A Louisiana Waterthrush

I've seen a Louisiana waterthrush in the Garden before, but didn't remember its song.

I heard it yesterday, with the director of the Garden, a great naturalist, who pointed it out to me, and then again today, on a lunchtime walk with a good friend.

It's a wonderful song. 

I imagine it's a male waterthrush, marking his territory. They apparently sing quite a bit upon arriving in their summer breeding grounds, being much quieter after that.

I heard it at exactly the same spot on the fern extension of the Woodland Wildflower Garden trail as yesterday.

A fragrant climbing rose

Climbing roses in the Children's Garden, SCBG

I've been enjoying the climbing roses in the Ethnobotany Garden (part of the Children's Garden at the SC Botanical Garden).  

They're wonderfully fragrant, and trigger childhood memories of the Rose Garden in Berkeley, CA, when I was young, maybe seven (and was reminded of later, as a graduate student returning, serendipitously, perhaps, to where I was born.)

These roses are lovely, and largely disease-free -- they're not supposed to get black spot, but have a few minor signs, with our normally wet spring.

Such a great memory plant, associated with a long ago time.

(Hmm.  I'm stuck in blogspot issues with this post.  But enjoy the images, nonetheless).

a closer look in the Ethnobotany Garden

A whimsical gate

I love this gate, created of mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia) branches.  I have wonderfully talented colleagues and our Children's Garden manager has a special creative streak.

gate to the Food for Thought Garden at the SC Botanical Garden

Doesn't a gate like this invite you to a special place?

Wildflower Wednesday

Uvularia perfoliata (Perfoliate bellwort)

This is an excellent woodland wildflower and it's spreading in areas that we've cleared of invasive ivy, vinca, and privet, in the botanical garden where I work!

A snowy pond

Meadow pond surrounded by snow in the SC Botanical Garden

A winter morning walk brought me by the Meadow Pond, which was lovely in the early light.  Campus is closed again today because of heavy snow and icy roads, but with AWD, the short trip to the Garden was uneventful.  The two killdeer flying around the meadow were a treat to see -- a sign of winter.  I saw flocks of killdeer last year at this time, but the meadows weren't covered with snow!

Creative hanging baskets

My colleague Ginny is an artist in the Garden.  Not only does she create wonderful  vignettes in her borders for us to learn from, but her baskets, on the Nature Center porch, are amazing. 

I took these photos after the first frost (the bromeliads that had been in the baskets have been tucked away in a warmer spot), but even at that, you can see the magic at work.

A chilly, wet day

First rain, then a very cold wind pushed in today, bringing gusts that howled around the office windows. Hmm, it was warmish when I left for work this morning, but blustery by lunchtime.

It was nice to have had some warm days to punctuate the wintry weather (with apologies to those who really have winter weather).

I spent some early morning time organizing seeds for growing vegetable transplants; all of my orders have come in (from Baker's Creek, Johnny's, Tomato Grower's Supply, Cook's Garden, Renee's Garden, Southern Exposure Seed Exchange), and I've sorted what I had on hand already from last year's purchases.

It's a lovely assortment of tomato, pepper, eggplant, tomatillo, and herb seeds: heirlooms, hybrids, and unusual varieties. They're all destined for this year's Garden Fest, an event that promotes local food and growing your own vegetables. It'll be fun to make these seedlings available. I also have an assortment of seeds for direct planting (squash, bean, cucumber, chard, etc) that we'll package up for distribution as well.

Last year's Planning a Garden table

Yellow-bellied sapsuckers

An excellent friend saw her first yellow-bellied sapsucker this weekend at the Garden.

It wasn't so long ago that I saw my first confirmation that sapsuckers actually exist (we see their evidence everywhere). I saw a pair last weekend (remarkably), but had seen several at the Garden (with my gardening companion) a couple of weeks ago. He remembered that we saw our first sighting last fall (at the Garden).

Gardening inspiration

Visiting interesting gardens, reading great gardening books (the thoughtful ones), and learning first-hand digging and planting, and moving plants - that's what makes gardening fun. It's a lifelong journey, whether we're passionate about organic gardening, native plants, and wildlife gardening (like me) or have enthusiasms for specialty plants and collectible plants.

There's inspiration everywhere, if you look for it. I find natural landscapes a continuing source, of course, but that's what inspires me to plant and garden.

Bumbling across wonderful garden vignettes, created by talented gardeners, is also inspiring. I love the way my colleague's Kathy's new pathway planting looks this fall in the morning light. Wonderful.

The Hosta Garden was lovely with the fall color highlighted by the morning light.

Japanese Raisin Tree

I saw a really unusual tree yesterday. It was in the Hydrangea Garden (and part of our Specialty Collection) at the South Carolina Botanical Garden. On a short and felicitous tour, with a visiting former alum (and well-known horticulture expert) and a couple of Horticulture faculty, our Garden manager (James Arnold) showed us a Japanese Raisin Tree (Hovera dulcis) that he'd obtained from renowned SC plant collector (Bob McCartney of Woodlanders, Inc. in Aiken, SC).

Maybe I'd seen this tree before, and didn't really notice it. James said that Bob had told him that it was edible. We gingerly tested it, and it WAS sweet, but what was remarkable to me was that what was edible wasn't the fruits, but a fleshy and succulent peduncle (the base of a flower and fruit).

In fall, the edible peduncles become sweet and dark, as the actual fruits have ripened and become dry and bear one or two seeds (they're the greyish capsules projecting from the fleshy peduncles).

I was curious about what animals might disperse the seeds in Hovera dulcis's natual habitat (that is, why would the peduncles be fleshy and sweet?)

I came across interesting references to Chinese ferrets, Asiatic bears, etc. dispersing seeds, but one of the most interesting hits was a study from Brazil about the food bodies that are produced as part of the fleshy peduncles.

These folks, studying it as a introduced species apparently, found that ants were taking the food bodies (both rich in lipids and sugars at different times in their development), and in return, protecting the plant from herbivores.

All of this is heady stuff for a plant ecologist; what a remarkable adaptation for a plant to have succulent and sweet peduncles as the reward for munching on the whole thing, and dispersing seeds in the process.

A nice path planting

We're a relatively small group of folks in the Botanical Garden where I work, and we're spread pretty thin. But my colleagues are great people who love plants, gardens, and gardening, and it's nice to share some of their work in our What's Happening in the Garden blog.

Garden magic

Sometimes the light is just right and the plants are spectacular.

I was a bit late (in terms of photography) in capturing the magic of the Children's Garden this morning, but take a look. It still was beautiful.