Six on Saturday #52 (March 21, 2020)

For this week’s Six on Saturday, we are out of the garden and visiting the Eno River Confluence Natural Area. The Eno River is one of the gems of this part of North Carolina. A small river, little more than a large stream for much of its 40-mile course through Orange and Durham counties, it flows through the town of Hillsborough and city of Durham before merging with the Flat and Little Rivers to form the Neuse River. The Eno is home to several rare species that are endemic to the Neuse River basin, and it has been aggressively protected since the late 1960s by the Eno River Association. The Confluence Natural Area is a piece of protected land in Orange County that includes the spot where the East and West forks of the Eno flow together to form the Eno River proper. It was opened to the public relatively recently, and this was our first visit.

When my family and I visited, we were the only people on the 200-acre preserve, so I guess that covered social distancing requirements.

1. The Confluence

Confluence

This is the point at which east fork (left) and west fork (right) merge to form the Eno (center).

2. Plethodon cylindraceus (white-spotted slimy salamander)

Plethodon

The kids couldn’t resist lifting a cover board that had probably been laid down for some herpetology classes. They found a handsome pair of slimy salamanders. To avoid crushing the salamanders, we gently moved them, laid the board back down, and then allowed the salamanders to climb underneath again.

3. Claytonia virginica (Virginia springbeauty)

Claytonia

A variety of spring ephemeral wildflowers were in bloom on the wooded slopes and rich bottomland along the riverbanks. In North Carolina, C. virginica is a true piedmont native. It is absent from most of the coastal plain and from the mountains, where it is replaced by Claytonia caroliniana.

4. Cardamine concatenata (cutleaf toothwort; crow’s toes)

Cardamine

I just love the name “crow’s toes.”

5. Stellaria pubera (star chickweed)

Stellaria

In addition to these three wildflowers, we also saw Hepatica americana (round-lobed Hepatica), Anemonella thalictroides (rue anemone), Sanguinaria canadensis (bloodroot), and Lindera benzoin (spicebush) in bloom. Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) leaves were up, but the buds aren’t yet open.

6. Tree “footprint”

tree footprint

The heavy piedmont clay holds together so well, that the imprint of a large tree, including tunnels left by its roots, is still clearly visible after all the wood has rotted away. The “footprint” is slowly being covered by invasive Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica).

The propagator is the host of Six on Saturday. Head over there to see his Six and find links to the blogs of other participants.

Frost flowers

Frost flowers typically occur in in late autumn when cold weather freezes plant stems but the soil is still warm enough for active roots to push sap into the stem. As the sap freezes, ice is extruded through cracks in the stem, forming thin ribbons or spines. In North Carolina, frost flowers are most often associated with Verbesina species, particularly Verbesina virginica (frostweed), but yesterday I found these examples on Salvia elegans (pineapple sage). They are, perhaps, not as delicate as the frost flowers that form on Verbesina, and from a distance looked more like frost seed pods than flowers, but they seem to have been formed by the same mechanism as the classic frost flowers.

As indicated by the presence of frost flowers, the first freezes of the season occurred on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. A few weeks ago, we were flirting with 90 F (32 C), but this morning the temperature was about 24 F (-4.5 C). The growing season for summer perennials and sub-tropical plants is definitely over. The cannas, bananas, and crinums have all turned black, and in a few weeks I’ll cut them back. The only plants still flowering outside are Crocus cartwrightianus ‘Albus’, Camellia ‘Yuletide’, Cyclamen hederifolium, and Abutilon megapotamicum (which continues to amaze me with its hardiness), but buds are expanding on Edgeworthia chrysantha.

Six on Saturday #48 (September 28, 2019)

We’re almost a week past the autumnal equinox, but it still feels like summer. Temperatures are running about ten degrees F above normal, and we haven’t had measurable rain since August. The soil is bone dry, and leaves are starting to dry up instead of changing color properly. There’s a chance of a shower tonight, but the forecast for the next week is more of the same: bright sun and mid 80s-90s F until Friday at least.

1. Epiphyllum oxypetalum (queen of the night)

Epiphyllum3 — Collapsing at 0700 the next morning

The large, fragrant flowers of E. oxypetalum, an epiphytic cactus from southern Mexico and Guatemala, open at night and fade by the next morning. I was pleased with this solitary bloom, but when I posted a picture on Facebook, a friend told me that his plant had more than 40 flowers!

2. Spiranthes odorata? (ladies’ tresses)

Spiranthes

I think this is S. odorata, but I’m really not sure how to distinguish that species from S. cernua. Paul Martin Brown [1] says that there is considerable gene-flow between S. cernua and other Spiranthes species, so maybe a definite I.D. is impossible. Either way, I like the flowers. These little orchids don’t seem to be very long-lived, but they seed around and sprout in the pots of various bog plants. This one volunteered in a pot of Gentiana autumnalis.

3. Diospyros virginiana (American persimmon)

persimmon1

persimmon2

About nine years ago, I transplanted some root suckers from a large persimmon planted by my wife’s grandparents in Pennsylvania, probably in the 1940s. The transplants have finally given us some fruit, which is seedy but delicious. These are the first of the harvest, and we’ll be picking more as they become soft enough to eat. You do NOT want to sample an American persimmon that isn’t fully ripe. They are unbelievably astringent.

4. Hedychium coccineum ‘Applecourt’

Hedychium applecourt

I thought I had already featured this hardy ornamental ginger, but I can’t find it in any past blog posts. The flowers lack the fragrance of H. coronarium, but I am a sucker for bright orange. In previous years, it has given me one flush of flowers at the tail end of summer, but this year the clump has finally grown large enough to flower on and off for months.

5. Colchicum ‘Innocence’

Colchicum innocence

This is a white flowered clone of the sterile hybrid Colchicum byzantinus. My colchicums have struggled this year, probably due to the high temperatures and lack of rain in autumn thus far, and many have not yet poked their noses above the soil.

6. Salvia elegans (pineapple sage)

Salvia_elegans

S. elegans is usually grown as an annual north of zone 8, but my plants survived last winter. Another sign that climate zones are shifting north, I suppose. This species gives me attractive foliage on a neat shrub-like form for most of the spring and summer, and then it flowers just in time for the autumn migration of the ruby-throated hummingbird.

The propagator is the host of Six on Saturday. Head over there to see his Six and find links to the blogs of other participants.

Reference

1. Brown, P.M. (2004). Wild Orchids of the Southeastern United States North of Peninsular Florida. University Press of Florida, Gainsville, Florida.

Six on Saturday #47 (August 24, 2019)

The first two plants in this Six on Saturday post bloomed in early August, after S.O.S #46, but I thought they were worth including even though they aren’t flowering today. The remaining four plants are currently in bloom.

1. Rhododendron prunifolium (plum-leaf azalea)

Rhodo_prunifolium

Rhododendron prunifolium is one of the latest-blooming of the North American deciduous azaleas. With its flowers tucked in among leaves, I think it looks more subdued and elegant than the flamboyant species that bloom on bare branches early in the spring. Very rare in the wild, it is native only to a small region of Alabama and Georgia along the Chattahoochee River.

2. Lycoris x rosea ‘Neon Nights’

Lycoris_rosea

This cross of Lycoris radiata and L. sprengeri blooms at about the same time as my L. radiata var. pumila plants. The photo doesn’t exaggerate the intensity of its color.

3. Asclepias incarnata (swamp milkweed)

Asclepias incarnata-2

Despite its common name, Asclepias incarnata grows reasonably well in regular garden soil. It doesn’t seem to be as long-lived as Asclepias tuberosa, though. This is probably a third-generation seedling, and the first generation of plants that I grew are all long dead.

4. Gentiana andrewsii (closed bottle gentian)

Gentiana_andrewsii

Gentiana andrewsii is one of the more bizarre flowers in my garden. It is native to the northeastern and midwestern states and Canada but seems to do reasonably well in the NC piedmont. The flower never opens and is pollinated by bees that are strong enough to force their way inside. If I don’t do some weeding soon, these plants will be choked out by invasive Duchesnea indica (mock strawberry) that are invading the flower bed from a nearby lawn*

*lawn, meaning green weeds that can survive being mowed.

5. Barnadia japonica (Japanese squill)

Scilla_scilloides

I really don’t remember planting this little bulb among the cactus and agaves that surround our wellhead. I do have a small clump of bulbs elsewhere in the garden, so I wonder if a squirrel transplanted this one.

6. Calanthe reflexa

Calanthe_reflexa

Well, this was a disappointment. Calanthe reflexa has miniscule flowers, and the color of this clone is an insipid pale violet. About the only thing that makes it worthy of growing is its blooming season–months after all the other hardy Calanthe species and hybrids have finished flowering.

The Propagator is the host of Six on Saturday. Head over there to see his Six and find links to the blogs of other participants.

Six on Saturday #46 (August 3, 2019)

It has been more than two months since I managed to get a Six on Saturday post together, so this is a catch-up post: six plants that have bloomed since S.O.S. #45.

1. Bletilla Yokohama ‘Kate’ (Flowered in late May)

Bletilla_Yokohama

As I previously posted, Bletilla species and hybrids are among the easiest of terrestrial orchids to grow. B. Yokohama is a hybrid of B. striata and B. formosana, and it blooms about a month after B. striata in my garden. The habitat of B. formosana in Taiwan and the Ryukyu Islands is subtropical, probably trending towards tropical, but B. Yokohama is fully hardy in my garden during the winter. The new growth is tender, like that of B. striata, and must be protected from late frosts in spring. The flowers have better form than those of B. striata, and the inflorescences are daintier.

2. Gardenia jasminoides (Hardy gardenia; flowered in early to mid June)

Gardenia

This evergreen shrub, with its fantastic fragrance, is a perennial favorite in southern gardens. I have two different single-flowered clones which are efficiently cross-pollinated, presumably by moths, and produce lots of attractive red fruit in autumn. Birds spread the seeds around, and I have started to find volunteer seedlings–a nice bonus that you won’t get if you grow the sterile double-flowered clones.

My plants were badly damaged by cold during the winter of 2017/2018, but they sprouted vigorously from their trimmed stumps, and it is hard now to see where they were cut.

2. Hippeastrum ‘Mead Strain’ (Garden Amaryllis; flowered in early June)

Hippeastrum Meads_strain

This Hippeastrum hybrid is the product of crosses made by Theodore Mead about 100 years ago. Its background appears to include a large percentage of genes of the Bolivian species Hippeastrum vittatum, and similar hybrids often masquerade as that species in cultivation. Bulbs of the Mead Strain are common heirloom plants in southern gardens, and a very similar clone is passed around by gardeners in my parent’s neighborhood in Texas.

4. Lobelia laxiflora subsp. laxiflora ‘Candy Corn’ (Flowers intermittently all summer)

Lobelia Candy_Corng2
This Mexican Lobelia species is much more drought tolerant than our native L. cardinalis, so I grow it in a hot,sandy bed beside the driveway. Its bloom season overlaps with that of L. cardinalis (see photo #3 here), and both species are visited by hummingbirds, but I haven’t found any volunteer hybrids yet. I live in hope.

Lovelia Candy_Corn

5. Eucomis cf. zambesiaca (Pineapple lily; flowered in July)

Eucomis_zambesiaca

All of the Eucomis species and hybrids from southern Africa seem to be hardy in North Carolina, but many of them scorch and wilt in hot sun. They require bright light to grow well, so this heat sensitivity creates a cultural conundrum. This small variety sold as Eucomis autumnalis by the big bulb vendors is the most resistant to wilting of all the Eucomis that I have grown. It looks very little like a true E. autumnalis that I bought from a specialist nursery, and I am fairly sure that it is actually E. zambesiaca, possibly the clone ‘White Dwarf.’

6. Iris domestica (Blackberry lily; Currently flowering)

Iris Hello_Yellow — *Iris domestica* ‘Hello Yellow’

Iris domestica (formerly Belamcanda chinensis) is an old garden favorite, but most of the nurseries around here sell the newer all-yellow clones like ‘Hello Yellow.’ I really wanted the old fashioned wild-type orange form, too, and about two years ago I found a few plants growing wild along a power line cut. I collected seed, and the resulting seedlings started flowering this summer, about 18 months after germination.

Iris_domestica

The Propagator is the host of Six on Saturday. Head over there to see his Six and find links to the blogs of other participants.