What's Blooming Now 2013

[EllenW]

Originally Posted by linrose

Beautiful capture ellenw! That looks like a Painted Lady butterfly. I don't know what the aster is but it's beautiful too!

Thank you linrose. Since you are a frequent photographer you know I had to take quite a few pictures to get a good one. Thanks for the butterfly id. I briefly looked in my book but didn't see it. One of many good winter projects ...read my wildlife and plant books. There were several painted ladies on the flowers. AND after tomorrow when I have my new window installed I will be able to see those flowers from my living room! Yeah!

[EllenW]

Originally Posted by dapjwy

linrose, I'm looking forward to your upcoming thread on your pocket woodland project!

Although I think you are a lot farther along than I, we seem to be approaching our properties in similar ways.

I have a very small area that I smothered with wood chips about two years ago. I've since added a selection of native wildflowers hoping to create a kind of meadow. I have a lot of first year seedlings of wildflowers and some little bluestem grass to add still--they were supposed to go in last month. I figure next year it will begin to really fill in, then the following year, perhaps it will be pretty well established.

I'm still adding shrubs to various spots...and I have plans to add many more along the slopes and hedgerow areas...and bordering the back of my pond (once I get it installed!).

My woodland project seems to be a little stalled since I lost one or two of the few good-sized trees in that area. After hiking with havalotta and Equilibrium in some natural woodlands and later a pretty much intact strip of woodland where I work, I realize just how far I really have to go to get even close to what nature has going (it really reminded me about "the best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago"--but I wasn't here 20 years ago!).

I hope to watch your projects progress as mine do here. I've a long, long way to go, but as things grow in, I'm hoping it will be less daunting and more beautiful.

I am feeling a little discouraged myself dap. I have so many nonnatives to replace with natives. I told equil and hava about a Norway maple I was working on. Equil gave me a great idea. Instead of cutting the tree down girdle it so it will die in place. That creates a snag for wildlife. That is a great idea and I don't have to get someone here to cut it down.

[dapjwy]

Originally Posted by EllenW

I am feeling a little discouraged myself dap. I have so many nonnatives to replace with natives. I told equil and hava about a Norway maple I was working on. Equil gave me a great idea. Instead of cutting the tree down girdle it so it will die in place. That creates a snag for wildlife. That is a great idea and I don't have to get someone here to cut it down.

~smile~. EllenW, I don't know if you read between the lines, or if my post wasn't as upbeat as I tried to make it...but I have been feeling discouraged especially this year as things got more and more out of hand...last year was when I first noticed it, but this year confirmed it. I have really hated the idea of using herbicides, but not using them seems to have got me where I am now. Last fall, I decided I'd spray invasives early spring before the natives leafed out, but while the invasives were green--then, come spring, I couldn't bring myself to do it. I thought I could smother things...maybe I still can, but I'm wary I'll lose another season if I do that.

Until I get some large sections seeded as meadow/eastern prairie, I think I'll continue to struggle with the property.

As for creating a snag from the Norway maple, I'm all for that! (Assuming there is no danger of it falling on your house.) Keep us posted with your progress.

Here is a link you may enjoy: Snags & how to create them

[EllenW]

Originally Posted by dapjwy

~smile~. EllenW, I don't know if you read between the lines, or if my post wasn't as upbeat as I tried to make it...but I have been feeling discouraged especially this year as things got more and more out of hand...last year was when I first noticed it, but this year confirmed it. I have really hated the idea of using herbicides, but not using them seems to have got me where I am now. Last fall, I decided I'd spray invasives early spring before the natives leafed out, but while the invasives were green--then, come spring, I couldn't bring myself to do it. I thought I could smother things...maybe I still can, but I'm wary I'll lose another season if I do that.

Until I get some large sections seeded as meadow/eastern prairie, I think I'll continue to struggle with the property.

As for creating a snag from the Norway maple, I'm all for that! (Assuming there is no danger of it falling on your house.) Keep us posted with your progress.

Here is a link you may enjoy: Snags & how to create them

Cool dap I never considered creating a snag before this forum. Just do what you can with your property and enjoy it. It may not feel like it but you are making progress. Don't forget to take time to smell the roses! Enjoy what you have accomplished.

[dapjwy]

Originally Posted by EllenW

...AND after tomorrow when I have my new window installed I will be able to see those flowers from my living room! Yeah!

Yippee!

[linrose]

Originally Posted by dapjwy

linrose, I'm looking forward to your upcoming thread on your pocket woodland project!

I'm still adding shrubs to various spots...and I have plans to add many more along the slopes and hedgerow areas...and bordering the back of my pond (once I get it installed!).

My woodland project seems to be a little stalled since I lost one or two of the few good-sized trees in that area. After hiking with havalotta and Equilibrium in some natural woodlands and later a pretty much intact strip of woodland where I work, I realize just how far I really have to go to get even close to what nature has going (it really reminded me about "the best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago"--but I wasn't here 20 years ago!).

What happened to your trees dap? It's sad to lose mature trees. We have one Black Oak in the back yard that's in decline and a couple of huge Sycamores in the field are dying. I guess for the Sycamores it's just their time. We don't go in that grove anymore for fear of dropping limbs. That area won't get bushhogged next spring. We were going to bushhog this fall but the consensus is that the end of March, beginning of April is the best time to fight non-native cool season grasses and other invasives so we're waiting til then.

I'm all for planting more shrubs too, they sure are easier to maintain than a garden bed of grasses and forbs. I'm staring at a sea of weeds I need to tackle before winter right now. Tomorrow I'm going to a native plant nursery which is having it's fall sale. I have a list of shrubs I'd like and a few woodland plants will probably find their way home with me too. My bare-root ferns that I planted last fall didn't make it this spring.

The little corner of the woodland I planted is doing OK, I planted too many spring ephemerals so there are lots of bare spots after they go dormant. I'd like to add some wild ginger and Tiarella there. The leaf mulch is breaking down well so I'll have more places to plant. It's about time to start chopping and mulching leaves now. I'm going to try to head off next spring's weed crop by mulching the terraces this fall instead of waiting until spring.

[linrose]

Some blooms still hanging on despite a late summer drought. It's great to see there's still food for the bumbles and late skippers.

[linrose]

I just had to post this. With the winter storm we've been having I was out taking photos of the ice and saw one of my summer pots had pansies blooming away bravely! The Detroit/Philadelphia football game is a whiteout! I normally don't like football but I like to see them playing in the snow! If you're near Philly you're getting some of that white stuff now.

[dapjwy]

Originally Posted by linrose

I just had to post this. With the winter storm we've been having I was out taking photos of the ice and saw one of my summer pots had pansies blooming away bravely! The Detroit/Philadelphia football game is a whiteout! I normally don't like football but I like to see them playing in the snow! If you're near Philly you're getting some of that white stuff now.

I'm glad we didn't have to go down to Philly today. It was so nice to be home this weekend.

It is December and you still have one of those brave pansies blooming! I guess you are in Kentucky, but by the sound of it, it surprises you.

I meant to post a picture of a late blooming phlox...it bloomed twice, the second time while the rest of the plant was going to seed. I'll have to go back and look for the photo..it was in November I think, and after some freezes.

Truth be told, I was hoping to add my blooms to this thread...but the blooming season came and went without me posting AGAIN--second year in a row for me. I hope to do better next year.

[Rebek56]

Hoorah for pansies and phlox! (But I'm ready for some of Viceroy's Florida pictures about now...)