The Mt. Cuba Center's 10th Annual Wildflower Celebration

Last Sunday the Mt. Cuba Center held their 10th annual Wildflower Celebration. This has truly become an event I've tried to attend every year ever since I learned about the place. The gardens there are spectacular as always, however because of the long winter we had I feel that the general peak bloom of the place was 2 or 3 weeks behind. 

Fern-leaf Phacelia, Phacelia bipinnatifida, had only just started to open. And even the May Apples which are very abundant in parts of the forests there weren't blooming yet.

I was slightly impressed to find a Toothwort, Cardamine concatenata, still blooming from two weeks ago when I had visited before for the early spring blooming tour. Other plants I saw then like Hepatica, and Bloodroot were pretty much completely done flowering for the year.

There were more Trout Lillies flowering but most were past their prime. Even so, the flowers were interesting and pretty to look at.

The White flowering species must have also flowered after my previous visit and had since faded on the day of the celebration. That's kind of the charm of going every year though. Some years there are carpets of flowers all over the place, and others it's little hints of wildflowers you might not have noticed.

A Rhododendron. Bumblebees were working this but refused to stand still long enough for me to get a good shot.

Dutchman's Breeches, Dicentra cucullaria, get their name from resembling pants.

Turkey Corn, Dicentra eximia, because they're not really heart shaped enough to call them bleeding hearts. 

Green and Gold, Dicentra eximia. This is one of those wildflowers native plant gardeners like to gush about. Honestly it's never impressed me, though I read it has a very long bloom time. Maybe I'll plant it someday.

Anemone sp. 

Fraser's Sedge, Cymophyllus fraserianus, a flowering sedge that actually has showy flowers.

Rue, I think. This is wind pollinated but you can still occasionally find bees going after the pollen.

The ponds were extremely abundant with tadpoles this year. There were spots with so many of them that you couldn't see the bottom of the pond. I'm told something like 5 species of frogs use their ponds as a spawning pool. None of which were added, they all showed up on their own. 

Marsh Marigold, Caltha palustris, was abundantly in bloom around their ponds. This was the first year I saw this plant blooming at it's peak and the nonnative they have there not. The Mt. Cuba Center isn't totally native, partly because of the former owner of the estate. Her name was Mrs. Copeland (hope I'm spelling that right,) and while she was devoted to creating a wonderful native plant garden, a few of her favorite nonnatives still grow in the gardens. She had a saying I'm told that went something like, "If it isn't native, then it ought to be."

So on most years I'd see Japanese Primroses, Primula japonica, all over the pond area adding some vibrant magenta and pinks to the color spectrum. I have to admit they are pretty plants but not fitting with the theme.

I've been meaning to add Marsh Marigold to my pond at home, which can grow is fairly flooded conditions.

Swamp Pink, Helonias bullata, an endangered species (though only threatened in some states) was just starting to bloom in patches here and there. This is a nice pop of color but doesn't spread enough to be productive in the horticultural industry.

The one nursery I knew that was able to germinate the seeds found that they require an exact amount of cold hours, nothing more and nothing less to get the seeds to this plant to germinate.

I'm not 100% sure but I think this is Bog Blueberry, Vaccinium uliginosum. This was a blueberry shrub they had planed right in the flood area of their ponds, along side pitcher plants and bog sage.

Virginia Bluebells, Mertensia virginica. This was the main burst of color on the forest floor this year. It's a wonderful perennial that forms a deep tap root. Some have said it's hard to get rid of once established and does spread freely by seed. Honestly though the gardeners there seem to keep it under control. I'd say the Woodland Poppy spread way more prolifically.

This was one of the few plants that bumblebees were actively working. Here a young queen (they're all pretty much queens this early in the year) is gathering nectar from one.

This would have been fuller looking had they held the event in two or three weeks. The Virginia Bluebells are peaking right now, but mixed in here is all Fern-leaf Phacelia and Woodland Poppy, neither of which is really flowering heavily yet. 

When you have this many of the same species growing in such numbers, variations are bound to show up.

Normally the flowers open up in a tone of pink but quickly turn blue once they open fully. Here is an individual that seems to lack any pigment at all.

The flowers are simply white.

Likewise, these two plants by their pond never turned blue at all, and yet the flowers are fully opened.

Around the ponds there are small patches of lawn separated by moss patches. I'm told the gardeners use tweezers to maintain this boundary. I've come to find mossy patches are the ideal place to grow one wildflower in particular. 

Bluets, Houstonia caerulea.

These are also called Quaker Ladies, though I'm not sure why. Something to do with the plant being small and unassuming except when they bloom. The corms to these plants are about the same size as the flower, and yet each plant somehow pushes out 20 flowers all at once. The foliage is a simple rosette of leaves, but even then the flowers take up most of the mass of the plant.

They bloom so thick at times that they must shade out the leaves below, though I've never known this to be an issue with an ephemeral. Many of them will produce only a flower and then after it fades push out some leaves. 

I was happy to find the moss garden full of Bluets this year. In years past, I felt the population here may have been dying out.

Before I knew what a Bluet was, I honestly thought there was a patch of snow up on the hill for some reason. You almost want to dive in and make a snow angle. This year the effect was there, though shrubs planted right before the patch ruin the surprise.

Even here there are unique individuals growing. One plant (yes one plant makes that many flowers!) had only produced white flowers. It stood out in a sea of pale blue flowers.

Beeflies were buzzing about pollinating them. You can sort of see one here, though they zipped around mostly in the middle of the patch and they frown on walking into the garden beds. 

I tried to grow bluets once. They over wintered just fine, and flowered the following spring, however, come summer they died off sadly. I believe growing them in moss is somewhat vital to their survival as they are delicate little evergreen plants. Considering the size of their root they're probably not drought tolerant in the slightest.

But the real highlight of the Mt. Cuba Center in the spring time has got to be the Trilliums. Many people were passing them by unaware of the glory of these amazing plants.

For starters it's unusual for a native plant garden to not have at least one species. These take two years from seed to germinate, producing a simple single leaf on the third year and that's all. Year four they may produce two leaves, and then three leaves on the fifth. Then sometime between year six and ten, they should flower. From there they can slowly divide more flowering shoots to very slowly form a clump. They don't like fertilizer, even the slow release stuff will diminish the size of the rhizome or kill them. They like to grow in full shade, and can tolerate partial to full sun, provided they're watered regularly once a week. Lack of sufficient water (whether in full sun or shade) can cause the seed pod to shrivel up and die. Seeds are coated in elaiosome, which is basically ant food! So your seeds can walk away on you if you're not careful. So in summary these plants are tricky to grow and take the better half of a decade to flower.

Trillium grandiflorum is probably the most well know and beloved of the Trilliums. It's the provenance flower to parts of Canada, and illegal to pick or dig up there. You can still find nurseries selling them but expect to pay something around $10 to $20.

As a side note I had always wondered why the Mt. Cuba Center had a section called the Trillium Garden, when it's clear to anyone that they have more Trilliums planted in big patches elsewhere in the gardens. But then I realized, this is where they keep all the cultivars and hybrids that have popped up over the years.

Trillium grandiflorum 'Quicksilver' is fairly true to the true species, however it supposedly spreads faster than the true species.

I didn't get the name of this one but it opened slightly pink. Normally they turn pink and magenta after a week of flowering white. It's not a huge difference but still a note worthy one.

Another cultivar they had opened as a more striking magenta.

This one doesn't have any reproductive parts at all. The flower is useless but this plant is still able to spread by an expanding rhizome which even divides every few years. 

Trillium erectum is probably the prettiest of the red flowering species.

Despite it's beauty, the flower smells like a dead fish to attract flies and carrion beetles to pollinate it. Thankfully one has to practically put their nose inside the flower to observe this fact.

Trillium cernuum is a neat one on par with T. grandiflorum. The flower is a bit more open though.

Trillium catesbaei. This is truly one of the prettier species to have, but harder to grow. They don't divide too often and it's even more difficult to get them to reproduce by seed.

The flower opens white but later turns a sharp shade of pink. 

Trillium simile. This is actually my favorite Trillium. The flower is almost a perfect triangle. A life goal of mine is to someday commission a piece of jewelry in the shape of this flower. Not sure what it would be called but something to pin above a breast pocket on a suit, or cufflinks perhaps?

Elsewhere in the gardens there was a patch that had been flowering a little bit longer. You can tell from the developing seed pod.

I was also thrilled to find a mutation! This one has four petals instead of three!

Up in the Trillium garden they had a variety that has slightly yellow petals. (A crossed with T. luteum perhaps?)

Trillium flexipes x erectum, this was a neat one to see. The flower resembles that of T. flexipes while the color is more in line of T. erectum... I didn't think to check if it smelled of dead fish like T. erectum. But it seems to bloom when T. erectum does because I don't recall seeing any T. flexipes open.

Trillium sulcatum x flexipes. Another flexipes hybrid. 

Another hybrid with T. flexipes, though this time most of the reproductive parts and color seem to come from T. sulcatum.

Trillium underwoodii.

I believe this was the only patch of this species growing there. I like the darkness of the flower and earthy tone of the pollen.

A patch of Trillium sessile. (I know because I read the label.)

Trillium luteum. This species is one of the only yellow flowering ones. It also smells like oranges, very pleasant. This is another easy to grow species.

Outside of the gardens they had food and activities about up near the main house. They still had a trial of Heuchera's going on in their trial garden. I was handed a flag and asked to pick the best one. I was the first to vote for the cultivar 'Tiramisu' and later when I went back I saw it was actually winning of what had to bee some 50+ varieties. I picked it because the amber and purple foliage ones didn't appeal to me, and I didn't like the red or lime green ones, so I found one that was just green enough but also with just the right amount of copper in the leaves. There was another cultivar right next to it that barely had any copper in the leaves at all.

The Round Garden sits directly beside the house. Delphiniums and tulips were the biggest splashes of color here. It's a more formal garden and Mrs. Copeland was fond of Delphiniums so they plant them every year in her memory. I think it's lovely, but frankly if I lived there, that pond would be converted into a hot tub so fast!

Also planted in this garden are the more formal and garden friendly cultivars of native plants, most of which flower over the summer.

Bumblebees were working the Delphiniums. 

They once again held a raptor bird demonstration. I only caught the tail end of the show this year....

and so did this small child apparently.

Who survived!

They did this great thing this year where they asked for a young volunteer with a camera to take a seat right by the perch for the Turkey Vulture. He probably got an amazing photo too.

When not preforming, their birds were perched out for all to observe. I'm not really a bird person but I know this is a screech owl.

Peregrine Falcon? Some type of falcon?

A bird... (or plane) of some sort?

Red Tailed Hawk?

Spring Pollinators

Although it was a breezy cool day in the 60's, I managed to have some fun with my camera today. Here is a sweat bee taking refuge from the chilly air in the flower to an apple tree. They were collecting pollen but a few, (males?) that were hanging out in the flowers. Apples aren't quite at their peak here. 

Here is what I believe is a mining bee working the native plum trees. There are tons of flowers on the trees this year so I should get another bumper crop like I did two years ago. I was pulling 800+ plums off of each tree, though native plums are small and bite sized. Still though, it was quite a lot of fruit for a first year's flowering.

These types of bees like to burrow in sandy hillsides usually clear of tall foliage; often in full sun, though the early species/generations work do full shade just fine because the trees haven't filled in yet. I'm not sure how successful these shaded burrows turn out though compared to ones in full sun. But of course tall grasses and forbs may grow more abundantly on sunny locations.

Last week I saw all the queen bumblebees flying about looking for nest locations. And now I see they've all settled in it seems. Bumblebee queens that are collecting pollen are committed to starting a nest. Pollen if fed to developing brood while the nectar of the flower feeds the adults. Some nectar is turned into honey too and also fed to the brood but bumblebee honey is runny and contains high amounts of pollen anyway. 

Here I watched a queen visit the flowers to our gooseberry/currant. It was neat watching her work these small, inconspicuous flowers, when the native plum, apple, and peach trees are all right beside them. She was devoted to visiting each and every flower on this shrub, ignoring ones she already visited. I did see her fly to the plum tree once, but that was very clearly an accident on her part, as she virtually walked right over the flowers in search of the gooseberry she'd been working. Bees are often devoted to the pollen of the type of plant they work because the nutritional value can vary greatly from plant to plant. It's best to raise brood on one type of pollen to perhaps judge the results, or maybe it's detrimental to mix and match pollen types? Whatever the case, this devotion to one type of plant is what makes them excellent pollinators.

Also buzzing about were the beeflies. These do visit flowers, though the ones I saw seemed to be more interested in sunny themselves on the mulch. These mimic bumblebees to gain entry into the nest and lay their eggs in the hive. I don't believe all beeflies do this, others simply lay their eggs adjacent to the nest and the resulting maggots crawl inside, or have some other host/parasite relationship worked out with other things. I don't see them that often honestly. 

And lastly I thought it was interesting to see some actual flies doing some pollinating. This was on our peach tree, which the honeybees were also working in favor of the plum and apple. However, it was just cold enough that the honeybees weren't out in abundance for me to photograph. Flies though seem better weathered about the cold and were flying from flower to flower. This one was sipping at the nectar in the flowers it visited before turning around and darting off. To be honestly though it reminds me of a parasitic fly, so perhaps they were laying eggs or something as they visited the flowers. 

Flowers Before the Frost

Here are some more wildflowers I found blooming out in the yard yesterday.

Twinleaf, Jeffersonia diphylla, among the hardest wildflowers to catch blooming. The flower only opens for ~8 hours sometimes lasting over night if you're lucky before the petals abruptly shed off. Seriously someone needs to develop one with a longer blooming period. I feel like a double flowering variety would be welcomed for this species!

The flowers come up with the first few leaves and opens a few days before they do. The seedpod resembles a green fleshy acorn. They need to grow in a slightly moist location or otherwise get watered in the garden periodically in order for the seed pod to develop. It can't be too wet though as I found out; I transplanted one to a wetter location and I don't believe it survived the winter sadly. 

I actually have a bunch of Hepatica planted in the yard. I assumed they were all white or slightly pink, but this one seems to be almost a lavender tone. I'm hoping they'll self seed around a little and in a few years I'll get the deep blue shades that are so pretty.

Trillium luteum is the first Trillium species in my garden to start flowering. (Others I photographed earlier were at the Mt. Cuba Center.) This is among the easier Trilliums to grow, and better smelling too. Actually most Trilliums don't smell at all but some can wreak of fermented apples, or dead fish. T. luteum actually smells faintly of oranges, and is very pleasing. The petals are currently a bright green but they slowly turn yellow.

And now the bad news... It's dropping down to freezing tonight, it's supposed to snow lightly, and at the very least we're going to get a frost. I'm curious to see what survives.

Golden Net-wing Beetle

Dictyoptera aurora, Golden Net-wing Beetle. The adult stage is mostly active for about two months in the springtime. The grubs are predators of other insects. These are found around conifer forests... suggesting that I may have planted one too many trees in my yard.

It's something of a mystery to me that I haven't noticed this species in my yard before. We have a pine tree, which I didn't plant. It was a "gift" my brother gave my mom at the age of 5, though I'm sure my dad helped there. We aren't that close to the pine barrens or too many stands of pine trees, so I'm wondering it it took 25+ years for our one evergreen tree to become substantial enough to attract this species to my yard.

Well Deserved Wildflowers

After the winter we had, it's time for some well deserved wildflowers.

Hepatica sp., Liver Leaf, so named because of the shape and spotting on it's leaves. This is often a semi-evergreen with last year's leaves finally rotting away just as it flowers. New leaves will soon emerge.

They come in Pink, Purple, Blue, and White. This was the first time I'd seen anything other than white though.

Bloodroot, Sanguinaria canadensis. A member of the poppy family. They flower before the leaf uncurls, clasping it perhaps to hold it up.

They offer an abundance of pollen to pollinators but are lacking in the nectar department. Note how few petals this one has.

Note how many petals this one has. There are double flowering forms that have twice the petals to them, though I'm not entirely certain this is a good example of that as I've seen them with more.

A non-native Windflower, Anemone blanda, I must admit these are very attractive.

They look similar to Bloodroot but come in the same colors as Hepatica.

Anemone blanda, is another nonnative that's a bit more colorful than the native counterpart.

False Rue Anemone, Enemion biternatum, has an ordinary looking white flower but what it lacks in color it makes up for with thick foliage, forming a dense carpet of leaves with flowers all around.

Corydalis sp. flowering unusually early.

Cardamine diphylla, Toothwort.

Claytonia virginica, Spring Beauty.

Jeffersonia diphylla, Twinleaf. Among the hardest wildflowers to witness in bloom. The flowers open and quickly shed their petals 8 hours later.

Trout Lily, Erythronium americanum. These form vast colonies of mostly single leaves in the springtime. It's said that less than 1% of the population will flower on a given year. I'm told growing them on hard stones, so their roots can't grow too deep, is enough to stress them into flowering. Blooming can otherwise take 15+ years to happen! (For those that get tired of waiting, the bulbs are edible.)

Trillium pusillum, Small Trillium... which is actually not the smallest species of Trillium but it is pretty small at around 6 inches.

I love the little hint of pink on the anthers.

Trillium nivale, Snow Trillium. This one is actually FINISHING it's bloom period!    

It's among the shortest species of Trillium there is, and pretty much after flowering it just wants to lay down.

Katydid Eggs

I was just out inspecting some of the shrubs in the yard when I came across some Katydid Eggs. These will eventually become the great big (usually green) grasshopper-like insects that hang around trees and make noises at night over the summer. Click the link for more True Facts about the Katydid.

I found them on one of our Flame Azaleas, Rhododendron calendulaceum.