N°15 2024 perpetual calendar

[elainegrey]

Eclipse! took me to Indiana at the beginning of week 15. Lots of familiar early wildflowers at the Wooster campground at Hardy Lake. Special observations included spring beauties with six petals and with double petals. Returning, we stopped for lunch in Kentucky at Hurst Waterfall at Cove Spring Park. There were some flowers carpeting around the falls that i am less familiar with.

Mostly, the drive was surrounded with redbuds. They were fading at home when i left the last day of week 14, but West Virginia and Kentucky were wreathed with the trees. I note at home that i have young redbuds coming up in my deer exclusion zones, but there are no young redbuds in the woods. Going through miles of road lined with redbud, observing redbud thriving in road cuts, i developed the theory that redbuds thrive at the edge of roads because herbivory is less there.

I also noted that Kentucky makes far more aggressive road cuts than Virginia. In Virginia you take the curve. Kentucky seems more happy to blast away rock.

The greenup was nothing like home, and i think in the few days i was gone, the green walls filled in.

My Robin's Plantain are up and happily multiplied near where the green and gold are spreading their cheery faces. The violets have faded,so they aren't mixed in as part of my tapestry lawn plan. Phases are nice. The creeping phlox hasn't been as vibrant this year: did i mow it too close at some point?.  Although other stands are also less happy.

The Salvia lyrata (lyre leaf sage) has started blooming. Years of letting it go to seed any where i see it means it is well established in a number of places: i may not be so assertive about letting it all go to seed this year.  Camassia scilloides (Wild Hyacinth) is blooming in the rain garden.

The invasive (Rank 1 - severe threat) Youngia japonica (false hawksbeard) is blooming. as is also the invasive (Rank 1 - severe threat) Elaeagnus umbellata (autumn olive). With the false hawksbeard i felt i had a chance but i just read the seed bank for the plant can persist for twenty bleeping years. Still gonna go after it. The  Rank 3 - lesser threat Star of Bethlehem has also started to bloom. The North Carolina Native Plant Society (NCNPS) will still certify a garden where one is intentionally cultivating rank 3 plants, so i continue to delight in the starry white blossoms and pick as many as i can.

Both the remaining original apple tree and the Aunt Rachel were covered with blossoms. The Grimes golden also had some flowers. Strawberries are setting fruit in the garden. Ooh, i should inspect the pawpaw -- i need to see about doing a pollen exchange with someone. Leaves on the fig! The chestnuts had the old leaves on just to the point they put forth new green (this was in week 14, i think).

Roses, peony, and irises have fat buds, with some roses already blooming.

The lemon balm didn't get smothered by stiltgrass, and i found a sprig of the Richter's mint surviving that was supposed to be wintergreen scented but just seemed vaguely medicinal. The peppermint might be dead. The culinary sage that i got last year from CF&H is thriving in the drive island, potentially shading out the oregano. The sage i've had for years is going to bloom. The walking onions have their curls up.

The lilac and azalea growing by the side walk are STUNNING this year.

The elm on the east side of the house hasn't leafed out, the black cherry at the south east corner leafed out on top early but the lower branches aren't (were those obscured by the sweetgums that are now gone?). The black cherries that i have attempted to pollard seem to only have new growth from the trunk: the older branches seem dead.

Well, out of time.