Zooming - November 2014

The theme for the November zooming post is fall color and texture. The burst of colors - greens, reds, yellows, oranges - is the finale of the growing season. They are fading fast in our area by the last weeks of November. The leaves crackle as they dry, their color fades to brown or black as they decay to mulch.

The seeds of many plants are surrounded by fluff (milkweed, cattails, and blazing stars) that acts as a parachute for the fall breezes to carry them away from their parent toward a place they can sprout next spring.

Mt. Pleasant Farm

The Howard County Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant has been the site for many field trips for county elementary schools this fall. With only a few more to go - I took the short walk along the kindergarten hike route before the buses arrived; it was another celebration of fall in Maryland. 

The flower pot people are always on display on a shady bench….suitably styled for the season.

Many of the trees are labeled - including this Witch Hazel

And the Saucer Magnolia.

I liked both of them for their color and the way the light was striking the leaves. Somehow the children always enjoy the discovery of the rabbit sculpture under a bush.

Many of the pines seem to have more cones near the top. Pretty soon we’ll be emulating the way the cones hang from the branches on our Christmas tree!

The buses arrived shortly after my walk and my focus shifted to hiking with children and their chaperones….and that too is a celebration of the season.

Witch Hazel in Bloom

I enjoyed seeing the colorful witch hazels in bloom at Brookside Gardens recently. I knew that witch hazel was native to North America and was used to make the witch hazel liquid that is so soothing to skin.  Since reading Douglas Tallamy’s book Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants, I have decided to landscape with native plants from now on.

So - it was frustrating to discover that the spring blooming trees are hybrids from Japan and China. The native to North America (Hamamelis virginiana) has wonderful foliage in the fall and then blooms in late fall/early winter! The flowers look the same….it’s just the timing of the flowers that is different.

It still might be the smallish tree that I’ll plant next in my backyard, knowing that it will support other natives to make a comeback in my yard.

Winter Ending?

We’ve had considerable cold and snowy weather this February. There is not a lot of color outdoors:

The gray of rock surrounded by snow. The indention will have water when the snow melts - giving the birds a little pool.

The brown pod of a crepe myrtle that was blown from a high branch.

The golden browns- and a little green - of the thorns on the rose bushes.

And then one finds a little more color that signals the stirrings toward spring!

The snowdrops

And witch hazel.

Hurray!