Perennial Catnip Growing Green Again

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The felines will be happy that the catnip keeps coming back. I don’t know what drives them crazy about catnip, but we do know that they really enjoy it. The outdoor cats will come by to roll around on and near the catnip plants and to take a nibble. The indoor cat demands a fresh sprig now and then. After a playful romp it’s nap time.

A few years back we sprinkled some catnip seed — from some flowering tops we harvested and allowed to dry — along the front of the house, next to the driveway and near the flagstone walk. Since that day we have had catnip plants every year, much to the delight of our feline friends.

I am a little surprised how extensive the catnip colony is getting. From the original few plants that sprouted from seed, there is now a large group of plants. The root system probably keeps this set of plants coming back year after year, while allowing the mother plant to spread out. More plants are popping up right in the gravel driveway and between the flagstones. Some of them are pulled up, given away or harvested for the kitties, but it seems like we’ll always have a few plants around.

Here in Pennsylvania catnip grows wild along the roadsides. Once you can recognize the plant it’s easy to see that catnip is quite common. It’s growing really close to the ground right now, but if you wait until mid-summer then you’ll be able to see the 3 feet tall plants more easily. When the catnip blooms, its white blossoms are easy to spot along a country road.

Re-growth of catnip leaves. Notice large stem from last year's growth.
Re-growth of catnip leaves. Notice large stem from last year's growth.

Leaves of catnip are soft, almost fuzzy to the feel while other mints don’t feel quite as downy. The scalloped edges of the triangle-like catnip leaves are distinctive.

Distinctive scallop-edged leaves of catnip.
Distinctive scallop-edged leaves of catnip.

If you’re unsure whether you’ve got another member of the mint family or catnip, just rub a leaf and smell it. The odor should tell you which plant you have found. If you can’t smell, just give it to a cat. They will wrinkle up their noses if it’s a different member of the mint family!

LaVern guarding her catnip!
LaVern guarding her catnip!

Now, what good ‘ole country girl doesn’t have a cat or two to play mouse-catcher?

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Crocus Blooms Open Up with the Sunlight

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We planted a few sets of crocus bulbs three years ago and now the area they occupy has at least double, probably triple, the amount of crocus bulbs we started with. That’s one thing to like about bulbs…they multiply over the years to make for really colorful patches in your flower beds or lawn. To keep up the expansion of color going, dig up the bulbs in the fall and spread them out for an even more beautiful display the following spring!

Crocuses are probably favorites of many people by virtue of their early blooming time in the Spring. Since they are among the very first ones to flower it sort of makes you feel like winter is over and that spring is really here when you do see the crocuses coming out of hiding.

The time of day will make all the difference as to what kind of display you’ll see. If you are viewing the crocus flowers in the early morning, say before going to work in the a.m., you’ll likely see the flowers closed up. After nightfall, the crocus flower petals all relax into the center of the bloom and remain closed until the next day’s sunlight nudges them open.

Three sets of crocus flowers in purple and white in the AM.
Three sets of crocus flowers in purple and white. Photo taken at 7:15 a.m., 21 March 2010.
Three sets of crocus flowers in purple and white. Photo taken at 11 a.m., 21 March 2010.
Three sets of crocus flowers in purple and white. Photo taken at 11 a.m., 21 March 2010.

Here’s a nice side view of the early morning flowers with their petals closed —

Side view of crocus flowers in purple and white. Photo taken at 7:15 a.m., 21 March 2010.
Side view of crocus flowers in purple and white. Photo taken at 7:15 a.m., 21 March 2010.

Before the sun and after the sun images of purple and white crocuses —

Early morning view of crocus flowers in purple and white. Photo taken at 7:15 a.m., 21 March 2010.
Early morning view of crocus flowers in purple and white. Photo taken at 7:15 a.m., 21 March 2010.
Late morning view of crocus flowers in purple and white. Photo taken at 11 a.m., 21 March 2010.
Late morning view of crocus flowers in purple and white. Photo taken at 11 a.m., 21 March 2010.

Crocuses are native to parts of Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

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Signs of Spring in South Central Pennsylvania

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After a long, hard winter and a week of very mild temperatures – in the 60s! – people are smiling again. We still have some cold and chilly weather ahead, here in the mountains of South Central Pennsylvania, but that’s ok. It’s not like we can expect more snowfalls that are measured by the foot instead of the inch!

Counties of the South Central Region of PA
Counties of the South Central Region of PA

To our south the snow piled up deeper and more often, but we did enjoy the wood furnace immensely. Talk about a radiating heat that lasts…once the floor and stone heated up it carried over through the night. It is so pleasing to not burn all that petroleum oil. Sorry, Canada, but we’d rather use our reusable resource that is so plentiful in PA! Time to re-order another 3 cord of wood for next winter.

Now that we’ve officially said goodbye to Winter and hello to Spring, we can list the signs of Spring all around us:

  • Canada geese flying north
  • slate-colored juncos no longer here
  • increase in songbird’s morning music
  • perennials like lilacs and raspberries showing off buds
  • maple trees flowering bright red
  • crocuses flowering beautifully in purple and white
  • first blooming yard weed — the white-flowering Pennsylvania Bittercress
  • strawberries greening up with new leaves starting to push
  • lilies, echinacea, mint, catnip, columbine showing new growth
  • tulip greenery up about halfway
  • garter snakes visiting the garden and spooking the leaf raker
  • garlic and parsley re-greening in the garden

Time to get to the woods to see the Spring ephemeral flowers, like hepatica, bloodroot, trout lily, violets and lots more. Check out the local parks and forests near you for places to see these beautiful Spring flowers. Your state department of conservation or forests and parks will be able to help you find a walking trail. In Pennsylvania we have the PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources to help find a local state park.

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Bee Balm Blooming Bright Red

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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.

Bee balm or Oswego tea in bloom.

Several tubular flowers open on bee balm.

Several irregularly-shaped, tubular flowers open at a time.

Maroon bracts just below the bee balm flowers.

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?

Pink Pasture Roses Blooming at the Woods Edge

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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.

Pink, five-petaled pasture rose at the edge of the woods.

The pink, five-petaled Pasture Rose as seen at the edge of the woods.

Toothed leaflets of pasture rose with long straight thorns.

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.

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!

Fresh Strawberries and Flowering Viburnum

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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.

Maple-leaved viburnum flowering in the woodlands.

White stamens project above the white petals of viburnum.

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.

White Raspberries, An Everlasting Variety

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Early this afternoon we dug up several white raspberries from a neighbor’s patch. The plants were going to be mowed down and we were lucky enough to know about this ahead of time. Since we’d been having lots of rain for the past week or so, the digging went fairly easy. Plants that we pulled out of the ground were placed in plastic grocery bags for easy handling and containment of loose dirt.

We planted the raspberries in three different places. The first area was a spot on the southwest side of the farmer’s lane in a partially open spot in the woods where the plants will get sun at mid-day and filtered sun for the rest of the day. This spot has several wild blackberries and elderberries so it seemed a likely place to dig in some raspberry canes. The second place was at the edge of the woods in the back yard and these plants will get late morning to early afternoon sun. The third spot was at the edge of the woods on the east side of the backyard and these plants will get sunlight from about noon to late afternoon. By planting in several locations we’re ensuring that at least some of the plants will grow to provide fruit.

Each raspberry plant had stiff canes from last year and some even had their flower buds developing on new growth. It will be interesting to note whether the flowers will continue to develop. Since they were dug up and re-planted within a few hours, perhaps they were not stressed too badly. It’s supposed to rain again tonight so the raspberries will be watered well.

The everlasting varieties of raspberry will bloom and set fruit more than once a year. In the fall all the canes will be cut down and fruit will arise the next year on the new year’s growth.

Now that we have about two dozen new raspberry plants, it will be interesting to see how they develop…and, eventually, how they taste!

Redbuds in Bloom and Birds Singing Loudly

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Rainy days of spring – we’ve had a few in a row and the grass is getting too tall too fast. Even though it makes my last last mowing session seem like a waste of time, I do like seeing the garden lettuce getting bigger.

Trees are really growing their leaves quickly now. Scanning across the mountain ridges you can see shades of green replacing the drab and lifeless grays and browns. It’s like a wave of color change going up the mountain. The dark evergreens contrast nicely with the light greens of the new deciduous leaves.

Yesterday, we took a drive west into the heart of the Pennsylvania mountains, south of State College. All along Route 22 were beautiful redbud trees in full bloom. The lavender, lilac and light purple flowers were magnificent. In a few places these small trees lined both sides of the highway to provide a burst of colorful energy on that cool Spring day. Perhaps the redbud blossoms will last a week, but when the leaves start expanding the blooms will die back.

Dogwood trees are blooming near the edges of the forests. Even though they started blooming about a week ago, the white and ornamental pink flowers still look bright.

All the blueberry bushes are blooming now and the gaywings are smiling pinkly on the forest floor.

With all this Spring activity of growth we can’t forget our feathered friends as they have been quite active, too. A pair of bluebirds are nesting in the bluebird box – they’ve been busy for a couple weeks inspecting and cleaning house, and making a new nest.

This morning I heard an unusual bird song coming from the tree tops, so I ran to get the binoculars and then ran upstairs to get a better view. At the top of a tall oak tree was a male Scarlet Tanager singing loudly. I got to see him for only a few minutes before he flitted out of sight. Peterson tells us these birds are common, but you rarely see them unless you look up to the canopy. It’s pretty amazing how the bright, scarlet red color disappears in the shade of the leaves.

This afternoon I was treated to another bird song. This time the sounds came from a different direction, but also from the top of an oak tree. The binoculars verified that a Baltimore Oriole, or Northern Oriole, was looking for his mate. The bird’s head was distinctly all black and his chest and back shined a bright orange.

The oak leaves are probably 50% developed on average. The white oaks are a little behind the red oaks and chestnut oaks in their development.

The gypsy moths should be hatching very soon, so I hope the tanager and oriole will stick around for many free meals. I’ve heard that these two birds will eat the gypsy moth caterpillars, but can anyone verify that? I’ve also heard that no native bird here in the U.S. will eat the nasty little defoliators, so I’m crossing my fingers that the former is true.