Tis the Season For Sharing

     Seven years ago I started a program where amazing volunteers from my garden club would go to a city school and help fifth grade girls make fresh floral designs for Christmas and for Mother's Day.  It has become a holiday tradition we all enjoy, both students and adults.  Once I ran into a middle school student who had graduated from our school and she asked if we were still doing the program with the fifth grade girls.  Then she told me participating in that activity had been her favorite part of being in fifth grade.  She also told me she hoped we would continue the program so future students would have the same wonderful opportunity that she had.  It is a fun experience that we enjoy sharing with the girls, and they enjoy sharing their project with their mothers or grandmothers.  This year we had 19 students and 10 volunteers.

It is hard to say who enjoys this project more, us or the students. 

Small Hands Create Beautiful Designs

     Yesterday I attended an after-school garden club at a nearby elementary school to teach fourth and fifth grade boys and girls to make fresh holiday arrangements. Tea tins were donated to use for containers.  A Christmas tree shop donated some fresh balsam.  I gathered pine, arborvitae, sweet gum balls and Siberian iris seed pods from my yard to add to the design.  We snipped some beautiful variegated holly at the school entrance on the way in.

My helper and I arrived early to set up.

We set up before students arrived

 

 

 

The students listened carefully and followed instructions.
 

 

 



Each student made a beautiful, fragrant, all natural arrangement to take home for the holidays

A Winter Flock of Blackbirds

    

This photo represents only a few of the thousands of blackbirds I could capture with my camera..

     The noise alerted me at once as I stepped outside, making me look up in awe.  My first thought was Alfred Hitchcock because several thousand blackbirds filled the trees around my house.  Although my kids found The Birds to be ridiculously silly, I was scared senseless by the movie as a child.  Still, seeing so many birds at once seemed almost daunting.  Every large tree I could see was filled with loud, noisy blackbirds.  Once I dismissed the Hitchcock feeling, I ran inside to get my camera. 

     Massive flocks of blackbirds are an amazing spectacle and a sure sign of mid-winter, because that is the only time blackbirds form such a super flock.  Scientists aren’t sure why this occurs but believe the reason is “safety in numbers,” or, better protection from predators.

     Flocks are often made up of several different types of birds.  Assuming this would be a mixed flock of Red-winged Blackbirds, Blackbirds and Grackles, I was surprised when I didn’t see any flashes of red wing bars.  I know Red-wings well from living in Ohio near Lake Erie.  And last winter a single female spent a few weeks at my feeder.  Although it was hard to get a close up image, it seemed like most of the birds were I saw were Brewers Blackbirds, medium-sized glossy black birds with yellow eyes.  However, looking at the range maps for wintering blackbirds, Brewers Blackbirds are more likely to winter west of Virginia.   So, by process of elimination, my colossal flock of blackbirds likely consisted of Rusty Blackbirds and/or Common Grackles.  However, I can’t be sure I didn’t actually see a dark silhouette of Mr. Hitchcock standing in the shadows nearby. 

Most of the birds were glossy black with yellow eyes.

 

 

 

Feeding the Birds

 

                When cooler weather finds us inside looking outside, watching our feathered friends can bring so much pleasure. The common birds I see at the feeder this time of year are titmice, chickadees, nuthatches, red bellied woodpeckers, juncos, doves, purple finches, wrens and downy woodpeckers.  To get the most out of watching birds at your feeder, here are a few suggestions.

Food and Feeders

                Placement of your feeder is important.  It should be visible from a window so you can enjoy watching the activity.  Studies recommend placing it about three feet from a window because a startled bird impacting the glass at close range is less likely to be injured.  It should be near cover such as shrubs or trees, but far enough away to prevent predators from attacking. 

                The bird food you buy is more important than the container you put it in.  Bird seed is not cheap but buying in bulk saves money.  As long as you keep it clean, a plastic feeder will work as well as a metal feeder in most cases.  A container that opens at the bottom for cleaning helps prevent a clogged feeder.  Expensive squirrel-proof containers are not always the best investment, in my opinion. 

                The variety bags of bird seed you can purchase at the grocery store contain filler seeds that many birds will pick out in order to get to the few sunflower seeds in the mix.  It may cost a little more to get a bag of seed without filler, but there won’t be excess waste. 

                Cardinals, nuthatches and many birds love safflower seeds.  Fortunately, pests such as squirrels and starlings do not.

                 Most birds love sunflower seeds, always a good choice.  Black oil sunflower seeds are easier to crack and most birds love them.  Striped sunflower seeds have a thicker shell that some birds can’t open.   They also cost less.  Squirrels and other pests love sunflower seeds too, which can be a problem.  

                I find that a large variety of woodpeckers and birds love seedcakes, which contain nuts, seeds and fruit.  Seedcakes, which fit into a wire container that woodpeckers can easily cling to, typically last longer than a container of seeds.  Seedcakes and their containers are usually available at Lowe’s or Home Depot.

                 In winter months, suet provides the higher calories birds need in order to stay warm.  Suet is also a woodpecker favorite.  Nuthatches, wrens and chickadees enjoy it too.  It is cheap and easy to find.  It fits into a wire container that makes it accessible to many birds, including undesirable starlings and grackles.  The wild bird specialty stores sell a special upside down suet feeder that allows woodpeckers and nuthatches to eat, but is a challenge for pests.  Or, when opening a suet cake, remove the wrapper but leave the suet in the plastic container.  Then place it in the holder, and only one side is available to birds, making it easy for clinging birds to eat but harder for starlings or pests to devour. 

                Although it may be difficult in winter, providing a water source is important for birds, and will enhance your viewing pleasure. 

                Many people throw bread out for the birds.  Birds will eat bread  but it doesn’t provide any of the nutrition they need so you aren’t doing them any favors.  Moldy bread is unhealthy for birds. 

What About Squirrels?

                Squirrels are a nuisance and besides eating all the bird food, they can also destroy a birdfeeder.  There are many remedies and tricks to combat the squirrels but there is only one way to eliminate them that doesn’t involve a weapon.  The best investment you can make before you buy any food or containers is a squirrel-proof feeder stand.  These are available at wild bird specialty stores such as Wild Birds Unlimited, and they really do work.  The people who make them know exactly how far a squirrel can climb, jump or hurl itself from a tree, so it really is worth the cost to buy a good feeder pole system from them.  They also offer a wealth of knowledge about birds and seed.  A good pole system may cost more in the beginning,  but it will last for many, many years.  And in the long run it is cheaper than feeding all those squirrels and replacing chewed up feeders.   Part of the perfect pole system includes a squirrel baffle that really works. Squirrels absolutely cannot climb around it to get to your feeders.  Or, for a few dollars more, you may purchase a raccoon baffle, because squirrel baffles don’t apply to raccoons, as I found out.  Only a raccoon baffle will stop a hungry raccoon and again, those clever people at the specialty store know the exact specifications for discouraging raccoons. 

                Once you start feeding the birds, stay consistent.  Birds will become accustomed to eating at your feeder.  Keep your feeders clean throughout each season. 

                Watching the birds at your feeder is very rewarding.  You will be surprised to see newcomers at your feeder during spring and fall migration.  You’ll come to recognize the regulars.  Once you start enjoying watching the birds, your next purchase will likely be a field guide so that you can identify those regular visitors as well as your transients.

               

A Swarm of Bees? Who do You Call?

     If you see a swarm of bees in your yard, do you know who to call?  Under no circumstances should you call an exterminator.  Honey bees are in a desperate state of decline in recent years due to Colony Collapse Disorder.  The correct answer is...you call a beekeeper.  A quick internet check should reveal a swarm hotline number to call in an emergency, or at the very least, a local beekeeper association.  That's exactly what I did - I called the swarm hotline. 

     Here is how it all started.  For several days in a row, I saw what appeared to be honey bees in a wet area at the edge of my koi pond.  I took a photo and emailed it to a beekeeper for positive identification.  Knowing about the national honey bee crisis, I didn't want to jeopardize any bees by adding conditioning chemicals to my pond.

There was a steady flow of bees drinking from my pond.

     A beekeeper looked at the photo and confirmed that I had honey bees watering at my pond. It seemed they came and went from the same direction when they flew away so for a second I wondered...could I find where they came from?  That seemed like a foolish idea to go off chasing some bees to find their hive so I promptly put that idea out of my head.
     Several days later, I was walking through a small meadow at the edge of my back yard when I heard a loud buzzing.  Like bees buzzing.  It was early May so there were no flowers blooming yet in my meadow.  Still, that buzzing sound persisted.  Then, I saw a lot of bees flying around a seven foot pine tree that was located in my meadow, and about 30 yards from my koi pond.  I looked up and holy cow!  Right in front of me, at eye level, was a huge football sized ball of bees. Honey bees.  Never having seen a huge ball of bees before, I was thrilled.  I assumed this was a real honest-to-goodness bee swarm.

This is what I saw about 6 feet off the ground in a pine.

 

With my camera I was able to get a closer look.

 

     My first reaction was to run inside and grab my camera to start shooting pictures.  After all, who's going to believe this, right?  Then, I started thinking about the outdoor graduation party I was hosting in a week.  Hmmm, a yard full of people and food and a swarm of bees.  That's when I searched bee swarms on the internet and called a swarm hotline.  They put me in touch with a beekeeper, who rushed over promptly.  (Later I found out the value of a queen bee and an entire hive.)

The beekeeper suits up.

     The beekeeper took one look at my big ball of bees and suited up.  I explained to him I would be documenting his every move with my camera.  Armed with a tree pruner and a box, he quickly got down to business.

Cutting the limb down to box size.

A box of bees.

     Soon the beekeeper had my swarm of bees in a box into which he had cut a hole and covered with screen.  Most of the bees were in the box but a few buzzed around the outside, clinging to the box, trying to get inside.  Then he loaded the box into the backseat of his car, outside bees still flying loose, and he drove off.  Would I get into a car with a box of bees inside a box and a few bees outside the box?  Probably not. 

     What I learned that day from the beekeeper was that I probably had a natural hive in one of the dead trees on my property.  The hive may have grown so large that a group of bees took the queen to scout out a new hive location. (The old hive would simply have to produce a new queen.) Since the new group didn't have a location picked out for the new hive, many of them surrounded the queen (in a bee ball) to protect her.  Others flew about scouting locations and apparently had not yet selected an ideal location.  That's why they were simply hanging out in my pine tree for a few days. 
     It was all very exciting.  I was thrilled with the shots I had gotten.  My husband commented, "You were so excited, running around and taking pictures - the way you acted about those bees - I think that's the same way some people might act if Brad Pitt came to their house."
     Indeed, it was all very exciting.  I miss my bees.

Make a Christmas Wreath

Okay, so this isn't about nature or gardening, but hey, it's the holidays.  Here is an easy, colorful wreath you can make using about 8 sleeves of unbreakable (plastic) ornaments from the dollar store, a wire clothes hanger, pliers and some ribbon. 

Bend your wire  hanger into a circle.

Thread your ornaments onto the wire.

You may use all one size or vary sizes.

Make sure to fill all the spaces so your wreath can be seen from the front or back.

Thread them closely and make your wreath full. Fill up your circle.

Connect the 2 ends of your wreath.  Form a loop to hang it.  Add a ribbon and you're finished..

The Need for Bees

                Say goodbye to bees, and menu planning becomes much easier.  Without bees, you would lose apples, almonds, blueberries, cherries, avocados, onions, cucumbers, pumpkins, citrus fruit, melons, beets, broccoli, cauliflower and much more from your diet.  Bees are the primary pollinators of many of the foods we eat. 

                Honey bees play an important role in crop pollination.  However, Colony Collapse Disorder has wiped out 40 percent of honey bee colonies in recent years.  At the same time, growers are beginning to recognize the important role of mason bees in pollination.  Mason bees differ from honey bees in several ways. 

                                                                         Honey Bees

 

                Honey bees were introduced to America by early Europeans.  They are social bees, with thousands living in a single hive, which also makes them more susceptible to disease and predation.

                Honey bees are fascinating insects.  A hive consists of a queen, drones and workers.  The workers are female bees.  They clean the hive, forage for food and provide guard duty. They feed the larvae pollen and royal jelly, a substance they produce from a gland in their heads.  Bees make honey from nectar and store it for use when food supplies are scarce.  Drones are male bees.  Their only job is to mate with the queen.  Worker bees even feed the drone bees. Workers can sting but drones cannot.

                There is a single queen bee for each hive.  As the hive’s only fertile female, the queen’s primary job is to lay eggs.  A queen is created by worker bees that feed a chosen larva a steady diet consisting exclusively of royal jelly and no pollen. This larva grows into a queen.  As an adult, the queen bee mates with drone bees.  The queen reserves sperm in a special sac and as she lays eggs, up to 2,000 in a day, she determines which eggs she will fertilize.  Unfertilized eggs produce male drones and fertilized eggs produce female worker bees. 

                                                                           Mason Bees

 

                Mason bees, also called orchard bees, are smaller than honey bees. Native to America, these bees are solitary rather than social.  Unlike honey bees, all female mason bees are fertile and can lay eggs.  Mason bees cannot excavate wood so they are not a threat to homeowners.  They look for tube-like holes made by other insects or woodpeckers, or use hollow twigs for nesting.  The female gathers pollen and nectar to create a food supply to fill a cell before she inserts an egg and then seals the cell shut with mud.  Next she makes another cell next to the previous one until the tube is filled.  Eggs in the back of the tube become female mason bees while eggs near the front become males.    

                When an egg hatches, the larva feeds on the supply of food in the cell, then spins a cocoon and pupates. When the adult is finally formed, it will stay dormant and wait for warm spring weather before emerging from the cell.

                There are many kinds of mason bees and all of them benefit the garden.  Very effective as pollinators, two or three females can pollinate an entire apple tree! Females remain near the nest, and only forage within a 100 yard range.  Only the female has a stinger but mason bees are considered very gentle and only sting if physically provoked. 

 

 

           

 

 

Potter Wasps and the Tomb of Gloom

 

Anyone who has ever tried making pottery realizes it isn’t easy to create a uniform clay pot.  Imagine trying to create pottery without using your hands and you will have to marvel at the ability of a small insect to perform such a task. 

            If you have ever seen dried mud shaped like a rounded pottery jug attached to a branch of a plant or under an eave, you have seen the brood cell of the aptly named Potter Wasp (Eumenes fraternus) .  The pots are about an inch wide. After creating the mud pot, the female wasp then fills the nest with food  before laying a single egg inside and then sealing the opening shut.  In order to provide a fresh food source for the wasp larva that will eventually emerge from the egg, the female wasp paralyzes but doesn’t kill several small insects or caterpillars that she seals inside the pot.  Small green inch worms are often the target prey.  After the larva develops, it emerges from the clay brood cell as an adult wasp.

 

          Adults are solitary wasps and are considered beneficial for their role in helping to control caterpillars in the garden.  Adult potter wasps feed on nectar, such as the one below, spotted on a flowering dill plant. 

 

 

Amaryllis Bulbs for the Holidays

One of the many great things about the holiday season is the abundance of Amaryllis bulbs available.    No matter how cold it is outside, you can get in touch with your inner gardener with the giant, exotic blooms of Amaryllis flowers.  Rarely in gardening does such a small amount of effort yield such dramatic results. 

Bulbs are available singly or in kits that contain a growing medium, pot, bulb and instructions.  I usually buy boxed kits and buy lots of them.  The kit bulbs generally bloom as profusely as more expensive bulbs.  To make a bold statement using Amaryllis flowers, place two or three potted bulbs in a large container such as an oblong wicker basket or a decorative ceramic or metal container. Cover the soil with Spanish moss.  You can even add a colorful bow.  Or, buy several bulbs and stagger the planting schedule over a period of weeks.  That way you can keep your favorite ceramic pot filled with blooms throughout the holiday season.  When potting the bulb, insert a thin bamboo stake alongside it so that once the plant gets tall, you can stake the stem with raffia or ribbon for support if needed. 

Potted bulbs make great gifts for the elderly who don’t need another doodad in a small apartment.  Older people and nursing home residents enjoy watching the plant grow as much as they enjoy the flowers.  The blooms last for weeks and once they finish, the plant can simply be thrown away, or you may keep it and try to get it to re-bloom next year.  Amaryllis flowers are great gifts before or after the holidays.  After the holidays, bulb prices are usually reduced and the bright “Red Lion” amaryllis makes a lovely Valentine’s gift.  Pot it in January and it should be near bloom by Valentine’s for a floral gift that is fresher and far more dramatic than the usual red roses that have traveled by plane from South America.  If you buy boxed kits after the holidays, look inside to make sure the bulb hasn’t already sprouted or flowered inside the box.

Amaryllis plants are tropical but have been hybridized by Dutch growers for many years.  Colors range from white to pink to red, with numerous variations in between. 

People often ask about getting a plant to boom a second time.  It is not difficult.  Here are instructions for next year’s bloom.

How To Re-Bloom an Amaryllis Bulb:

• Cut back the flower stalk after blooming, but allow the leaves to grow.  You may place your plant outdoors for summer in partial shade.
• Keep watered so that the soil is moist, but not wet.  You may fertilize it during summer months.
• Stop fertilizing in August. Reduce watering gradually and stop watering after three weeks.
• When it is time to bring plants indoors in September or early October, move your Amaryllis to a cool (55 to 60 degrees F), dark, dry place for six to eight weeks.  The plant needs this dormant rest period in order to re-bloom.  The foliage will likely turn yellow and die back.
• In November or later, move the pot to a warm, bright area and resume watering.  Do not repot since the plant likes to be somewhat pot bound. Be patient.  The plant should produce a green bud and eventually flower in about six weeks.

 





Three bulbs re-bloomed a year later.

These flowers came from a single bulb.



 

 

 



An Autumn Walk at Pawleys Island

I took a walk with my camera on a recent November day in the South Carolina low country.  The air was warm and sunny, and fragrant with salt and pluff mud.  Nature was in her autumn finery.  The cypress trees were golden but the magnificent live oaks wore their permanent green.  Sweet gums and black gums were scarlet.  Spanish moss waved in a gentle breeze.  Here are a few treasures I found.

A Snowy Egret catching shrimp - Yum!



A Yellow Rat Snake




On a cool morning he moved slowly 

Fiddler Crabs feeding at low tide

Black Gum - Nyssa sylvatica, also called tupelo and birds love the fruit



Common Grackle - the yellow eye makes him look serious.





Gulf Fritillary - Agraulis vanillae





Incoming...A Wood Stork





A juvenile White Ibis will turn white upon maturation

 

A White Ibis ("old blue eyes" himself)



Beauty Berries - Callicarpa americana

A Great Egret



A Yellow-Rumped Warbler...bath time!

An American Alligator - Thank goodness hunting season is over!

A basking slider - enjoying a good stretch, all the way down to his toes!

Seemed like someone was watching me...indeed, a Carolina Anole-Anolis carolinensis

A Camelia sasanqua - occupied

 

A rather vocal Black-Crowned Night-Heron
 



A Painted Lady -Vanessa cardui

 

Dead Wood Beneficial for Skinks

Having a pristine yard looks nice but is less beneficial to wildlife than a more natural environment.  Consider yourself fortunate if you happen to have a tree stump or a few rotting logs in your yard, because that is the ideal habitat for one of Virginia’s common lizards – the Southeastern Five-lined Skink (Plestiodon inexpectatus).  Skinks are beneficial to have around because they eat spiders, slugs, moths, crickets, beetles, grasshoppers and many other insects.   

Skinks burrow during winter months and emerge in warm weather.  Mating occurs in May.  In June and July, the female lays eggs under rotting logs or tree bark.   She then stays with the eggs to guard them until they hatch.   The eggs are about the size of small bird eggs. 

The skink’s appearance changes throughout its life cycle.  Newly hatched skinks are about 2 inches long and have bright blue tails.  The bright color focuses attention away from the body so if it is attacked by a predator, it can shed its tail and escape. The blue tail fades once a skink matures.  Adult skinks grow up to eight inches long.  They are black or brown and have five long stripes running lengthwise.  As males mature, the stripes fade and they develop a reddish head. 

Skinks are active during the day and hide at night. Predators include hawks, fox, opossums, raccoons and snakes. 



A newly hatched skink.



A clutch of skink eggs, with one beginning to hatch.

Tiger Swallowtail Butterflies have Deviant Females

One of the most common butterflies you’ll see in Virginia is the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus).  The adult female lays her eggs on sweetbay magnolia, black cherry or tulip trees, specific host plants that the caterpillars will feed on once the eggs hatch.   Several broods hatch during the summer.  When the last brood of caterpillars pupates in the fall, those chrysalises will overwinter until spring, when the adult butterflies will emerge. 

Aptly named, Tiger Swallowtails are yellow with black stripes.  However, there is a dimorphic form of the female, which is much darker -- same female butterfly, different color. 

 



Male Tiger Swallowtail


 

Female Tiger Swallowtail


 

Female Tiger Swallowtail -- Dimorphic form