Rainy VT.

7-9-14 VERMONT: We just made it here in time for a delicious dinner at Donna and Bruce’s yesterday, Phyllis and Arnie were there also. We had been in NJ for a week, but collected 2.3 inches of rain here, and then another 0.6 last night and a bunch more this afternoon and evening.

Melissa brought us a couple garden surprises today. First there was a yellow lady’s slipper from her collection. I planted it in a mini-fen of peat moss and lime in a wet spot under the eaves. She also gave us some maiden-hair ferns and a clomp of toad lilies, Tricyrtis. They too went into wet, shady spots.

Otherwise there was weeding and dead-heading of peonies.

New blooms: hosta, native daylily, mallow, hydrangea, filipendula, astilbe, hollyhocks, purple rain salvia, Russian sage, yarrow, campanula.


Daylily in Vermont.

Hollyhocks seem early.

Astilbe. This cherry color is one of many vivid or pastel colors.

Wrens.

7-6-14 SHORT HILLS: Our birdhouse, put up in May, is occupied by wrens, House Wrens, I believe, anyone? All eight of the available condos have twigs sticking out of the entries. This is something a wren couple do to discourage competition for food—putting ‘occupied’ signs on the unoccupied seats. They’re big insect eaters and the songs are pretty, so they are quite welcome.

We saw the Millburn fireworks on the fifth, postponed from the Fourth because of Arthur’s visit, very nice display.


House Wren.

Wren again.

And again.

Bird Condos, all filled with twigs. Apparently a wren couple will put twigs in all the nearby nest sites after building their nest to discourage competition.

Fire Works Washout?

7-4-14 SHORT HILLS: Where to start?? Well, Eoin and Joe spent a lot of the last weekend in VT with neighborhood friends, Gavin and Caitlin, in the pond. Maizie helped out with the swimming. Even Lucy was in the water.

We came back to NJ Tuesday to open July with haze, heat, humidity and a T-storm. Wednesday the five of us went to see Aladdin at the New Amsterdam Theatre, NYC. I was dreading another kid’s musical, but I have to confess that I loved it. The story is almost the same as the cartoon film of some years ago, but the iconic performance of Robin Williams as the voice of the Genie was eclipsed by the job done by James Monroe Iglehart. Adam Jacobs makes a very charismatic Aladdin. The parrot and the monkey from the film have been replaced by humans. The staging, costumes, music and choreography were great. No one seems to have come down with a sequin overdose as yet.

After the show we went to Val and Steve’s in Brooklyn Heights for a BBQ dinner on the deck, but got driven inside by another T-storm. There was enough rain to cause local flooding. Thanks, Val, for the feed.

After that stormy night, the boys left EWR yesterday morning for SFO before last night’s T-storm. We came home from the airport to catch up on sleep and laundry. Today Hurricane Arthur is off shore. So far we have gusty winds and only light rain. The prognosis for the fire works show is iffy. We go to Lynn and Bill's for dinner tonight.

New blooms: southern magnolia, beauty berry, tutsan, daylily, butterfly bush.


Luna Moth. Hanging on a screen the morning we left VT.

Tutsan, Hypericum androsaemum, is also known as St. Johns wort. It has regrown from the ground after our severe winter.

Day lily, notice the difference between the inner and outer sets of petals.

Southern Magnolia puts out a huge, short-lived flower, a couple at a time for several weeks.

Fully opened Magnolia grandiflora.

Pond dwellers.

Synchronized swimming.

Multiple floaties.

Exotics.

6-29-14 VERMONT: It’s been warm and sunny since my last post. Judy, the boys and Lucy have been helping out at the Haven, a shelter in nearby Wilder, VT. That has given me a chance to catch up on gardening and has given the frogs a breather.

Eoin found an exotic, carnivorous plant in the pasture. It was growing on a mossy rock in a marshy stream. After consultation with our naturalist consultant, Donna, it was ID’d as a Round Leaved Sundew, Drosera rotundifolia. Unlike most of its cousins, this one is happy in northern climates, and it is not endangered, even if rare. We returned it to its chosen spot. It was enjoying a gnat. I have never seen, or noticed, this plant before.

Today we made a road trip going to the Eshqua bog in Hartland, VT where the Showy Lady’s Slippers, Cypripedium reginae, are in bloom. These orchids are under some environmental pressure, but seem happy in this preserve, which is supported by the Nature Conservancy. It is actually not a bog, but a fen. A fen is an alkaline wetland, while a bog is acidic.

The alkalinity of the Eshqua bog comes from a nearby carbonate deposit. The carbonates were originally a reef off the coast of North America 400 million years ago when the continent was in tropical ocean waters. Later it was pushed onto the continent and metamorphosed into schist and ended up alkalinizing this wetland for the lady’s slippers benefit.

New blooms: feverfew, stonecrop sedum, summer sweet, rosebay rhododendron.


Drosera rotundifolia, Round Leaved Sundew, is a carnivorous plant happy in VT and similar climates including Alaska. Eoin found this one on a mossy rock in a pasture stream.

Cypripedium reginae, showy lady slipper, is found in the Eshqua bog, a Nature Conservancy site in Hartland, VT.

Cypripedium reginae, showy lady slipper, some detail of the orchid.

Spirea with a pollinating wasp. That yellow/gray saddle-bag is a load of pollen.

Big Rain.

6-26-14 VERMONT: Yesterday the rain started in mid afternoon while I was working on the roses. It got heavier and heavier as it grew dark and continued all night. There was a short power outage. This afternoon the rain gauge had 2.75 inches and the boat was full of rainwater.

We braved the worst of the storm to meet Lily for dinner at Murphy’s and had a tour of her rooms after we ate—her place looks very much like college housing.

Today was overcast until evening, but the skies are now clear. I did a little pruning this afternoon.

New blooms: red spirea.


Hot couple....

You're supposed to boat on the water, not in it.

Wall beds.*

Gus, Maizie, Bally.*

*photos by JWF

The Boys Are Back in Town.

6-24-14 VERMONT: We’re back in VT with Eoin and Joe and have been joined by Val and Lucy. Bally the dog has fallen deeply in love with Lucy. The boys were in the pond yesterday—frogs beware.

Yesterday was warm and sunny, but today was overcast and cool with a brief shower.

New blooms: baptisia, lady’s mantle, goats beard, water lily, white spirea, thyme, roses.


It's not cotton candy, it's meadow rue.

Another peony.

Goats beard tolerates a lot of shade.

NJ Visit.

6-22-14 SHORT HILLS: The summer solstice has come and gone and the days are now getting shorter—perhaps you hadn’t noticed. The whole northeast is cool and dry. We have had no rain for about a week, and there’s none in the five day forecast.

We came back to NJ to pick up Eoin and Joe for their summer visit from California. We all go back to VT tomorrow, and Val and Lucy will be joining us there.

New blooms: sweetspire, rosebay rhododendron, winterberry holly, hydrangea.


Sweetspire, a nice medium-sized shrub, especially for wet areas.

Rosebay rhododendron, the last of the evergreen, spring bloomers.