US National Arboretum - Fern Valley

We walked around the US National Arboretum in Washington DC this past weekend.  We went for the azaleas but there were a lot of other things to see. One of my favorite areas was Fern Valley - which includes native ferns, wildflowers, shrubs and trees of the eastern US. There were jack-in-the-pulpits, of course.

I found a plant new to me and it had both flowers and newly formed seed pods: celandine poppy. I took lots of pictures of it and then identified it after I got home. It is about the same height as the May apple plants. It might grow at the edge of our woods. I may try to get some seeds to plant next fall to establish a stand; evidently once they are started they come back every year either from the roots or seeds.

Here are a few other images from our walk around that area.

Brighton Dam Azalea Garden

Today is Mother’s Day and I’m remembering the first year I was a mother on Mother’s Day. We made our first visit to Brighton Dam’s Azalea Garden that year and I carried by daughter in a carrier on my back. She stayed awake for most of our walk around the garden.

This year the garden seemed to be in near peak bloom when we were there on Friday. As we walked in there were Canadian Geese protesting on the lake and when I got home I realized I had managed to get a picture of one in mid-honk (and a lot of the pollen floating on the water's surface).

The gardens are wonderful from every angle - looking up

Up close

360 from the observation (the benches with the movable backs always appeal to me)

The gazebo near the entrance looking toward the dam

Surprising colors of azaleas

The white and pink dogwoods near the entrance…but always near the end of the loop we walk

And last but not least….jack-in-the-pulpits under the dogwoods.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Dogwood, Fiddleheads, Jack-in-the-Pulpit

Does everyone have plants that they look for in the springtime forest? After I moved from Texas to Maryland many years ago - l noticed plants that were not common at all where I had lived in Texas…and now I look for them every spring. I hope the people that grew up in Maryland (and other areas where they are ‘native’) appreciate them as much as I do.

Dogwoods are popular as landscaping trees but I like them most in the understory of the forest. They start blooming before the taller trees create the deep shade of summer.  A few years ago a disease killed or damaged many of the dogwoods and it seemed like there were a few years that hardly any dogwoods bloomed. But there seem to be many in bloom this year. They are back!

I enjoy the new ferns returning every spring - and the fiddleheads that unfurl. In the beginning the fronds are so tightly coiled that they look solid rather than layers of tissue that will unwind. It is a wrapped gift of nature that those fiddleheads become fully formed ferns in just a few weeks.

Last but not least - Jack-in-the-Pulpits. Last year they seemed to be everywhere. They are not as numerous so far this year - maybe the weather caught some at the wrong time. They are odd looking flowers. I spotted these at Brookside Gardens last week.