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#53 - Flora & Fauna of Drums # 6 – Plants: Hey! Stop the mower! You’re
mowing my Rhubarb!!
In post #52, we looked at the Drums and how they interacted with plants. In this post, #53, we will look at some of the plants the Drums may have interacted with. In our last post it was all about, as Lady Bird Johnson used to say, “Plan and plant for beauty!” In this post its all about what beauty did we plant, or something along those lines. What’s growing at Drumyngham; is where we start.
This is Drumyngham in the mid-summer. The North corner is
pointed at the photographer. Butler Mountain can be seen to the left peeking
between the tree and the house. Butler
Drive (not in picture) is to the right. I’ve labeled some things I thought you
might find interesting.
On the left we see a tree labeled as “Mom’s Norway Maple”. A nursery sold this tree to my mom. I believe she bought it in 1998 as an ornamental. Now they are considered “invasive”. Mom knew I liked Red Maples so she made sure the maple she bought was a red one! Good intentions. ‘Nuff said.
Next, we see “Dad’s Grape Arbor”. The arbor is actually in the back yard behind the house but it can be seen between the Maple and the house in the above photo. He really enjoyed those grapes. He knew how to take care of them. These days I’m just glad they grow each year! Under the canopy of grapes, we have a small picnic table. Behind the grapes Dad built a small fireplace. He used it to bar-be-que and to steam Sweet Corn he’d grow in his acre garden. He also grew various varieties of pumpkins, strawberries, onions, various varieties of squash, various varieties of tomatoes, potatoes, peas, cucumbers, green beans, carrots, lettuce, radishes, finger peppers, green peppers (also known as Bell peppers or sweet peppers. We called them “Mangoes”. I never did get a good answer as to why.), and a few things I’m sure I am forgetting. You know, maybe it was two acres he planted. I hated weeding the garden. Had you asked me back then how big the garden was, I would have said it was 10 acres!
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| Rhododendron as seen from the bedroom window, not the Cardinal's window |
“Mom’s Rhododendron” is next in line. I think she got that at the same time as the Norway Maple. It had grown higher than the house by 2017 but I had a guy come and trim it back a bit. It is amazing to see in full bloom each spring. Behind that bush is a window into the living room. A Cardinal made a nest in the bush one year. Shortly thereafter, the Cardinal decided it needed to defend its territory from that “other” Cardinal it could “see” in that window (its own reflection). Try what we would, we could not find a way to persuade that Cardinal that all the world needed was peace! I don’t know how long Cardinals live but this one, or a close relative, fought that “other” bird all summer long and for a number of summers thereafter. I’m surprised the window didn’t break; or the bird’s neck, for that matter, poor thing. It must have had quite a headache each night but it was not going to give up the fight! Eventually, of course, it did.
Labeled next we see “Mom’s Smoke Tree”. That’s what she called it. The nursery sales slip says “Purple Smoke Bush”. This was another purchase that she made in 1998 from the same nursery that sold her the Maple and Rhododendron. However, this was part of a second group of plants she bought that summer. Mom adored this tree. I like it a great deal too. Purple leaves all summer and spring flowers that look like a purple haze, which I guess is why it is called a “Purple Smoke Bush”.
The “Day
Lily” has been there almost as long as I can remember. Big orange
blooms open each spring. Mom planted some out by the road, by the telephone
pole, as well, but the township cuts those down each year when they cut the
“weeds” that grow along the roadside.
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| Arborvitae #3 and Azalea #2. That’s Lily-of-the-valley in front. |
Next, we see the label “Azalea”, but the next plant in the photo is actually the first of four Globe Arborvitaes. They have been there at least as long as the Day Lily. Then we see the Azalea followed by another Arborvitae, #2. Drumyngham’s front door is next, then Arborvitae #3. Another Azalea, #2, and then the fourth Arborvitae. Between the first Arborvitae and the first Azalea, is a Bleeding Heart that grows up each year.
The last labeled plant in the photo is “Dad’s Birch Tree”. Dad wanted a Birch Tree in the front yard for a long time. He mentioned it to Wally Herhal shortly after Walley moved in across the street. Dad wondered where he could get one and Wally suggested he just go to a Hazleton stripping (an area that has been “strip mined”; in this area for coal) and “collect” one there. “They grow all over those strippings like weeds,” Wally said. So, one day, that’s what Dad did! The result, some 40 years later, can be seen in the above photo. Mom, of course, planted flowers around its base, like this red Tulip.
Mom loved to “garden”, as she called it, planting flowers
all over the place. She was always planting some annual or perennial someplace around
the house and then worrying over it. Clockwise below, we see Daffodils and Jonquils
and Tulips; Spring Bluets and Irises; all sorts of bulb flowers; all pop up all
about the place from Spring through Fall.
Of course, they didn’t have to be bulbs for her to plant them. In the center of the next photo, we see a Climbing Hydrangea. I had no idea what it was. I had to ask Penn State Cooperative Extension what it was. They knew. It came to Drumyngham along with that second group of plants mom bought in 1998. The sales slip lists it as “Pee Gee Hydrangia 5 Gal”. It cost Mom $8.00.
Upper left is a Money Plant, aka Silver Dollar plant. The official name is Lunaria annua. These flowers are probably the prettiest colored blooms of the bunch, my favorite; VERY eye-catching. Of course, everyone else likes them because their seed pods look like silver dollars. In the upper right is a Morning Glory. True to the name, the Morning Glory blooms in the morning sunshine. In the photo collection below, the Morning Glory could easily be confused with the plant just below it, the White Hibiscus. In reality, not so much. The Morning Glory is perhaps 1.5” across. The Hibiscus is the size of a dinner plate! Mom had red ones too but only the white ones seem to have survived. Incredible any have survived since they usually grow in Hawai’i. In fact, one of its cousins, the Yellow Hawaiian Hibiscus or Pua Moa Hau Hele, is Hawai’i’s state flower. Behind the big, white Hibiscus, you can also see the pretty pink Sweet Pea blossoms. These were a favorite of mine as a kid because the seed pods would dry on the vine. Touch them and suddenly they’d explode, seeds flying every which way. Even better, the pod casing twisted up like a corkscrew!! Mom had a specific place along the porch wall she’d grow them. Now they are wild and grow wherever they want.
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| Sweet Pea seed pods. |
On the lower left is a beautiful Clematis vine. It grows beside the Climbing Hydrangia. For as long as I can remember, Mom wanted a Wisteria vine to grow at the front of her porch. She would PRAY for one to grow. It never did. Finally, she gave up and planted this Clematis vine. In 2011, Mom fell in the house, laid on the floor for two days, and almost died. I came home from Maryland, stopping at the house before I went to the hospital to see her. There, growing up the side of the old chicken coop shed in the back yard, was a small Wisteria, and it was blooming. She had no idea it was there. I even took a photo of the blooms to show her so she could see she finally got a wisteria at Drumyngham. Although her situation improved, it eventually took a number of bad turns and she passed away in January of 2014.
Before I move along to the next grouping, I would be remiss if I didn't mention Mom's love of the Lily of the Valley. Mom loved the Lily of the Valley. She not only had real ones growing in the yard, but little plastic ones hanging on picture frames around the house. She had little pots hanging from hooks in the ceiling full of plastic Lily of the Valley. Some would say she was a bit of a nut when it came to Lily of the Valley. I would not argue.
Clematis is a relative of the lowly Buttercup! We got those at Drumyngham too, until the lawn mower finds them, that is. Then the Buttercups become mulch for the rest of the lawn.
However, unless one is talking about Bearded Irises, which we did have here for a while as well, but which seem to have died off, beards have nothing to do with the subject of this post, so, back to the plants of Drumyngham, which means, more Mom-flowers. Heck, they didn’t even have to be FLOWERS!
In the following grouping of “Mom Plants”, we see shrubs and trees she planted as if they were flowers. Well, some ARE flowers, so to speak, but you know what I mean. In the photo, upper left, is a Dogwood. Of course, this photo was taken in the Fall. This beautiful tree is most known for its (usually) white flowers that usually appear around Easter (April). I mention Easter because there is a legend about Dogwoods and the Crucifixion cross many find interesting. I know Mom did. When I was in my first two decades (1960’s to 1980’s), we had a Dogwood growing near the end of our driveway where it meets Butler Drive. That tree died and was removed. So, when Mom planted this new round of trees in 1998 (the first group), she, of course, included a Dogwood Tree.
On the upper right, is Mom’s most beloved Tree, her Mock Orange. She
loved this tree, nurtured it, pruned it. It was one of her proudest
possessions, so to speak. Our land borders with our neighbor’s land about where
this tree grows. The Youngs, Clyde and now Ransom, farm the land West of ours.
One day, and I’m not sure if it was Clyde or Ransom, but one of them was
running his tractor along the edge of the field spraying what was probably an
herbicide to control weeds, or an insecticide to control insects, both of which,
weeds and insects, played havoc with his crops. Coincidence or not (and if not
a coincidence, certainly not purposefully done), shortly thereafter, the Mock
Orange began to weaken. It appeared to be dying. Mom was heartbroken. She accused
the Youngs of “killing her tree”, cried, grew angry, and decided to “rip the
dead tree out by its roots now that it is dead!” I talked her out of it. I said
as long as it had green leaves, it could come back. It did, sort of. It still
blooms each year, as best it can, a lovely, beautiful white blossom that causes
you to think of Gardenias when you smell the blossom. I can see why she loved
that tree.
Behind the Mock Orange in the photo is a large Holly Bush. A few weeks ago, I cut that Holly back a bit because it was crowding out that poor little, long-suffering Mock Orange! Mom planted that, the Holly, too. She planted another one near the Driveway. That one can be seen in the lower left of the above grouping. Both of them came in that first group of 1998. The middle photo in the bottom row is Mom’s Magnolia. It came with the second 1998 purchase. That one cost her $10.00.
My favorite flower is the Pussy Willow. When I first saw the Magnolia, it was early Spring, no leaves or flowers yet, but covered by large, fuzzy buds. I wondered if Mom had found some kind of new Pussy Willow variety! Then the thing bloomed and I understood. Mom DID buy a Pussy Willow with that 1998 group-two purchase. It, too, cost her $10.00. That one apparently did not make it because I cannot find it. The only reason I know about it is it is on the sales slip. She never mentioned it to me.
The final photo in the above grouping, lower right, is what I call Mom’s Umbrella Tree. It is listed on the second group purchase sales slip as Weeping Cherry Fountain of Snow. This one is in the “Park”. I thought she had said that she had planted a second one near the driveway. However, I wondered why it seemed so different from the Parks tree. Stupid me. They seem different because they ARE different! The 1998 purchase sales slip for group two has a number of candidates on it that it could be. I’ve just been too lazy to determine which of the options it is!
BTW, the second group equaled 17 plants. Some I know are gone. For example, she had planted two Honey Locust Trees too close to Butler Drive so PPL Electric Company said they had to go before they caused problems with the power lines. Some I have found and a few I have yet to identify.
One Spring Day in 2001 or 2002, a fellow stopped by the house and asked Mom if he could cut some of the Lilac Blooms for his flower shop. They were quite beautiful that year. She said he could. He did. Although she didn’t ask for payment, he promised that he’d come back with a check to pay her for them. He didn’t. That was the last she saw of him. She’s still waiting for that check.
The Lilac isn’t the only one to be getting confused lately, either! This Apple Blossom appeared on September 10, 2019. I wonder if it felt lonely?
Those Lilacs sure take a beating from Mother Nature, but so far, they keep growing and blooming. They do get a leaf disease that covers their leaves with a white powder-like substance caused by Microsphaera syringae. And then there are the insects. This is a photo I took of a White Lilac giving of its bark and sap to a Giant Hornet, also called the European Hornet. Hey, Hornet, that’s not helpful!
Dad also planted our Rhubarb patch. He brought the Rhubarb from
the Fritzingertown farm. too. For most of my life that Rhubarb has been growing
in that same spot beside the old chicken coop, giving us Rhubarb stems to munch
on – made into a pie or just cut off and dipped in sugar. Yum!
Don’t eat the leaves, however. I’m told they do terrible things to your stomach. Now, as I am sure you recall, the chicken coop had to be torn down. Luckily, the guys who removed the coop, were able to work around the Rhubarb.
Not so much the guy who mows my lawn. I thought my lawn guy and I had an understanding that anything surrounded by rocks and so forth, was not to be cut. But, in his rush and desire to do a good job, he got carried away with his weed-whacker and, well, here is the result.
Each year, the plant has sprouted new leaves. I don’t see why they won’t do so again this Spring. As we all know, hope springs eternal!
Dad planted the Orchard, as well. I call it the Park now.
Most of his apple, cherry, plum, pear, and peach trees are now gone; as are the
Raspberry and Blackberry bushes. All replaced by evergreens and ornamentals Mom
planted or are volunteers who’ve joined the cause all on their own. We’ll delve
much deeper into the Park/Orchard in a future post.
We have all heard the phrase “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”, I’m sure. In my case, I suppose that is true although they never said how rotten or good the apple may be. Anyway, I’ve added a few plants, along the way, too. I am not a “gardener”, however. I plant the thing and then wish it well. I figure that if it wants to grow, it’ll push out all the other bad guys. Afterall, that’s what Crab Grass does! In fact, in the grouping of photos below, there is some Crab-Grass in the picture on the left.
I presently have a part-time job working as an alternate
operator for the Luzerne/Wyoming
Counties Area Agency on Aging Active Adult Centers. I fill in when the
regular operators can’t work. I was working in the Mountaintop AAC and one of
the participants gifted me with a small Evening Primrose. So, I brought it home
and planted it near the well house. I thought it died. However, the next year,
there where I’d planted my gift, was a bunch of pretty yellow flowers, my
Evening Primrose, had survived after all. And there it is in the final two
photos in the above grouping.
#1 is Virginia Creeper. This is an insidious vine! At first,
I thought “Oh how beautiful!” Green in the Spring and Summer, berries and red
to orange leaves in the Fall. Beautiful! The photo shows one climbing up the
barn behind the house. Then I went into the barn, upstairs, and found this vine
growing across the floor, INSIDE! It had
pushed in between some boards and was filling the INSIDE. Worse than that, it
was forcing those boards APART! IT WAS TEARING DOWN THE BARN. So, I tore the
vine down. I tore it off the house, too, but I left it grow up what trees it
wanted to grow up.
#2. Foxtail Grass. I like this grass. It forms a seed head
that looks all the world like a fox’s tail, thus the name.
#3. One of my favorite woodland trees – Sassafras! I mean,
even the NAME is fun!! It forms three leaf shapes: a normal leaf, a mitten
shape, and a three fingered glove shape. Green in the Summer. Chew on a leaf
and you get a WONDERFUL flavor. The wood has a lovely aroma. Boil the roots to
make Root Beer (there’s more to it than that, of course). I mean what’s there
not to like about this tree that turns ORANGE in the Fall!??
#4. Wild Violets growing in the lawn. Makes me think of my
mom every time I see them!
#5. Queen Anne’s Lace. Also known as Wild Carrot. Here we
see some cupping snow on a beautiful winter day.
#6. Wild Strawberry. The Wild Turkeys go nuts for these wild
strawberries.
#7. Goldenrod. Turns the Fall golden, and the Honey Bees
LOVE it!
#8. Raspberry. Berries in the Summer, Orange and Red leaves
in the Fall. The only problem with this fellow is that it has thorns. Ouch!
#9. This is a VOLUNTEER PEACH TREE! We toss our bio-degradable
refuse on a pile we call the Compost Pile. This tree grew up from a discarded
Peach Pit tossed on that pile. A few Apple Trees did likewise (from apple
seeds, of course). I finally had to start a new Compost Pile!
#10. This pretty little flower is called Knapweed. I’m told
it is invasive. It is still pretty!
#11. And who could not love POISON IVY!? (me, for one).
Funny thing is, it hardly bothers me. My mom, however, yikes, did she ever
suffer from it! She claimed all she had to do was walk NEAR it and she’d break
out in an itchy, oozy rash. Its leaves turn a lovely shade of red in the fall.
It grows anywhere one allows it to grow. It is truly a problem.
Of course, one realizes that plants don’t always come in green. Sometimes they come in, well, beige or, you know, NOT green! If they are small, folks call them mushrooms. If they are large, they are called Toadstools. Truth be told, I’ve never actually seen a toad sitting on a toadstool but I didn’t name the things either. Non-flowering plants (mushrooms, fungi, etc.) are beautiful in their own way and just as welcome around Drumyngham as green plants!
Oddly enough, I I have a “favorite” non-flowering plant,
too. The Puff
Ball! What fun those are! Step on one and the air is suddenly filled
with a grey/brown powder. Wonderful (cough, cough)!!
I’ll end this salad-survey of the plants of Drumyngham with one of the only two house-plants growing presently inside Drumyngham (the other is an Aloe). Phyllis and I call this little house plant, “Mrs. Cates”. Mrs. Cates has been with us since it was first presented to us in 1999. We were living in Bangor, Maine at the time. We’d moved to Maine in 1993 so I could become a member of the UMaine State 4-H staff. I was responsible for statewide 4‑H programs and Maine 4-H participation in out-of-state programs. We lived on Pearl Street and our next-door neighbors were Lee and Nancy Cates. Lee was retired and Nancy worked at Eastern Maine Medical Center. Nancy was the FIRST person to visit Philip after his birth in 1995. She took a moment from her work duties and found Phyllis’s room just to welcome Philip the day he was born (maybe it was the next day, I can’t remember, but she was the first.). In 1999, I was offered a new position, National Coordinator of the USDA/USAF Youth Collaboration Project. The project’s goal was to establish 4-H programs on nine Air Force bases across the country through a collaborative effort between youth serving Air Force staff and the 4-H staff of the county where the bases were located, to prove it could be done (some said it was not possible to program collaboratively between civil and military personnel).
To take the position, however, meant leaving Maine and UMaine employment and moving to Virginia where I’d become an employee of Virginia Tech.
The Cates, especially Nancy, although happy I had been asked to take on a roll such as this, were very disappointed we were leaving. On our last day in Maine, Mrs. Cates gave us a small Cyclamen as a remembrance/going away gift.
Phyllis is not a great indoor gardener and my record is spotty at best, myself! However, we accepted the plant and said we’d do our best to take good care of it. Because Nancy gave it to us, we called it “Mrs. Cates”.
Mrs. Cates lived with us in Virginia until we moved to Maryland in 2002. Mrs. Cates stayed with us all the time we were in Maryland, 2002-2017 – meaning Phyllis cared for it while I was in Maine again from 2015-2017. She made me bring it to Drumyngham in 2017, telling me it was a great relief to have me be responsible for Mrs. Cates again! Mrs. Cates loved the location we had her in while in Maryland, but I think she had to get used to the spot I chose in Drumyngham. Sometimes in the Summer that spot gets a bit too much sun and she doesn’t seem to like that as much. However, she bounced back nicely once the summer sun stopped blazing down on her through the glass window pane.
Mrs. Cates has always been in the little green plastic pot she was in when Nancy gave her to us. The only care Nancy suggested was to keep her moist and to not water her directly but to sit her in a bowl and pour the water there so Mrs. Cates could get the water through the holes in the bottom of her pot. The only fertilizer she has ever been given are her own blooms and leaves once they die. I lay them on top of her soil. By the way, her blooms emit a wonderful citrusy scent that is quite enchanting.
Now, according to the web site I linked above about these plants, they are known as “throw-away” plants because they are not expected to live past their first bloom. Twenty-two years and counting later tells me the web page writers need to double check their data! Nothing lives forever, but Mrs. Cates has done pretty well so far under very poor care by us! As long as Mrs. Cates stays green, I’ll keep giving her water, for sure!!
She isn’t her usually spot in the photo. I put her here for the photo. Usually, she sits in the window to the left. This photo was taken January 25, 2022.
If you are still reading at this point, I suppose you’ll find it to be a reLEAF when I say, that’s it for this post! Sometimes I can’t see the forest for the trees, but I know when I’ve drifted into the high weeds and that seems to be case here. So, enough with the Flora of Drumyngham, already! Ok, I promise I’ll do one more Flora post this fall as a Contemporary History, offering photos of the plants that did not get discussed with pictures above.
Until then, we’ll move on to greener pastures, or, in this
case, an orchard that became a park.
[1] As
you can see, I am not a gardener. What grows, grows, fending for itself. If it
fails to fend, it doesn’t grow. It’s a sort-of life lesson taught by the school
of hard knocks. Plants like Dock and
Ragweed and Crab Grass all grow just fine without any human help. So, stop
stressing over what doesn’t grow; find beauty in the weeds, if that’s all that
will grow!
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