Ruby-throated Hummingbirds

Tomorrow one hummingbird feeder will go up on my front porch. The time is about right, but I don’t know exactly when to expect my first Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris). I want to greet whoever shows up first, with a welcome mat and a feeder with its favorite syrup. The recipe: 1/4 cup sugar to 1 cup water, NO food coloring.

The season will start out very slowly. Male and female hummingbirds ready for mating season. Females, totally in charge of nesting. Selecting the site, collecting the materials and building the nest. Oh, I wish I’d discover one of those tiny nests. Over all these years of watching hummingbirds. Looking for the nests. No luck. By mid July into August, with juveniles at the feeders as well, I’ll be putting out many more feeders. They’ll be emptied quickly by the entertaining hungry little critters. Keeping me busy with great demand for many bags of sugar.

Many flowers await the hummingbirds as well, not just the feeders filled with syrup. In the image above Scarlet Beebalm (Monarda didyma) calls to the incredibly little bird. Also planted around my cabin, Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis) and a native honeysuckle, Trumpet Honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens) provide nectar for the birds.

The hummingbird above is a male juvenile. See his speckled throat? Those feathers will soon become the ruby color we all know and watch for. An iridescent ruby, showing up as black unless the light is just right. I’m so looking forward to having these travelers back. They bring with them luggage. Luggage filled with pure levity.

Mock Strawberry

Originally from India. Mock Strawberry (Potentilla indica). It appears very much like Wild Strawberry (Fragaria virginiana).

If you’re looking for the marvelous experience of eating Wild Strawberries more than likely you will be disappointed. The Mock Strawberry has very little flavor and is quite dry. But if you’re feeling adventuresome, it is edible.

You’ll find Mock Strawberries blooming in April. I’ve just wandered looking for blooms but didn’t come up with any flowers to photograph. So, they’ll be blooming soon. Their blooms are striking yellow, while Wild Strawberry blossoms are white with yellow centers. Keep that in mind. Yellow blooms are the Mock Strawberries.

The berries themselves are a bit different. While Wild Strawberries have seeds that are set into dimple like depressions in the fruit, and moist, the Mock Strawberry seeds are set on the surface of the round fruit which is dry. Leaves? Very similar. Each of their leaves is compound, composed of three leaflets. The edges of both leaves are serrated but the tips of those serrations on the Mock Strawberry leaves are more blunt, the serrations of the Wild Strawberry are more sharp. Best of luck with your berry hunting and let me know what you find.

Color

Oh color! I adore rich colors. Like in this photo of Virginia Bluebells just beginning to open in a back garden. White to soft pink to rich yummy pink to lavender and then periwinkle blue. Soon they will all be azure blue. I like the mixture in this image. Hmmm. This would make a lovely pastel painting.

To think that early on I was frightened to use color in my artwork. I used charcoal, pencil, crayon all black and white. My very favorite was to use a fine nib pen with India ink. Hatch marks with that fine nib and India ink would create such texture. I still use hatch marks, but love to add color.

Wild Strawberries

Their leaves are out there waiting. Possibly waiting for warm weather to inspire flowers. Wild Strawberries (Fragaria virginiana). Waiting for just the right day? angle of the sun? temperature? Maybe all of those things and others that haven’t even occurred to me.

But in past years there have been blooms as the calendar’s top page turns to April. Not this year. April 1 brought a treat for me, snow most of the day but with no accumulation. Surely temperatures that allow snow to fall would be a bit discouraging for Wild Strawberry blooms. But soon.

The little plants that volunteer in my gardens mischievously establishing themselves right where I’d rather they no be. Plants that show up within my sloping gardens where I’m not so fastidious. They’ll produce something wonderful.

Tiny luscious strawberries. Ripe Wild Strawberries in late May or early June? Maybe. A remarkable flavor. More intense than the best cultivated strawberry you’ll ever come across. Wondrous.

Wild Peach

Now blooming in the woods, a native to China.

It’s believed that Hernando de Soto brought the first Peach Trees (Prunus persica) to North America in 1539.

Now innumerable cultivars of those trees populate orchards. Thank goodness for those orchards. Peaches make summer so wonderful. And a tossed seed will eventually result in a random tree adding a spark of sweet pink to the woods.

Mayapple

Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) is a perennial herbaceous plant that is native to eastern North America.

In the past few days Mayapples have been poking their noses up through the surface of the earth in one of my gardens. The beginning of a beautiful process. They emerge with their leaves, either one or two, folded like a work of meticulous origami.

As time passes the leaves expand, reaching to greet whatever or whoever might be witnessing the process.

If there are a pair of leaves those two leaves will share a stem that forks. In the axil of the stem there will be a bud which opens to be about 2 inches wide, a circle of 6 to 9 waxy white petals.

More than likely these Mayapples are genetically identical, growing from rhizomes spreading in the soil. Making pollination of the flowers unlikely since genetic diversity is needed.

As mid-summer arrives the leaves will go dormant leaving their home as if they had never been there, until the next spring, when it will happen all over again.

Fox Sparrow

Another winter has come and gone and no Fox Sparrow (Passerella iliaca). During only two winters I’ve had one come to visit, over the course of perhaps fourteen years. Each of those two winters, just one individual that I saw and captured in pixels.

A large and chunky sparrow. The Fox Sparrow hangs out with other sparrows, so the size difference is easily spotted. That, and the warm reddish brown coloring make one easy to identify. They do a cute little shuffle as they search for seeds in the soil. One hop forward and then a jump back with both feet raking the soil.

I’ve read that they really like to have a brush pile close by. That should be easy to provide. Hoping that will make a difference. Maybe the other birds will like it too.

Sunflower

Sunflower (Helianthus). The happy flower. You bet.

Today would have been my Dad’s 96th birthday. He LOVED sunflowers. He loved to grow huge sunflowers!

This post is a salute to my Dad’s favorite flower. A flower that’s popular with many creatures including bees.

A flower that brings on the butterflies.

A flower that inspires artists. A flower that inspires me to do pastel paintings.

A flower that invites birds to dine. A Tufted Titmouse to munch.

A flower that prompts me to pull over to the side of the road to get a picture in New Mexico.

A flower that looks like its name.

A flower that is lovely even from behind, with light shining through its petals and leaves.

A flower that knocks my socks off even before it is a flower.

A flower that comes in surprising colors.

A flower with seeds that follow the pattern of the Fibonacci sequence. Well, if the seeds were there!

A flower that completes the scene in Cloudcroft, New Mexico.

A flower most wonderful. Good choice Dad!

Golden Ragwort

Such great fortune to have Mother Nature as my landscape architect up here in the mountains. She provides me with such wondrous plants to enjoy. Like native Golden Ragwort (Packera aurea). I just have to help her out with things such as the removal of exotic species invasives. Which I have to admit is not at all a small price.

While reestablishing a long abandoned trail in the woods I’ve come upon an impressive expanse of Golden Ragwort. Needing to get from one side of it to the other I found myself apologizing to the plants I was tiptoeing across. I can only imagine the wonderful sight they will be when they are in bloom.

Right now they’re in bud. Quite fancy, even at this early stage. They’ll mature from a deep rich purple to a yummy luminous yellow. Those yellow blooms perched upon flowering stalks perhaps as much as two feet tall.

If you’d like to plant Golden Ragwort in your formal garden it grows well in mesic to wet soils in sunny to shady locations. It’s a plant that will outcompete many weeds that will show up and I wouldn’t suggest it be in a garden with bashful plants who will be lost in the shuffle.

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Hellebores (Hello Boris!)

Hellebores (Helleborus) are champions in my gardens. Though not native to North America but to Europe, they are extremely well behaved. They haven’t wandered at all from where I planted them long ago, only spreading slowly by rhizomatous roots.

They’re an evergreen perennial that begins to show buds in January as icy winds blow.

Soon to bloom. An added bit of cheer for the dark days of winter, but I must say those dark days of winter are my favorite of days.

And now as April is soon to be here, the blooms just keep on coming, clear into early summer. I love them.