Posted by wilde on July 5th, 2009 — Posted in Food, Vegetable
The bright red blooms of Bee Balm, Monarda didyma, also known as Oswego Tea, can be seen from a distance. The red color is truly a bright red – it surely attracts hummingbirds and butterflies.
Bee balm or Oswego tea in bloom.
Several irregularly-shaped, tubular flowers open at a time.
The bracts just below the rounded head of flowers are also red, but more on the maroon side of red.
A friend found a few plants growing near the Juniata River and gave us a couple for our native plant gardens. To match it’s native habitat I’ll be transplanting ours along the lane near the spring that runs after a good rain.
Once they’re established I’d like to harvest the leaves to try the tea. Does anyone here use bee balm as oswego tea?
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Posted by wilde on June 23rd, 2009 — Posted in Vegetable
Walking around the farmer’s fields gives a different perspective on things. The view is quite different up close compared to what you see zipping down the highway. From afar you see the contents of the farmed field, what’s growing or what’s being planted or harvested. Neat rows of corn or soybeans. Perhaps a few white-tailed deer or a flock of turkeys.
On closer inspection one sees a host of wild plants at the edge of the fields. Most would be called roadside weeds, but when seen up close their true beauty can be enjoyed. Oxeye daisies, butter-n-eggs, Venus’s looking glass, black mustard, deptford pink, and even crown vetch lend a pastel rainbow to the fields’ edge with various shades of yellow, orange, pink, purple and white.
Today, I spotted a type of rose flowering on the west side of a soy field where the field meets the woods. It had five pink petals with many yellow stamens and uniformly toothed leaflets. One or two long, straight prickles at the base of each compound leaf helped to identify the plant as a Pasture Rose, Rosa carolina, also called Carolina Rose.
The pink, five-petaled Pasture Rose as seen at the edge of the woods.
Toothed leaflets of pasture rose and it’s long, straight “thorns” (in the upper center and upper left).
Pasture rose in soft pink and yellow.
Here in Pennsylvania the pasture or carolina rose will be blooming in June and July. Do any of you find this plant blooming later in July? If you’re going out there to check it out, be careful of the poison ivy as it’s typically found in the same habitat. Leave a comment to let us know what you find!
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Posted by wilde on May 29th, 2009 — Posted in Food, Vegetable
I’m happy to report that the first Ozark Beauty strawberries were eaten this week. We started with six plants last summer and since they had to adjust to their new surroundings they didn’t put out runners, so we still have six plants. Flowering started four weeks ago. The nice thing about this variety is that they’re an everlasting type, meaning that they will bloom and produce fruit two or three times in a growing season, not just once.
You can’t get a fresher taste of strawberries than picking them fresh!
This time of year is very pretty in the woodlands. Violets have been flowering for a month and now the blackberry shrubs are in full color. Ok, they’re not exactly colorful as the blossoms are all white, but they do give a splash of color in the otherwise green and brown landscape.
The Solomon’s Seal and False Solomon’s Seal are blooming all over the woods. Perhaps the wet, cool weather has been the best weather for the forest flowers. I haven’t seen this many blooming forest-dwellers in previous years. The ones putting on the biggest show are the Maple-leaved Viburnum. Everywhere you turn the fuzzy-looking flower clusters are shining white. Stamens project up and out so the clusters of flowers look fuzzy from a distance.
Maple-leaved viburnum flowering in the woodlands.
White stamens project above the white petals of viburnum. Unopened flowers have a tinge of pink.
Also blooming now are deerberry, bastard toadflax, dame’s rocket, common violets, and a host of planted flowers in the garden, like pansies, dahlias, marigolds, johnny jump-ups, false blue indigo and irises.
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