Tag Archive | Maryland
Peril in the Milkweed Patch: Monarch Caterpillars Under Siege
It is early autumn, and the super generation of monarch butterflies – those destined to live long enough to fly to Mexico — is hatching as caterpillars from barrel-shaped eggs laid meticulously on the underside of milkweed leaves. While the butterflies that laid the eggs will never make the epic journey south, this generation will. […]
The Plant That Escaped the Garden
Native to Europe, north Africa and areas in Asia, the lesser celandine was introduced into the American garden landscape in the 1900’s for its beautiful shiny yellow flowers and glossy green kidney shaped leaves. The plant adapted so well to our gardens that it escaped into nearby native woodlands where it formed thick mats of […]
The Non-Native Beauty
In my daughter’s Maryland spring backyard, I discovered a dainty blue wildflower growing in the shade cast by trees and in the shadow of a wooden fence that borders her property. With scalloped leaves and four petaled flowers, the slender speedwell thrives in the moist soils here. A non-native, this plant traveled from Europe to […]
Plums by the Beach
My favorite shrub of beach environments is the beach plum. I always look forward to its prolific blooms of five-petaled white flowers in the spring. Once pollinated by bees and other pollinators, it produces lots of fruit that are green at first, but by the end of the summer the fruit ripen into a deep-purple […]
Roses are Red, Violets are…
It is spring in the northeast and mid-Atlantic, a perfect time to find violets of many different species. During a recent visit to my daughter’s house in Maryland, I was amazed at how ubiquitous the common blue violet was in her neighborhood. Lawns were dotted with the blue blossoms of the common blue violet. These […]
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