Penelope Shelley, the garden’s resident female box turtle, made her first appearance of the year this afternoon. I always try to give her a treat when I see her, but I didn’t have any berries in the refrigerator today. Instead, I scrounged around and found two earthworms, a slug, and a periodical cicada nymph. She ate everything offered and then washed it down with water from a saucer before ambling off into the undergrowth.
According to my records, the first time we encountered Penelope was on April 25, 2010, so we missed our 14th anniversary by just three days.
It has been an interesting few weeks in our garden. On April 6th, I noticed activity in a tall pine tree right beside our driveway. A pair of red-shouldered hawks (Buteo lineatus) were building a nest. As we watched, they brought twigs and other material to complete the structure, and then one of the birds settled in.
One of the few pictures I got of the presumed female on the nest. The nest is deeper than it appears, so most of the time she was invisible, with her tail only occasionally poking above the rim to prove that she was inside.
These events were surprising for several reasons. First, it was late in the season for red-shouldered hawks to start nesting. Second, a pair of hawks had been nesting in a tree on our neighbors’ property. These birds are highly territorial, suggesting that the hawks in our driveway were the same pair that had been nesting nearby earlier in the spring. Why had they moved?
The third reason that this situation was surprising became clear when I got pictures of the two birds. The bird that spent most of its time outside the nest, presumably the male, was clearly an adult-red shouldered hawk. He was very vocal, shrieking loudly throughout the day, and frequently brought small objects to the nest. On one occasion, I saw him give what appeared to be a lizard to the bird in the nest.
Adult red-shouldered hawk, presumably a male, distinguished by his rusty red chest and shoulders. He was difficult to photograph under the expanding leafy canopy.
The other bird, presumably the female, had the paler, speckled breast of an immature red-shouldered hawk. Why was she nesting with an adult male?
The presumed female hawk with the paler, speckled breast of a young bird.
When I posted pictures on the Carolinas Wildlife page on Facebook, a bird expert suggested that this might be a late-season “emergency” nest and subadult replacement mate for an adult bird that lost its original mate earlier in the season. Presumably the female was old enough to engage in courtship behavior, even though her plumage was not fully adult.
Over the next ten days or so, there was a lot of activity around the nest. One morning, I watched a gray squirrel harassing the female. It would scramble up the tree trunk and grab at the nest, quickly running away whenever the female rose and spread her wings. Last Saturday, there was major excitement and much noise when a third hawk invaded the territory of the nesting birds. The two residents quickly chased the interloper way and then sat in the trees shrieking. I could hear the third bird also calling in the distance.
One of the resident hawks, I think the female, just after chasing away an interloper.
Earlier this week, I found the completely cleaned spinal column of a snake lying under a tree. I suspect it was the remains of the hawks’ prey, although I can’t rule out an owl or one of the various mammalian predators as the perpetrator.
It has been quiet in the garden for the last few days. The deciduous canopy has filled in, so I’m not sure if the hawks are still around, or if they have moved on. Perhaps the female was too young to successfully lay and incubate eggs after all. Red-shouldered hawks often reuse nests, so if they are gone I hope they will be back next year.
Update 4/29/2024: This weekend, I heard and saw the hawks several times, mostly early in the morning. On one occasion I saw the female leaving the nest, which is now almost completely hidden by the surrounding trees. Perhaps they have eggs or chicks up there.
I am reasonably certain that we are past the last frost, which means that spring is going on all cylinders. Because we did not have a sudden hard freeze after a long period of mild weather this year, the orchids and other spring-flowering plants that are frost tender when in new growth are flowering especially well (see above). The only plants that aren’t having a very good year are some of my azaleas. That’s because a dead pine tree fell sometime during the winter and clipped the deer fence where it is out of sight behind the shed. Deer noticed the break in the fence before I did, and availed themselves of the exotic buffet in my garden. Most azaleas were heavily browsed and only have scattered flowers on twigs that the deer missed. The hoofed pests also defoliated a couple of camellias and mowed the flowers and leaves off cyclamens.
1. Rhododendron species? Possibly R. canescens (piedmont azalea) or hybrid?
My deciduous azaleas mostly escaped damage, because the deer were looking for foliage, not bare twigs. I purchased this plant as Rhododendron alabamense from the NCBG, but it lacks the white flowers and lemon yellow blotch typical of that species. It looks to me more like a mislabeled R. canescens. However, natural hybrids of R. canescens x R. alabamense also occur where the two species’ ranges overlap, so I can’t rule out that possibility. In any case, it is beautiful and fragrant.
2. Aronia arbutifolia (red chokeberry)
I have been growing this stoloniferous native shrub in the rose family for about a decade, but it has inexplicably escaped any mention on the blog. It gives me these beautiful little flowers in spring and bright red berries for the birds in autumn. It is slowly spreading through a bed beside our raised deck, but its branches are so sparse and open that it doesn’t choke out or shade smaller plants. Currently, the tallest stems are about 8-9 ft tall (~2.5 m), so the flowers can be enjoyed from the deck.
3. Halesia diptera (two-winged silverbell)
This little tree, which grows wild from South Carolina to Florida and Texas, is closely related to our native Halesia tetraptera (picture 5, here). I planted it 16 years ago close to our front door where it is shaded by larger hardwood trees. It grows very slowly and seems to be flowering better after I cut down several branches of black cherry (Prunus serotina) that were leaning over it. H. diptera flowers about two weeks after H. tetraptera, so unlike the native species, it doesn’t have to compete for attention with the more flamboyant flowering dogwoods (Cornus florida).
4. Phlox divaricata (woodland phlox)
This is another long-time garden resident that has somehow escaped being featured on the blog. It’s a very lovely native plant for the shade garden, where it spreads slowly and plays well with others. Its only negative feature is that it is irresistible to cottontail rabbits. If there are any bunnies in the garden, the phlox is invariably mowed to the ground.
5. Anemone coronaria (poppy anemone)
The Anemone coronaria are still going strong. Here’s a white-flowered clone.
6. Podophyllum peltatum (mayapple)
The woods around my garden, and indeed, all over this region, are currently filled with colonies of mayapples (Podophyllum peltatum). P. peltatum is a classic spring ephemeral. The foliage and single flower, which dangles under the leaf, appear suddenly in spring. After fruiting the plants go dormant, and usually they have all disappeared by early summer. Fully ripe fruit are edible and supposedly delicious, but don’t eat the toxic seeds or unripe fruit! I have resisted adding this species to the garden itself because it spreads so vigorously, but it is certainly a lovely sight in the woods.
Jim at Garden Ruminations is the host of Six on Saturday. Head over there to see his Six for this week and find links to the blogs of other participants.
The first four photos this week are from my garden. The last two are animals, not plants, and were taken at Sarah P. Duke Gardens in Durham–so from a garden, just not my garden.
1. Narcissus ‘Golden Echo’
I have two Narcissus hybrids currently flowering which have lovely contrasting color patterns. ‘Golden Echo’ has a golden yellow corona which contrasts well with white tepals. It’s not uncommon for Narcissus to have a corona that is darker than the tepals, but I find this hybrid to be particularly striking. ‘Golden Echo’ was produced by Brent and Becky Heath in Gloucester, Virginia.
2. Narcissus ‘Pipit’
‘Pipit’, with its white corona and yellow tepals is almost the reverse of ‘Golden Echo’. I know zilch about plant genetics, but surely there is something interesting going on here. Presumably, pigment production in tepals and corona is regulated independently with either corona-specific or tepal-specific enhancers or transcription factors.
3. Narcissus ‘White Petticoat’
This is hoop petticoat season. I have been growing Narcissus ‘Golden Bells’ ( photo 6, here) for about eight years, but this one I planted just last autumn. ‘White Petticoat’ is a hybrid of N. cantabricus x ‘Diamond Ring’. N. cantabricus flowers in January, so this hybrid must take after N. ‘Diamond Ring’. It makes for a nice color contrast with ‘Golden Bells’ which is also flowering now.
4. Anemone coronaria ‘Mr. Fokker’
‘Mr. Fokker’ is one of the French de Caen cultivars of A. coronaria which date from the 18th Century (surely it should be M. Fokker, not Mr.). A. coronaria seems to grow quite well as a perennial in our climate, so I have been adding more colors after growing the red flowered ‘The Governor’ (photo 4, here) for several years.
5. Pantherophis alleghaniensis (eastern black rat snake)
While visiting Sarah P. Duke Gardens last week, we spotted this rat snake having a drink from a puddle. It was fairly large–perhaps 4 ft, 1.2 m–and seemed unbothered by the many, many people visiting the gardens on a gorgeous spring day.
6. Anolis carolinensis (green anole)
Gardens aren’t just for plants. Close to the rat snake, this green anole was sheltering in a house for native solitary bees. I suspect it had found the perfect spot to intercept ‘spicy flies’.
Jim at Garden Ruminations is the host of Six on Saturday. Head over there to see his Six for this week and find links to the blogs of other participants.
Psychopsis versteegiana flowering in my greenhouse this morning
Psychopsis is a small genus of neotropical orchids often referred to as butterfly orchids for obvious reasons. Their flowers are large and showy and are generally held one at a time on a long, wiry inflorescence. As the flowers dance and bob in the slightest breeze, they really do resemble butterflies.
Psychopsis papilio. This inflorescence has branched, so three flowers are present at once–a somewhat unusual situation.
The plants are fairly small and have tightly clustered pseudobulbs, each bearing one or two leathery leaves. The leaves of some species and hybrids are beautifully mottled with reddish pigment. They are all reasonably easy to grow if kept warm and grown in a small pot with fairly moisture retentive mix. Their roots resent disturbance, so it is best to use long-lasting potting materials. I have had good luck growing them under lights in terracotta pots with long-fiber sphagnum and in the greenhouse in plastic pots with a more open mix of sphagnum and lava rock. Although the flowers are produced one at a time, the inflorescence is successive blooming and can continue to produce new buds one after another for several years. Never cut a Psychopsis inflorescence until you are sure that it is completely dead and dried up.
Closeup of Psychopsis papilio column and the shield-like structure at the base of the labellumPsychopsis krameriana
Sweetgum and Pines 