How Much is that Wabbit in the Window?
Our house cat, Jake, was recently caught salivating over the idea of wabbit soup for dinner.
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Snap, Wiggle, and Plop
When Bill and his crew were planting trillium seedlings in our outdoor production beds last week, they spotted what first appeared to be a large stump that mysteriously showed up in the middle of one of the beds. Further examination revealed it to be our native common snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina), who had chosen one
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Modeling the latest in sheer design
We caught a glimpse of our Carolina anole, Naomi Gamble, slinking down the green carpet last week, posing in the latest sheer, skin-revealing, summer design from the Yves Saint Laurent spring collection. What a fashionably sly creature.
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Mexican Beautyberry
Looking lovely in late winter is the Mexican beautyberry, Callicarpa acuminata. Long after most beautyberry fruit has been long gone, the tawny purple fruit of Callicarpa acuminata ripen. The Mexican beautyberry plant matures around 4′ tall x 8′ wide, and thrives in light shade. While the fruit are loved by wildlife, it’s often wildlife that
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Who goes there?
To paraphrase the late Carl Sandburg, “The fog comes on big cat feet. It sits on the greenhouse on silent haunches and then moves on.” Sure enough, we arrived at work last week to discover that a bobcat had traversed the top of one of our greenhouses. Through the years, we’ve had several animals that
Waiting on Door Dash
What a lovely surprise to wake up recently to this Cope’s gray treefrog (Hyla chrysoscelis), who had parked itself on our front door handle…obviously, waiting for its meal to arrive. These frogs, which typically live for 7-9 years have a voracious appetite for both insects as well as other frogs. Despite going in and out
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Pink Beauty
Looking good in the garden now is Callicarpa americana ‘Welch’s Pink’, discovered by former PDN’er Matt Welch in East Texas. This is pink fruited form of our native American beautyberry, Callicarpa americana. The fruit are an important fall food source for many species of birds.
Here’s Looking at You, Kid
While weeding in the garden last week, I had the strange feeling I was being watched. Sure enough, a Fowler’s Toad was watching my every move from his subterranean summer timeshare. These particular native toads like to live near water, so our rain garden provided the perfect habitat. Ecologically healthy gardens make great homes for
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Cherry Bomb
The superb (and spineless) Ilex ‘Cherry Bomb’ is looking amazing in the garden this week. Our specimen is now 22 years old, and measures 35′ tall x 15′ wide. It originated at the US National Arboretum as part of Dr. William Kosar’s breeding program, and is a 1959/1960 seedling from Ilex ‘Nellie R. Stevens’, most
Snackin’ in the garden
In the dim pre-dawn light, I was making my morning trek to retrieve the morning newspaper, when my attention was pulled to a pain-like screeching coming from the garden. It wasn’t hard to follow the noise, which turned out to be a hungry praying mantis, squeezing the life from a still struggling cicada, who’d found
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