New Critters in My Garden

Box turtle browsing on woolly thyme.

 

Box Turtle in front yard.

Lately I've been finding new creatures in my garden. A few days ago it was a box turtle in our front yard. Herb had told me that several days before, he'd seen a box turtle in the middle of the street, just around the corner from our house, and fearing that the turtle would get run over by a car, he stopped and very carefully picked it up to move it to one side, depositing it on the lawn in front of a neighbor's house.

Now, we few days later, a box turtle shows up in our yard, right by the front walk. We'd seen another box turtle in our front yard perhaps two weeks ago, just before one of our recent evening thunderstorms. I didn't get a chance to photograph it before the turtle disappeared into the shrubbery. Could this be the same turtle? It appears to be a female, since the claws of the rear paws are very long, so we've nicknamed her Myrtle the Turtle.

 

Salvia 'Black and Blue' with pink miniature rose.

 

Yesterday we got three and a quarter inches of rain--the aftermath of hurricane Ida's passing through this part of the country. This morning I went out to look at my garden. My 'Black and Blue' Salvia is huge this year! I'm surprised that this zone 7 plant has survived two winters outdoors in our zone 6, but it seems that burying the pot in the soil and mulching heavily may be the key to keeping some of these potted plants alive through the winter.

 My plants all seemed to have benefited from the rain, the weeds especially. I was about to pull that little bit of crabgrass in the photo below when I saw something move--at first I thought it might be a small snake, we seem to have quite a few around here. Imagine my surprise when I looked closer to find one of the biggest lizards I've ever seen!

 

Skink in a flower bed.

Skink.

I've observed fence lizards since we moved to this house, but this is the first reptile of its sort I've seen here--good thing I had my phone with me to take photos! I presume the creature wandered into my garden from the woods in back, perhaps driven by the incredible rainfall, to seek higher ground or food. Looking up to see what sort of animal this was, I couldn't figure out which description best fit the one I saw, so I contacted the Virginia Herpetological Society and sent them my photos. They gave me two possibilities: it could be either a Common Five-lined Skink (Plestiodon fasciatus), or a Broad-headed Skink (Plestiodon laticeps).

Herb's bed.

Seed pods of the Southern Slender Ladies' Tresses orchid.

 

 We haven't mowed the area where I'd found the Southern Slender Ladies' Tresses orchids so it's looking a bit weedy back there by Herb's bed--the Autumn Joy Sedum there is starting to show some color and soon the Muhly grass will develop its feathery pink flower heads. The orchids are almost done now, and setting seed; Herb will resume mowing next week after the orchids have had a chance to scatter their seeds--more orchids for next year!

Great Blue Lobelia (Lobelia syphillitica)

 

The Great Blue Lobelias are still blooming--the bees and humming birds really flock to them. The Cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis) I planted in the same bed didn't bloom this year, but it's still alive, so I may get some flowers next year. The ones I've seen at Blandy Farm are so lush and lovely, I'm envious. I wonder if mine will eventually spread as well as the blue ones have?

Crape myrtle 'Natchez' with zinnias.

The 'Natchez' crape myrtle didn't gain a lot of height this year, but it's blooming well. The colorful zinnias in front, which are still going strong, look great with it. I'm looking forward to the fall flowers, and all my fall planting. I wonder if we'll have a colorful fall?

Drawing the Ladies' Tresses Orchid

Southern slender ladies' tresses orchid, colored pencil drawing, 11"h x 7" w

 

After seeing a presentation by one of our very accomplished botanical artists from the Botanical Artists Society of the National Capital Region (BASNCR) group, I decided to experiment with black Stonehenge paper for drawing. I've never used a black background for any of my botanical pieces before, but I thought that it could add an element of mystery that might be appropriate to depict the tiny and intricate native orchid I found in my back yard last week. 

First I sketched the entire orchid blooming spike in pencil in my sketchbook, just for practice, I then repeated the exercise drawing on the black paper using a white color pencil. The spiraling blooms are so tiny that even with a bit of enlargement, it was rather unprepossessing.

I really wanted to be able to see the details of the tiny blossoms--even using a magnifying glass, they were nearly impossible to see! But using my phone to enlarge the blossoms and taking a photo, although the photo wasn't as sharp as I would have liked, I was able to see the basic form of the individual blossoms with the characteristic green spot on the labellum (the larger lower petal or lip). The flowers are so lovely, they really deserve the extra attention, so I decided to include a section of the enlarged flowers on the right. This made the composition a bit of a challenge, as the enlarged flowers are almost touching or "kissing" the smaller flower spike, but somehow, it works. I'll probably try this again, perhaps separating the two elements with a bit more space in between.

I want to try this again on the same black paper using pastel pencils, which may give me more brilliant whites against the background. The effect of the white pencil is interesting, but it doesn't give as brilliant a white as the pastel pencils would.  I will definitely try the same composition as a conventional watercolor with a white background, just to see how the different backgrounds affect the atmosphere of the piece.

Backyard Native Orchid Discovery

Southern slender ladies tresses orchid (Spiranthes lacera var. gracilis)

 

Yesterday I was puttering in my garden deadheading spent flowers, taking stock of the damage the deer and the seventeen-year locusts have wrought this year, when my eye was caught by a small spike of white flowers springing from the lawn behind my fenced veggie plot. I went over to take a closer look, and to my great surprise, saw the tiny flowers were arranged in a familiar spiral pattern--could it be a ladies tresses orchid? It sure looked like it!

 

Native orchid in the lawn.

I grabbed my phone to take some photos. The spike was no taller than about 8 to 10 inches, with the spirals closely wound, and no visible basal leaves. The more I looked, the more certain I became that it was indeed a native orchid, it had to be one of the ladies tressses species that blooms at this time of the year. How incredible to find one in our lawn!

 

I Emailed a photo of it to Sally, one of my botanist friends from the Virginia Native Plant Society (VNPS) to confirm my suspicions and see if she could help me identify the particular species. She confirmed that it was a southern lady's tresses, Spiranthes lacera var. gracilis. Apparently the southern species variety is hairless and the leaves aren't present when it blooms, whereas the northern variety of the species, Spiranthes lacera var. lacera, is hairy and the leaves are present at blooming time. The green spot on the labellum is another clue to the southern variety.

Since this is the first time I've seen the orchid in my lawn, I wondered how it could have sprouted there. This native orchid is common in disturbed areas in my region (including lawns), and it's possible that it has been growing there for some time, but was mowed in other years, and so I never noticed it, or it could be the orchid's first year producing bloom. Who knows? We'll have to make sure it doesn't get mowed, so that perhaps it can set seed and begin to multiply. How lovely it would be to have a colony of these delicate native orchids in my yard!

August Monsoon

Back yard during a thunderstorm.

 

After the prolonged drought of the past few months, August seems to be turning the tide with three powerful thunderstorms within one week, each dropping over an inch of rain. It's almost like the summer monsoons in the Southwest at this time of the year. Out there, the heat builds up during the day to give rise to huge thunderheads that drop incredible amounts of rain on the parched land.

The winds were so strong at the height of one of these storms, that our new cast aluminum bench (a corner of which shows on the lower right hand corner) got blown clear across from one side the deck to the other! The bench was originally by the railing all the way over to the left. Many of my houseplants summering on the deck were thrown off my new plant stands, some were even knocked clean out of their pots! Fortunately, the damage isn't permanent, they'll recover in a day or two.

 

Salvia 'Black and Blue'

Everything in my garden was looking pretty sad before the rains, but now everything is starting to revive. The Salvia guaranitica 'Black and Blue' just started to bloom. My Australian red lime has set some fruit, two nice-sized ones from the past winter and a few more this summer; I presume a change in color will indicate when the limes are ready to be harvested.

Australian red lime.

The deer decimated so many plants that I don't have much in the way of seasonal flowers such as the usual black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia)--this year's display is quite poor compared to last year's. 

 

Black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia 'Goldsturm')

Impatiens in the front bed.

I planted these red and white Impatiens in the front bed after the Narcissus leaves began to dry and wither, but either deer or rabbits ate the Impatiens, so there 's not as much coverage as I'd hoped for. With the recent rains, these may yet grow fuller before the end of the season.

Herb's bed and the Little Indians

 

Every year I strip the early buds from the Chrysanthemums, but they still end up blooming much too early. This year I didn't touch the buds at all, and as you can see, the mums, the yellow ones in particular, are starting to bloom right now. The zinnias are still going strong too--I'll definitely be planting more next year, now that I know deer won't bother them.

 

'Benary's Giant' zinnias.

Great blue Lobelias (Lobelia syphillitica)

 My great blue Lobelias have started to put on their annual show--this location seems to be to their liking and they multiply more each year. The 'Pink Posie' Pentstemons under the 'Amber Ghost' Japanese maple are also blooming well this year. The Caryopteris 'Longwood Blue,' on the other hand, seem to have suffered greatly from the drought, and don't have many flowers, at least thus far.

 

'Pink Posie' Pentstemons.

Caryopteris 'Longwood Blue' in bed behind 'Pink Posie" Pentstemons.

 

I can only hope that the rains will continue and the fall blooming season won't be as disappointing as the summer has been.

The Cowpasture River

The Cowpasture River, watercolor, 10"h x 14"w.

 

During my artist residency at the Red House, I really wanted to take a dip in the Cowpasture River, a beautiful stretch of this river flows through Amanda's farm. The Cowpasture is one of Virginia's cleanest rivers, and one of the sources of the much larger James River that flows through Richmond and so much of our state's history.

I explored many other places in the area before finally getting around to painting the Cowpasture River. The Sunday before a tremendous thunderstorm struck. I later heard that the rain fell at a rate of two inches an hour! The river rose so high that three of Amanda's beach chairs were swept downstream, never to be found again! 

The following Sunday afternoon, with more normal water levels, I felt it was safe to explore the river. The water was a bit colder than I had expected, so I settled for just wading rather than full immersion, and then started my painting. 

 

The Cowpasture River.

The afternoon was very warm, and soon the shade moved so that I was in the full sun, trying to shade the painting with my body. Somehow, the paper in my sketchbook (it was the last blank sheet) didn't seem to be working as usual--my washes were covered with specks all over, and the paper wasn't absorbing the water normally. Could it be that tree sap or debris on the surface was making the paper act differently? I couldn't explain it, but I was having the hardest time trying to get the paint to cover the paper.

I was about to give up and call it a day, when it occurred to me, why not lay down the darkest wash I could over the trees and shadows, and then go back in to lift out the lighter branches? This change of approach really helped, although the near foliage became a bit more blueish-green than I had intended. There was nothing to do but go with it, and echo the same shades for the shadows on the water. The result is a painting with lots of mood and mystery, which I really like.

Painting on Amanda's little beach.

Amanda loved the painting too, so I've agreed to give it to her. A few days later, I painted another one for myself. This one is in a new sketchbook, which has a different brand of paper. It handles differently from the paper in my old sketchbook.

The Cowpasture River II, watercolor, 14" x 10"

This second painting has a very different mood--sunny and bright, more open. The clump of trees overhanging the water isn't as dominant, and doesn't influence the mood as much as in the first painting. Amanda came by and took this photo of me as I was finishing the painting.

The Cowpasture River is such a lovely place! I hope to visit it again soon.

Mid-Summer Garden Ho-hums

Hydrangeas in the east garden.

 

My garden was sadly neglected during my absence while I was at the Red House in June. It was very dry and so hot that despite Herb's tender ministrations, the weather and creatures have taken their toll on many plants this summer. The deer ate just about everything in sight: my roses, daylilies, the shrub Clematis, the Calendula seedlings. Even plants they'd not bothered with previously were chomped down, like my Rudbeckias and even the black cotton growing in pots on the front walk!

Hydrangea 'Tiny Tough Stuff' and gladiolus

Fortunately, deer don't eat hydrangeas or they would have gone after these too. This year my hydrangeas have bloomed better than ever before, despite the drought. I've been watering them whenever they showed signs of wilting, but I attribute the blooms to not cutting back the stems in early spring. I learned that both the lace cap and the Macrophylla types bloom on old wood, so I didn't prune them at all this spring. Not having any late frosts also helped, I'm sure. In any case, this is the first year that the lacecap hydrangea has produced more than one or two flowers. The flowers of both of the formerly blue hydrangeas are pink, indicating the soil is still alkaline, despite yearly treatments of soil acidifier. The new hydrangea 'Tiny Tought Stuff' is proving to be very floriferous.

Lacecap hydrangea.

The Asian lilies have finished blooming, and the daylilies' buds were eaten so quickly I didn't get a chance to see many flowers this year. Right now the Little Indians bed has very little in the way of color--a scattering of phlox flowers and towards the back, the white hibiscus and the butterfly bush.

The Little Indians bed.

Hibiscus and butterfly bush in the Little Indians bed.

 

Herb's bed has a little bit of color, and hopefully will have more as we get closer to fall. At the moment only the red Crocosmia 'Lucifer' are accented by the blue Centaureas. The perennial red salvia I planted this spring (on the right) finally produced its first spike of blossoms, and more should follow.

Herb's bed.

The cone flowers in the back bed continue to multiply; they blossomed well this year, although the flowers are now a bit past it. The goldfinches are starting to come around to check out the flower heads--I expect to see them gorging on the seeds in a week or two. I've been looking for some good companion plantings for this bed--I think it needs more variety and texture. 

I put in a plant of a red bee balm and one of a baby's breath, but thus far neither has prospered much (the deer ate back the bee balm). The dry soil here may be one problem, but deer are the biggest one. I must find some truly deer-resistant plants for this spot that is so prone to their depredations. So many of the plants advertised as being deer-resistant are anything but--there's nothing else but to try out some new plants here and see how they perform.

Coneflowers.

The current star of the garden is the bed of zinnias I planted this spring. The zinnias haven't filled out completely yet, but there's a nice variety of colors in the Benary's Giant mix I purchased. The deer don't seem to go for zinnias at all, so they've been spared, while the four o'clocks right next to them have been so badly chewed back I don't know if I'll get any blossoms out of them before the first frost comes this fall..

Benary's Giant zinnias

Pink zinnias

Orange zinnias

I'd forgotten how lovely these zinnias are, how easy and fun to grow. The bright colors of  these flowers are hard to beat!

Pink-striped Oakworm Moths

Pink Striped Oakworm Moths

 

A few years ago on a morning after a big thunderstorm, I found an unusual moth on the screen of the sliding glass door to our deck--I'd never seen one like it before. I later identified it as a female pink-striped oakworm moth (Anisota virginensis pellucida). It belongs to the silk moth family, and is quite common in the eastern half of the U.S. and the south.

The moth on the screen did not move for a long time--eventually I presumed it was dead, so I scooped it up for my collection of insects that I use as models for some of my botanical pieces. After a week I checked on the moth to discover that it had laid eggs after I put it in my box. Apparently it had not been dead when I picked it up!

So, when I found another female pink-striped oakworm moth on the same sliding glass door last week, I pointed it out to Herb and left it alone. About an hour later, Herb yelled out that I had to come downstairs to look at something. Imagine my surprise to find that a male pink-striped oakworm moth was in the process of mating with the female on the glass door!

From the other side of the glass.

 

I ran to grab my phone and camera, but had a hard time getting my camera to focus (I had the telephoto lens on it). I managed to get these few shots with my phone. Fascinating! Apparently when it's the right time to mate, the females secrete pheromones and position themselves so that the males can find them easily, usually early in the morning.

The moths mate quickly, at least that's what I've read, but these two stayed joined together for the rest of the day. At one point they both fell onto the deck, but somehow managed to climb back up on the glass door. Towards evening I was afraid that they would become trapped and squashed by the sliding screen when we opened and closed the glass door to go out on the deck, so I put a paper underneath them, scooped them up and gently laid both of them, still joined, on the plant stand nearby. 

 

 

The next morning they were both gone--I presume the female flew to one of the oak trees in back to lay her eggs, and the male flew away probably to die soon after. I feel privileged to have gotten this fascinating glimpse into nature's secret workings. Now I need to come up with a painting where I can illustrate these lovely moths and the oaks that host their larva. Perhaps I may run into some of the caterpillars later on. The life cycle of this silk moth would make a wonderful painting!

Featured in Artie's Eight

Young Pippin Apples, watercolor, 14" x 11"

I'm pleased to announce to my readers that this month my interview is featured in "Artie's Eight" on the website Frame Destination, and here is a link to the feature:

From Cuba With Love

Artie's Eight interviews artists by asking all the questions people want to know about us: what inspires us, how we got started, what our formative experiences were, the obstacles and how we overcome them, in short, what makes us artists tick.

I hope you enjoy it and share it with your friends!