approximately 154-km within the Northwest of Thiruvananthapuram and approximately 65-km southeast of Kochi, amid charming mangrove forests and beguiling lush inexperienced paddy fields, there locates a small metropolis called ‘Kottayam’. As quickly as you approach the metropolis, it starts of evolved dating you with its unparallel herbal splendor and exotic geographical features. Lengthy stretches of coconut timber dotted with enthralling waterways, adorable plantations of tea, rubber, and pepper, huge open grass fields and unrelenting ranges of massive mountains; no surprise Kottayam draws hundreds of nature-Fanatics from a long way and wide. Moreover, uncommon species of vegetation & plants and scores of birds & wild animals make this location a heaven for eco-vacationers.

there are many locations of traveler interest in Kottayam. The religious concord in/around can leave anyone spellbound. The region has 50 temples, 70 churches and numerous mosques which provide grand nonsecular fervor and historicity to delight in. Cultural events and festivals which Kottayam celebrates are notable and pride attractions of a Kerala tour. some famous places of spiritual & cultural significance in Kottayam consist of famous Mahadeva temple, Shri Krishna Swami Temple, Bhagawati Temple, St. Mary’s Church and Panchalimedu.

There is lovely Kesari Falls placed among Kuttikanam and Murinjapuzha on Kottayam-Kumili street. The Vembanad Lake, about sixteen km from Kottayam, is another feather in the crown of Kottayam tourism and Kerala tourism. A repository of galore rivers, canals, and rolls, this place is gaining a massive reputation amongst nature-loving vacationers. Together with breathtaking scenery, this lake affords notable opportunities for fishing, houseboat cruise, and birding. On the bank of Vembanad, the famous Kumarakom Chicken sanctuary is any other entice for travelers. Come Here to discover a number of species of birds such as Siberian Stork, egret, heron and Darter etc.

An area of opulent records & cultures, an abundance of natural bounties and high desirable way of life, Kottayam is a surprise in itself. It’s been thronged by way of visitors all through 12 months; but the first-class time to plan a Kottayam tour is between September and March when the weather is comparatively cool and dry. Kottayam is nicely linked to the rest of the nation by means of tremendous avenue-rail-air-waterways. Nedumbassery, approximately ninety-km North, is the closest airport, at the same time as Kottayam itself has a railway station which has connectivity to almost entire Kerala nation. Ferry offerings are available to approach the city thru waterways.

For lodging, Kottayam has an array of picks to cater every need and finances. vacationers might also pick from luxury hotels & resort to budget accommodations and accommodations. a few famous lodges in Kottayam include the Pearl Regency luxurious Commercial enterprise Lodge, Kumarakom Lake lodge and Windsor Fortress. You could opt for homestays In case you want an accommodation at cheap costs. while planning for Kottayam tour, more than a few Kerala excursion programs are available in the marketplace. Looking online, You could discover a vacation package that suits your excursion fashion and finances.

https://addcrazy.com/

[beebalm-and-honeysuckle]

soooo...... did the McCoy's get their Louella back? or is that Lou Lou in the grave......?