Early Summer Blooms

Bees visit American Bellflower in both sunny
and shady locations

Now that we are getting into the hot days of summer, blooming of many native plants and the associated pollinator activity are picking up.  Here at home I saw my first Monarch Butterfly in many years.  You'll have to take my work for it, since it was gone by the time I got my camera.

One plant that has been blooming for awhile is the American Bellflower, Campanulastrum americanum.  This is particularly attractive to a medium sized black bee, probably a Miner Bee.  This plant blooms nearly as well in the shade as it does in the sun.

This Miner Bee is the primary visitor to the Bellflower

This Miner Bee draws nectar from the open face of the flower.  To do this it lands on the stamen and style of the flower.  Apparently the flower's stigma is situated to receive pollen from the bee as it makes its approach to the flower.








Nearby, on the sunny side of the driveway the Echinacea is in full bloom.  These attract a variety of pollinators, such as this Green Sweat Bee.  The Meadowsweet, Spiraea latifoia, has finished it's first round of blooms.  This year I cut some of the plants back significantly to keep the growth in check.  (I'm pretty sure it will put out a second growth.)  So for now the bees will be visiting other flowers for pollen and nectar.

It's interesting to note that with all the activity on the native flowers, I have seen very few insects visiting the flowers on my nearby shrub rose (other than a couple of Japanese Beetles).

Another early bloomer in the dry shade of my Norway Maple is Rosin Weed, Silphium integrifolium.  I chose this species of of Silphium because it does not get as big as the more familiar Cup Plant, S. perfoliatum.  This plant has slowly been expanding its mass, but I have not seen it show up in other parts of the garden.

A Hover Fly monitoring a cluster of Rosinweed blooms.

The flowers on this particular plant tend to form on the shady side.
This makes for a difficult photograph.

A new native annual that I'm trying out this year is Partridge Pea, Chamaecrista fasciculata.  This plant will grow in poor, dryish soils.  So far I'm favorably impressed.  One grouping that I planted near a highway is growing and blooming, despite receiving no additional moisture, other than the small amount of rain this summer.  Like its relative the Sensitive Plant, its leaves will fold up when the plant is handled roughly.  The leaves also fold up when it gets dark.  I wonder if this behavior helps it to survive under dry conditions (by limiting transpiration).

Some drifts are still intact, like the lavender-color Beebalm, Monarda fistulosa;
the orange Butterflyweed has blown over from another part of the
Wildflower Meadow at Mount Auburn Cemetery.

A Monarch Butterfly passing over
some Beebalm and Hoary Vervain

Over at Mount Auburn Cemetery, in Cambridge, MA, there is a good sized native wildflower meadow installed about 5 years ago.  Here I have seen many more butterflies than in my urban backyard.  This meadow features a number of native grasses as well as many showy flowering plants.  The original planting had the plants arranged in drifts, but the management plan is to let the plants move around as they will, to create a dynamic garden with plants finding there best locations.

In another part of the cemetery I noticed this Bottlebrush Buckeye, Aesculus parviflora, in full bloom.  While native to the Southeastern US, this shrub is very attractive to the bees up in the Northeast.  I spent some time watching how the bees interacted with the flower.  It was more like a mugging than a gentle approach to sip some nectar.  The bee grabs onto to the outside of the flower and extracts nectar from between the petals and the calyx.  In the process the bee's abdomen rubs all over the anthers and the stigma, thus achieving pollination of the flower.  

This bee on the Buckeye flower is about 1.5" long.

Other flowers are about to open up here, like the Scarlet Sage, Woodland Sunflower and Prairie Coneflower, so the show has only just begun.

2012 Boston Flower & Garden Show

This snowy scene at the Cut Flower Garden at Mount Auburn Cemetery
only lasted about 4 hours.  Glad I had my camera at hand!

In the Northeast US our winter has been mild (so far), so this week's Flower Show has not been the respite from winter that we usually need.  The show runs for 2 more days (March 14-18th at the Boston World Trade Center).  This year's theme is 'First Impression - The Wow Factor to  Outdoor Spaces.'  Most of the displays this year capture that theme quite well.  In past years some of the exhibits were way over the top, but I could see how many of the ideas presented this year could be used without breaking the bank.

What follows are some of my favorite picture that I took at this year's show.

Many of the exhibits contained water features.
This one works in a very small space

Here the water feature is the main event.

The shapes and colors in this display caught my attention.
Again the self-contained water feature can work
in a relatively small space.

Just to air one gripe I have at the Flower Show, it's the lighting.  While much improved from when the show was held at the Bayside Convention Center, the lighting is still occasionally very harsh.  It is especially bad when the color is tinted to 'enhance' the flower colors.  For this photo with the vase I had to compensate for a heavy red cast projected onto the scene from the overhead lighting to make it look more natural.

In addition to all the plants, most of the exhibits included some arty do-dads.
I like the little fishes in the lower right here...

... and the 'sparkily' ornaments here were a nice addition,
without going over board.

I did venture into the flower arranging and amateur horticulture exhibits as well.  It is amazing to see what can be done with individual plants.

This Mexican Grass Tree caught my attention.
It looked like it was swaying in a breeze.

Flower arranging is really not my thing, but there are many fantastic creations made here including plant materials.  

The Pincushion Flowers, Leucospermum cordifolium,
used here appeared in many of this year's arrangements.

So with this I'll say farewell to the Flower Show.  Now it's time to start getting to work!

Fall at Mount Auburn

As the fall foliage season is coming to a close in New England I thought I would share just two of many photos I've taken at the Mount Auburn Cemetery, in Cambridge, MA. 

This photo is one of my favorites every fall.  The juxtaposition of the Crabapple, Japanese Maple and the Sycamore shows both the different forms and colors of these trees.  Although the weather was rainy, the colors still show through.

 

Now that the leaves on the trees are gone many of the plantings featuring ornamental grasses have become quite spectacular.  Especially with the lower angle of the sun, the grasses really light up in the morning and afternoon light.

Here at the planting atop Willow Pond Knoll, the red twig dogwood is really showing it's color.  About 2 weeks ago the twigs were only slightly red-tinged, so the cooler weather has really brought these along, color wise.

American Smoke Tree

As I was driving through Mount Auburn Cemetery yesterday, the ‘blooms’ of a cluster of American Smoke Tree, Cotinus obovatus, caught my eye. Actually, the true fertile flowers are past, but it’s the fuzzy remains of the infertile flowers that line the flower panicle that are providing the show. This tree is dioecous, meaning that there are separate male and female plants. All of the trees in this cluster appeared to be female, judging by the seeds that were forming at the ends of the panicles. I have not, to my knowledge, seen a male tree in bloom; however, at treetrail.com they say that the male is actually showier. So although you can be sure whether you are getting a male or female plant, either way the smoke effect will be striking.

A few seeds from fertile flowers are at the tips of the panicle.

Close up of the 'smoke'

The species name, obovatus, refers to the distinctive oval shape of the blue-green leaves. It grows as a small tree or upright shrub , 20-30 feet tall. Young tree have a fairly ungainly appearance. These trees are probably about 8 years old. When they were planted here about 3 years ago, they were gangly stems without too many branches. So they have developed very nicely in just a few years.



Buds forming on a younger plant in early May



The native distribution of C. obovatus is scattered across the south central U.S. It is found in neutral to alkaline well drained soils, but will tolerate the more acidic soils in New England, as well. This preference of alkalinity may make it a good choice for planting on residential sites, with their limed lawns and cement foundations.

More commonly seen is the Purple Smokebush, Cotinus coggygria, which mostly grows as a multistem shrub with broad purple tinged leaves. The American Smoke Tree is harder to find, I purchased mine last year from New England Wildflower Society, but I have also found it at commercial nurseries.



Cotinus obovatus at the end of October



While the smoke-like inflorescence is an attractive feature, the fall color of these trees is really the feature that will knock your socks off. This photo was taken of the same tree in late October last year.

So far I’ve planted two of these (one for me, one for a client) and I am looking forward to watching them mature.

Wildflower Meadow in September

I paid another visit to the Mount Auburn Cemetery Wildflower Meadow last week and I was floored by the intensity of the blooming.  While it is still a little early for the asters to get going there was a ton of late summer plants going full tilt.  One of my sentimental favorites is the Browneyed Susan, Rudbeckia triloba.  This is a biennial or short lived perennial.  The first year here there were only a few plants in bloom.  This year there were more than a dozen big healthy plants in full bloom. 

Other species shown in this photo are the New England Blazing Star, Liatris scariosa var. novaeangliae, Showy Goldenrod, Solidago speciosa (a showy but aggressive species), and the white, cloud-like Hyssop-leaved Boneset, Eupatorium hyssopifolium.  You can also see traces of some long blooming Shrubby Cinquefoil, Potentilla fruticosa, off to the left.  Among the grasses that are showing off their seed heads are Little Bluestem and Side-oats Grama (foreground).

In a nearby area the Pink Turtlehead, Chelone lyonii, is blooming.  This species is native to a small area of the Southeast, but these are 'escaped' populations also found in the Northeast, from New York to Maine.  White Turtlehead, Chelone glabra, on the other hand, has a much wider native distribution throughout the eastern US.

Forked Bluecurls Close-up

Some other natives that are blooming in the area have also jumped to my attention.  On a recent plant survey a native annual, Forked Bluecurls, Trichostema dichotomum, was blooming profusely on an otherwise dry hilltop in the Boston suburbs.  It stood out as as a rather lush little plant (6-8") with deep blue flowers amongst the dried leaves and grasses.  Its native habitat is on dry or sandy soils of upland woods and old fields.  While some sources indicate it prefers part to full shade, these plants were growing in nearly full sun rooted at the fringes of rocky outcrops where moss and eroded stones collect.  Looking carefully at the blow up, you can see the curly forked stamen that gives this plant its common name.

The last plant to mention this week is the Bearded Beggarticks, Bidens aristosa var. mutica.  After watching this annual grow taller and taller for 3 months (now about 6' tall), it has finally burst into bloom.  These plants are coming back from seed produced from the crop I planted in 2008.  Right now it looks great and the bees love it, but I do question its position in the garden.  This plant is probably better positioned to the back of a border where it forms a green curtain for the first part of summer before it begins its month of bloom in early September.  It also produces a whole lot of viable seed, so if you hate garden 'editing', this may not be the plant for you.

Some Surprising Finds this Week

As I was traveling through Mount Auburn Cemetery this week I was caught off guard by what appeared to be blooms on a Harlequin Glorybower, Clerodendron dichotomum. This was surprising to me because I recalled seeing it covered with pinkish blooms at the end of June. On closer examination I saw that these were actually bright red sepals surrounding a sapphire blue fruit (a drupe, actually). In a sense this shrub produces interesting ‘blooms’ twice in a season.

This Glorybower is not native to North America. It has it origins in China and Japan. It is cold hardy to Zone 6, and here in Boston it is approaching the northern limits of its range. Here at Mount Auburn, it has ‘died to the ground’ at least once, but as you can see it has regrown to a good sized shrub. For more information about this plant check out this link: http://hort.ufl.edu/trees/CLETRIA.pdf

Growing next to the Glorybower is a native shrurb, Bottlebrush Buckeye, Aesculus parviflora, a southeastern native anyway. The delicate white brush-like flowers that topped this plant at the beginning of July have grown into golf ball sized nuts that hit the ground with a small thud. Sometimes I wonder how could a flower like that turn into that fruit that looks so different.

The last big surprise, botanically anyway, was when I nearly bumped into this old Common Honeylocust, Gleditsia triacanthos. This particular tree is the straight species, not the thornless variety that is used in the landscaping trade. These water sprouts give a close up view of the 3” thorns that characterize this species.

Most of the commercially available plants available today are derived from a naturally occurring thornless variety G. triacanthos var. inermis, native to the Eastern United States. If it were not for this variety, I can imagine that the Common Honeylocust would only rarely be seen on any landscaped properties.

Wildflower Meadow at Mount Auburn Cemetery

If you are in the Boston area and would like to see one of the area’s botanical treasures you should make a visit to the Mount Auburn Cemetery. The collection of trees dates from the early 19th century. Since many of the plants are labeled, it is a great resource for learning about trees and shrubs.  Also, if you are planning a landscape and would like to see some full grown specimens.

One of the newer plantings at the cemetery is a native wildflower meadow located around the Washington Tower, at the highest point on the grounds. The plantings were put in 4-5 years ago using a mixture of grasses and perennial wildflowers native to eastern North America, as well as some common weeds that were already present on the site. Once established, the plan is to allow these plants to spread and intermix naturally with a minimum of human intervention.

The east-facing slope of the meadow (shown here) was planted with a variety of native grasses. This photo shows a concentration of Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium). Other grasses planted in this meadow include Prairie Dropseed (Sporobolus heterolepis), Switch Grass (Panicum virgatum), Northern Sea Oats (Chasmanthium latifolium) and Indian Grass (Sorgastrum nutans).

From this view from the top of the tower looking west, you can see how some of the plantings were laid out and are beginning to intermix. In the opposite direction there is a great view of the city of Boston, but that wasn’t where I my mind was focused on this day.








Closer up you can better recognize many of the plants, such as Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea), Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia fulgida), Nodding Onion (Allium cernuum), Beebalm (Monarda fistulosa, center back) and Shrubby cinquefoil (Potentilla fruticosa, at the very front). Some of the many other species that can be found in this meadow are Wild Petunia, Golden Alexanders, Butterfly Weed, Coreopsis and several Northeastern native asters.

Since my particular interest is in short-lived native species, I quickly focused in on a couple of my favorites like Brown-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia triloba) and Spotted Beebalm (Monarda punctata). These species reproduce by seed and, by nature, more around the meadow. I need to keep a watch for them as they do not stay exactly in the same location every year.

If you would like to visit all 176 acres of Mount Auburn Cemetery, they are located at 580 Mount Auburn St. in Cambridge (and Watertown) Massachusetts and are open every day. Here’s a link to their website where you can find directions and listings of upcoming events. You can also visit the Facebook Page of the Friends of Mount Auburn Cemetery site to see many recent photos.

Spring is getting closer

Here in Boston we’ve had 3 days in a row in the 50’s and more warm weather ahead. Now I am starting to think seriously about spring.  In this area the first plants to bloom are the Witch Hazels.  These have actually been in bloom for awhile and are pretty much at peak now (first week of March).  Especially noticeable are the Asian hybrids like the pure yellow ‘Arnold Promise’ and the copper-hued ‘Jelena’ (Hamamelis x intermedia).  Once I got to know the subtlety sweet fragrance, I can tell that one is nearby before I could spot it.

The Chinese Witch Hazel (H. mollis) is also at full bloom right now. It can be identified by its more linear golden yellow petals. It also has a tendency to hold onto its old leaves, as shown here.

Since I’m a ‘Native Plants’ guy I have to mention our two main native species. Vernal Witch Hazel (H. vernalis) is also blooming at this time. The flower color of this species are variable, ranging from yellow to red. It is originally native to Arkansas and Missouri and usually found in moist soils.  This photo shows a branch with 'everything on it.'  As with the flower color, its tendency to hold leaves is also variable among individuals.

The other ‘native’ is the Common Witch Hazel (H. virginiana). This species is widely distributed in the Eastern US and is normally found in upland woodlands. The bright yellow flowers of this plant open up in the fall, while the leaves are still attached, so it is easy to miss them.


One place to see these plants in the Boston area is at Mount Auburn Cemetery.  You can also see more Mount Auburn photos at the Friends of Mount Auburn Flicker page.


While the origins of plant names can be rather fuzzy, one that stuck in my mind for witch hazel is that it often gets ‘warts’ on its leaves due to a gall formed by the spiny Witch-Hazel gall aphid. The red-tinged galls have long spines that look something like a hairy wart. In most cases these galls do not do serious harm to the plant.