Singing in the Garden

CURRENT Singing in the Garden

Top Left: Wingstem’s distinctive seed clusters. Top Right: Milkweed pods releasing fluff-borne seeds to ride the wind. Bottom Left: Seedheads of Queen Anne’s Lacelook like little birds’ nests. Bottom Center: Asters have seeds with fluffy parachutes to carry them on the wind. Bottom Right: The bowed seedhead of torch tithonia (Mexican sunflower)

Mountain Garden: Going to Seed

The magic of seeds goes beyond their amazing numbers and viability. They’re also, in many cases, simply beautiful.
Left: Old-fashioned rambling roses, accidentally spared, bloomed exuberantly around and over the old mulberry stump. Right: The spidery blooms of witch hazel appear in late October, lighting up the woods as autumn’s foliage fades.

Mountain Garden: Flexibility Pays Dividends

In what might be called the “garden whisperer” approach, there’s much to be said for letting the plants have a role in the plans.
The white flowers, clumped along the stem, are easy to miss. They expand into clusters of spiky scarlet seedpods containing ricin-laced “beans.”

Mountain Garden: Holy Moly! It’s a Castor Oil Plant

The plant’s poisonous seeds don’t preclude growing “something out of maurice sendak’s imagination.”
Worth the wait: A passed-along rhizome produced just leaves for several years. Then this.

Mountain Garden: Irresistable Irises

Easy to grow, easy to keep and easy to look at, bearded irises have a long history of beauty.

25 Garden Tips for July-October

From assessing (don’t plant too closely) to zucchini (don’t let them get as big as ball bats), here’s how to grow better.

Departments

At Coopers Rock State Forest, new Stargazer cabins invite guests to look up through skylights and telescopes.
Country Roads

Even Closer to Almost Heaven

New Stargazer cabins at Coopers Rock State Forest offer a skyward escape in the mountains of West Virginia.

©Duncan Seaman
Country Roads

A Mountain Tradition Turns 90 

Visitors flock to Galax, Virginia, each summer for the Old Fiddlers’ Convention, a days-long celebration of Appalachian music.

Synchronous Fireflies
Creature Feature

The Light Fantastic

Fireflies are struggling with the effects of artificial light.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS