New Plants for 2019

Top and left are the female 'Blue Rug' junipers, lower right is the
supposedly male 'Andorra Compacta'.  Normal bloom time
for these is late May to early June.  So I will keep an eye out..

I had an established planting of creeping juniper, Juniperus horizontalis, die back last year.  This may have been due to a number of factors, but I think mostly the very wet weather causing the soil to stay very moist for most of the year.  While many folks poo poo junipers as too common, they have their place.  They are a durable, low-maintenance ground cover for sunny, dryish locations.  This species is native to the northern third of the US and most of Canada.  Their usefulness and adaptability has, however, made them a staple in the landscape trade.  One thing you don't see too often is berries on these plants.  Like other junipers, creeping junipers have separate male and female plants.  Ever since seeing cedar waxwings last year I have been looking to have more bird berries on our property.  To the extent that I could find gender information, it seems that most creeping juniper cultivars are female, such as the very popular 'Blue Rug' cultivar (aka 'Wiltonii').  Digging through the literature I found mention that the cultivars 'Bar Harbor', 'Blue Horizon', 'Plumosa' and 'Andorra Compacta' are male (or at least may be male).  In addition to a bunch of 'Blue Rug' junipers I was able to get an 'Andorra Compacta' to serve as a breeding partner. Now by having both male and female cultivars there is a better probability that berries will be produce to help support the winter bird population. 

These large-flowered bellworts came into bloom
just after our mid-season daffodils.

In an area just outside our kitchen window we have a large, somewhat wild perennial garden backed up by pine trees.  The shadier areas are dominated by several species of lamium and ground ivy.  I have had some success with shade-tolerant goldenrods here, particularly blue-stemmed and zigzag goldenrods.  To introduce some more natives to this area of potentially dry shade (assuming it will stop raining at some point), I ordered a few large-flowered bellwort, Uvularia grandiflora, as bare root plants.  We'll see how well these compete.  They have done well so far, all of them sprouted and bloomed this first year.

They say, planting trees is planning for the future, even one that I am not likely to see.  I have been dismayed that some of the big old trees here are dying.  Don't know if it's just their time or if there is something going on.  Besides the loss of their biological function, many of these trees are on a slope where they are helping to hold the soil.  Emerald Ash Borer is definitely one of the problems, causing a early death of many established ash trees.  But we have lost some big oaks and black cherries as well.  Besides these trees going away I am also actively targeting the invasive Alianthus trees and this is opening up the canopy even more.  While natural succession is kicking in, this is slowed by the number of deer that eat the tree seedlings.  I am more than a little concerned how many of these seedlings will reach maturity.  So I am looking for some shade tolerant trees that I can put in and protect to help nature along. 

I got these bare root American beech in the
ground the day they arrived. 

In the woods right now there are a lot of new beech trees, Fagus grandifolia.  These are quite shade tolerant, and seem to be well adapted to our location.  I found a source of bare root beech trees in southern Virginia, Mid-Atlantic Natives, so I ordered a few to see how that works out.  They were planted in early March and are just leafing out now, a bit behind the established beeches.  Beech are fairly slow growing trees, but will mature to be dominant elements in the canopy. 

These are the maple seedlings I gathered from around the property.  These may include
Red, Sugar, Silver and the hybrid Freeman maples. (Also one tulip tree in the mix.)

Red maples, Acer rubrum, are also quite shade tolerant but are much faster growing.  I am looking to add a few of these to fill in the gaps.  Sugar maples are another possibility.  These are slower growing, but better adapted to the near neutral soil pH we have here. (Based on the natural distribution of trees here (Box elder, Hickories, American hornbeam and Tulip tree) soil pH is probably running 6-7.5.)  My regular source of native trees, Stadler Nursery, is cutting back on its supply of reforestation plants (I don't know why), so I decided to harvest some of my own seedlings and nurse them along a little before planting them out.  I've got several species of maples growing here, so at this point I can't say for sure what each of these seedlings are.  Tulip trees also do well here and I've got lots of these seedlings too, so I could move those to some of the more open areas in the woods.

This Henry's Garnet Virginia sweetspire has flopped a little due to the weight of the rain. 
It is nearly full height, at 4' and should spread to about 6'. 
The racemes of white flowers are about to pop.

Another area that I have been trying to bulk up with native species is a  slope that has been built up with sandy clay and is dominated with Japanese stiltgrass, Japanese honeysuckle and garlic mustard.  I've been putting divisions of wild bergamot, Monarda fistulosa, and they are taking hold. I am focusing on shrubs that are colonizers.  These spread out by underground shoots and should help stabilize the soil to erosion.  This year I'm adding a Henry's Garnet sweetspire, Itea virginica 'Henry's Garnet', gray dogwood, Cornus racemosa, and some bare root smooth sumac, Rhus glabra.  Unfortunately my deer do like to munch on these so I need to stay on top of these with either fencing or repellent sprays until they get established.

Since deer like to browse on my gray dogwood I
put some fencing around this one right away.

You can see that the leaf buds on this smooth sumac
are about to pop.  I should get some fencing around this
one soon (in addition to the repellent spray).

In my battle with Japanese stiltgrass, I am planting native species to help displace that invasive grass.  One grass that does well in shadier locations is bottlebrush grass, Elymus hystrix.  I started some from seed this winter and planted them out in early spring.  These make take a year to get established, but should help fill in areas where the stiltgrass has been (is being) removed. 

I started this bottlebrush grass from seed in February and planted it out in April.
It may not get too big this year, but should form a dense clump next spring.

Last year I put in a Red Sprite winterberry holly along a sloping path.  I already had a mate, the early blooming Jim Dandy cultivar, Ilex verticillata 'Jim Dandy'.  To improve berry availability for winter time birds I added another early blooming female cultivar called Afterglow, Ilex verticillata 'Afterglow'.  This cultivar is also compact, like 'Red Sprite' and is supposed to be very dense with flowers and berries.

Also on the holly front, I put in some inkberries, Ilex glabra, in a shady location, near an English walnut tree, last year.  Of the three cultivars I put in, Shamrock and Nigra did well, but the Densa cultivar died.  I don't know if it was just the amount of shade or sensitivity to the juglone from the walnut.  I replaced it with another Nigra cultivar this spring, so we'll see if that one does better.  

A Winter Walk

Seeing as we were having a spell of dry weather on New Year's day, I decided to take a walk through the woods to see what was happening.  Now that essentially all the leaves are gone there's a whole other world of things to see.  Instead of focusing on the foliage, trees can be recognized by their bark, branching patterns and leaf buds.  On the ground level the few evergreen grasses and perennials are easy to find.  In particular, the evergreen ferns jumped right out.  Following are some photos of plant features that I came across.

The buds of this 2 year old seedling are
smooth and reddish brown.

The first place I checked out were some tree seedlings that I identified in the vegetable garden last summer.  Since I already knew what they were I could learn about how they look in the off season and store that away for future reference.


The end bud of the Sycamore was smooth and pyramidal.  Kind of like those of ash trees, but the sycamore has a single false-end bud (not centered at the absolute end of the twig), while ashes have a terminal bud flanked by two smaller, opposite buds.   

Another tree that sprouted in the garden was an Eastern Cottonwood, Populus deltoides.  Here the bud end is true and the scales are visible.  To me the most notable feature is that the year-old wood looks like it has shrunken back. leaving the stem somewhat squarish with wings, or ridges along the corners. 

Cottonwoods are often considered rather messy trees.  This spring I will transplant it into a moist area of the meadow that I am clearing of invasives.

The  dry leaves on this American beech
make it easy to spot in the woods.

Moving into the woods a young American Beech caught my eye.  In the winter these can be recognized by their tendency to hold onto their leaves until the spring and by their smooth white bark.

Another tree that has smooth white bark is the American Hornbeam, Carpinus caroliniana.  While the beech has a smooth rounded trunk, The hornbeam's trunk is grooved, giving it a muscular or sinewy appearance.  Another way to distinguish these two white-barked trees is their leaf buds.  The buds of the hornbeam are small and dark brown while those of the beech are orangy-brown, long and pointed with many obvious scales.

Another tree with unique bark is the Hackberry.  Though highly variable many trees develop warty knobs and/or ridges that is easy to recognize.  Despite the unappealing name, the hackberry is a valuable wildlife plant, both as a butterfly host species and for producing a crop of 'sugarberries' in the fall for birds and small mammals.

The bark of the Hackberry is hard to miss.

Looking onto the ground plane I found several different evergreen grasses, which remain unknown.  More easily identified were the several species of evergreen ferns.  The most easily ID'ed was the Christmas fern.  This is a common species here growing mostly in shady moist areas.  

Christmas Fern is 'once-cut' and the pinna (leaf)
has a single lobe that makes it look like a boot.

A much smaller fern common here is the Ebony Spleenwort, Asplenium platyneuron.  This one is found in partly sunny location with average moisture.  Mine usually grow to about 6" long and hide in the undergrowth.

The frond of this Evergreen Wood Fern
appears to have been stepped on,
but otherwise looks pretty good.  

While poking around a steeply sloped area I found a fern that was new to me.  Unlike the previous two species this one was much frillier (thrice divided).  I took a bunch of photos and pulled out my fern ID books to come up with a name.  Turns out that I was an Evergreen Wood Fern, Dryopteris intermedia.  This is a common species in the eastern US, but just not that common to my piece of the woods.  It's relatively healthy green appearance in the middle of winter would make it a good addition to a home landscape.

When ID'ing ferns look on the bottom sides of the fronds for the sporangia or sori.
Their shape and location are distinctive for many species.

An unknown fern growing at the base of a tree.

There was one fern that I could not figure out.  It was small (3-4") and had fairly simple leaves (pinna).  It's grow in a gap between roots of a large tree.  I checked the underside of the frond for sporangia, but none to be seen.  I'll need to come back later in the spring to see how it develops.

I would appreciate any ideas on what this might be.

Underside of fronds shows no additional clues.

The last group of plants I checked on were some vines that I planted last summer.  My property is inundated with Japanese honeysuckle.  While I am trying to remove those I am also adding some native ones to fill the voids,  I put in a native Coral Honeysuckle along a fence in the spring.  It quietly grew to a span of over 6'.  Looking forward to seeing some blooms in the spring.  I also added some cultivars, 'Honey Coral' and 'Sulfurea'.  

Can see some flower buds forming on this Coral Honeysuckle.  OOPS, this is actually
Carolina jessamine, Gelsemium sempervirens.  I think it was a tag mix-up in the nursery.
It was covered with yellow blossoms in 2016.

The leaves of this Carolina Jasmine have turned red,
 but are holding on.

On an impulse I also picked up a Carolina Jasmine cultivar called 'Margarita'.  This species is hardy to zone 7, naturally occuring as far north as southeastern Virginia.  However, this 'Margarita' cultivar is good into zone 6.  So far it is holding onto its leaves.  This one may be too small to bloom come February, but I will be happy if it just survives and starts growing when the weather warms.

More Winter Trees

Since it is still a little early to start creating the beds for the vegetable garden I've had time to take a closer look at some of the trees out back.  With the leaf buds beginning to swell there is enough information on the twigs to do some identification.  Our new property is blessed with a number of hickory trees.  In my last post I showed a photo of the terminal bud of a Mockernut Hickory (Carya alba).  This past week I found that there were at least two other species of hickories.

The Pignut has smaller leaf scars than the Mockernut.

The first one I noticed had a much more ovate terminal bud than the Mockernut Hickory, and the leaf scars were more like a rounded off equilateral triangle.  Again, I turned to Trees of New York State for help in narrowing down the choices.  Based on the detailed descriptions in the text I feel pretty confident that this one is a Pignut Hickory, Carya glabra.

Not far from the Pignut was another type of hickory.  The leaf scars on this one were triangular with raised edges.  What stands out is the bright yellow buds and the orangy color of the year old twigs.  This one was easy to find in the key since only Bitternut Hickory, Carya cordiformis, has the yellow leaf buds.

Yellow leaf buds and the raised leaf scars indicate that this is a Bitternut Hickory

As I was taking these photos I noticed some branches where the leaf buds were opposite on another on the twig, rather than on alternate sides moving along the twig.  There are only 6 genera of native trees with this opposite branching:  Maples, Ash, Catalpa, Buckeye, Dogwood and Viburnum.  When I see this opposite branching pattern I usually think of maples, but the terminal leaf buds on this branch were not as pronounced as on maples.  To help with this ID challenge I turned to The Tree Identification Book, by George Symonds.  A quick review of the twig photos brought me to this being some type of Ash tree.  I'm pretty sure that this is a White Ash, Fraxinus americana.  I settled on that because the twigs were smooth and not fuzzy (F. pensylvanica); and the leaf scars are concave at the top rather than straight across (F. nigra).

White Ash has smooth, hairless twigs, a blunt terminal bud and the leaf scars are concave at the top (arrow).

 An easy tree to identify in the field is the American Beech, Fagus grandifolia.  In this photo you can see the elongated leaf buds.  Other indicators over the winter are the persistent dried leaves and the smooth gray bark.

Leaf buds of the American Beech 'stick out'.

Looking down at the ground level I had been perplexed by a small leafy plant that was just sprouting up last fall.  I was unfamiliar with it and just assumed that it was badly confused by the warm weather.  As I was deciding on plants to order for this spring I came across a description of a spring ephemeral that matched up with this little plant.  This appears to be Toothwort, Dentaria diphylla.  I will need to keep an eye out for the little 4-petaled white flowers this spring.  I only found one patch, but I hope I have some others.

Toothwort, a spring ephemeral is a member of the Mustard (Brassicacae) Family.

While walking back to the house I noticed a lot of little white flowers blooming in the lawn.  Many aspects of this plant were familiar, but I could not put a name to it.  I ended up digging one up for closer examination with a hand lens.  The flowers had 4 petals so I immediately thought of the mustard family.  I ended up using Gleason and Conquist to key it out as Cardamine hirsuta, Hairy Bittercress.  This is an Old World plant that is now found in 2/3 of the US.  It is a winter annual that germinates in the fall and overwinters as a rosette.  It blooms from early spring and through the summer.  While edible, the leaves on mine are very small, so it would take a lot if picking to make a salad.

Hairy Bittercress has tiny hairs on the leaves and petioles visible with a hand lens.