Leaves are gone now, and some trees look better undressed than clothed. The spectacular weather gives one hope through the working days as we get ready for spring by tucking in our little buddies in fresh wood chips, respacing them appropriately, and generally cleaning up. We drive back and forth all day, and these birches breathe fresh life into my soul on sunny days when I see them like this. I planted them ~35 years ago, no more than five feet tall and as thick as my pinky at the time. Well-fed trees shed their bark from now through March, a wondrous feat of nature as the branch cambium and xylem adds another ring then the trunk does the same thing. They alternate back and forth yearly and it is this overlapping tissue that gives trees their strength. On birches it’s extremely important to properly feed them if the whiteness of the bark is what you are shooting for. This is the size of our birch trees-$160 for five gallon 8-9’ tall trees. Active, happy trees, even with no leaves. It musta been about fifteen years ago that I ceased my applications of pest control on our plants. Since then, our nursery has been FILLED to the brim with life. Insects, wasps, bees, birds of every description. When the leaves fall, the birds nests become visible. Sometimes I collect them. Their construction is amazingly amazing, and to think that they lived there all year without my knowledge is a testament to evolution. This is a birds nest I’ve never seen before. It looks like a Japanese restaurant hand roll or a cone without the ice cream. It’s small, about 2.5” across and about 3.5” deep. I’m going to get it and bring it into the store where I have a little collection of nests. Cool!!! We make our own soils with lots of organic matter that needs to cool off by turning the pile over and over every few days. Steam rises. I used to be an aggressive skier, and this scene reminded me this morning of the tops of mountains out west when the wind had its way with the snow. Funny how sometimes dusty memories pop up at work during mundane tasks. Sod is available year-round at the nursery, and this morning we had to lay out yet another delivery that came in this morning. Two year old bluegrass sod, same exact stuff as Yankee stadium- same sod farm. We just potted two hundred “Asclepias incarnata,” the number one BEST butterfly-attracting perennial. You can see how white and active the roots are now. Fall potting rocks. Spring warmth wakes em up and we then find plants five times bigger than this little fella. This cocoon caught my eye on a columnar hornbeam. I brought the branch closer to look. These are indeed the ridged hornbeam leaves covered by some sort of fabric woven and rolled into some sort of golf ball- sized sleeping bag for junior. A perfectly round entry or exit or ventilation hole was on the top. It wasn’t empty- that I could tell from the weight. I’ll find out what it is and report back. If you love Mother Nature, get off the couch and go through the woods. There’s cool stuff to be found out there, at least I find it more and more interesting as I go through more and more seasons. Found out what it is! Everyone at some point in time experiences loss. I’ve been lucky, I have had no close personal loss until this fall as I witness my father in UNC Chapel Hill hospital receiving the best care modern medicine and caring nursing can offer. My dad is 92 and we worked together for 27 years when he then moved to NC. This was the irrigation pond reflecting the sunset the night before I left. Fog and smoke from wood stoves settled down upon a large field in Goldsboro, North Carolina on my way down to see dad, a spooky Civil War-looking scene. Ominous in a way. I went to college in Raleigh at NCSU, and back then the civil war was never far from my mind. It was all around us. The confederate flag was only associated with the war, not slavery (at all), and I can sympathize with confederate flag lovers when they say that it doesn’t necessarily prop up a slavery-lover’s racist angle. Only recently has that interpretation stretched into racism, although it is a very valid point. Now, when I see that flag proudly displayed, I’m immediately filled with hatred. I have 13 hours of thinking to myself each time I go to see my parents in NC. Driving down to North Carolina has become routine, and this trip seemed to go quickly although I was in no hurry to get there in a strange sort of way. Part of me wanted to hurry, the other part slowed me down. When I came to empty roads that curved off into the woods, it seemed that it was illustrative of what awaited me, an uncertain unknown slurry of intense emotions. I left yesterday when it was nap time, and went to the beach to debrief myself. I watched pre-Hurricane waves roll in, and Pelicans zoom in line with each other just millimeters above the surf, an impressive feat of agility and skill, an effective predator of fish. The sun was swallowed up by the clouds before it reached the horizon, a hint that my time at the beach had come to an end. Peetee and I got up and stretched and left the beach to go somewhere for the night. This day will repeat itself over and over again until my reason for being here is no longer. Post Script Tuesday, November 10th, 4:58pm: Well, all things must, at some point, come to an end. My visit here is over now, time to return to Connecticut. It’s going to be a sorrowful drive, that’s for sure. I was driving home through a hurricane the day after dad died, and a song came on that made me pull over. Between the lashing of the storm on the windshield, the annoying rhythm of the rental car’s cheap windshield wipers, and the mist in my eyes, I couldn’t see much. I was in no particular hurry yet wanted to get home, the same conflict I felt on the way down. Funny it was then, that when the song ended, so did the worst of the rain. I pulled myself together and put the car in drive and headed home. Although this song’s words don’t exactly match my experience, it matters not. Loss of someone in your life stings, no matter how it happens. This is an IRRESPONSIBLE homeowner’s ignored loaded gun just waiting to kill someone. Not funny that it’s at my house. I’ve been looking at it for years. Today when I got home I let the dog out and she was running around under it as it blew back and forth like the masts on the “Caine mutiny” in the scene with the terrible storm as the ship was lashed by horrible winds and waves. Im gonna slice it up this week- more work. It just never stops. Look around your yard. See trees with a tilt? Bad crotches? Pulpy trunk? Cavities?? Holes where branches used to be? If you said “yes” to any of those questions, call a tree guy for removal. To ignore dangerous trees is akin to leaving a loaded and cocked revolver on the floor for a child to play with. WHY would you do that? Right, you wouldn’t. So if you have dangerous trees on your property, it is prudent to have them removed. The Boston Globe reported a few years ago that between 700-1,000 people in the US are killed every year by trees- a pathetic situation that we all should know about because there is no reason for someone to be crushed by a tree. I see articles in the nation’s papers showing pictures of trees that crushed people with the text stating “nobody knows” why the tree fell, but I can usually see from the pictures exactly why the tree fell and killed an 11 year old neighbor, or a family watching fireworks in the town green (both actual examples). The nation’s liability laws call these deaths “acts of god” to which I scoff. These deaths are not acts of god, they are crimes of negligence, and the laws need to be changed to reflect this reality. April 2020 update- new neighbors moved in to a house across the street, and when they did, I pointed out to the new neighbor twice how dangerous the tree in her front yard is. It’s actually two trees that grew as one up to about fifteen feet off the ground. The co-dominant leaders try to overtake the other but can’t as the yearly ring expansion squishes each touching side, compressing the tissue with wounding the result. Tannic acid is sent to the wound staining the bark in the most visible manner a deathly dark brown.. Added to this structural insult is the 20 degree tilt over the lawn and towards the newly-renovated house.
It’s been two or three years now since I first warned her, and the tree is still there. They must have forgotten about my warnings as they play with their newborn child on the lawn in the shade of that potentially murderous tree, having set up red plastic children’s toys below it. Here is a picture of the tree and a toy. Seeing this scenario when I drive by is absolutely horrifying, and I hope that when it does eventually fall, nobody is home. Predicting timing of tree collapse is like predicting earthquakes or volcanic eruptions, it's impossible to do, but it is an inevitability. One doesn't want to live life with regrets when it comes to life and limb issues. This spring as I toiled with all the beautiful perennial plants we sell, I studied flowers kinda like Einstein studied the heavens. I wondered why flowers have the shapes they have, the colors, the flower parts. Some flowers look similar, some look entirely and uniquely different, and I began to wonder “why” on a deeper level. Bumblebee view of a foxglove blossom at the nursery last spring. Why the tube (keeping unwanted pollinators out)? Why the colors (visible spectrum of bumblebees?)? Why the spots (advertising to bees that there is lunch at the end?)? So many questions but where to find answers??? Harder to see on the top of the tunnel is a band structures that give the visitor pollen, and take pollen from the hair on the bumblebee’s back thusly pollinating. The pollen touches certain flower parts (anther?) and travels up toward the stem fertilizing the ovary then turning into a seed. COMPLICATED!!! It all started when I saw a bumblebee vibrate it’s way up and into a foxglove blossom- colorful, intriguing, and mesmerizing. It was a perfect fit, like when my foot slides perfectly into my six month boots before work- made for each other. Because the relationship seemed preordained, I wondered how many years it took for this particular flower to become so cozy with this particular insect. Knowing the glacial pace of evolutionary change, I concluded that it must be MILLIONS OF YEARS. My relationship with bumblebees dates back decades. I used to pet them as they pollinate. THEY DO NOT CARE. They go on about their business uncaring about the world around them- single minded, focused. Pretty cool characters, maligned in the human’s uneducated uncaring world, the unsung hero pollinators, with honey bees getting all the positive press. Echinacea feed TONS of forms of life, Pollinators and birds alike. Who can blame them with such beauty. Humans see this flower as the WHOLE THING, yet insects see it for the TINY LITTLE yellow blossoms down deep inside the orange spurs. Insect friends need to lean down deep holding on tightly to pollinate. My questions about insect/flower evolution continued from flower to flower. This echinacea offers lots of feeding stations for every conceivable insect, everyone leaving well-fed. Echinacea flowers do not seem to attract insects with specialized body parts, unlike this knifofia perennial. There’s no place to land. Whomever pollinates this flower has to hover in the air and stick its probiscus way down deep whilst flying. Which insect? Why? Where did this specialized evolution occur, how long did it take to evolve? These and other questions bounce around inside the questioner’s brain with no clear understanding in sight. Out of focus honeybee toiling away last spring on campanula. It’s hard to slow down time long enough to capture some pollinators. Campanula blossom seems pretty easy to land and pollinate. ANY insect can do it. Balloon flower. What the hell? Why does it do this? After it opens, it’s a normal flower but before then, it’s out of this earth wonderfully interesting. Evening primrose flower blindingly stunning. Obviously this flower uses just one attribute to advertise to insects. Delphinium flower with tangled up body parts. How does an insect pollinate it??? Why so complex? It must be to keep out some and attract others, but WHY? Writing this blog takes a lot of time and energy. I took a few days off and now I’m back. The next picture shows Trollius globe flower, native to Russia. I stared at this flower for a long while. I see the brachts. I see the stamens. But what are the vertical flower parts for? Mother Nature wastes no energy making stuff for no reason, so I looked it up on the internet and actually found out what they are and what the flower does with them.
The vertical bars are plant filters, designed to allow a certain pollinator fly in to pollinate yet preventing anything bigger than that tiny fly in. That tiny fly pollinates the flower then lays eggs on the developing ovaries. The eggs hatch then eat no more than 25% of the seeds. The fly Pupates and flys away as an adult, completing its life cycle. The plant, deprived of 25% of its seeds, gets to propagate its species. FINE. But why? This one flower evolved with just ONE insect over millions of years, both developing specialized parts and sizes for a reason, but why? Will we ever know the wizardry of Mother Nature’s secrets? The magnificence of the insect world is lost on humans- we JUST DONT CARE. We better start caring before they are all gone, because it will be millions of years before the earth will ever produce such wonderful beings again. Humans are eradicating thousands of species a day (I made that number up but I’m not far off). What’s it going to take for normal people to give a shit about these wonderfully evolved innocent beings? Link to study on trollius pollination- caution- very scientific! link to study: https://www.bio-conferences.org/articles/bioconf/full_html/2018/02/bioconf_pdcmb2018_00018/bioconf_pdcmb2018_00018.html Groundcover perennial geranium with your mesmerizing veination, can’t wait for your return! Sexy veronica, belly dancing your way skyward for the pollinators! Black eyed susan, OBVIOUSLY! I wonder whom you were named after???
Pollinator pathways are made up of people and municipalities who have taken environmentalism into their own hands. If Washington won’t take any steps towards saving endangered insects and birds, well, we’re gonna do it ourselves! ONE PROPERTY AT A TIME. I killed my weedy crappy lawn out front that would have taken toxic chemicals to rejuvenate and reseeded it with clover and tall fescue. In SIX DAYS it came up and this pic is three weeks later. It’s NEVER BEEN FERTILIZED, because the clover fertilizes it for FREE. For forever!!! No more buying food for your lawn. No more STUPID ASININE “four step lawn programs.” This lawn will never ever need fertilizer, weed killers, insecticides, and because lawns with clover are dwarfed from the clover effect, it does not need to be mowed as often. Less time spent babying your lawn. No TOXIC CHEMICALS EVER AGAIN. Less mowing No feeding. NO MORE $$$ spent on your grass. Best of all, native insects eradicated by human selfishness have a place to get something to eat. I started my own “movement” at the nursery fifteen years ago when I realized that I hadn’t seen a honey bee in decades at the nursery. I had been spraying acephate (systemic insecticide) on everything preventatively. Why? So customers could get insect free plants. What was I spraying to kill?
I dunno. I was just doing what we in the industry do. For the customers. To hell with that, I said to myself! That first year, the honeybees returned, and I saw three monarch butterfly larvae for the first time in my life. I captured them, gave em to my kid who took them to school to pupate, nurture, and release in the courtyard with the class. |