NPG June 9, 2016

NYBG Native Plant Garden: June 9, 2016

Hey! You go to Blogger, click on the pencil icon and voila, you can write this blog.  I am even going to try to go to "Link" and put photos somewhere on here.

Nature sure moves fast.  Missed last week, and numerous flowers are gone, and new ones to note.

A relief that today the temperature actually enabled the wearing of the sweatshirt that NYBG so kindly provided. In the high 60's, and very windy.  Lucky my hat was from my sailing days and had ties both under the chin and in back. You didn't know I spent 20 years sailing my boat on Long Island Sound, teaching sailing, selling study guides to help get a Coast Guard license and am a licensed Coast Guard Captain?

Coming from the Reflecting Pool, the overwhelming numbers are of phlox and beardtongue Penstemon digitalis. There is also Meadow Rue and soon-to-be-blue fat green berries on blueberry bushes Vaccinium. Less of Wild Indigo/Shoofly Baptisia alba, Iris though it is profuse along the water, Wild Quinine though that also is more abundant by the Split Rock. The bell-like purple flowers, not showing last time, are Harebell Campanula americana. 

Do take the Gravel-Lok to the right even though most of the flowering is gone from under the trees, and see the native Columbine Aqualegia canadense and a fresh crop of Pinkroot Spigelia marilandica with a new sign. The Oakleaf Hydrangea is blooming now and the flowers will get much larger.

Turning left at Mickel's fern, looking down right past the Sweet Gum Tree, the delicate white flowers of Partrideberry are showing, but watch out, a 4 inch piece of Poison Ivy right in the midst of it.

Partridgeberry and Poison Ivy

I've been waiting for the Inkberry Ilex glabra to bloom, and you would want to have your magnifying glass ready for this. The 1/4" flower has stamens with maroon tips and each petal has the same. (Not as prominent as the Inkberry at the entrance to the Old NPG and I need to stop living in the past.) You know the small black berries were used by Native Americans for writing,thus the common name.

Rhododendrons up the earth path and, to my great pleasure, searching under the Wild Ginger

Asarum canadense there were still those amazing flowers to see.  The visitors have never seen these flowers and are always excited by the view.  Going up the path does not show you many flowers you can't see elsewhere, but Green'n Gold were still blooming there.

This year the Garden replaced Foamflower Tiarella cordifolia and they are scattered if not as abundant. Solomon's Seal of all species are showing: white flowers under the stems, Plume Solomon Seal showing berries drying, but delightful False Starry Solomon's Seal has what I call "marbles," which are shiny, tan with black markings.

New this week is Skullcap Scutellaria serrata. Careful: may look just like another lavender flower.

Down the steps to the Education Pavilion, see the Eastern Beebalm Monarda blooming.

Worked on the beginning of June 9, 2016 blog, with help, nobody able to get captions except on the first photo, and why the unfinished blog got published, also unknown.  I was thrilled to be able to write, though, and spent a long time on the continued report for that week, did not press "save" and the whole thing disappeared.  Forcing myself to try to re-do the charming job that got lost, probably show my impatient, irritable self, but here goes.

On the first part of June 9, 2016, starting after Skullcap and before the out-of-place photo of Beebalm Monarda, Kentucky Lady Slipper, Bluestar, a little Golden Alexanders.  Back on the boardwalk toward the entrance, among the Pitcher Plants a 1/4" irregular blue flower about 15 inches high, a few opposite leaves, a plant I could not identify, and while waiting for help from Curator Michael Hagen, I am thinking it is Blue Toadflax Linariacanadensis, but wait for confirmation.

 In the water Pickerelweed's Pondederia cordata blue flowers and many Iris. On your left are Fleabane, Royal Fern, a favorite fern, (is that because I have grandiose royalty fantasies or because I know it well from being in my own yard?). The white flower hard to see from the boardwalk I think is Canada Anemone. Moving toward the ramp, past the now empty nest in the Shadbush, Kalmia latifolia  Mountain Laurel.  Notice the huge leaves of the American Umbrella Plant, and on the right Bowman/s Root/Indian Physic/Ipecac Gillenia trifoliata with its delicate white flowers, used to induce vomiting.

As you turn left, under the Sourwood Tree Celandine Poppy is still to be seen in bloom.  Most visitors I find call it Coral Bells, but the Heuchera has always been known to me as Alumroot. The shrubby blue-flowered blooming plant that has spread a lot is Scorpionweed Phacelia bipinnatifida which seems to have shown up on its own, and you old timers will remember that it was blooming along the wall just where you came in the Rock Garden/ Native Plant Garden entrance, yes, of the Old NPG. Is it worth getting closer to the Education Building to peer at the Hairy Chickweed by the rocks, which reminds me that the Old NPG had many species of Chickweed. It has been a valuable source of Vitamin C for both animals and humans, blooming even under the snow.

Still traveling counter-clockwise, the marvelous Silverbell Trees Halesia, have now traded their white flowers for Chinese lanterns, so this tree is one to keep your eye on many times during seasonal tours. Here is where I would mention Eastern Beebalm Monarda  down the steps to the Education Building, and the photo on the previous 6/9/16 blog shows it.

On the path toward the Split Rock, the eye-catching bright red is (not Cardinal Flower) but Fire Pink Silene virginica, not a long-lived plant. The whopping purple bells are Beardtongue, but greatly outnumbered by their native species white Beardtongue. Of the five stamens, one is fuzzy, thus "bearded," and nature sends a different insect to each species so they do not hybridize.

Whew, this just disappeared from the desktop again, but I was able to get it back. Marcia, save, save, save.  Milkweeds Asclepias syriaca, more needed to help save our Monarch butterflies, are blooming in several places in several colors.  I think I do not dare to try to put in the photo here, but maybe I will give it a shot at the end. (I did try but no luck.)

Pear Cactus Opuntia is in bloom with striking yellow flowers. Also yellow though a different shade, is Lance-leaved Coreopsis Coreopsis lanceolata with its fringed tip petals and which can be kept blooming if you clip off the dying flowers. Various shades of Coneflowers, always recognizable by their bristly protruding centers and the less common color, orange, is starting now: Butterfly Weed Asclepius tuberosa.  The Spiderwort Tradescantia named after John Tradescant is in both purple and magenta, and makes a contribution to humans by telling if there is radiation.

Behind the Split Rock is the first Bush's Poppy Mallow Callirhoe bushii. The long-stamened St. Johnswort Hypericum was hung over pictures to ward off evil and used in herbal medicine to combat depression. Roses, more Pinkroot Spigelia marilandica we are lucky to have, Stonecrop, and large-flowered, non-native but beautiful Foxglove  Digitalis.

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NYBG NPG May 5, 2016

NPG MAY 5, 2016   Today felt cold, cloudy, 50 degrees. Six visitors on the tour. Blooming today:

At the top of the steps, in front of the rhododendron, a white bell-like flower whose name I used to know. [Clematis ochroleuca]
Alabama Croton - Croton alabamensis [on right metal descending path]
Alexanders, Golden Zizia aurea
Azaleas: Pinxter, Flame Azalea etc. Rhododendron
Beetleweed Galax urceolata
Bellwort Uvularia perfoliata
Black Chokeberry Aronia melancarpa
Blueberry Vaccinium augustifolium
Bluestar Amsonia tabemaemontana
Bluets Houstonia longifolia

Celandine Poppy Stylophorum dyphyllum

Chickweed, Hairy Cerastium arvense

Chokeberry, Black Aronia melanocarpa

Columbine Aquilegia canadense
     [looks like 5 doves; flower turns up when full of seeds which are disbursed by the wind]

Doghobble, Coastal  Leucothoe axillaris

Dogwood Cornus florida

Dwarf Crested Iris Iris cristata

Foamflower Tiarella cordifolia [the seedhead looks like a tiara]

Globeflower Troilus laxus  [look down where the boardwalk turns left]

Graves Beach Plum Prunus maritima  [past the meadow, on your right]
Green Hawthorne [budding]

Jacobs Ladder Polemonium van-bruntiae

Jacob’s Ladder, variegated Polemonium reptans

Lady Slipper, Yellow Cypripedium calceolus

Larkspur Delphinium tricorne

Leatherleaf Chamaedaphne calyculata

Mayapple Podophyllum peltatum [all poisonous parts except the ripe apple “beloved of pigs, raccoons and small boys” (Asa Gray)]

Phlox Phlox stolonifera

Plume/False Solomon’s Seal Smilacina racemosa
     [called false because it did not have the medical properties of  Polygonatum biflorum]

Prairie Smoke Geum triflorum

Rhododendron

Robin’s Fleabane erigeron pulchellus

Rue Anemone Anemonella thalictroides, Thalictrum thalictroides

Scylla 

Shooting Star Primula meadia

Silverbell Halesia tetraptera

Solomon’s Seal Polygonatum biflorum

Starry False Solomon’s Seal Maianthemum stellatum

Stonecrop Sedum ternatum

Trillium, Red Trillium erectum

Trillium, White Trillium grandiflorum

Trillium, Yellow Trillium luteum

Turkey Corn Dicentra eximia  [Hey, we call it Wild Bleeding Heart]

Viola walteri

Violet, Birdfoot Viola pedata

Virginia Bluebells Mertensia virginica

Wild Geranium Geranium maculatum
     [don’t be fooled by similar flower, very different leaves on Jacob’s Ladder]

Wild Ginger Asarum arvense [a top favorite, spread the leaves to see the amazing flower]

Wild Indigo Baptisia alba
     [also called Shoofly because farmers used the flexible stem to chase flies from the horse.]

Yellow Mandarin/Fairybells Prosartes lanuginose

Croton alabamensis Alabama Croton

Globeflower Troilus laxus

Halesia tetraptera Silverbell

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