What is the first thing you think of when you see all these seeds on a maple tree? If you answered "there are many tree weedlings in your future", you may be a bit of a pessimist, or a perhaps a realist. If you answered "those samaras are so interesting, I just love to see them twirl as the fly off in the wind", you may be a bit of an optimist or perhaps are choosing to ignore all the tree weedlings in someone's future. Regardless of your first thought, I'm sure your second thought was to … [Read more...] about Maple Seed Test
trees
Call A Tree Tonight!
Feeling a little nature deprived? No trees nearby to hug or sit under and enjoy the cool shade of their canopy? Maybe calling a tree would help you feel better!I spent a lovely late afternoon, early evening at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens in Durham, North Carolina today surrounded by trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals, and all kinds of bees & butterflies, but still felt the need to call a tree because for the first time in my life, I had the number of a tree to call.It was a flowering … [Read more...] about Call A Tree Tonight!
Mystery Of The Broken Walnut Shells At May Dreams Gardens
Is it a welcome calling card or a sinister warning?Several times this week, when I went out to get the morning paper, I noticed the broken shells of a single black walnut on my driveway.Each time I saw those pieces of walnut shells, I picked them up and tossed them in the trash. Had it happened once, or even twice, I would have just thought it was some squirrels passing through.But it has happened four times this week and it is always just one walnut, so now I’m spending more time considering … [Read more...] about Mystery Of The Broken Walnut Shells At May Dreams Gardens
Around My Garden This Week
Around my garden, the blood root, Sanguinaria canadensis 'Multiplex', finally bloomed its best earlier this week.Already these blooms are gone. I did some reading on them and found out that the seeds of the blood root are spread around by ants, a process called myrmecochory.If you can figure out how to pronounce myrmecochory, you can make it your new word for the day and impress all your friends. An example sentence might be "I'm as busy as an ant performing myrmechochry". Context would be if … [Read more...] about Around My Garden This Week
Tree-weeds
Do you know what you call tree seedlings that come up all over the garden?Tree-weeds.Yes, they are weeds. But there are some gardeners who get all “funny” about pulling tree seedlings as weeds, especially if the ‘seedling’ gets big enough that it won’t pull out easily and it’s a nice tree like a redbud, Cercis canadensis.They convince themselves that maybe where that tree seedling sprouted would be the perfect place for another tree. And wouldn’t it be fun to have a tree in the garden that grew … [Read more...] about Tree-weeds
In The Fall, Red Rules in My Garden
Do you plan for fall color in your garden?I have so much red in my garden right now, that I'm going to claim I planned it that way! Who would know otherwise?Forget that I don't really like red flowers. In the fall, red rules in my garden.This first red shrub is Viburnum carlesii, the Korean Spice Viburnum. I actually got it because of the fragrant spring blooms, without thought to the fall color, so this is a happy red surprise!In the backyard, the Red Maple, Acer rubrum, is a perfect red right … [Read more...] about In The Fall, Red Rules in My Garden
