Poison Ivy Image (courtesy wikipedia)
One of the winter chores I assign myself is to tour the forest in search of Poison Ivy to cut out. Poison Ivy (Toxicodendron radicans) is incredibly persistent and propagates by so many different avenues I doubt that one can ever be rid of it entirely. However, by pursuing the vine at it’s roots, so to speak, one can certainly decrease the amount that we encounter in a given year. Most of our pasture at one time had poison ivy rampant in the grass. However by cutting three times a year it’s almost vanished in the pasture. I think it just doesn’t keep up with the grasses in response to cutting. In the forest is a somewhat different matter. The current sources are very large vines (the size of a man’s arm) winding around the old Scots Pines that are all dead at this point. Most of them were large 30-40′ trees before they died and they now provide a platform for the poison ivy. I’ve tried to find and cut off the Poison Ivy vines at the base to insure that these big vines do not flower and further spread the ivy. While I’ve generally been successful at this task. I find with every careful look at the forest (it’s a little over an acre of our 7 acres) there are still some big poison ivy vines I’ve missed.
Poison Ivy twisting around dead Scots Pine
Poison Ivy cut off at the base of the vine
Bird Feedings
It has been very, very cold of late. Not just here in Maryland but across the whole East Coast. I feel an extra responsibility for the bird population that we have encouraged when the temperature drops below 10 degrees as it did this week. I can’t help but wonder where the birds shop for extra warm clothing this time of year. The Suet Feeder outside my window is visited by a number of birds, including this little Carolina Wren
Carolina Wren
I used to avoid Suet feeders as messy and greasy but having seen them in action they are really appreciated by a wide population of birds and the action takes place right up against my desk window. Hard not to like that.
The other leading feeders we use are a simple thistle feeder that attracts all of the Goldfinches in Frederick (or that’s what it seems like anyway). Even in Winter you can see little splashes of the yellow coloring that makes the males such a pretty sight come spring and summer. Almost no birds except the Goldfinches use the thistle feeder (squirrels don’t bother it) but they like to settle in at the feeder so there is constant competition for a seat at the table.
Goldfinches at thistle feeder
The other feeder that is a big success around here is from Duncraft. It is a cage-like affair that keeps the squirrels out and lets the little birds and woodpeckers feast. And it’s open at the bottom so there is no build-up of seed residue. Even though the Cardinals are not going to use this feeder directly, I find that they are often underneath the feeder with the doves sampling the fallout from the feeder.
Chickadee on Duncraft feeder
More on Orchids
As I contemplated yesterday’s post on Orchids I was reminded of our visit to the RHS garden at Wisley last year. Wisley was a wonderous treat overall and our 1/2 day there was insufficient time to enjoy all that Wisley has to offer. One of the treats was the brand new Conservatory with its hundreds of species of Orchids. Given that the Orchids comprise some 25,000 species, from which breeders have developed more than 100,000 hybrids and cultivars, even Wisley is only a tiny glimpse into what is possible with Orchids. Orchids remain of the list of things which it is worthwhile learning more about. That’s a long list by the way…
Wisley Orchids #1
Wisley Orchids #2
Wisley Orchids #3
Wisley Orchids #4
Wisley Orchids #5
Garden Bloggers Bloom Day
Today is Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day, a monthly tradition started by May Dreams Gardens in which we notetakers for the growing things take special regard of that which is blooming. It is also one of the coldest days of the year in Frederick so that there is not much happening outside beyond our brave little Snowdrops. However on the inside we can take note of one of the gardener’s refuges in times like these — the orchids that sit on the back table by the sunny door. We used to have a greenhouse on the back of the house as part of our solar experimentation from the 1970’s. But never have the orchids done as well as they now do in pretending that our house is a tropical environment.
Pink Moth Orchid (Phalaenopsis)
Violet Cattleya Orchid
Yellow Oncidium Orchid
Violet Dendrobium Orchid
Green is Good
One of the things I’ve noticed is that even in the deepest part of Winter some surprising things stay around to encourage us to think about the possibilities of growing things. Maybe it’s just that I’ve never looked close enough but there are a few plants that just never go away in the wintertime; instead they just sort of drop back to the basics. Columbines for one seem to keep something to let you know that you don’t want to dig in that spot and at this season they have no little annoying leaf miners.
Columbine (Aquilegia)
Heucherella is another plant that has a surprising persistence in the face of Winter. It says to me “plant more, plant more”.
Heucherella
Another that I have been keeping an eye in the woods is the Dames Rocket (Hesperis matronalis). This not only maintains a nice clump of green but so far has been completely deer resistant which is more than I can say for a lot of the plants of tried in the woods.
Dames Rocket (Hesperis matronalis)
I planted a new Sedum this year (for me) in our front yard perennial garden. Angelina is said to have yellow flowers but I planted it in the fall so I haven’t seen those yet. But all winter it has been hanging around saying “ready to grow here boss”…. My son says this may get to vigorous for a small garden so we shall see this next year.
Sedum rupestre 'Angelina'
Lastly before I nod off to sleep here, let me mention the Korean Rock Fern. This is a very pretty little fern which seems to take no mind of the weather conditions unlike many of it’s ferny cousins.
Korean Rock Fern (Polystichum tsus-simense)
Terrestrial Invaders
Wineberries (Rubus phoenicolasius) July 2008
Last summer we picked buckets of Wineberries on a forest hillside owned by friends Bob and Karen White. We knew little about them at the time except that web sources said they were edible and the vines carpeted the hillside and the picking was easy (though hot and humid as is typical for our summer). Although the bushes have thorns they are mostly avoidable and well worth the reward of the fruit.
Wineberry bush
I’ve noted since then that the Wineberry is listed as one of the premier invasive species for our region, right up there with multiflora rose and Japanese Honeysuckle. It’s not so much that the plants are not interesting and even beautiful in their own right (honeysuckle is a quintessential fragrance of the summer night in our area). The problem is that they vigorously exclude native species and destroy habitats. It’s the “unintended consequences” of the things we do. Multiflora rose was brought into the U.S. from Japan/China for soil control and still serves that purpose in some areas. Similarly the Wineberries were brought in from Asia for breeding purposes with raspberries and as possible ornamentals before they escaped and naturalized. A nice brochure from the Nature Conservancy on the local headliners for invasive species is available online.
Invasive Plants brochure
Farewell Black Walnut
Black Walnut (Juglans nigra) 2008
Many years ago my wife Beth misinterpreted my desires and chopped down a Black Walnut (Juglans nigra) tree to improve the view of the mountains to the west. I had been nurturing that naturally occurring Black Walnut in the hopes that someday my children’s children would able to make beautiful walnut furniture (or some such use) and that we would in the meantime harvest black walnuts every year. Well as it turns out, despite that blip to domestic harmony, the walnut grew back from the stump and became a very large and distinctive part of the landscape. Birds used it as a stop off point when they were flying in from points west and heading for our mulberries and cherries. I put a bluebird box on it and tree swallows promptly took up residence every year. Since we could easily see the tree from the porch it was a good spot to use my binoculars. Walnuts get their leaves last and lose them first so that they have that advantage for spotting birds too. I tried harvesting the walnuts and found that they are REALLY hard to crack. People talk about all kinds of techniques on the web (like driving over them with your car), but I didn’t have much success.
Tree Swallow on Black Walnut
However the real problem was that I learned that Black Walnuts leaves and roots give off juglone, a toxic substance to many other plants. Most of the other things I planted on that slope seemed to have weak or limited growth and in particular the blueberries showed a general drop off in height the closer they got to the walnut tree. It seemed the problem was only going to get worse as time went on so just before Christmas I took the fatal step and cut it down. The walnut tree almost had the last laugh as despite my careful cuts and angles for felling the tree it fell in the exact opposite direction from what I had intended. Fortunately I run fast. So much for theory and practice.
Black Walnut stump
So now the project is to find the ideal replacement for this singular tree. It should be able to do all the things the Black Walnut did in that spot and if possible more. One leading candidate is a Red Maple cultivar like ‘October Glory’ to get the fast growth in poor soil with outstanding color. Many lovely trees really want better forest soil than I can offer on this rocky hillside. I am open to suggestions…
Green Gardens
Earlier this week the New York Times published an interesting article on new standards that have been developed for greener landscapes to go along with greener buildings. The article grabbed my attention with pictures from a demonstration regional garden as a part of the U.S. Botanical Garden on the Mall in DC.
Article from the Jan 7th New York Times Home Section
You would think that I would not have to rely on the New York Times for information about DC gardens but indeed this was the first I was aware of this project. The garden features plants that are rugged survivalists in this region and that maintain important ecological dependencies with insects and other organisms of the region. In addition the article certainly describes these plants as worthwhile and interesting in and of themselves.
The full 180 page report is available online. It’s a serious effort by dedicated professionals looking at a better path to the future. They are looking for public comments until January 20th. This will take study…
The Sustainable Sites Report