Flowers and Plants

Snow Drops (Galanthus nivalis)

Photograph taken on Tuesday, February 20, 2018 by Henry
Snow Drops (Galanthus nivalis)

Snow Drops (Galanthus nivalis)

Just under two weeks ago (see Thursday, February 08, 2018) I posted a picture of the snow drops (Galanthus nivalis) coming up at the edge of the woods around my office building. Now they are pretty much up, even if there haven’t quite reached their peak. When I got to work this morning I figured I’d spend a few minutes with them before heading inside. This time, when I got down on the ground to take the pictures, I thought ahead and got a blanket out of the car to lie on. Last time I got a bit spot of dirt on my shirt and more on my jeans. Today I managed to stay clean. Spring is just around the corner. Not saying we won’t have more snow. That can happen well into March or even occasionally April. But spring is definitely coming.

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Grass

Photograph taken on Tuesday, February 13, 2018 by Henry
Grass

Grass

I took a few more pictures of snow drops (Galanthus nivalis) early this afternoon. They are nearly ready to open, probably in the next day or two if the weather remains to balmy. Nevertheless, I just posted a picture of snow drops and I try not to repeat too often or too quickly (except for baby pictures, those are always allowed). I’ll be back to them shortly, when they have well and truly begun to bloom. In the meantime, I went up into the upland portion of the 12 acre lot next to my office. This is filled to a large extent with ragweed and mugwort, as well as goldenrod, grass, and a few small trees. It was quite wet because of the 48 hours or so of rain that we recently got. The soles of my shoes are cracked and water seeped in, soaking my socks. But it was nice to be outdoors on such a beautiful day.

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Snow Drops (Galanthus nivalis)

Photograph taken on Thursday, February 08, 2018 by Henry
Snow Drops (Galanthus nivalis)

Snow Drops (Galanthus nivalis)

After taking the picture of the sparrow (see previous post) I headed back toward my van to get the rest of my things and go into the office. As I walked along the edge of the woods, it occurred to me that the snow drops (Galanthus nivalis) would be coming up soon, if they have not started already. I looked and sure enough, they are well on their way to blooming. It isn’t spring yet, but it’s coming and I know there are a lot of folks who are ready for warmer weather. I love the early spring ephemerals and this is one of the earliest.

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Schefflera Leaves

Photograph taken on Wednesday, February 07, 2018 by Henry
Schefflera Leaves

Schefflera Leaves

This is one of our more successful houseplants and it’s one I can recommend to people who don’t have particularly green fingers. It’s not very needy and it’s happy in a wide range of conditions. It does best with a very bright, south or west facing window but it can survive with less. This is one of the houseplants that we put outside during the summer, making sure it isn’t in full sun during the hottest part of the day, which can be a bit too much for it. This one is in a pot with a small, purple leaved rubber plant (Ficus elastica).

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Echeveria Flowers

Photograph taken on Sunday, February 04, 2018 by Henry
Echeveria Flowers

Echeveria Flowers

It snowed lightly this morning but by the time we were home from church it had all turned to rain. It was a fairly heavy rain and a fairly gloomy, cool day. Cathy and I decided we’d like to see a little green so we went to Behnke in Beltsville to spend a little time in their greenhouse looking at house plants. There were a few things we were interested in but didn’t actually buy anything this time. These little yellow flowers are on what I think is an Echeveria, although I didn’t actually check and often they are labeled simply “succulent”. It was a nice outing and a nice way to spend a cold, rainy Sunday afternoon.

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Tree Tops

Photograph taken on Friday, February 02, 2018 by Henry
Tree Tops

Tree Tops

It’s been wintry again, which is alright by me, especially seeing as how it’s winter. Our winters are relatively mild compared to some but colder than others, which is sort of what living in a temperate climate is all about, I guess. I pretty much stayed in my office today, with a brief walk across campus and back for a meeting. Other than that I was focused on the task at hand. I took a short break in the early afternoon to take a few pictures but didn’t leave my office to do it. This is the top of a fairly large elm tree on the side of our parking lot. There are two of them that have managed to hold out against Dutch Elm Disease and this is the smaller of the two. They’re likely to go at some point but I’ll enjoy them until that day comes.

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Black Walnut Husk

Photograph taken on Monday, January 29, 2018 by Henry
Black Walnut Husk

Black Walnut Husk

I walked around outside my building for a little while today, looking for something to photograph. I had a picture of a rusty chain last week and in the same area, on one of the picnic tables that are stored there, was this husk of an eastern black walnut (Juglans nigra) seed. They are quite popular with the squirrels. The birds basically leave them along because there aren’t any bird around here with the ability to get into the shells. With the gnawing ability common in rodents, however, squirrels have no trouble with these delicious (and relatively high calorie) nuts.

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Sycamore Leaf

Photograph taken on Friday, January 26, 2018 by Henry
Sycamore Leaf

Sycamore Leaf

It was a beautiful day and I went out into the woods for a little while during lunch time. There was ice on a drainage pond in the woods near my building but in the sun it was quite pleasant. I got down onto the ground and took some pictures of this sycamore leaf (American sycamore, Platanus occidentalis). They are large and heavy and really pretty with the sun shining through them. I also found a small deer antler that had been shed. It was only six or seven inches long and had no forks, but I picked it up to keep, anyway.

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Mushrooms

Photograph taken on Thursday, January 25, 2018 by Henry
Mushrooms

Mushrooms

Do you like mushrooms? Cathy and I both do. Dorothy isn’t a fan so I have to leave them out (or cook them separately) when she is home. Now that she’s back at school, I’m buying them in bulk again. Great Wall Supermarket has big bags of these mushrooms and they go pretty well with just about everything I cook. Tonight that was hamburgers with mushroom gravy. What I really love are porcini (a.k.a. cep, Boletus edulis), which have such a wonderful, earthy flavour. Bought dried in very small packets they are convenient but quite expensive. I really should buy them a pound or two at a time, which brings the price per ounce down quite a bit. I don’t think I’m ready to buy a 25 pound bag, though. Walmart has one listed for $1,048.32. I don’t think so. Sorry.

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Life’s A Beech

Photograph taken on Thursday, January 18, 2018 by Henry
American Beech Leaves

American Beech Leaves

I love beech trees in the winter. They hold their leaves which turn a beautiful, copper brown. They are especially nice against all the grey of a normal winter woodland and with the sun shining on and through them they are particularly nice. I’ve had a few pictures of beech leaves in the fog, which is also magical, but today was sunny and they were glowing in the sun. It’s been something of a crazy winter so far, with temperatures down around zero (Fahrenheit) and then up into the 60s. We have had a few minor snows but nothing of any great depth. Also, they have come when it was cold enough that it was easily swept off the sidewalk instead of needing to be shoveled. But there’s a lot of winter yet, so you never know.

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Kalanchoe Flowers

Photograph taken on Wednesday, January 17, 2018 by Henry
Kalanchoe Flowers

Kalanchoe Flowers

We’ve had somewhat mixed success with houseplants over the years. We have a few that have lasted really well. I have a snake plant (Sansevieria trifasciata) in my office that Dorothy’s second grade teacher gave me when they moved to Florida. That was 11 or 12 years ago and it’s doing really well. We have a very large Kaffir lily (Clivia miniata) in our kitchen that gets put out into a shady spot in the yard most years. On the other hand, some plant seem to just barely hang on to life. This one, a Kalanchoe (Kalanchoe blossfeldiana), isn’t really doing all that well. It is blooming, however, so it deserves a picture.

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Buddleia

Photograph taken on Thursday, November 30, 2017 by Henry
Buddleia

Buddleia

The buddleia blooms are long gone and with them the butterflies and bees. It’s been cold enough that the insects that live through the winter as adults have all gone to ground and those that don’t are returning to dust. The colors of summer are gone and the colors of fall have faded into brown and grey. But the buddleia bushes still have some interesting features. Where the flower clusters were there are now mostly empty seed capsules. I think they are pretty, especially close up.

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Autumn’s Last Hurrah

Photograph taken on Monday, November 27, 2017 by Henry
Autumn's Last Hurrah

Autumn’s Last Hurrah

I’ve posted a picture of leaves on this maple tree before but it’s one of only a few in my daily rounds that still has it’s autumn finery on display. As I post this, on the Sunday after the Monday when it was taken, the tree is totally leafless. So, this was pretty much it for this year’s display. Actually, there are still leaves on many of the Bradford pears on Norbeck and there are some sweet gums that are yet to reach their peak color, so there may be one or two more leaf pictures yet this fall, but we’re getting to the end.

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Beech Leaves, Lake Frank

Photograph taken on Saturday, November 25, 2017 by Henry
Beech Leaves, Lake Frank

Beech Leaves, Lake Frank

It was a quite beautiful, late fall day today and some of us went on a walk around Lake Frank. We started and ended at Flower Valley Park on Hornbeam so we were starting a fair way from the lake. In total we walked about 4.75 miles but by the time I was thinking we might turn back we were about half the way around and there wasn’t much point. In addition to family on the walk were two old friends, by which I mean friends I’ve known for a long time, not that they are particularly old. It was good to get caught up on their families and lives. I really need to make more of an effort to keep up with people, but day to day life seems to get in the way.

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Red Maple Leaves

Photograph taken on Monday, November 20, 2017 by Henry
Red Maple Leaves

Red Maple Leaves

The vast majority of trees have finished dropping their leaves around here and winter is basically starting. It’s not terribly cold but our winters are not generally very bitter. A few trees, however, are clinging to their autumnal colors. There is a small line of maple trees on our company campus that are really quite amazingly red. They have lost a relatively few leaves so far and are quite stunning. I stopped on the way back to my office from a meeting today long enough to take a few pictures.

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Schlumbergera truncata (Thanksgiving Cactus)

Photograph taken on Monday, November 13, 2017 by Henry
Schlumbergera truncata (Thanksgiving Cactus)

Schlumbergera truncata (Thanksgiving Cactus)

Our Thanksgiving cactus (Schlumbergera truncata) is blooming right on schedule this year. It’s such a cheerful color to brighten up the kitchen and I’m happy for it. It’s a fairly unassuming plant most of the year but as with many cacti, its flowers are remarkable. We have a half dozen of them and some are doing better than others but they are relatively easy plants, not asking for a lot of attention, which is good, because they really don’t get much from us. And yet, this is what they give us.

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Euonymus japonicus (Japanese Spindle)

Photograph taken on Saturday, November 11, 2017 by Henry
Euonymus japonicus (Japanese Spindle)

Euonymus japonicus (Japanese Spindle)

The hedge. Along the north side of our property is a hedge of Euonymus japonicus (Japanese spindle, although I never really call it anything other than Euonymus). It’s pretty healthy and flourishes even in rough years. The deer seem to like it and when it’s in bloom, the entire hedge buzzes with hundreds of bees. The flowers are not at all showy, but they are quite sweet smelling and last for a few weeks. The fruit, shown here, is quite interesting, I think, and adds a small amount of color at a time of year when it’s very welcome.

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Grass Seeds

Photograph taken on Wednesday, November 08, 2017 by Henry
Grass Seeds

Grass Seeds

We often don’t pay a lot of attention to grass that’s gone to seed. There are some grasses, though, that are specifically grown for the ornamental value of their seed heads. This is a relatively small one, growing in a small bed near the older parking garage next to one of the buildings across campus. I was there all day for a class (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday this week) but had a chance to get out during our lunch break. I also found some oriental bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus), an invasive species similar to our native American bittersweet (C. scandens).

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Maple Leaves On A Rainy Day

Photograph taken on Tuesday, November 07, 2017 by Henry
Maple Leaves On A Rainy Day

Maple Leaves On A Rainy Day

It was an absolutely beautiful day today but I was stuck indoors for almost all of it. I’m in a class today, tomorrow, and Thursday and that’s keeping me in the classroom. Nevertheless, we took a break for lunch and I used the opportunity to go outside. It was raining. Actually, it was raining fairly hard and I wasn’t really dressed for it. I still went out and enjoyed the colors. Overcast days are often the best for fall color. Add rain and it only gets better. These maple leaves are over a set of stairs down to the building I was in today and they were so beautiful. I love a rainy day.

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Zelkovas on Norbeck

Photograph taken on Friday, November 03, 2017 by Henry
Zelkova serrata

Zelkova serrata

Every year I get to enjoy the three lines of Zelkova serrata planted on either side and in the median of Norbeck Road between Rocking Spring Drive and Westbury Road. Other parts of Norbeck have Bradford pears, and they are nice in their seasons but are not, in my mind, nearly as impressive as the Zelkovas in their autumn orangeness. Some years it seems more rust colored but this year it’s a brilliant orange. They are particularly nice on overcast days but beggars can’t be choosers and I’ll take them as they come. I stopped on the way home and took a few dozen pictures, waiting for breaks in the traffic so as not to get run over.

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