Studiology

Mayapple

Trees are still bare of leaves but many things are about to happen in the woodland. In March a deciduous forest receives 50% of the light when compared to an open field. That percentage may be higher in areas where ash trees have all succumb to the emerald ash borer, which is the case in many parts of the woodland here on the farm. By the end of April the leafy canopy will close in and light levels can drop to 30%. 

Soil temperatures will rise quickly but steadily, especially where leaf litter remains and acts as an insulator. Air temperatures will fluctuate maddly and spring wildflowers respond to both. It's an erratic pattern, a stop and go. My feet tell me yes, my head says no, not yet! 

One lovely native wildflower is Podophyllum peltatum or the mayapple, named for the small fruit that forms in May after April flowers. Common enough to be considered secure or not threatened, the primary method of spreading is via rhizomes, and large colonies can form over time.  Shiny green leaves open to spread like umbrellas, named by Linnaeus from "podo" meaning foot, "phyllum" meaning leaf, and "pelatatum" for shield. Hidden beneath forked stems there is a white flower, often hidden entirely when looking down. Only stems with two leaves will form a flower and an entire colony may actually produce very few flowers. 

If you are fortunate enough to find a flower it's imperative that you take time to note its fragrance. Considered musky, which is normally reserved for beetle pollination, I disagree and think it's much sweeter. The flowers have no nectar, balanced by a higher amount of pollen, necessary for feeding young. Native bees, especially queen bumblebees are frequent visitors for just that reason. 

So successful is the growth and spread through its underground rhizomes that the energy spent on flower and seed production is minimal. Each rhizome may spread five inches a year versus a seedling which usually doesn't flower until it's twelve years old. If the flower was successfully pollinated it forms a small round fruit; technically a berry, which ripens fully in late August or early September. Several animals will eat the fruit but the box turtle is considered the primary dispenser and it's been proven that seed will germinate faster once its ingested by the Eastern box turtle. 

At one time is was considered a member of the Ranunculaceae family or cousins to buttercups, the species in now placed in the Berberidaceae or barberry family. A native with a very wide spread, found growing from Florida to Texas and north to Quebec and Ontario. Rich, shady woods, wet spots and thickets are where you will find them, large colonies can be 100's of years old. 

Very soon they will be piercing the leaf litter, rising with leaves rolled like cigars, a round flower bud held in the center of double leafed stems. The excitement of seeing them each spring never gets old. A little jig of happiness is mandatory.  

Happy Spring

It may have officially arrived but it's darn cold in the AM. This morning was a 4 layer morning with the usual 10:00 thinning. I chuckle everyday when I begin to defrock, gardeners can be so plump in early spring and once we begin to wear regular clothes people think we have lost weight, but it was just a layer thing.

I toured my own garden seeking things in bloom. March can be an exciting month but really pretty dismal when it comes to flowers. The usual suspects greet me once again, although I will say that I went a bit crazy in fall with new daffodils. That's an April post. But for today I got down on the ground and photographed what I had. All of which I am grateful for.

One new addition is Corydalis solida. I used to have C. 'George Baker' but it disappeared after many years, so I splurged on 25 tubers. The straight species is lovely, as pink as anyone might want. 

In helleborus I have a few from Pine Knot Farm before they were breeding interspecies hybrids, none of these are named. Sadly Judith has passed but a new generation is keeping the nursery going, they are located in Clarksville, VA. 

Also flowering is Helleborus 'Quilty' a hybrid from Graham Birkin of England. I'm so happy to have kept one of his plants when it was easier to just sell them all when I had the plant farm. He was a terrific hybridizer. 

Hairy bitter cress is ever present, the weed that spreads its seeds far and wide. I suggest you hoe them out from the edges of your garden where they may persist in your lawn. Do that soon so you avoid the bigger problem of the explosive seed dispersal. Botanically known as Cardamine hirsuta, it's a winter annual, so simply knocking their heads off is good for now. 

As I was crawling around my last guinea was staying close, certainly wondering what had gotten into me. This last one, a male has made it through another winter. Two weeks ago it was scared out of its tree perch by a predator (most likely an owl)  and came screaming down to the door, frantic about the experience and the dark. In past years, when all of our roosting guineas would react like this, they would gather at the door under a shrub and wait out the night. The shrub is gone and there is really nowhere to hide so I had no choice but to stay with him, wondering what on earth was going to happen. Well to my surprise he escorted me to the old chicken coop, went inside and waited for me to shut the door. It's been 2 years since any guinea has set foot in that coop. We were able to both sleep through the night, the smart guinea and the tired me. They are much smarter than you think. 

And with that I wish you a Happy Spring (again)!

The Garden Report "Overwhelm"

Now that I've been working in the garden for a week, I feel a bit better. The first day is completely overwhelming. It would be easy to just go back inside. But if I might give you some guidance, or inspiration, a few jobs should be tackled first.

The shade garden flowers before the sun garden, many of its occupants are primed to complete their life cycle early, sleeping for summer when tree competition is too challenging. Every precious day and night above freezing, especially as the soil warms, is "go time" for ephemerals. There is a fine line between growing and not freezing yet answering to pollinators by supplying nectar and pollen. Isolated clean-up accomplishes a couple of things, it allows us to admire the mastery of their beauty, where they are often neck deep in fallen leaves, as well as uncovering them for pollinators. The hardest part may be the isolated clean-up, my curiosity begs for more, more, and more. There are freezing nights ahead, so be cautious. My go-to list is trout lily, Corydalis solida, crocus, and Iris reticulata. 

Then I move on to epimedium with their buds literally resting at ground level. In no time they will rise into last years leaves and be very difficult to prune between old stems and fragile new floral heads. Take out all of last years leaves and if you are early enough, it's an easy task with a pair of shears. 

I might remind you that it's also time to practice your tiny footprint exercise. Like a ballerina, we gardeners must skillfully tread, not crushing tender tips as they are about to break through. The rotation between knees and hips are masterfully balanced while the feet remain in one place. This is not taught, this is learned.

Part of your overwhelm may come with some large job that you know you have to do this year. I have a couple of these. In this case, begin but tackle a bit at a time. Remove that shrub that is a nuisance but don't launch into all of them. Your muscle memory hasn't caught up with you yet, so don't overdo it. And you will feel better because you know you have begun. Next week or tomorrow gives you another chance. 

In the sun garden I am pruning shrubs that bloom on new wood, namely Hydrangea paniculata, H. arborescens, spirea and abelia. Old peony stems come out too, before you know it, the peony rings go on. By that time you may be able to do all five basic ballet techniques while you pirouette to pull a dandelion out, roots and all. 

Just another day in the garden. 

On Saturday, the 23rd of March I will be giving one of my favorite lectures at Green Spring Gardens from 9:00 to 10:00. The lecture is the "Mixed Border" which talks about mixing shrubs with perennials, especially the perennials that colonize and cover the ground so you use less mulch and thwart weeds. The fee is $18.00.

The Garden Report

A week of dry and relative warmth, I began my garden cleanup yesterday, and day one was ecstasy, today I feel it! So much changes when work begins, early nights for early mornings, not the late night, carefree, sleep in, maybe bad habits, I've gotten used to. That is what makes my winters special, the schedule is my own.

In the garden I have been pruning wisteria and cutting back helleborus foliage. I noticed last year that new growth and floral stems on helleborus forces its way from the center and pushes the old foliage to the side creating a collar of old leaves. On a functional level it seems it might be pushing dried grass out of the way, or any other plant that might be pressing into its growing space. As gardeners we work at decluttering or cleaning up, in this case removing last years leaves so we can enjoy the flowers. It's always one of my first things to do in spring but I do wonder if the old leaves may also offer some protection from subfreezing nights. After doing this same thing for so long, I haven't noticed any difference, so I'm fine with that cleanup. Not all cleanup is okay though, leaves banked up in areas can be left for potential insect habitats, as well as rabbits and their newborn, hairless young. In time I rake and clean even these, at least in the gardens where decluttering is my job. At home, it's a very late job or I let the wind remove the leaves. Even my beds for the night garden are left as long as possible, warm days allow wintering insects to thaw out and venture on, we need our insects. 

In my own garden I have countless snowdrops and winter aconite flowering. They have been doing so for two weeks. Honeybees are rare, the flies were the primary pollinators on my eranthis or winter aconite. I wish I still had a wintersweet shrub or chimonanthus. I used to sell them at the nursery and smiled from ear to ear when I spied one in a friends garden. The flowers are thin as silk but powerfully fragrant. 

He also had an Adonis amurensis in flower. This is another flower of winter and not all winters are good,  but so far, so good.

His galanthus or snowdrops are much different than mine and I suspect that his are all G. elwesii. The foliage is much larger as are the flowers, and the markings are correct. With twenty species of snowdrops, it's a challenge to identify them on sight.

But today I cut my third little vase full of snowdrops which last for about four days in the house. I encourage all to do this, their sweet fragrance is best enjoyed this way.

Happy Spring!

 

 

Master Michael deMeng

Home from the hubbub that was New Orleans, we went and assembled, assembled together for parades, art, and food. Not in any particular order. Well, art did consume our days, nights were another story. Our leader, Michael deMeng and Katherine Engen, (the organizer) did a superb job, this was a favorite trip to NOLA. Our job was to create a Noir themed piece of art, maybe even a case to put it in. Black and white was suggested, but certainly not our only option. This is the art piece made by Michael to inspire us. 

All of my characters were built from wire, coated with tinfoil and then clay to form the body. The heads were created separately. They rested in this egg carton as I made them.

The final piece contains these 4 characters in the case of an old radio. 

There was a huge range of styles from the other artists, it was an interesting week watching each idea become a realization. This is a sampling but certainly not all.

The critique on our last day is always full of humor.

And then we parade. This year the Krewe du Vieux was lead by an NFL referee getting whipped, which became the major theme for the night. Some of us had predicted this year's parade parody. 

And a few parting shots from a fun 10 days.

 

 

Maple Syrup

On the cusp of spring, closer to winter, across a broad swath of northern North America, maple trees are being tapped for sap. Quebec, Canada is the highest producer of maple syrup, followed by the state of Vermont, a product that is unique to this continent.
The sugar maple or Acer saccharum is not the only maple that produces sweet sap, but the one with the highest sugar content. Occasionally I have icicles where sapsuckers have drilled into my tree, and these are mildly sweet, which is a nice treat on a cold day. The southern most regions of maple syrup production are in the mountains of West Virginia and Virginia with a Maple Syrup Festival in Monterey, Virginia. This year's dates are March 9-10 and 16-17.
The flow of sap relies on two events, nights below 32 degrees followed by a day of 40 degrees or more. The entire process ends when freezing nights stop, so February and early March are the only months for maple sap harvests. Naturally there is a longer freeze cycle in northern climates, where the harvest is extended. Either way, production will vary from year to year, region to region.

Historically the trees were tapped with metal spouts that held a bucket. Each large tree can hold numerous buckets and be repeatedly tapped. The tree will heal and seal over past drill sites over the course of a year. Modern collecting uses tubes that connect the trees and flow with gravity or incorporate a vacuum to speed up the process.

The raw sap is 98% water, which is boiled off, the steam escaping through open roofs in sugar shacks. To avoid burning, more sap is gradually added in large vats which are heated with wood fires that burn day and night. The process is labor and time intensive with a goal of 6% sugar content.

In recent years a process has been developed which separates water from sugar by forcing the sap through filters with high pressure, reducing the amount of liquid to boil down. Both time and wood for fires are reduced, with the extra water often diverted and stored in tanks for alternative uses.

Outside of Monterey, Virginia in the small town of Hightown there is a sugar camp, the Rexrode's Sugar Orchard. Home to a long line of Rexrodes, my husband's uncle ran the operation until he passed and it is now operated by a grandson. The maple trees are many and very old, 200 to 250 years old, highlighted in the book "Remarkable Trees of Virginia". If you visit, it's an uphill climb from Monterey, the hills are steep, the landscape beautiful. Coined "Virginia's Little Switzerland", it’s been said that settlers thought it looked like home and decided to stay. Conventional agriculture is challenging, most farmers raise sheep with some cattle and/or turkeys.

In the sugar shacks it's warm and steamy. Large vats filled with sap boil away; the vats on in the Rexrode Sugar Orchard produce 9 gallons of maple syrup each. Rarely enough for the surge of visitors which also come for the concentrated maple sugar candy, which is left in the bottom of the vat once the liquid is removed. They called them clinkers, which is probably a local term because I find no mention of them on the internet. In my case, clinkers don't make it home, so tasty and delicious, they are consumed with delight.

Black and White

Nineteen participants enjoyed a fun week of instruction from Michael deMeng in New Orleans this past week. One of many highlights was our second line parade with the Panorama Brass Band. To prepare for our Noir themed event we participated in a 3 hour makeup tutorial. The idea was to transforms ourselves into black and white. When it came to donning costumes and wigs, the makeup really paid off, in fact my phone with face recognition didn't know me. 

That is a monkey on KD's shoulder, a very realistic, not real monkey.

A gathering in the lobby allowed us to photograph each other before we headed out for the big parade through the French Quarter.

Gary was partially (mostly) responsible for the theme this year and suggested Noir movies to watch for the prior year so we would be ready to immerse ourselves into the part.

Kathy even brought her own street light!

 

Once on the street we danced and danced!

And that my friends is the recipe for a good time!

 

Good Times

Just delivered 2 new assemblage pieces. The elephant was a drawer pull, the wooden box is edged with gold leaf. Titled "The Pachyderm Palace". 

The second piece is titled "The Spring Thaw".  Another fancy wooden box with small branches made from wires and clay on the inside. A bit of a different twist with the painting but I'm happy.

Leaving for New Orleans shortly so won't be posting anything new for awhile, but I will be on Instagram where there will be some shenanigans (I'm sure). 

 

A Country Trip

As soon as the calendar permitted I was off to Wytheville, Virginia to visit with my sisters for a quick weekend. The first evening was spent at the new brewery in town, the 7 Dogs Brewpub. The owner is a dog lover (of course) and a wall is painted with all 7 of his rescue dogs.

It's a happening place with great brew.

Typically a visit includes lots of sightseeing and this was no different. A trip to Roanoke included the Black Dog Salvage store. I have not seen the television show, but what does that matter when you get to visit the real place?

It was pretty incredible, my favorite may have been the massive stained glass windows.

A walk of downtown Roanoke led to the Taubman Roanoke Museum. They actually have a Norman Rockwell painting.

A photographer by the name of Peter Harholdt had an incredible display. This single framed photograph of a Porsche 550A had me completely mesmerized. In photography you learn that the second most powerful shape is a circle (the first is the human form), even if the circle is not complete. 

The line leads the eye up to the steering wheel, where it ends with 4 circles. 

There was also a display of Judith Leiber handbags and a video of them in various settings with famous actors.

A drive back to Wytheville included a stop at the "She Shed". Leslie is open to name suggestions, but for now it's her get away to the back hills on a gorgeous piece of property that is covered in Asclepius syriaca or common milkweed. The seed pods littered the ground and I have been there in the summer when it's very active with monarchs.

Back home Leslie has 2 rescue dogs, both are chihuahuas, one was rescued as a senior and her name is Snuggles. A very appropriate name.

And the boss of the house, Gabe.

Even if you told him he's a small dog, he wouldn't believe you.

 

 

Wildlife

My stealth cameras have been repositioned to the wilder parts of the farm. Two days after our last snow storm I ventured out and was able to see how traffic moved by the prints in the snow. Apparently deer paths are not just used by deer. Even as I walked to the further edges of the property, a flock of turkeys lifted off and I initially mistook them for geese, there were so many. 

After hearing the cry of coyotes this summer and fall, I was curious about them and what numbers we may have on the farm. To date they have been very elusive. One of the cameras took a photograph at night of a coyote, otherwise nothing. There are still some areas to explore, but I am enjoying the photographs and sharing some of the most recent captures.

I've moved the cameras again so stay posted for more.