Orchids in my garden

I found an unfamiliar plant in my garden.

Being of the "don't pull it until it flowers so you can identify it" mindset, I waited. It didn't look pretty at first. It reminded me of a Solomon's Seal (Polygonatum biflorum) plant with shaggy grass growing out of the top.

But then, when it flowered, I realized it was an Orchid! I was pleased, until I found out it's a non-native invasive plant. I honestly didn't know that any of the Orchids growing in my state are invasive. Darn!

More than 200 species of Orchids are native to North America, but this isn't one of them. The Orchid I found in my garden is Epipactis helleborine, sometimes called Bastard Hellebore or Broadleaf Helleborine.



This photo shows the scale of the plant. The individual flowers grow along a tall stem--about one to two feet tall.



The foliage displays at the bottom of the plant, below the stem.

After I found out it's invasive in my state, I dug it out--deeply, making sure to get all the roots. It's sad, though, because in its native Europe, Western Asia, and North Africa, it would be a welcomed beauty!



*Update: For more information about this invasive Orchid, here are two helpful articles on how to identify it and deal with it:
http://nyti.ms/12JkDiQ and http://bit.ly/10SVzIB.

The 'pond post' — most popular, by a long shot!

Nymphaea 'Clyde Ikins'

I'm embarrassed to admit I only recently discovered this blog's most popular post, to-date, is one I added last summer. It's a post titled, "How to make an above-ground pond." You can click on the link to read it.

Now, while I'm happy it has attracted a lot of traffic to my blog (which means perhaps it has been helpful to folks), "how-tos" are not my favorite type of writing. They're difficult, step-by-step directions on how to do something very specific.

But I'm grinning while I write this because the joke is on me. While I check the SEO statistics periodically, the point of this blog is not to make money or to draw a huge audience (although either would be nice). The "pond post" has garnered more than double the site traffic of the next most-popular post, "A terrarium for every room" (another how-to).

I delayed reporting on the success of the pond until we made it through the winter. Now that we've hit July, I guess it's safe to report on the survivors: four goldfish and a Water Lily.



They made it through a "normal" winter for my area, which included plenty of subzero (below 0 F, or below -17.8 C) days. During the coldest winter days and nights, the pond maintained a water temperature around 50 F, thanks to a de-icer and an insulating cover. We removed the cover and turned off the de-icer sometime in April. We slowly weaned the fish onto wheat germ spring/fall food, and then, in mid-May, onto regular summer pellets.

Sometime during the month of May, we thought we'd lost them. A pair of mallard ducks tried to make the pond their swimming hole, but we chased them away. Then we didn't see the fish for at least 24 hours! But those goldfish were smart--they'd hidden under the internal pond structures (crates, PVC piping) included for that purpose.



In early June, the Water Lily's first bud of the season shot up toward the surface, and it's now blooming! Several others are close behind.

Some readers have requested information on the materials costs. Here are the fishman's estimates--although these will vary widely, based on locale, store, promotional sales, and other factors:

  $48 –16 - 8’ pieces CCA (arsenic-free) treated 2” x 4”* lumber

  $27 – 1 - 4’ x 8’ sheet of ½” CCA (arsenic-free) treated plywood (for pond bottom and interior)

  $10 – Styrofoam sheet insulation (bagged garage-door insulation; for pond wall voids and for on top of bottom plywood)

  $12 – Coated screws (2 boxes)

    $8 – Stainless-steel staples (for affixing pond liner to pond-wall top plates)

  $16 – 2 - 8’ pieces of 1” x 6”* cedar decking (for top trim)

  $42 – 3 packages of cedar tongue-in-groove wall-siding (for outer walls)

  $12 – 3 - 8’ pieces of cedar 1” x 3”* (for outer trim)

  $15 – 3 - 8’ pieces of cedar 1” x 4”* (for outer trim)

  $60 – Pond liner, pump, fountain attachments & tubing (got an open-box deal; would usually be about $120)

  $30 – Box filter & filter media

  $12 – Black plastic crates (for use as planting platforms; large milk-crate sized one also used to house filter)

    $8 – Dark gray porcelain tiles (to weight down crates, form surface for plant baskets)

    $9 – Various plastic pond-plant baskets

  $10 – Three bags of pea gravel

$319 – TOTAL (without fish & plants)

* Lumber measurements are standard nominal dimensions.
Note: This estimate does not cover the cost of the insulating cover.

Sometime during the fall, I'll write a post about "How to prepare an above-ground pond for a cold winter." Until then, I'm enjoying the aesthetics of the fishman's creation.

Favorite plants and childhood memories

Do you have a favorite plant? I really don't.

I guess I have several favorite   "fill in the blank"   plants, though.



For example, my favorite ephemeral plant is the Great White Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum). Then again, Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) is a close, if not equal, standout.

My favorite non-native plant is probably the Lenten Rose (Helleborus x. hybridus), although I have to also consider the tropical Bleeding Heart (Fuchsia spp.), an annual here that blooms all summer, and the Resurrection Lily (Lycoris squamigera), which brightens the late-summer garden.

Favorite cut flower? Where do I start? Every bouquet is unique, and most arrangements benefit from a combination of shapes and forms. A simple handful of Lily-of-the-Valley (Convallaria majalis) in a small vase, however, is unequaled in its graceful simplicity.

Sometimes traveling introduces me to a new favorite--like the Lantana (L. camara) I fell for during a trip south.

And the list goes on.

Earlier this year, when I decided to write a blog post each month about John Muir, I thought I'd be writing now about his beloved California, after traveling there for the Garden Bloggers' Fling. (I hope everyone had a great time, and safe travels!) Alas, finances and timing once again prevented me from attending.

But it had me thinking: What were John Muir's favorite plants? The man traveled the world over. How could he possibly pick a favorite plant?

Calypso bulbosa; public domain photo courtesy the U.S. National Park Service

He spoke highly of many plants--including White Mountain Heather (Cassiope mertensiana), native to California's Sierra Nevada; the Fairy Slipper Orchid (Calypso borealis or C. bulbosa), which he encountered in a Canadian swamp; and the Live Oak (Quercus virginiana), which found its way onto his sketch pad as he traveled south to Florida. Wherever he traveled, he found favorites.

But some of his most endearing favorites--as happens with many of us--hearkened back to his childhood. In particular, he fondly recalled the Water Lilies (Nymphaea odorata) that graced the edges of his boyhood Fountain Lake.

Describing the lake, he said, in part, "First there is a zone of green, shining rushes, and just beyond the rushes a zone of white and orange Water Lilies, 50 or 60 feet wide, forming a magnificent border. On bright days, when the lake was rippled by a breeze, the Lilies and sun-spangles danced together in radiant beauty, and it became difficult to discriminate between them.

"...even if I should never see it again," he said of the lake, "the beauty of its Lilies and Orchids is so pressed into my mind that I shall always enjoy looking back at them in imagination, even across seas and continents, and perhaps after I am dead."



As I recalled my own childhood favorites--fragrant Roses and Lilacs, and bright Hollyhocks and Snapdragons--I noticed that the Water Lilies in our pond are about to open. It seems a fitting end to this post and an appropriate transition to the next one--about the pond survivors.

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Happy Independence Day to my American gardening friends! And happy seasonal celebrations to everyone else! As you enjoy the great outdoors during the next few days, remember to protect yourselves from ticks and mosquitoes. Click here or on the "products" tab for my review of a pleasant, natural repellent product.

Wildflower Wednesday: Chance encounters, revisited

Last autumn--on a clear, crisp September day--my family was forced to stop on a very rural highway because of a flat tire. No big deal, of course, and it happens to most of us at some point.

I wrote a post about that experience, and about the fact that the inconvenience provided an opportunity. (To read about it, you can click on the link in the previous sentence.)

Long story short, while the more talented tire-changers were dealing with the tire, I took the gift of time to investigate the surrounding wildflowers. As it was September, most plants were on the decline and setting seed.

Fast forward to June 2013. I thought it might be fun to try to find that same spot and see if any of the wildflowers were blooming. The fishman--being the excellent tire-changer and good sport that he is--agreed to hunt for it.

One disclaimer: On both occasions, the only camera I had along was my smartphone. It performs better with plenty of light, but suffices under the right conditions.

It took us a while to find the exact same spot, but here's what we found this time:

An ordinary swath dominated by tall Grasses and escaped flowering Alfalfa by the side of the road.

The expanse of the combined Grass border and the Alfalfa crop was quite pleasant and pastoral from a distance. But upon closer examination, we also found:

Hoary Puccoon (Lithospermum canescens)

Spiderwort (Tradescantia occidentalis)

Common Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)

White Campion (Silene alba) (non-native)

Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca)

We also found a delightful surprise:

Did you see the hidden dots of pink among the various Milkweeds and Grasses?

Wild Roses were blooming--buried in the Grasses! And to think you could only see them if you stopped to look closely. I believe this variety is Rosa carolina, based on various descriptions and the pigment in the petals. It is native throughout most of the Eastern U.S. and Canada.

I was very excited about all of these wildflower finds. The fishman reminded me that it could have been any other roadside, and of course he was right. But it's nice to get to know a particular spot and revisit it during different seasons and times.

We own a modest "cottage" near the "flat-tire/wildflower hangout." I have to admit several non-native plants need attention on the lot. But they are beautiful. These include:

Orange Hawkweed (Hieracium aurantiacum)

Goat's Beard seedhead (Tragopogon dubius)

...and of course plenty of common Dandelions. Lots of upkeep, inside and out, but I look forward to returning soon. The next time we visit, we'll have fruit for foraging:

Mulberries (Morus rubra)

Blackcap Raspberries (Rubus occidentalis)

Oh, and the mystery plant that I couldn't identify last fall?

Four-O'Clocks (Mirabilis nyctaginea)

It was Four-O'Clocks--the same plant as shown at the beginning of this post!

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I'm linking in with Gail's Wildflower Wednesday at Clay and Limestone. Head on over to her blog to see wildflowers on display in many other locales.