cherry pickers

couldn't resist posting this story about urban bees in NYC.

Thanksgiving Day garden walk

Still no hard freeze in sight around here. It's hard to believe that I can still find a lantana flower. Even some pumpkin seedlings have come up in the grave of one gourd that was dessicated by stink bugs.

It's raining and chilly right now and the pecan trees are starting to send down their leaves...unfortunately they are not as bright yellow as last year. But I can't complain.

Bynum Street sweet gum, Durham, NC

-pictures taken between November 8 and 23rd, 2010

look out below.

I just checked the NOAA weather summary for the last 24 hours at RDU. The wind was blowing pretty good last night ...10-17mph from the west.  A lot of newly grounded leaves, like these maples, were beating the tree canopies all over town in the looks department.

If you are still interested in buying some campernelle jonquils, I haven't sold out yet. Feel free to stop by Fullsteam on Friday from 4:30-6:00pm. I've changed my mind about not taking walkup orders. I won't have a sign or anything but it shouldn't be too hard to spot the dude with a box of flower bulbs.

a new way to buy an old bulb

If you live in or near Durham, check out Piedmont Picks. This week, I am offering a way to get your hands on an antique and favorite bulb---the Campernelle jonquil.

morning slideshow: from today's commute through Sarah P. Duke Gardens

new Plensa sculptures in town..

On Tuesday, I noticed  the large Hewitt pottery pieces had been removed from the Nasher Museum's lawn. I was actually pretty disappointed to see this because of what I thought had been put in their absence.  As I cruised down Anderson Street at 25mph, sporting a newly acquired Durham Pace Car magnet on the back of my wagon, I slowed down for the light and glanced over a half-dozen newly planted American Hollies.  My thought was something like, "This totally screws up a perfect open lawn!" Left to reach their full size, the trees would one day murk the view of a gorgeous building.  But then the light turned red and I looked closer. I was happily surprised to see these trees were being being held by some pretty cool looking figures.

I visited the Nasher yesterday with my five year old son. On our way to the east entrance, he asked me  what the difference was between a statue and sculpture as he, ahem, tried to climb on a stone sculpture/installation just outside the doors.  Because I didn't have a good answer, I pretended not to hear and instead told him that he was going to get us in trouble. But then I bought him cookies from the cafe and we hit the patio to see these things up close.  It was fun.

According to the Nasher's marketing and communications manager Wendy Livingston, the cast bronze figures are on loan from the Richard Gray Gallery until the spring when they will be removed.....along with the trees.  This work is entitled The Heart of Trees and was created in 2007 by Spanish sculptor Jaume Plensa, who is a regular household name in the Triangle.  Enjoy it while it lasts friends.

pearson's falls- polk county, north carolina

Well over a hundred years ago, an employee of the Southern Railway was scouting land in southwest North Carolina.  He would remember one particular place of beauty and was able to purchase it for his family homestead. Now known as Pearson's Falls, this property's mountain glen has been open to the public ever since the Tryon Garden Club acquired the 268 acres in 1931 in order to preserve this scenic attraction and its  native woodland flora.

An admission fee is charged by a resident caretaker. The site, open year-round, lies just off what used to be the major road (Hwy 176) between Henderson and Polk Counties. This two laner has plenty of narrow curves and kudzu covered embankments. Tourist cabins used to dot this stretch of Pacolet River valley before I-26 made the route obsolete. Visiting Pearson Falls is well worth the back road route and the $5 adult ticket.

On the hike up to see Pearson's Falls I was intrigued by the large number of wild native hydrangea canes that seemed to crowd the trail- Hydrangea aborescens is also called smooth hydrangea.  Dried brown clusters of the summer flowers still hung on, helping me make the positive identification. Come March I would wager there is  a good show of early spring ephemerals between the massive mountain laurel shrubs that seem to clamber everywhere.  I'd pay to see that.

before the raking begins..

Of course there will be that first Sunday in November when we tell ourselves that a whole extra hour in the day is great. We will use it to sleep in or put mink oil on our boots. That luxury only lasts one day.  Personally, I would give up an hour of sleep every night if I could have the sun shine until after I finish washing the dinner dishes.  But I will have to wait a while for that. Unless we get a hard freeze, I will spend the next week or two denying autumn and enjoying what I would rather call late-late summer.

Don't get me wrong, I am not a fall grinch.  Once the maples and Chinese pistache trees are engulfed in color, you might just catch me nostalgically mumbling about apple crisps and the smell of pipe smoke at football games...... Until then  here are a few pictures from my home garden of things that look good without a loss of chlorophyll.

the coarse-leafed but beautiful Mexican sunflower

Asteraceaceae oblongifolius 'October Skies'... this clump originally came from the  2005 Pinata Anchor of Hope public art/seedling project

an architect designed (and built) deer fence

Durham architect Ellen Cassilly and her husband Frank Konhaus live in a breath stealing home that they co-designed for a perched site near Duke Forest. The project (which includes an artist's residence and gallery) has its own blog. Last summer their Cassillhaus made the New York Times.

I visited in August of last year and let Ellen show me around the property. Ellen loves to garden but when you live anywhere near the forested border of Orange and Durham counties, you have to deal with hordes of deer....or maybe herds?  I think hordes sounds more terrible.  So, Ellen was forced to do what many rural gardeners do...build a deer fence.

Deer fencing is not usually thought of as beautiful to look at- rustic at best, ugly at worst.  But being the design minded couple that they are, they created a solution for how their deer fence abuts the driveway. Last Sunday I was invited back to check out the finished product.

Ellen and Frank  dreamed up and assembled a very cool group of corten steel panels. That reminds me, I need to ask Ellen to teach me how to weld. 

Two cattle grates were installed in the driveway. Apparently deer are not such great long jumpers when it comes to horizontal movement. Custom hinges (which were hired out to a metalsmith) allow one of the panels to be opened for visitors who do not want to brave walking over the cattle grates. And even though they understandably selected a more inexpensive fencing system for the property's perimeter, it is mostly invisible unless you are out tramping in the woods.

So how is it working?  I noticed Ellen had put a lot more plants in the ground since my last visit, so it must be working just fine.

ten acres in chapel hill for ten thousand dollars...

....and that's not even the most interesting part of the story.  See today's Home and Garden feature from the New York Times.

perennial favorites

I purchased a gallon-sized Ruellia simplex last weekend at the Sarah Duke Gardens fall plant sale. It has been showing up in more and more gardens lately...probably because it blooms late in summer and is pretty carefree. A common name for this perennial is Mexican blue-bells. 

Ruellia simplex has simple needs: sun and room to spread...

I am sure if you were to pinch it back it would grow much shrubbier and less lanky. Last fall while visiting the incredible perennial border at the JC Raulston Arboretum, I noticed a clump growing in front of a tall patch of swamp sunflower- Helianthus angustifolius  Not only was the yellow and violet color contrast a nice one, but the Ruellia shielded the lower 1/3 of the swamp sunflower which was looking pretty ratty at the bottom. The picture below is of the swamp sunflower that was planted alongside Ellerbe Creek in Durham’s Northgate park as part of a state funded stream restoration project. I took the picture yesterday...so drive or bike by soon if you want to see this native wildflower at its peak. Hell, you could probably fly over in a light plane and see it just fine.

swamp sunflower in bloom alongside Northgate Park's Ellerbe Creek

Speaking of plant purchases and the JCRA, this Saturday is their famous Plant Distribution Event where (I’m not making this up)....”thousands of choice and rare plants are freely given away.” You have to be a member of the arboretum to participate but you can pay your dues in person on the morning of.

coffee break

wait for it.....

    If it has rained at all this month then I don’t remember it. But I have been finding rain sounds in my head. The flip-flops from college students make soft and steady drips throughout the Perkins-Bostock Library Plaza. Several mornings back I heard my chocolate chow mix scratching at the den rug. Her restless pawing sounded like miniaturized thunder. Am I going crazy? Well it isn’t 2007, so I can’t complain tooo much. 

Besides, there are plenty of things to enjoy in the yards and roadsides around town. Goldenrod is finally letting go of those tiny buds. Late September means that we can count on interesting seedpods, tall grasses (sorry turf grass), and some members of the Helianthus family to get us by until the next rain or mid-October.....whichever comes first. 

Goldenrod just before blooming. Behind is a clump of Red Switchgrass

podcast: from left to right- mimosa, Southern catalpa, trumpetvine

a gift for that loved one who really should quit smoking

From  40 yards away, I thought this might have been a discarded houseplant or (even better) a failed perennial or shrub that I could rescue. But then I realized that it was near the smokers' station outside Duke South. Gross.

um, about that...

You know how you can be so sure of something that was never 100% in the first place? ….(like high speed rail plans near downtown Raleigh) 

Well  if I had done my homework before writing  yesterday's post, then I would have praised the  SDG's choice to plant Sedum spectabile… ‘Neon’  not  ‘Autum Joy.’

Compared to the almost ubiquitous rusty red of A.Joy,  ‘Neon’  flowers are more of a hot pink.  I'm jealous. 

september's sedum

I don't think I would have suggested a mass planting of 'Autumn Joy' Sedum in this spot at Sarah Duke Gardens.I would be too afraid that someone would walk through the fleshy stalks and succulent stems on a shortcut to the duck pond. But that hasn't happened in the two or three summers since this bed was planted. And it looks killer.

 It also helps that the staff and/or interns made an attractive edging from spliced bamboo. Sometimes just a  suggested barrier is good enough to keep people on the right paths.

I've noticed that this variety of sedum (although easy to break with a shoe or a frisbee) is a strong spreader in most gardens. It also blooms in some shade. I've planted mine under a limbed-up wax myrtle tree that sits close to where my 70lb dog  likes to stick her nose through the perennial border. But even with canine curiousity nudging around its edges, my clump of 'Autumn Joy' sedum has grown large enough that I think I can rest easy.

there is an aperture for that

-this pic is from Durham's Brightleaf district. I took it on a whim while putting my seatbelt on with the other hand. I am not usually this lucky.

Having a decent camera on my phone has become less of a novelty and is now something I take for granted. I love old film cameras as well as my wife's digital SLR.  But I appreciate the convenience of not having to carry a bag with stuff in it just in case I see a good shot. And sometimes the stress of looking for pictures can suck the fun out of what you came to see.  Now that my camera fits in my pocket all the time, I forget it's there.

 Stress free? ...No. Not when you consider how easy it is to drop a tiny smart phone or spill coffee on something that cost more than a week's worth of groceries. I'm always worrying about that.

other people's wwws: N&O Sunday op-eds

If you read the editorial page every Sunday in the News and Observer, you are probably familiar with the bit of seasonal musing-cum-nature writing that lands somewhere on the left hand side of the fishwrap. I am almost 100% certain that Bob Simpson writes these unattributed gems. Simpson is an old-school outdoorsman and journalist who has been writing for the N&O for a long time. I tried to find a really good bio. of him online but ran out of time on today’s lunch break. Here is the link to last Sunday’s piece. I have come close to writing him a fan letter now and again; I don't think a blog post counts. These weekly reflections on topics such as waterfowl migration, constellations, plant life, and Native American lore, help me keep track of how our seasons shift. 

Wright's viburnum = bird feeder

White oak acorn. I pulled it off and put it on the sidewalk. 

I was thinking on fall when  I took several picutures this morning. Even though there is plenty of summer heat and foliage to obscure my commute through Sarah P. Duke Gardens, the signs of autumn are in the making.

what do you get when you cross kudzu with a banana tree

The empress or princess tree is often seen as one of those grim signs of horticultural blight because it grows in and around parking lots all over the urban South. It actually has a pretty aristocratic pedigree since it was named for Anna Paulowna, Princess of the Netherlands (1795-1865). According to Southern Living's Steve Bender who writes of it in the book Passalong Plants, it likely spread south after an introduction to a Hudson Valley nursery just after the Civil War. Paulowina Tomentosa is native to Japan. And, besides the obvious tropical effect of the huge leaves, the empress tree gets looks in the spring with large panicles of purplish-blue flowers. BUT, is it an invasive weed tree?  yeah, kinda....is it a prized ornamental and fast growing shade tree? um, yes.

This specimen sits just outside the side entrance to Durham's newly opened Fullsteam Brewery. It looks like it was cut back last winter, which was a good idea because the new vigorous growth looks pretty cool. Treating it like a perennial is smart. You get the large-leaf effect for the summer but without the seeds. This is because only mature trees seem to get enough gumption to actually produce blossoms. And no seeds means no renegade seedlings.