Flowers and Plants

Phalaenopsis Orchids

Photograph taken on Friday, December 20, 2024 by Henry
Phalaenopsis Orchids

Phalaenopsis Orchids

In the 2​1⁄2 years Cathy’s mom has been in assisted living, she’s been given quite a few flowers including two small, Phalaenopsis orchid plants which were in bloom when she got them. She was able to enjoy them and when they stopped blooming we brought them home and I’ve been keeping them on our kitchen windowsill. Recently both of them came back into bloom at the same time (the second time for one of them and the first for the other). I took the first to start blooming to her but then she was in the hospital for a little while and I brought it back home. They are now gracing our kitchen window with lovely blooms. I don’t remember who gave them to Margaret but I’m thankful for them every time I’m at the kitchen sink.

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Dendrolycopodium dendroideum (Tree Groundpine)

Photograph taken on Friday, November 29, 2024 by Henry
Dendrolycopodium dendroideum (Tree Groundpine)

Dendrolycopodium dendroideum (Tree Groundpine)

We drove out to Annapolis Rock Road today and walked on a series of trails there, part of the Patuxent River State Park. We thought that the trails would overlook the Patuxent River and according to some maps I’ve found, some of them do, but not those that we walked. It’s quite a maze of trails, actually, and since it’s almost all in the woods, it’s not easy to keep a sense of direction.

A few times we came across patches of tree groundpine, (Dendrolycopodium dendroideum), a native clubmoss. It’s a surprisingly green sight this time of year, and very pretty. Other than that, there wasn’t really all that much to photograph. Although we got to these trails on Annapolis Rock Road, this is not the Annapolis Rock off of the Appalachian Trail near Interstate 70 and US 40 about halfway between Frederick and Hagerstown. That’s a place we really should go at some point, but today was not that day.

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Beech Leaves

Photograph taken on Sunday, November 10, 2024 by Henry
Beech Leaves

Beech Leaves

After visiting Cathy’s mom this afternoon we drove to Woodlawn Manor and walked to Sandy Spring and back. I carried my camera, as I nearly always do, but only took a few photos. It was late in the day, overcast, and fairly dark. Even if I had seen birds, I don’t think there would have been enough light to get a good photo in the woods. I took a few pitures of horses before we went into the woods but they aren’t very good. I considered not posing any picture from today. I’m not bound to post a picture for every day as I was from 2011 through 2020, but I still try to post a picture from the days where I take any. I do make exceptions when the only pictures I take are not for sharing for some reason. But in general, if I took one or more pictures, I’ll post one.

I love beech trees this time of year. Our woods have quite a few American beech (Fagus grandifolia) and of course we also see the European or common beech (Fagus sylvatica) especially in yards, parks, and gardens. Most of the varieties available in nurseries are F. sylvatica. One that I love in the spring is the tri-colour beech, F. sylvatica ‘Roseomarginata’. There is one at Asbury Methodist Village and in the spring it’s a vivid scarlet. Its leaves can’t really take our summer sun, though, so it’s not really an ideal tree for our climate.

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Japanese Forest Grass, &tc.

Photograph taken on Sunday, June 23, 2024 by Henry
Japanese Forest Grass (<em>Hakonechloa macra</em>), Siberian Bugloss (<em>Brunnera macrophylla</em>), and Northern Maidenhair Fern (<em>Adiantum pedatum</em>)

Japanese Forest Grass (Hakonechloa macra), Siberian Bugloss (Brunnera macrophylla), and Northern Maidenhair Fern (Adiantum pedatum)

At the north end of our yard there is a relatively shady area, partially under a cherry tree. Cathy planted the two Japanese forest grass plants (Hakonechloa macra) you can see here. They are the chartreuse tufts in the center and lower left of the photo. The silvery, heart-shaped leaves are Siberian bugloss (Brunnera macrophylla), also known as great forget-me-not (but not the same as Myosotis species). In the upper right of the photo is a northern maidenhair fern (Adiantum pedatum) that originally came from my father’s garden and which I divided a couple years ago and planted in various places around the yard. The base of the small tree in the top center of the photo is one of two fastigiate English oaks (Quercus robur) I planted about ten years ago.

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Catalpa ovata at Sunfish Pond

Photograph taken on Thursday, May 30, 2024 by Henry
Catalpa ovata, Sunfish Pond

Catalpa ovata, Sunfish Pond

We took a walk in Flower Valley Park this evening. I took my camera but for the most part it was too dark in the woods to get any pictures. I took some at Sunfish Pond and this is one of those, with a catalpa (Catalpa ovata) in bloom. It’s a nice tree for a large scale landscape, probably too big for many smaller yards but at maturity it can be quite impressive. In the early 19990s we were looking at houses and saw one north of Boyds with a very large catalpa tree. It was an interesting property with an outbuilding built as an observatory. The roof slid on tracks to open up to the sky for the previous owner’s telescope.

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Echinacea ‘Marmalade’

Photograph taken on Sunday, May 26, 2024 by Henry
Echinacea ‘Marmalade’

Echinacea ‘Marmalade’

We made our annual pilgrimage to Fehr’s Nursery this afternoon. Cathy buys her Mother’s Day present on this trip and while I often pick out one or two things, it’s mostly for her. I do enjoy the flowers and bring my camera to take some pictures. I really like this coneflower, even though it’s not in perfect shape. We didn’t buy this one but got a pretty good collection of plants, both annuals and a few more perennials.

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Tradescantia virginiana (Spiderwort)

Photograph taken on Friday, May 10, 2024 by Henry
Tradescantia virginiana (Spiderwort)

Tradescantia virginiana (Spiderwort)

This is one of my favorite perennials. It’s commonly known as spiderwort and we have quite a few of them growing around the garden. There are varieties with lighter, more yellow leaves. There are varieties with pinker (less purple) flowers. I’ve even seen one with white flowers but so far haven’t found that one for sale anywhere. I’d definitely get one if I did. Each individual flower lasts only a short time but there are so many of them, the plant is constantly in bloom for a good while. This one is growing on our back patio and I’m not sure it’s even in a container. I think it was in a plastic grocery bag and got left there and now you’d think it was in the ground, it’s so happy. It probably should be moved into the ground, but I hat to mess with a good thing.

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Peony ‘Coral Sunset’

Photograph taken on Wednesday, May 08, 2024 by Henry
Peony ‘Coral Sunset’

Peony ‘Coral Sunset’

Our peonies are in bloom and once again, I couldn’t be happier with these amazing flowers. They don’t have a particularly long blooming period and in general, they take longer to become really well established than some other plants but it’s hard to argue with even a few flowers like this. When I first planted them they sent up leaves and then a single bud on each of the three plants. Now I’m getting multiple flowers per plant and it should only get better as the years go by. These are especially wonderful in the morning when they are in full sun. What’s not to like?

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Dogwood Blossoms

Photograph taken on Sunday, April 28, 2024 by Henry
Dogwood Blossoms

Dogwood Blossoms

This is the third year I’ve taken basically this same picture. This circular window is in the front of our church and for a week or two each year the dogwoods on the hill outside give us a show. They bloomed earlier last year and my picture was from April 16. In 2022 it was on April 24. So although the blooms this year seem earlier than previous years, the dogwoods, at least, are not. It reminded me that last year (on May 7) we went to the National Arboretum and really enjoyed their dogwood collection. I don’t know if we’ll be able to make it there in the next week or two, but that would be nice.

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Erythronium americanum (Trout Lily)

Photograph taken on Sunday, March 31, 2024 by Henry
Erythronium americanum (Trout Lily)

Erythronium americanum (Trout Lily)

After the sunrise and morning worship service, we stopped at home and then took brunch to Cathy’s mom. By ‘we’ I mean Cathy and Dorothy. Dorothy came down for the weekend and we were glad to have her here. Brunch was relatively simple, with quiche Lorraine, fruit salad, Kings Hawaiian rolls, orange juice, and sparkling cider. We also brought a lamb cake that Cathy made yesterday and Dorothy decorated this morning.

From there we went to Berryville Road where it touches Seneca Creek. We walked upstream along the creek and enjoyed the Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica) and yellow trout-lilies (Erythronium americanum). It was perhaps a week or two before the real peak but it was still pretty amazing.

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Sanguinaria canadensis (Bloodroot)

Photograph taken on Sunday, March 17, 2024 by Henry
Sanguinaria canadensis (Bloodroot)

Sanguinaria canadensis (Bloodroot)

We stoped at the Agriculteral History Farm Park today and especially enjoyed their shade garden. The bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) was in bloom, along with other early spring ephemerals. The Master Gardener’s demonstration garden has only just started to come alive so there wasn’t much to see there, except a large frog on the stones by the little pool.

Wa walked over to see the chickens and I stipped a few times to get pictures of a phoebe (Sayornis phoebe) and another bird I’m not sure about. It was a lovely day and, as usual, we enjoyed being outdoors.

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Saucer Magnolia

Photograph taken on Saturday, March 16, 2024 by Henry
Saucer Magnolia

Saucer Magnolia

We were at Tsai-Hong’s house this afternoon and enjoyed some blooms in her garden. She has a lot of daffodils, which are wonderful, and the berries on her winterberry (Ilex verticillata) are wonderful. Nevertheless, the star of the show right now is the saucer magnolia. There are some great varieties of magnolia in the Little Girl series of hybrids developed at the National Arboretum in the mid-1950s from crosses between M. liliiflora and M. stellata. I don’t know if this is one of those or if it has M. denudata in it’s genetics, which is possible. Regardless, it’s lovely.

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Seneca Bluffs

Photograph taken on Sunday, March 10, 2024 by Henry
Seneca Bluffs

Seneca Bluffs

We walked out to Seneca Creek today. There were a few bluebells out but it’s a bit early for a really great show. I love the view across the creek to the bluffs where there is a grove of Canadian hemlocks (Tsuga canadensis). That’s the subject of this photo, which honestly doesn’t do it justice. I saw a animal of some sort that I think was in the weasel but I really didn’t see it well enough to know more than that. Mostly it was great to be out. The water was fairly high and we got stopped at a few side creeks where we can sometimes cross. You can also see how brown the water is. Normally it’s quite clear and a wonderful, green color.

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Pavonia multiflora (Brazilian Candle Plant)

Photograph taken on Saturday, January 27, 2024 by Henry
Pavonia multiflora (Brazilian Candle Plant)

Pavonia multiflora (Brazilian Candle Plant)

We really needed to get out today. In the winter it’s not quite as easy to find growing things, but we are fortunate to live in an area where there are places to go on days like this. Brookside Gardens, described on the Montgomery Parks Web site as an “award-winning 50-acre public display garden within Wheaton Regional Park. Included in the gardens are several distinct areas: Aquatic Garden, Azalea Garden, Butterfly Garden, Children’s Garden, Rose Garden, Japanese Style Garden, Trial Garden, Rain Garden, and the Woodland Walk. The Formal Gardens areas include a Perennial Garden, Yew Garden, the Maple Terrace, and Fragrance Garden. Brookside Gardens also features two conservatories for year-round enjoyment. Admission to the gardens is free.” We spent time both in the conservatories and walking through the grounds. This Brazilian candle plant (Pavonia multiflora) in the first conservatory has very interesting flowers.

In the outdoor gardens, most things are still dormant but we were happy to see different varieties of Chinese witchhazel (Hamamelis mollis) in bloom. The snow drops (Galanthus nivalis) were also in bloom. We went there specifically hoping to see both of those.

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Winter Tree

Photograph taken on Tuesday, December 26, 2023 by Henry
Winter Tree

Winter Tree

We went for a late afternoon walk at Sandy Spring today, starting from the Friends Meeting House. It was at this Friends Meeting that my great, great grandparents meet, sometime around 1850 (they were married in 1952). One of them traveled up from Washington, D.C. and the other from Northern Virginia, which was more of an effort then than it is now (even with our traffic problems).

A road runs south from the meeting house across a field to the spring. We turned right just before the spring and looped around, basically circling a large field and going into the woods a little before coming back up to the spring. It was foggy day and getting foggier through the afternoon. We didn’t see many birds and I wasn’t able to photograph any. I like the way this tree looks, though, with the green lichen on it against the foggy background.

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Croyden Creek Walk

Photograph taken on Sunday, November 12, 2023 by Henry
Croyden Creek Walk

Croyden Creek Walk

After church and a visit with Margaret, we took a walk from the Croyden Creek Nature Center. We headed down to the creak and went downstream towards where Croyden Creek joins Rock Creek, just above where Baltimore Avenue crosses Rock Creek. Then we turned uphill to the north and followed a trail that loops around close to Norbeck Road and came back to the old cut for Avery Road, when is used to go through this way. We continued upstream from there past a small pond and returned by way of the civic center fields. It was a very pleasant walk. Most of the leaves were down, especially on the tulip poplars, which are the dominant tree in these woods. But there was enough color that it was still quite pretty.

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Viburnum acerifolium (Mapleleaf Viburnum)

Photograph taken on Saturday, October 28, 2023 by Henry
Viburnum acerifolium (Mapleleaf Viburnum)

Viburnum acerifolium (Mapleleaf Viburnum)

We went for a walk at Lake Needwood today. I didn’t get many pictures. We did see a few birds and I got a few of a great blue heron in a tree but they aren’t all that good. We saw quite a few of these mapleleaf viburnum (Viburnum acerifolium) growing in the woods. It’s considerably more noticeable this time of year because of it’s striking fall color. At first I thought they were small maples but the dark blue (almost black) berries gave them away. Nice woodland shrubs. It was a popular day to be out and there were lots of people on the trail.

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At The General Omar Bradley Oak

Photograph taken on Sunday, October 08, 2023 by Henry
Seth, Silas, Tsai-Hong, Iris, Eloise, Kaien, Dot, Cathy, Dorothy, and Henry

Seth, Silas, Tsai-Hong, Iris, Eloise, Kaien, Dot, Cathy, Dorothy, and Henry

We had a beautiful day at the farm with most of the family. The weather was amazing and it was really nice to be together. We walked to the big oak tree. Our neighbors named it the General Omar Bradley and we’ve adopted that name ourselves. We don’t know how old it is but it’s almost certainly over 200. The three kids each enjoyed sawing firewood (not from the oak) and we had a nice meal. We also walked in the orchard to see all the clearing work that’s been done.

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Anemone

Photograph taken on Saturday, October 07, 2023 by Henry
Anemone

Anemone

We took a brief trip to the Agricultural History Farm Park today. After wondering through the Master Gardeners demonstration garden and taking a few pictures, we went to the dahlia garden. We were fortunate enough to run into Nick Weber, who grows both dahlias and roses. It was great to see him and get caught up on things that are going on.

This is an anemone from the Master Gardeners garden, and I think they are beautiful. We haven’t had a lot of success with them, but I keep trying.

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Dionaea muscipula (Venus Flytrap)

Photograph taken on Wednesday, August 02, 2023 by Henry
Dionaea muscipula (Venus Flytrap)

Dionaea muscipula (Venus Flytrap)

A few of us went to the Green Swamp this morning. As usual, the humidity was a bit oppressive but it was actually cooler than it’s been most years and it wasn’t until we were nearly back to the car that I was starting to feel particularly uncomfortable. The trail goes through long-leaf pine savanna for the most part, but areas of that are separated by pocosins (evergreen shrub bogs). In the past there have been boardwalks through those but this year they were gone. I found out later that the preserve was technically closed, although there were no signs to that effect anywhere that we saw. The reason was that the boardwalks were out, having been destroyed in a wildfire. We managed to get through them and found four of the 14 carnivorous plants known to grow in the swamp. The four we saw were the Venux flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) shown here, along with a few sundews (Drosery species), yellow pitcher plant (Sarracenia flava), and purple pitcher plants (Sarracenia purpurea subsp. venosa). All in all, I’d say it was a successful outing.

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