#marcescent trees

[xensilverquill]

The woodland amphithere (Amphitheris silva), also known as the fairy dragon or the beech wyrm, is a small draconoid endemic to the temperate broadleaf forests of the Sunken Continent. Vestigial wings aid in thermoregulation and can be freely contracted and expanded. The shapes of these wings have evolved to resemble the leaves of beech, hornbeam, and other marcescent trees that are the favored hunting territories of woodland amphitheres. Fur-like moss growth on its head and tail enable it to supplement its primarily insectivorous diet with photosynthetic energy.

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(Extended species description under readmore.)

The woodland amphithere (Amphitheris silva), also known as the fairy dragon or the beech wyrm, is a small draconoid endemic to the broadleaf forests of the Sunken Continent.

Vestigial wings aid in both gliding and thermoregulation. Each wing can move independently of one another, and their membranes can be freely contracted and expanded (see last image/GIF in gallery). The shapes of these wings have evolved to resemble the leaves of beech, hornbeam, and other marcescent trees that are the favored hunting territories of woodland amphitheres. Whole covens have been observed sunning themselves on tree branches in autumn and winter.

Fur-like moss growth on its head and tail enable it to supplement its primarily insectivorous diet with photosynthetic energy. This adaptation along with their unique wing structure allows them to forego hibernation altogether in more temperate regions.

Two pairs of eyes make these creatures adept hunters. The rostral pair are used to observe shape and color while the caudal pair specialize in tracking the movement of their prey.

Like many extant members of the amphitherid and other draconoid families, the woodland amphithere possesses relays, growths on the head which house complex electroreceptors. Relays in this species have evolved as rigid, antler-like structures. The exact purpose of these relays is unknown, but it is hypothesized that they may be involved in communication between members of a given coven.

Woodland amphitheres are semisocial and congregate in single-generation groups known as a coven or a flight. Covens are typically made up of six to ten individuals, although covens as large as two dozen have been observed. While they do not exhibit the same coordinated hunting prowess of other amphithere species, they are still remarkably sociable and have been observed to groom and to sing to one another.

Eggs are laid in communal nests in small ponds in early spring, and the brood is left to fend for itself by the parent coven shortly after hatching. The fry begin life as tadpole-like creatures with their wings and relays becoming fully developed by midsummer. The brood may linger for up to a year near its birth pond before leaving in search of new hunting territory.

Birds of prey, including eagles, owls, and lesser rocs, are typical predators of woodland amphitheres. Its primary defense is its own coven, which will swarm upon and harass the predator to drive it away. Larger covens have even been known to kill and subsequently feed on their would-be attackers, especially during the nesting season.

---

First entry in what will be a small series of original dragon amigurumi patterns following a general amphithere body plan (basically all wing and no leggies lol).

My personal challenge for each of these is that I cannot directly reference patterns from other creators. This is to (1) force me to figure out how to work up complex shapes and (2) so that I can avoid copyright infringement if I ever decide to sell these patterns a later date. Which was why a good portion of the time for this entry was working out the shapes of the leaves for the wings, haha.

[roguerambles]

By the Fire

The Witcher Fic - Geralt of Rivia x Male Reader

Warnings - 18+ Only. Some mild NSFW. Brief description of monster violence.

So, fun fact about me, the Witcher 3 is one of my favourite games ever and Geralt of Rivia is kinda sorta my ultimate weakness. Look at him. JUST LOOK AT HIM--

Toussaint is one of my favourite areas in the game, and I figured Anarietta could use a court mage to fall in love with the local witcher, oops--

-

Perhaps hiring the Witcher had been unnecessary.

The Duchess had been quite insistent, however, that her newly appointed Court Mage not go wandering the Marcescent Forest unaccompanied. Several of the Ducal Guard had volunteered to accompany you, but oddly enough it was Captain de la Tour who recommended hiring Geralt of Rivia.

“All manner of beasts stalk the region.” He had gruffly told you, ignoring the surprised expression Her Grace had given him. “A witcher would be a prudent choice for a travelling companion.”

You could not critique his reasoning, although you liked to think your magic could handle a few beasts. But your research could take hours, and a man familiar with killing monsters watching over you was reassurance enough to Her Grace.

You had heard of Geralt of Rivia, of course – you doubted there were many in Toussaint who hadn’t  – but you had not met the man in person since his arrival to the region. When you had arrived at Corvo Bianco, dressed in your finest travelling cloak and a large pouch of coin attached to your hip, you had been somewhat embarrassed at the almost boyish excitement you felt as the majordomo – Barnabas – welcomed you to the estate and led you into the vineyard.

“Master Geralt, the Court Mage has come to see you.”

“Barnabas, you need to stop calling me that.”

Geralt of Rivia – the White Wolf, the Butcher of Blaviken – stood amongst the rows of vines, heavy with grapes, white hair tied back loosely, his chest bare, a fine sheen of sweat coating his skin from the blazing warmth of the summer sun. Your gaze was drawn to the patchwork of heavy scars decorating his skin, the toned musculature of his arms, the broadness of his shoulders, the handsome jawline dusted with silver. He moved with the easy grace of a warrior and it took you a moment to realise you had not spoken at all, even as he rose from where he had been kneeling and approached you.

“Damien de la Tour sent word. Apparently you need a Witcher.”

His voice was deep and pleasant to your ears, and found your tongue was refusing to form words in your mouth. You were staring like you had never seen a man with his tunic off before, and you saw the corners of Geralt’s lips twitch, his brows arching slightly upwards. You felt heat rush to your cheeks and you cleared your throat loudly, hastily reaching for your coin pouch and fumblingly explaining the terms of your contract.

“It’s only a few hours…and I can pay your handsomely. I mean, you are handsome. I mean, pay handsomely!”

You contemplated fleeing back to Beauclair on the spot. Geralt simply looked bemused, while Barnabas remained cooly neutral as you made a fool of yourself.

But the Witcher accepted your coin, and within the hour you were both riding towards the forest, the sun grazing the tops of the trees. You focused on examining the local flora, and tried to ignore how striking the Witcher looked in armour. You eventually settled into a companionable quiet, with Geralt occasionally asking about what exactly you were doing. You initially thought he was just being polite, but he seemed genuinely interested in what you had to say. He even answered a few of your own questions about the various potions you’d spotted attached to his belt.

Even if he was only humouring you, it did little to quell the pleased flutter of butterflies in your stomach every time you coaxed a small smile or a thoughtful “hmmmm” from the man.

“It’ll be dark soon.” Geralt spoke up the nearby tree he leaned against, watching you work. “We shouldn’t be out much longer.”

You had been searching for a few hours, and while you had collected a few interesting specimens, none of them had been what you had been looking for. And aside from the occasional curious deer, no creatures had made their presence known. You sighed and brushed your hands against your cloak, smiling apologetically. “I am sorry. This must be rather dull for you.”

Geralt barked out a short laugh, shaking his head with faint amusement. “Don’t worry about it.” His eyes flickered over your shoulder. “I’m sorry you haven’t found what you were looking for.”

“Was it that obvious?”

“Either that or your excited reaction is very understated.”

You laughed, prompting a subtle smile from Geralt that made your pulse quicken. You dipped your head slightly, turning back to gather your materials, when Geralt suddenly went still. Then he darted towards you, his hand reaching for his silver sword. “Move—!”

You startled in alarm, the earth shifting under your feet. Something screeched underneath you, high and shrill, and you stumbled backwards, claws long and sharp slicing at the air where you had been standing. Dirt and stone flew in every direction as something tore through the ground, and all you could see clearly rows of needle-like teeth snapping inches from your face.

You threw out your arms, panic burning fierce and bright in your chest as Geralt shouldered past you, a ripple of magic spilling from his open balm. The monster screamed as your magic clashed with his, sending it hurtling through the air and into the trees with a loud crack. Wood splintered as the creature writhed and wailed, blood spewing from a wound in its underbelly. Geralt swore loudly, before swinging his blade and thrusting it into the creature’s exposed stomach.

The ground continued to crack under your feet, soil and earth spilling into a deepening crevice. “Geralt—!” You willed your feet to move, but the crumbling earth was faster, and you found yourself being rapidly yanked downwards into cold, open air. “Geralt….!”

The Witcher dove after you, his large hands grasping your arms as you both tumbled over the edge. His arms circled around you, pulling you sharply against the metal of his armour so hard your teeth rattled, but you barely had time to register the dull burst of pain before plunging in the overwhelming chill of the river below.

-

You were curled under a blanket near the campfire, and you were hoping that if you prayed very, very hard, the gods would show mercy and simply kill you now.

After Geralt had dragged you out of the river like a bag of soaked vegetables, he had dove back in to fish out you and he’s scattered belongings before they were washed away. Your ankle throbbed painfully, somehow injured in the fall, and you had been forced to watch from the side-lines as Geralt set up your little makeshift camp, set up traps to ward off potential beasts, and cooked the fish he’d caught for you both over the fire.

You could not recall a time you had felt so thoroughly useless. You were a sorcerer, a bloody good one, but portals had never been your strong suit, and with how wrong everything had gone today you didn’t want to risk sending you and the Witcher halfway across the Continent into some carnivorous creature’s jaws. He probably already thought you were hopeless enough.

The sun was dipping lower and lower, but the Witcher insisted travelling through the forest at night was asking for trouble, particularly since you were struggling to walk. He had said this while stripping out of his dripping wet clothes, tossing them aside to dry, and encouraged you to do the same, and you had been far too flustered to muster much protest.

So there you sat, shivering under your blanket, guiltily watching as Geralt did everything, his leggings hanging distractingly low on his hips, the fading sun casting a warm, appealing glow against the glistening musculature of his scarred back and shoulders.

It was impolite to stare, but you could not help it.

You settled eventually, your clothes still to soaked to wear, and Geralt sat on the other side of the fire, seemingly quite at ease as you tried and failed to not follow a particular scar that trailed from his side and disappeared into his waistline—

“Bruxa.”

You startled, your eyes snapping upwards to meet his knowing expression. You flushed and stammered – gods you dealt with nobles and your fellow sorcerers with skilled eloquence, yet the Witcher reduced you to a clumsy wreck without even trying – as Geralt chuckled slightly, lifting his arm and gesturing at his side.

“This scar is from a Bruxa. In case you were wondering.”

He had clearly noticed your staring and you were seriously considering getting up and tossing yourself back into the river. You averted your eyes, your tongue useless in your mouth. “I did not mean to stare.”

Geralt peered at you thoughtfully. “They bother you? A witcher’s path is a dangerous one. War wounds are inevitable.”

“Bother me?” You nearly laughed. You had been counting every scar, wondering how they’d feel under your tongue; when you weren’t distracted with the strong, firm muscle of the Witcher’s body on such tantalising display. “No…not at all.”

“…hmm.” You could have sworn you saw Geralt’s lips twitch into a smirk for a moment, and began to fear that there was something to the rumours of Witcher’s reading minds. “You’re still shivering?”

Grateful for the shift in topic away from dangerous territory, you tugged your blanket tighter around your shoulders, smiling a little weakly. “I’m sure it will pass. I just need to stay near the fire.”

Geralt stared at you thoughtfully a moment, before shaking his head. “You’ve been sitting there a while. We need to warm you up.” He stood and began making his way towards you, and your heartbeat quickened.

“Oh! I…that isn’t necessary—”

Geralt shook his head again. “I doubt the Lady Duchess will be pleased if her Court Mage gets sick under my watch.” He sat down beside you, and patted his lap. “Come here. We’ll share body heat a while.”

For a few seconds, you completely forgot how to breathe. You stared at Geralt mutely, and his expression remained perfectly serious. You opened and closed your mouth several times, before finally finding the power of speech once more. “I…can’t ask you to do that.”

“You didn’t. I’m offering.”

You swallowed thickly, offering a quick prayer to whatever god was listening that you weren’t about to make a complete fool out of yourself. You shuffled into Geralt’s lap, his thighs sturdy and strong underneath you, and he pulled your blanket around him, your back pressed flush against his chest. He felt hot and solid and strong, his toned, powerful arms sliding around you and sweet merciful gods you were growing hard—

“Better?” Geralt asked, his voice low and warm as honey and you squirmed, hoping he didn’t notice your reaction.

“Y-yes.” You choked out, your face burning. “T-thank you. Sir Geralt.”

“Hmm.” You could not look up at his face, but you swore you could hear a smile. “Don’t mention it.”

You sat in silence a while, Geralt’s warmth bleeding into you, the sounds of the forest humming all around. It was almost a pleasant atmosphere, but you found it hard to truly relax, considering how you had ended up in this situation in the first place.

“I am sorry.” You murmured.

Geralt’s eyes narrowed, his head tilting. “For what?”

“For…well this.” You gestured vaguely around you. “It’s not what you signed up for.”

“You didn’t plan for this to happen, as far as I’m aware. You have nothing to apologise for.”

“Still, I am sorry.” You mumbled softly. “This can’t be how you envisioned your day ending.”

Geralt was quiet for a moment, before responding in a soft murmur in your ear that made you shiver for reasons other than the cold. “Hmmm….A warm fire, and a pretty, almost naked man in my lap.” Geralt hummed, the sound vibrating deep in his chest and against your back. “That’s better than I hoped.”

Heat flooded your cheeks, your pulse quickening as though it had been jolted with lightning. You went rigid in Geralt’s arms, and he chuckled lowly, his tone turning apologetic.

“…I’m sorry. Too forward?”

“What?” You twisted around to face him, which was a mistake, because suddenly his face was directly in front of yours, and you fumbled as his strong jaw and striking eyes were right there. “No, I…I mean…” You stumbled over your words as Geralt laughed softly, looking terribly pleased with himself. “I-I just…pretty--?”

You wanted to combust.

Geralt chuckled, his voice a maddeningly delicious mix of rough and smooth as he leaned forward slightly, his eyes seeming to glow molten gold in the firelight. “Yes.” He murmured, lips quirking into a small smirk that somehow made him even more unreasonably attractive. “Pretty.”

He had lovely lips, you noticed, before you leaned forward and pressed your own against them. Geralt made a low, pleased sound in his throat, his large, rough palm sliding over your hip and pressing against your lower back, leaving a trail of tingling warm in its wake.

This was hardly behaviour appropriate of a member of the Duchess’s Court, you realised distantly as you twisted in Geralt’s lap, slinging you thigh over his waist as you pressed your hips together, enticing a groan from the Witcher that set your blood aflame. His tongue slid into your eager mouth, his free hand slowly roaming over your bare thigh appreciatively as he tugged you closer, your chest flush with his. Your hand stroked over the thick swell of his bicep, fingers fascinated by the feeling of smooth skin and scar tissue, his beard rubbing against your skin in way that made you wonder how it would feel rubbing elsewhere.

The blanket fell from your shoulders, but the chill of the night air was chased away by Geralt’s hands, stroking and roaming and grasping, and you heard yourself moan needily as you ground your hips against his, your flesh rubbing against his through the thin material of your undergarments. You wanted to feel the rest of him, and you stroked down his sides, reaching for his waistband.

Geralt grabbed your wrists, tearing his lips from yours with a reluctant hiss. “Wait.” He leaned back, his expression mournful as his gaze trailed over you, lust bright and gold in his eyes.

You felt dizzy and flushed and breathless and you wanted Geralt to keep kissing you. You rubbed your hips against his and the Witcher groaned, eyes fluttering closed as he grasped your waist to still you. “Not here.” He forced out, his tongue darting out to wet his lips. “We shouldn’t make too much noise.”

Your face felt hot at the implication of his words, and as you took a moment to catch your breath you remembered you were in the middle of the forest. “Of…of course.” You inhaled deeply, struggling to keep eye contact as Geralt leaned back slightly, the muscles of his abdomen contracting distractingly under your palms. “We…I should…”

You tried to move, but Geralt’s hands cupped your waist, holding you in position. “Hold on.” He smirked up at you, eyes trailing slowly over your body. “I want to look at you a little longer.”

You flushed and cleared your throat loudly, ignoring his mouth and his eyes and his hands and everything else about him that made your stomach feel tight and hot. “You can look at me all you want back at Corvo Bianco.”

Geralt���s eyebrow arched. “Oh?” He leaned towards you again, lips tugging into a small grin. “Is that a promise?”

You shoved him and he laughed, deep and throaty, and you realised his laugh was yet another thing you could add to the list of things you liked about Geralt of Rivia.

Morning came eventually, and you both made your way to Corvo Bianco without further incident. You ankle still ached, but Geralt very gallantly carried you the last stretch of the journey, smirking as you flushed in his arms.

You sent word to the Duchess that you would be taking a few days to recuperate, and if anyone noticed that you spent the entirety of your recovery in the Witcher’s bedroom, they were polite enough not to say anything about it.

[kitkatpancakestack]

I'm sorry but I'm obsessed with this article.

"But in reality, not all deciduous trees get on board with the stick season program. And we can’t talk about stick season without acknowledging the leaves that simply refuse to fall."

I'll admit they hooked me in with the Noah Kahan picture and now I'm here. Foolproof tactic.

"Some trees retain just a few loyal leaves; others boast a full canopy of dead foliage. This persistence is a phenomenon called marcescence (pronounced “mar-cess-ens”). Scientists have been stumped by marcescence since at least 1749, when Scandinavian explorer and botanist Pehr Kalm collected observations of the stick season rebels in North America. There is still no consensus on why it occurs."

Somebody has to stick up for the plant carcasses. Go OFF babe.

"Whatever the reason, the leaves that stay add a bit of variety to the skeleton silhouettes. As winter approaches, spare a thought for not just the sticks of the season but also the leaves that stick around."

Wait why is this kind of deep? Something something dragging dead things around with you something something not letting the dead things go....

In total a surprisingly engaging article but unfortunately "Season of The Deciduous Leaves That Inexplicably Stick Around During The Winter" just doesn't have the same ring to it

[typhlonectes]

Marcescence is the withering and persistence of plant organs that normally are shed, and is a term most commonly applied to plant leaves. The underlying physiological mechanism is that trees transfer water and sap from the roots to the leaves through their vascular cells, but in some trees as autumn begins, the veins carrying the sap slowly close until a layer of cells called the abscission layer completely closes off the vein allowing the tree to rid itself of the leaf...

[tameblog]

Happy Monday GPODers! Today Allyson Levy of Hortus Arboretum and Botanical Gardens in Stone Ridge, New York is reminding us to leave the leaves! Allyson has shared her knowledge, and the incredible plants her and her partner Scott Serrano grow on 21 acres several times last year: Growing Pawpaws, Special Fall Plants, Fall is for Purple. Each time she enlightens us to exquisite, and sometimes unusual, plants to grow as well as ways to support your local environment and wildlife with your garden. To learn more about the incredible land they tend, and when you can visit, check out their website: hortusgardens.org As co-director and co-founder of Hortus Arboretum and Botanical Gardens I am often asked about how we deal with winterizing the gardens which is no small task with over nine acres of cultivated gardens! However, for nonprofessionals, even those with small home gardens, chores can seem overwhelming and never-ending. However, now that we are well into December, there are some strategies that if you didn’t follow this season are worth incorporating and putting on your 2025 to-do list. High on your list should be the mantra “leave the leaves”. This is a good one for sure, giving us gardeners the opportunity to do other tasks that maybe aren’t centered solely on plants. Now that the majority of deciduous tree leaves have fallen, except for the few marcescent Oak species and some Beech trees with leaves still clinging onto branches, reminders of the season that was. If this “leave the leaves” is a new phrase for you, or you just didn’t get around to taking out your leaf blower, or garden rake, rejoice, because the garden world has finally embraced this slogan since it is right in step with keeping a more naturalistic garden. For those of us who live in urban or suburban environments buying those tall brown “waste” bags to fill up with your lawn debris to leave on the sidewalk for pickup can now become a thing of the past. And even if you did tidy up your leaves this past fall it is a task that you can take off your 2025 list. The rationale behind this is simple. Fallen leaves break down over time and add nutrients to your plantings. Even different species of oak trees, notorious for keeping their leaves intact due to their high carbon to nitrogen levels, are still beneficial. Fallen leaves can trap snow, leading to additional moisture for both tree and perennial roots. But what they don’t trap are early spring bulbs, which have no problem emerging from the soil despite a layering of leaves covering them. Snowdrops (Galanthus spp.), Crocus (Crocus spp.), and Daffodils (Narcissus spp.), along with a whole range of other early spring bulbs and ephemerals manage to push their way up through the leaf litter. Even more importantly fallen leaves provide places for insects like moths, butterflies, wasps, and ground beetles to lay their eggs as well as well as a place to overwinter by offering protection from predators and the elements. Then come early spring when you’re ready to “clean-up” you can easily address any big piles of leaves that haven’t completely broken down by lightly raking them apart so they are loosened up some but still kept in place. If you require a more tidy look you can gather them up to put into your compost, where the leaves can continue to break down over time. If you maintain a large garden, or if the leaves are all over the place you can run a mower over them and shred them up, essentially mulching them. Okay, so now you have one less chore to do. But what about all your spent stems and flower heads that are left in the garden? Can you leave those in place, too? Yes!! Seeds have many strategies for propagation, and wind is often one of the ways plants do this on their own. It is always smart to gather some of the seeds in fall to sow yourself, but because many native plants need to be cold-stratified in order to germinate, leaving seeds on the plant and letting Mother Nature do the job is one way to ensure future plants. Of course, wind doesn’t pay attention to your garden design and plants may grow far away from the original “mother” plant. Above, rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus spp.) seeds in late fall get disbursed by the wind, but the seed heads remain. Regardless, many flowering plants still retain the seed heads after the seeds have been strewn, and they can be often very decorative as well. Above is a Japanese Angelica (Aralia elata, Zones 4–9) seed head before and after its seeds have fallen. You can leave your helianthus, echinaceas, symphyotrichum, solidago, and pretty much any annuals, perennials, grasses, and fruiting branches in place especially those still holding onto persistent berries or seed heads. Birds will thank you for it, as will many species of wasps and other insects that use the hollow stems, think Joe Pye (Eutrochium purpureum, Zones 3–9) for egg-laying and/or overwintering in. The availability of “brown” plant material is one of the most important factors for encouraging an increase in the population of all sorts of insects including bees. Forget buying a “bee hotel” and let nature make them for you. Besides, there are many flowering plants that provide visual interest “off-season.” Above are viburnum berries for the birds. Clematis seedheads are stunningly ornamental and may be even more visually interesting, or at the very least last a lot longer than the actual flowers. Virgin’s bower (Clematis virginiana, Zones 6–8) seed heads have just as much visual interest as their flowers. Late blooming perennials like the shade-loving Japanese anemone (Anemone hupehensis var. japonica, Zones 5–7) have seed heads that surprisingly persist through winter, with only a really strong wind blowing them apart! And if you live in a place where it snows, any heavy dump will do the work of bringing down those leftover seed heads and stems for you. However that snow dump can be messy with some stems down, others bent over at weird angles, while some are left unperturbed. Does that mean you need to go out and tidy it up?? The answer is no. As with the leaves, leave the plant material alone. At least for now. Having stems of various heights with different diameters of stems encourages a wider diversity of nesting habitats for a larger amount of different insects including stem-boring moths, and cavity-nesting wasps. Any fallen-over stems provides protection for ground-dwelling bees too. Come March or April, depending on where you live, you have plenty of time to clean up and tidy if that’s your thing. However, there is something you can do that is even more beneficial, which is to assist the whole process come spring by breaking up both the standing and fallen stems either by hand or lopper and leaving the now brown material alone. Think of this chop and drop as a mulch for your soon-to-be emerging spring plants. They will have no problem growing up through the plant debris, and come late spring, you won’t even see that. Plus any insect that is still residing in the dead plant material, or any of their eggs essentially stays in place. You may even begin to do what I have started to do, which is during the season using this chop and drop method when I am pruning or cleaning up a plant; I will cut the branches, stems, etc., into smaller pieces and throw them down around the base of the plant, allowing the material to break down in place. No need to drag a wheelbarrow or tarp to your compost for this. Just let the material break down in place. So, of course, leaving the leaves, not cutting back flowers, or gathering up all the seed heads (like the remaining seed heads of this northern sea oats [Chasmanthium latifolium, Zones 5–9]) just saved me several days of work because with managing the end-of-the-season duties at the arboretum there’s still much to be done. More on that soon! Thank you for sharing more inspiration and information from Hortus, Allyson! You continue to encourage us to look at gardening from a perspective beyond just the beauty that we create. A trip to your amazing arboretum and botanical garden is definitely on my agenda for spring.   Have a garden you’d like to share? Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit! To submit, send 5-10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden. Have a mobile phone? Tag your photos on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter with #FineGardening! Do you receive the GPOD by email yet? Sign up here. Fine Gardening Recommended Products Pruning Simplified: A Step-by-Step Guide to 50 Popular Trees and Shrubs Fine Gardening receives a commission for items purchased through links on this site, including Amazon Associates and other affiliate advertising programs. Pruning Simplified shows you exactly how to do it. This must-have guide offers expert advice on the best tools for the job, specific details on when to prune, and clear instructions on how to prune. Profiles of the 50 most popular trees and shrubs—including azaleas, camellias, clematis, hydrangeas, and more—include illustrated, easy-to-follow instructions that will ensure you make the right cut the first time. The Nature of Oaks: The Rich Ecology of Our Most Essential Native Trees Fine Gardening receives a commission for items purchased through links on this site, including Amazon Associates and other affiliate advertising programs. The Nature of Oaks reveals what is going on in oak trees month by month, highlighting the seasonal cycles of life, death, and renewal. From woodpeckers who collect and store hundreds of acorns for sustenance to the beauty of jewel caterpillars, Doug Tallamy illuminates and celebrates the wonders that occur right in our own backyards. He also shares practical advice about how to plant and care for an oak, along with information about the best oak species for your area. Source link

[ramestoryworld]

Happy Monday GPODers! Today Allyson Levy of Hortus Arboretum and Botanical Gardens in Stone Ridge, New York is reminding us to leave the leaves! Allyson has shared her knowledge, and the incredible plants her and her partner Scott Serrano grow on 21 acres several times last year: Growing Pawpaws, Special Fall Plants, Fall is for Purple. Each time she enlightens us to exquisite, and sometimes unusual, plants to grow as well as ways to support your local environment and wildlife with your garden. To learn more about the incredible land they tend, and when you can visit, check out their website: hortusgardens.org As co-director and co-founder of Hortus Arboretum and Botanical Gardens I am often asked about how we deal with winterizing the gardens which is no small task with over nine acres of cultivated gardens! However, for nonprofessionals, even those with small home gardens, chores can seem overwhelming and never-ending. However, now that we are well into December, there are some strategies that if you didn’t follow this season are worth incorporating and putting on your 2025 to-do list. High on your list should be the mantra “leave the leaves”. This is a good one for sure, giving us gardeners the opportunity to do other tasks that maybe aren’t centered solely on plants. Now that the majority of deciduous tree leaves have fallen, except for the few marcescent Oak species and some Beech trees with leaves still clinging onto branches, reminders of the season that was. If this “leave the leaves” is a new phrase for you, or you just didn’t get around to taking out your leaf blower, or garden rake, rejoice, because the garden world has finally embraced this slogan since it is right in step with keeping a more naturalistic garden. For those of us who live in urban or suburban environments buying those tall brown “waste” bags to fill up with your lawn debris to leave on the sidewalk for pickup can now become a thing of the past. And even if you did tidy up your leaves this past fall it is a task that you can take off your 2025 list. The rationale behind this is simple. Fallen leaves break down over time and add nutrients to your plantings. Even different species of oak trees, notorious for keeping their leaves intact due to their high carbon to nitrogen levels, are still beneficial. Fallen leaves can trap snow, leading to additional moisture for both tree and perennial roots. But what they don’t trap are early spring bulbs, which have no problem emerging from the soil despite a layering of leaves covering them. Snowdrops (Galanthus spp.), Crocus (Crocus spp.), and Daffodils (Narcissus spp.), along with a whole range of other early spring bulbs and ephemerals manage to push their way up through the leaf litter. Even more importantly fallen leaves provide places for insects like moths, butterflies, wasps, and ground beetles to lay their eggs as well as well as a place to overwinter by offering protection from predators and the elements. Then come early spring when you’re ready to “clean-up” you can easily address any big piles of leaves that haven’t completely broken down by lightly raking them apart so they are loosened up some but still kept in place. If you require a more tidy look you can gather them up to put into your compost, where the leaves can continue to break down over time. If you maintain a large garden, or if the leaves are all over the place you can run a mower over them and shred them up, essentially mulching them. Okay, so now you have one less chore to do. But what about all your spent stems and flower heads that are left in the garden? Can you leave those in place, too? Yes!! Seeds have many strategies for propagation, and wind is often one of the ways plants do this on their own. It is always smart to gather some of the seeds in fall to sow yourself, but because many native plants need to be cold-stratified in order to germinate, leaving seeds on the plant and letting Mother Nature do the job is one way to ensure future plants. Of course, wind doesn’t pay attention to your garden design and plants may grow far away from the original “mother” plant. Above, rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus spp.) seeds in late fall get disbursed by the wind, but the seed heads remain. Regardless, many flowering plants still retain the seed heads after the seeds have been strewn, and they can be often very decorative as well. Above is a Japanese Angelica (Aralia elata, Zones 4–9) seed head before and after its seeds have fallen. You can leave your helianthus, echinaceas, symphyotrichum, solidago, and pretty much any annuals, perennials, grasses, and fruiting branches in place especially those still holding onto persistent berries or seed heads. Birds will thank you for it, as will many species of wasps and other insects that use the hollow stems, think Joe Pye (Eutrochium purpureum, Zones 3–9) for egg-laying and/or overwintering in. The availability of “brown” plant material is one of the most important factors for encouraging an increase in the population of all sorts of insects including bees. Forget buying a “bee hotel” and let nature make them for you. Besides, there are many flowering plants that provide visual interest “off-season.” Above are viburnum berries for the birds. Clematis seedheads are stunningly ornamental and may be even more visually interesting, or at the very least last a lot longer than the actual flowers. Virgin’s bower (Clematis virginiana, Zones 6–8) seed heads have just as much visual interest as their flowers. Late blooming perennials like the shade-loving Japanese anemone (Anemone hupehensis var. japonica, Zones 5–7) have seed heads that surprisingly persist through winter, with only a really strong wind blowing them apart! And if you live in a place where it snows, any heavy dump will do the work of bringing down those leftover seed heads and stems for you. However that snow dump can be messy with some stems down, others bent over at weird angles, while some are left unperturbed. Does that mean you need to go out and tidy it up?? The answer is no. As with the leaves, leave the plant material alone. At least for now. Having stems of various heights with different diameters of stems encourages a wider diversity of nesting habitats for a larger amount of different insects including stem-boring moths, and cavity-nesting wasps. Any fallen-over stems provides protection for ground-dwelling bees too. Come March or April, depending on where you live, you have plenty of time to clean up and tidy if that’s your thing. However, there is something you can do that is even more beneficial, which is to assist the whole process come spring by breaking up both the standing and fallen stems either by hand or lopper and leaving the now brown material alone. Think of this chop and drop as a mulch for your soon-to-be emerging spring plants. They will have no problem growing up through the plant debris, and come late spring, you won’t even see that. Plus any insect that is still residing in the dead plant material, or any of their eggs essentially stays in place. You may even begin to do what I have started to do, which is during the season using this chop and drop method when I am pruning or cleaning up a plant; I will cut the branches, stems, etc., into smaller pieces and throw them down around the base of the plant, allowing the material to break down in place. No need to drag a wheelbarrow or tarp to your compost for this. Just let the material break down in place. So, of course, leaving the leaves, not cutting back flowers, or gathering up all the seed heads (like the remaining seed heads of this northern sea oats [Chasmanthium latifolium, Zones 5–9]) just saved me several days of work because with managing the end-of-the-season duties at the arboretum there’s still much to be done. More on that soon! Thank you for sharing more inspiration and information from Hortus, Allyson! You continue to encourage us to look at gardening from a perspective beyond just the beauty that we create. A trip to your amazing arboretum and botanical garden is definitely on my agenda for spring.   Have a garden you’d like to share? Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit! To submit, send 5-10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden. Have a mobile phone? Tag your photos on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter with #FineGardening! Do you receive the GPOD by email yet? Sign up here. Fine Gardening Recommended Products Pruning Simplified: A Step-by-Step Guide to 50 Popular Trees and Shrubs Fine Gardening receives a commission for items purchased through links on this site, including Amazon Associates and other affiliate advertising programs. Pruning Simplified shows you exactly how to do it. This must-have guide offers expert advice on the best tools for the job, specific details on when to prune, and clear instructions on how to prune. Profiles of the 50 most popular trees and shrubs—including azaleas, camellias, clematis, hydrangeas, and more—include illustrated, easy-to-follow instructions that will ensure you make the right cut the first time. The Nature of Oaks: The Rich Ecology of Our Most Essential Native Trees Fine Gardening receives a commission for items purchased through links on this site, including Amazon Associates and other affiliate advertising programs. The Nature of Oaks reveals what is going on in oak trees month by month, highlighting the seasonal cycles of life, death, and renewal. From woodpeckers who collect and store hundreds of acorns for sustenance to the beauty of jewel caterpillars, Doug Tallamy illuminates and celebrates the wonders that occur right in our own backyards. He also shares practical advice about how to plant and care for an oak, along with information about the best oak species for your area. Source link

[alexha2210]

Happy Monday GPODers! Today Allyson Levy of Hortus Arboretum and Botanical Gardens in Stone Ridge, New York is reminding us to leave the leaves! Allyson has shared her knowledge, and the incredible plants her and her partner Scott Serrano grow on 21 acres several times last year: Growing Pawpaws, Special Fall Plants, Fall is for Purple. Each time she enlightens us to exquisite, and sometimes unusual, plants to grow as well as ways to support your local environment and wildlife with your garden. To learn more about the incredible land they tend, and when you can visit, check out their website: hortusgardens.org As co-director and co-founder of Hortus Arboretum and Botanical Gardens I am often asked about how we deal with winterizing the gardens which is no small task with over nine acres of cultivated gardens! However, for nonprofessionals, even those with small home gardens, chores can seem overwhelming and never-ending. However, now that we are well into December, there are some strategies that if you didn’t follow this season are worth incorporating and putting on your 2025 to-do list. High on your list should be the mantra “leave the leaves”. This is a good one for sure, giving us gardeners the opportunity to do other tasks that maybe aren’t centered solely on plants. Now that the majority of deciduous tree leaves have fallen, except for the few marcescent Oak species and some Beech trees with leaves still clinging onto branches, reminders of the season that was. If this “leave the leaves” is a new phrase for you, or you just didn’t get around to taking out your leaf blower, or garden rake, rejoice, because the garden world has finally embraced this slogan since it is right in step with keeping a more naturalistic garden. For those of us who live in urban or suburban environments buying those tall brown “waste” bags to fill up with your lawn debris to leave on the sidewalk for pickup can now become a thing of the past. And even if you did tidy up your leaves this past fall it is a task that you can take off your 2025 list. The rationale behind this is simple. Fallen leaves break down over time and add nutrients to your plantings. Even different species of oak trees, notorious for keeping their leaves intact due to their high carbon to nitrogen levels, are still beneficial. Fallen leaves can trap snow, leading to additional moisture for both tree and perennial roots. But what they don’t trap are early spring bulbs, which have no problem emerging from the soil despite a layering of leaves covering them. Snowdrops (Galanthus spp.), Crocus (Crocus spp.), and Daffodils (Narcissus spp.), along with a whole range of other early spring bulbs and ephemerals manage to push their way up through the leaf litter. Even more importantly fallen leaves provide places for insects like moths, butterflies, wasps, and ground beetles to lay their eggs as well as well as a place to overwinter by offering protection from predators and the elements. Then come early spring when you’re ready to “clean-up” you can easily address any big piles of leaves that haven’t completely broken down by lightly raking them apart so they are loosened up some but still kept in place. If you require a more tidy look you can gather them up to put into your compost, where the leaves can continue to break down over time. If you maintain a large garden, or if the leaves are all over the place you can run a mower over them and shred them up, essentially mulching them. Okay, so now you have one less chore to do. But what about all your spent stems and flower heads that are left in the garden? Can you leave those in place, too? Yes!! Seeds have many strategies for propagation, and wind is often one of the ways plants do this on their own. It is always smart to gather some of the seeds in fall to sow yourself, but because many native plants need to be cold-stratified in order to germinate, leaving seeds on the plant and letting Mother Nature do the job is one way to ensure future plants. Of course, wind doesn’t pay attention to your garden design and plants may grow far away from the original “mother” plant. Above, rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus spp.) seeds in late fall get disbursed by the wind, but the seed heads remain. Regardless, many flowering plants still retain the seed heads after the seeds have been strewn, and they can be often very decorative as well. Above is a Japanese Angelica (Aralia elata, Zones 4–9) seed head before and after its seeds have fallen. You can leave your helianthus, echinaceas, symphyotrichum, solidago, and pretty much any annuals, perennials, grasses, and fruiting branches in place especially those still holding onto persistent berries or seed heads. Birds will thank you for it, as will many species of wasps and other insects that use the hollow stems, think Joe Pye (Eutrochium purpureum, Zones 3–9) for egg-laying and/or overwintering in. The availability of “brown” plant material is one of the most important factors for encouraging an increase in the population of all sorts of insects including bees. Forget buying a “bee hotel” and let nature make them for you. Besides, there are many flowering plants that provide visual interest “off-season.” Above are viburnum berries for the birds. Clematis seedheads are stunningly ornamental and may be even more visually interesting, or at the very least last a lot longer than the actual flowers. Virgin’s bower (Clematis virginiana, Zones 6–8) seed heads have just as much visual interest as their flowers. Late blooming perennials like the shade-loving Japanese anemone (Anemone hupehensis var. japonica, Zones 5–7) have seed heads that surprisingly persist through winter, with only a really strong wind blowing them apart! And if you live in a place where it snows, any heavy dump will do the work of bringing down those leftover seed heads and stems for you. However that snow dump can be messy with some stems down, others bent over at weird angles, while some are left unperturbed. Does that mean you need to go out and tidy it up?? The answer is no. As with the leaves, leave the plant material alone. At least for now. Having stems of various heights with different diameters of stems encourages a wider diversity of nesting habitats for a larger amount of different insects including stem-boring moths, and cavity-nesting wasps. Any fallen-over stems provides protection for ground-dwelling bees too. Come March or April, depending on where you live, you have plenty of time to clean up and tidy if that’s your thing. However, there is something you can do that is even more beneficial, which is to assist the whole process come spring by breaking up both the standing and fallen stems either by hand or lopper and leaving the now brown material alone. Think of this chop and drop as a mulch for your soon-to-be emerging spring plants. They will have no problem growing up through the plant debris, and come late spring, you won’t even see that. Plus any insect that is still residing in the dead plant material, or any of their eggs essentially stays in place. You may even begin to do what I have started to do, which is during the season using this chop and drop method when I am pruning or cleaning up a plant; I will cut the branches, stems, etc., into smaller pieces and throw them down around the base of the plant, allowing the material to break down in place. No need to drag a wheelbarrow or tarp to your compost for this. Just let the material break down in place. So, of course, leaving the leaves, not cutting back flowers, or gathering up all the seed heads (like the remaining seed heads of this northern sea oats [Chasmanthium latifolium, Zones 5–9]) just saved me several days of work because with managing the end-of-the-season duties at the arboretum there’s still much to be done. More on that soon! Thank you for sharing more inspiration and information from Hortus, Allyson! You continue to encourage us to look at gardening from a perspective beyond just the beauty that we create. A trip to your amazing arboretum and botanical garden is definitely on my agenda for spring.   Have a garden you’d like to share? Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit! To submit, send 5-10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden. Have a mobile phone? Tag your photos on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter with #FineGardening! Do you receive the GPOD by email yet? Sign up here. Fine Gardening Recommended Products Pruning Simplified: A Step-by-Step Guide to 50 Popular Trees and Shrubs Fine Gardening receives a commission for items purchased through links on this site, including Amazon Associates and other affiliate advertising programs. Pruning Simplified shows you exactly how to do it. This must-have guide offers expert advice on the best tools for the job, specific details on when to prune, and clear instructions on how to prune. Profiles of the 50 most popular trees and shrubs—including azaleas, camellias, clematis, hydrangeas, and more—include illustrated, easy-to-follow instructions that will ensure you make the right cut the first time. The Nature of Oaks: The Rich Ecology of Our Most Essential Native Trees Fine Gardening receives a commission for items purchased through links on this site, including Amazon Associates and other affiliate advertising programs. The Nature of Oaks reveals what is going on in oak trees month by month, highlighting the seasonal cycles of life, death, and renewal. From woodpeckers who collect and store hundreds of acorns for sustenance to the beauty of jewel caterpillars, Doug Tallamy illuminates and celebrates the wonders that occur right in our own backyards. He also shares practical advice about how to plant and care for an oak, along with information about the best oak species for your area. Source link

[angusstory]

Happy Monday GPODers! Today Allyson Levy of Hortus Arboretum and Botanical Gardens in Stone Ridge, New York is reminding us to leave the leaves! Allyson has shared her knowledge, and the incredible plants her and her partner Scott Serrano grow on 21 acres several times last year: Growing Pawpaws, Special Fall Plants, Fall is for Purple. Each time she enlightens us to exquisite, and sometimes unusual, plants to grow as well as ways to support your local environment and wildlife with your garden. To learn more about the incredible land they tend, and when you can visit, check out their website: hortusgardens.org As co-director and co-founder of Hortus Arboretum and Botanical Gardens I am often asked about how we deal with winterizing the gardens which is no small task with over nine acres of cultivated gardens! However, for nonprofessionals, even those with small home gardens, chores can seem overwhelming and never-ending. However, now that we are well into December, there are some strategies that if you didn’t follow this season are worth incorporating and putting on your 2025 to-do list. High on your list should be the mantra “leave the leaves”. This is a good one for sure, giving us gardeners the opportunity to do other tasks that maybe aren’t centered solely on plants. Now that the majority of deciduous tree leaves have fallen, except for the few marcescent Oak species and some Beech trees with leaves still clinging onto branches, reminders of the season that was. If this “leave the leaves” is a new phrase for you, or you just didn’t get around to taking out your leaf blower, or garden rake, rejoice, because the garden world has finally embraced this slogan since it is right in step with keeping a more naturalistic garden. For those of us who live in urban or suburban environments buying those tall brown “waste” bags to fill up with your lawn debris to leave on the sidewalk for pickup can now become a thing of the past. And even if you did tidy up your leaves this past fall it is a task that you can take off your 2025 list. The rationale behind this is simple. Fallen leaves break down over time and add nutrients to your plantings. Even different species of oak trees, notorious for keeping their leaves intact due to their high carbon to nitrogen levels, are still beneficial. Fallen leaves can trap snow, leading to additional moisture for both tree and perennial roots. But what they don’t trap are early spring bulbs, which have no problem emerging from the soil despite a layering of leaves covering them. Snowdrops (Galanthus spp.), Crocus (Crocus spp.), and Daffodils (Narcissus spp.), along with a whole range of other early spring bulbs and ephemerals manage to push their way up through the leaf litter. Even more importantly fallen leaves provide places for insects like moths, butterflies, wasps, and ground beetles to lay their eggs as well as well as a place to overwinter by offering protection from predators and the elements. Then come early spring when you’re ready to “clean-up” you can easily address any big piles of leaves that haven’t completely broken down by lightly raking them apart so they are loosened up some but still kept in place. If you require a more tidy look you can gather them up to put into your compost, where the leaves can continue to break down over time. If you maintain a large garden, or if the leaves are all over the place you can run a mower over them and shred them up, essentially mulching them. Okay, so now you have one less chore to do. But what about all your spent stems and flower heads that are left in the garden? Can you leave those in place, too? Yes!! Seeds have many strategies for propagation, and wind is often one of the ways plants do this on their own. It is always smart to gather some of the seeds in fall to sow yourself, but because many native plants need to be cold-stratified in order to germinate, leaving seeds on the plant and letting Mother Nature do the job is one way to ensure future plants. Of course, wind doesn’t pay attention to your garden design and plants may grow far away from the original “mother” plant. Above, rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus spp.) seeds in late fall get disbursed by the wind, but the seed heads remain. Regardless, many flowering plants still retain the seed heads after the seeds have been strewn, and they can be often very decorative as well. Above is a Japanese Angelica (Aralia elata, Zones 4–9) seed head before and after its seeds have fallen. You can leave your helianthus, echinaceas, symphyotrichum, solidago, and pretty much any annuals, perennials, grasses, and fruiting branches in place especially those still holding onto persistent berries or seed heads. Birds will thank you for it, as will many species of wasps and other insects that use the hollow stems, think Joe Pye (Eutrochium purpureum, Zones 3–9) for egg-laying and/or overwintering in. The availability of “brown” plant material is one of the most important factors for encouraging an increase in the population of all sorts of insects including bees. Forget buying a “bee hotel” and let nature make them for you. Besides, there are many flowering plants that provide visual interest “off-season.” Above are viburnum berries for the birds. Clematis seedheads are stunningly ornamental and may be even more visually interesting, or at the very least last a lot longer than the actual flowers. Virgin’s bower (Clematis virginiana, Zones 6–8) seed heads have just as much visual interest as their flowers. Late blooming perennials like the shade-loving Japanese anemone (Anemone hupehensis var. japonica, Zones 5–7) have seed heads that surprisingly persist through winter, with only a really strong wind blowing them apart! And if you live in a place where it snows, any heavy dump will do the work of bringing down those leftover seed heads and stems for you. However that snow dump can be messy with some stems down, others bent over at weird angles, while some are left unperturbed. Does that mean you need to go out and tidy it up?? The answer is no. As with the leaves, leave the plant material alone. At least for now. Having stems of various heights with different diameters of stems encourages a wider diversity of nesting habitats for a larger amount of different insects including stem-boring moths, and cavity-nesting wasps. Any fallen-over stems provides protection for ground-dwelling bees too. Come March or April, depending on where you live, you have plenty of time to clean up and tidy if that’s your thing. However, there is something you can do that is even more beneficial, which is to assist the whole process come spring by breaking up both the standing and fallen stems either by hand or lopper and leaving the now brown material alone. Think of this chop and drop as a mulch for your soon-to-be emerging spring plants. They will have no problem growing up through the plant debris, and come late spring, you won’t even see that. Plus any insect that is still residing in the dead plant material, or any of their eggs essentially stays in place. You may even begin to do what I have started to do, which is during the season using this chop and drop method when I am pruning or cleaning up a plant; I will cut the branches, stems, etc., into smaller pieces and throw them down around the base of the plant, allowing the material to break down in place. No need to drag a wheelbarrow or tarp to your compost for this. Just let the material break down in place. So, of course, leaving the leaves, not cutting back flowers, or gathering up all the seed heads (like the remaining seed heads of this northern sea oats [Chasmanthium latifolium, Zones 5–9]) just saved me several days of work because with managing the end-of-the-season duties at the arboretum there’s still much to be done. More on that soon! Thank you for sharing more inspiration and information from Hortus, Allyson! You continue to encourage us to look at gardening from a perspective beyond just the beauty that we create. A trip to your amazing arboretum and botanical garden is definitely on my agenda for spring.   Have a garden you’d like to share? Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit! To submit, send 5-10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden. Have a mobile phone? Tag your photos on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter with #FineGardening! Do you receive the GPOD by email yet? Sign up here. Fine Gardening Recommended Products Pruning Simplified: A Step-by-Step Guide to 50 Popular Trees and Shrubs Fine Gardening receives a commission for items purchased through links on this site, including Amazon Associates and other affiliate advertising programs. Pruning Simplified shows you exactly how to do it. This must-have guide offers expert advice on the best tools for the job, specific details on when to prune, and clear instructions on how to prune. Profiles of the 50 most popular trees and shrubs—including azaleas, camellias, clematis, hydrangeas, and more—include illustrated, easy-to-follow instructions that will ensure you make the right cut the first time. The Nature of Oaks: The Rich Ecology of Our Most Essential Native Trees Fine Gardening receives a commission for items purchased through links on this site, including Amazon Associates and other affiliate advertising programs. The Nature of Oaks reveals what is going on in oak trees month by month, highlighting the seasonal cycles of life, death, and renewal. From woodpeckers who collect and store hundreds of acorns for sustenance to the beauty of jewel caterpillars, Doug Tallamy illuminates and celebrates the wonders that occur right in our own backyards. He also shares practical advice about how to plant and care for an oak, along with information about the best oak species for your area. Source link

[tumibaba]

Happy Monday GPODers! Today Allyson Levy of Hortus Arboretum and Botanical Gardens in Stone Ridge, New York is reminding us to leave the leaves! Allyson has shared her knowledge, and the incredible plants her and her partner Scott Serrano grow on 21 acres several times last year: Growing Pawpaws, Special Fall Plants, Fall is for Purple. Each time she enlightens us to exquisite, and sometimes unusual, plants to grow as well as ways to support your local environment and wildlife with your garden. To learn more about the incredible land they tend, and when you can visit, check out their website: hortusgardens.org As co-director and co-founder of Hortus Arboretum and Botanical Gardens I am often asked about how we deal with winterizing the gardens which is no small task with over nine acres of cultivated gardens! However, for nonprofessionals, even those with small home gardens, chores can seem overwhelming and never-ending. However, now that we are well into December, there are some strategies that if you didn’t follow this season are worth incorporating and putting on your 2025 to-do list. High on your list should be the mantra “leave the leaves”. This is a good one for sure, giving us gardeners the opportunity to do other tasks that maybe aren’t centered solely on plants. Now that the majority of deciduous tree leaves have fallen, except for the few marcescent Oak species and some Beech trees with leaves still clinging onto branches, reminders of the season that was. If this “leave the leaves” is a new phrase for you, or you just didn’t get around to taking out your leaf blower, or garden rake, rejoice, because the garden world has finally embraced this slogan since it is right in step with keeping a more naturalistic garden. For those of us who live in urban or suburban environments buying those tall brown “waste” bags to fill up with your lawn debris to leave on the sidewalk for pickup can now become a thing of the past. And even if you did tidy up your leaves this past fall it is a task that you can take off your 2025 list. The rationale behind this is simple. Fallen leaves break down over time and add nutrients to your plantings. Even different species of oak trees, notorious for keeping their leaves intact due to their high carbon to nitrogen levels, are still beneficial. Fallen leaves can trap snow, leading to additional moisture for both tree and perennial roots. But what they don’t trap are early spring bulbs, which have no problem emerging from the soil despite a layering of leaves covering them. Snowdrops (Galanthus spp.), Crocus (Crocus spp.), and Daffodils (Narcissus spp.), along with a whole range of other early spring bulbs and ephemerals manage to push their way up through the leaf litter. Even more importantly fallen leaves provide places for insects like moths, butterflies, wasps, and ground beetles to lay their eggs as well as well as a place to overwinter by offering protection from predators and the elements. Then come early spring when you’re ready to “clean-up” you can easily address any big piles of leaves that haven’t completely broken down by lightly raking them apart so they are loosened up some but still kept in place. If you require a more tidy look you can gather them up to put into your compost, where the leaves can continue to break down over time. If you maintain a large garden, or if the leaves are all over the place you can run a mower over them and shred them up, essentially mulching them. Okay, so now you have one less chore to do. But what about all your spent stems and flower heads that are left in the garden? Can you leave those in place, too? Yes!! Seeds have many strategies for propagation, and wind is often one of the ways plants do this on their own. It is always smart to gather some of the seeds in fall to sow yourself, but because many native plants need to be cold-stratified in order to germinate, leaving seeds on the plant and letting Mother Nature do the job is one way to ensure future plants. Of course, wind doesn’t pay attention to your garden design and plants may grow far away from the original “mother” plant. Above, rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus spp.) seeds in late fall get disbursed by the wind, but the seed heads remain. Regardless, many flowering plants still retain the seed heads after the seeds have been strewn, and they can be often very decorative as well. Above is a Japanese Angelica (Aralia elata, Zones 4–9) seed head before and after its seeds have fallen. You can leave your helianthus, echinaceas, symphyotrichum, solidago, and pretty much any annuals, perennials, grasses, and fruiting branches in place especially those still holding onto persistent berries or seed heads. Birds will thank you for it, as will many species of wasps and other insects that use the hollow stems, think Joe Pye (Eutrochium purpureum, Zones 3–9) for egg-laying and/or overwintering in. The availability of “brown” plant material is one of the most important factors for encouraging an increase in the population of all sorts of insects including bees. Forget buying a “bee hotel” and let nature make them for you. Besides, there are many flowering plants that provide visual interest “off-season.” Above are viburnum berries for the birds. Clematis seedheads are stunningly ornamental and may be even more visually interesting, or at the very least last a lot longer than the actual flowers. Virgin’s bower (Clematis virginiana, Zones 6–8) seed heads have just as much visual interest as their flowers. Late blooming perennials like the shade-loving Japanese anemone (Anemone hupehensis var. japonica, Zones 5–7) have seed heads that surprisingly persist through winter, with only a really strong wind blowing them apart! And if you live in a place where it snows, any heavy dump will do the work of bringing down those leftover seed heads and stems for you. However that snow dump can be messy with some stems down, others bent over at weird angles, while some are left unperturbed. Does that mean you need to go out and tidy it up?? The answer is no. As with the leaves, leave the plant material alone. At least for now. Having stems of various heights with different diameters of stems encourages a wider diversity of nesting habitats for a larger amount of different insects including stem-boring moths, and cavity-nesting wasps. Any fallen-over stems provides protection for ground-dwelling bees too. Come March or April, depending on where you live, you have plenty of time to clean up and tidy if that’s your thing. However, there is something you can do that is even more beneficial, which is to assist the whole process come spring by breaking up both the standing and fallen stems either by hand or lopper and leaving the now brown material alone. Think of this chop and drop as a mulch for your soon-to-be emerging spring plants. They will have no problem growing up through the plant debris, and come late spring, you won’t even see that. Plus any insect that is still residing in the dead plant material, or any of their eggs essentially stays in place. You may even begin to do what I have started to do, which is during the season using this chop and drop method when I am pruning or cleaning up a plant; I will cut the branches, stems, etc., into smaller pieces and throw them down around the base of the plant, allowing the material to break down in place. No need to drag a wheelbarrow or tarp to your compost for this. Just let the material break down in place. So, of course, leaving the leaves, not cutting back flowers, or gathering up all the seed heads (like the remaining seed heads of this northern sea oats [Chasmanthium latifolium, Zones 5–9]) just saved me several days of work because with managing the end-of-the-season duties at the arboretum there’s still much to be done. More on that soon! Thank you for sharing more inspiration and information from Hortus, Allyson! You continue to encourage us to look at gardening from a perspective beyond just the beauty that we create. A trip to your amazing arboretum and botanical garden is definitely on my agenda for spring.   Have a garden you’d like to share? Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit! To submit, send 5-10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden. Have a mobile phone? Tag your photos on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter with #FineGardening! Do you receive the GPOD by email yet? Sign up here. Fine Gardening Recommended Products Pruning Simplified: A Step-by-Step Guide to 50 Popular Trees and Shrubs Fine Gardening receives a commission for items purchased through links on this site, including Amazon Associates and other affiliate advertising programs. Pruning Simplified shows you exactly how to do it. This must-have guide offers expert advice on the best tools for the job, specific details on when to prune, and clear instructions on how to prune. Profiles of the 50 most popular trees and shrubs—including azaleas, camellias, clematis, hydrangeas, and more—include illustrated, easy-to-follow instructions that will ensure you make the right cut the first time. The Nature of Oaks: The Rich Ecology of Our Most Essential Native Trees Fine Gardening receives a commission for items purchased through links on this site, including Amazon Associates and other affiliate advertising programs. The Nature of Oaks reveals what is going on in oak trees month by month, highlighting the seasonal cycles of life, death, and renewal. From woodpeckers who collect and store hundreds of acorns for sustenance to the beauty of jewel caterpillars, Doug Tallamy illuminates and celebrates the wonders that occur right in our own backyards. He also shares practical advice about how to plant and care for an oak, along with information about the best oak species for your area. Source link

[romaleen]

Happy Monday GPODers! Today Allyson Levy of Hortus Arboretum and Botanical Gardens in Stone Ridge, New York is reminding us to leave the leaves! Allyson has shared her knowledge, and the incredible plants her and her partner Scott Serrano grow on 21 acres several times last year: Growing Pawpaws, Special Fall Plants, Fall is for Purple. Each time she enlightens us to exquisite, and sometimes unusual, plants to grow as well as ways to support your local environment and wildlife with your garden. To learn more about the incredible land they tend, and when you can visit, check out their website: hortusgardens.org As co-director and co-founder of Hortus Arboretum and Botanical Gardens I am often asked about how we deal with winterizing the gardens which is no small task with over nine acres of cultivated gardens! However, for nonprofessionals, even those with small home gardens, chores can seem overwhelming and never-ending. However, now that we are well into December, there are some strategies that if you didn’t follow this season are worth incorporating and putting on your 2025 to-do list. High on your list should be the mantra “leave the leaves”. This is a good one for sure, giving us gardeners the opportunity to do other tasks that maybe aren’t centered solely on plants. Now that the majority of deciduous tree leaves have fallen, except for the few marcescent Oak species and some Beech trees with leaves still clinging onto branches, reminders of the season that was. If this “leave the leaves” is a new phrase for you, or you just didn’t get around to taking out your leaf blower, or garden rake, rejoice, because the garden world has finally embraced this slogan since it is right in step with keeping a more naturalistic garden. For those of us who live in urban or suburban environments buying those tall brown “waste” bags to fill up with your lawn debris to leave on the sidewalk for pickup can now become a thing of the past. And even if you did tidy up your leaves this past fall it is a task that you can take off your 2025 list. The rationale behind this is simple. Fallen leaves break down over time and add nutrients to your plantings. Even different species of oak trees, notorious for keeping their leaves intact due to their high carbon to nitrogen levels, are still beneficial. Fallen leaves can trap snow, leading to additional moisture for both tree and perennial roots. But what they don’t trap are early spring bulbs, which have no problem emerging from the soil despite a layering of leaves covering them. Snowdrops (Galanthus spp.), Crocus (Crocus spp.), and Daffodils (Narcissus spp.), along with a whole range of other early spring bulbs and ephemerals manage to push their way up through the leaf litter. Even more importantly fallen leaves provide places for insects like moths, butterflies, wasps, and ground beetles to lay their eggs as well as well as a place to overwinter by offering protection from predators and the elements. Then come early spring when you’re ready to “clean-up” you can easily address any big piles of leaves that haven’t completely broken down by lightly raking them apart so they are loosened up some but still kept in place. If you require a more tidy look you can gather them up to put into your compost, where the leaves can continue to break down over time. If you maintain a large garden, or if the leaves are all over the place you can run a mower over them and shred them up, essentially mulching them. Okay, so now you have one less chore to do. But what about all your spent stems and flower heads that are left in the garden? Can you leave those in place, too? Yes!! Seeds have many strategies for propagation, and wind is often one of the ways plants do this on their own. It is always smart to gather some of the seeds in fall to sow yourself, but because many native plants need to be cold-stratified in order to germinate, leaving seeds on the plant and letting Mother Nature do the job is one way to ensure future plants. Of course, wind doesn’t pay attention to your garden design and plants may grow far away from the original “mother” plant. Above, rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus spp.) seeds in late fall get disbursed by the wind, but the seed heads remain. Regardless, many flowering plants still retain the seed heads after the seeds have been strewn, and they can be often very decorative as well. Above is a Japanese Angelica (Aralia elata, Zones 4–9) seed head before and after its seeds have fallen. You can leave your helianthus, echinaceas, symphyotrichum, solidago, and pretty much any annuals, perennials, grasses, and fruiting branches in place especially those still holding onto persistent berries or seed heads. Birds will thank you for it, as will many species of wasps and other insects that use the hollow stems, think Joe Pye (Eutrochium purpureum, Zones 3–9) for egg-laying and/or overwintering in. The availability of “brown” plant material is one of the most important factors for encouraging an increase in the population of all sorts of insects including bees. Forget buying a “bee hotel” and let nature make them for you. Besides, there are many flowering plants that provide visual interest “off-season.” Above are viburnum berries for the birds. Clematis seedheads are stunningly ornamental and may be even more visually interesting, or at the very least last a lot longer than the actual flowers. Virgin’s bower (Clematis virginiana, Zones 6–8) seed heads have just as much visual interest as their flowers. Late blooming perennials like the shade-loving Japanese anemone (Anemone hupehensis var. japonica, Zones 5–7) have seed heads that surprisingly persist through winter, with only a really strong wind blowing them apart! And if you live in a place where it snows, any heavy dump will do the work of bringing down those leftover seed heads and stems for you. However that snow dump can be messy with some stems down, others bent over at weird angles, while some are left unperturbed. Does that mean you need to go out and tidy it up?? The answer is no. As with the leaves, leave the plant material alone. At least for now. Having stems of various heights with different diameters of stems encourages a wider diversity of nesting habitats for a larger amount of different insects including stem-boring moths, and cavity-nesting wasps. Any fallen-over stems provides protection for ground-dwelling bees too. Come March or April, depending on where you live, you have plenty of time to clean up and tidy if that’s your thing. However, there is something you can do that is even more beneficial, which is to assist the whole process come spring by breaking up both the standing and fallen stems either by hand or lopper and leaving the now brown material alone. Think of this chop and drop as a mulch for your soon-to-be emerging spring plants. They will have no problem growing up through the plant debris, and come late spring, you won’t even see that. Plus any insect that is still residing in the dead plant material, or any of their eggs essentially stays in place. You may even begin to do what I have started to do, which is during the season using this chop and drop method when I am pruning or cleaning up a plant; I will cut the branches, stems, etc., into smaller pieces and throw them down around the base of the plant, allowing the material to break down in place. No need to drag a wheelbarrow or tarp to your compost for this. Just let the material break down in place. So, of course, leaving the leaves, not cutting back flowers, or gathering up all the seed heads (like the remaining seed heads of this northern sea oats [Chasmanthium latifolium, Zones 5–9]) just saved me several days of work because with managing the end-of-the-season duties at the arboretum there’s still much to be done. More on that soon! Thank you for sharing more inspiration and information from Hortus, Allyson! You continue to encourage us to look at gardening from a perspective beyond just the beauty that we create. A trip to your amazing arboretum and botanical garden is definitely on my agenda for spring.   Have a garden you’d like to share? Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit! To submit, send 5-10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden. Have a mobile phone? Tag your photos on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter with #FineGardening! Do you receive the GPOD by email yet? Sign up here. Fine Gardening Recommended Products Pruning Simplified: A Step-by-Step Guide to 50 Popular Trees and Shrubs Fine Gardening receives a commission for items purchased through links on this site, including Amazon Associates and other affiliate advertising programs. Pruning Simplified shows you exactly how to do it. This must-have guide offers expert advice on the best tools for the job, specific details on when to prune, and clear instructions on how to prune. Profiles of the 50 most popular trees and shrubs—including azaleas, camellias, clematis, hydrangeas, and more—include illustrated, easy-to-follow instructions that will ensure you make the right cut the first time. The Nature of Oaks: The Rich Ecology of Our Most Essential Native Trees Fine Gardening receives a commission for items purchased through links on this site, including Amazon Associates and other affiliate advertising programs. The Nature of Oaks reveals what is going on in oak trees month by month, highlighting the seasonal cycles of life, death, and renewal. From woodpeckers who collect and store hundreds of acorns for sustenance to the beauty of jewel caterpillars, Doug Tallamy illuminates and celebrates the wonders that occur right in our own backyards. He also shares practical advice about how to plant and care for an oak, along with information about the best oak species for your area. Source link

[monaleen101]

Happy Monday GPODers! Today Allyson Levy of Hortus Arboretum and Botanical Gardens in Stone Ridge, New York is reminding us to leave the leaves! Allyson has shared her knowledge, and the incredible plants her and her partner Scott Serrano grow on 21 acres several times last year: Growing Pawpaws, Special Fall Plants, Fall is for Purple. Each time she enlightens us to exquisite, and sometimes unusual, plants to grow as well as ways to support your local environment and wildlife with your garden. To learn more about the incredible land they tend, and when you can visit, check out their website: hortusgardens.org As co-director and co-founder of Hortus Arboretum and Botanical Gardens I am often asked about how we deal with winterizing the gardens which is no small task with over nine acres of cultivated gardens! However, for nonprofessionals, even those with small home gardens, chores can seem overwhelming and never-ending. However, now that we are well into December, there are some strategies that if you didn’t follow this season are worth incorporating and putting on your 2025 to-do list. High on your list should be the mantra “leave the leaves”. This is a good one for sure, giving us gardeners the opportunity to do other tasks that maybe aren’t centered solely on plants. Now that the majority of deciduous tree leaves have fallen, except for the few marcescent Oak species and some Beech trees with leaves still clinging onto branches, reminders of the season that was. If this “leave the leaves” is a new phrase for you, or you just didn’t get around to taking out your leaf blower, or garden rake, rejoice, because the garden world has finally embraced this slogan since it is right in step with keeping a more naturalistic garden. For those of us who live in urban or suburban environments buying those tall brown “waste” bags to fill up with your lawn debris to leave on the sidewalk for pickup can now become a thing of the past. And even if you did tidy up your leaves this past fall it is a task that you can take off your 2025 list. The rationale behind this is simple. Fallen leaves break down over time and add nutrients to your plantings. Even different species of oak trees, notorious for keeping their leaves intact due to their high carbon to nitrogen levels, are still beneficial. Fallen leaves can trap snow, leading to additional moisture for both tree and perennial roots. But what they don’t trap are early spring bulbs, which have no problem emerging from the soil despite a layering of leaves covering them. Snowdrops (Galanthus spp.), Crocus (Crocus spp.), and Daffodils (Narcissus spp.), along with a whole range of other early spring bulbs and ephemerals manage to push their way up through the leaf litter. Even more importantly fallen leaves provide places for insects like moths, butterflies, wasps, and ground beetles to lay their eggs as well as well as a place to overwinter by offering protection from predators and the elements. Then come early spring when you’re ready to “clean-up” you can easily address any big piles of leaves that haven’t completely broken down by lightly raking them apart so they are loosened up some but still kept in place. If you require a more tidy look you can gather them up to put into your compost, where the leaves can continue to break down over time. If you maintain a large garden, or if the leaves are all over the place you can run a mower over them and shred them up, essentially mulching them. Okay, so now you have one less chore to do. But what about all your spent stems and flower heads that are left in the garden? Can you leave those in place, too? Yes!! Seeds have many strategies for propagation, and wind is often one of the ways plants do this on their own. It is always smart to gather some of the seeds in fall to sow yourself, but because many native plants need to be cold-stratified in order to germinate, leaving seeds on the plant and letting Mother Nature do the job is one way to ensure future plants. Of course, wind doesn’t pay attention to your garden design and plants may grow far away from the original “mother” plant. Above, rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus spp.) seeds in late fall get disbursed by the wind, but the seed heads remain. Regardless, many flowering plants still retain the seed heads after the seeds have been strewn, and they can be often very decorative as well. Above is a Japanese Angelica (Aralia elata, Zones 4–9) seed head before and after its seeds have fallen. You can leave your helianthus, echinaceas, symphyotrichum, solidago, and pretty much any annuals, perennials, grasses, and fruiting branches in place especially those still holding onto persistent berries or seed heads. Birds will thank you for it, as will many species of wasps and other insects that use the hollow stems, think Joe Pye (Eutrochium purpureum, Zones 3–9) for egg-laying and/or overwintering in. The availability of “brown” plant material is one of the most important factors for encouraging an increase in the population of all sorts of insects including bees. Forget buying a “bee hotel” and let nature make them for you. Besides, there are many flowering plants that provide visual interest “off-season.” Above are viburnum berries for the birds. Clematis seedheads are stunningly ornamental and may be even more visually interesting, or at the very least last a lot longer than the actual flowers. Virgin’s bower (Clematis virginiana, Zones 6–8) seed heads have just as much visual interest as their flowers. Late blooming perennials like the shade-loving Japanese anemone (Anemone hupehensis var. japonica, Zones 5–7) have seed heads that surprisingly persist through winter, with only a really strong wind blowing them apart! And if you live in a place where it snows, any heavy dump will do the work of bringing down those leftover seed heads and stems for you. However that snow dump can be messy with some stems down, others bent over at weird angles, while some are left unperturbed. Does that mean you need to go out and tidy it up?? The answer is no. As with the leaves, leave the plant material alone. At least for now. Having stems of various heights with different diameters of stems encourages a wider diversity of nesting habitats for a larger amount of different insects including stem-boring moths, and cavity-nesting wasps. Any fallen-over stems provides protection for ground-dwelling bees too. Come March or April, depending on where you live, you have plenty of time to clean up and tidy if that’s your thing. However, there is something you can do that is even more beneficial, which is to assist the whole process come spring by breaking up both the standing and fallen stems either by hand or lopper and leaving the now brown material alone. Think of this chop and drop as a mulch for your soon-to-be emerging spring plants. They will have no problem growing up through the plant debris, and come late spring, you won’t even see that. Plus any insect that is still residing in the dead plant material, or any of their eggs essentially stays in place. You may even begin to do what I have started to do, which is during the season using this chop and drop method when I am pruning or cleaning up a plant; I will cut the branches, stems, etc., into smaller pieces and throw them down around the base of the plant, allowing the material to break down in place. No need to drag a wheelbarrow or tarp to your compost for this. Just let the material break down in place. So, of course, leaving the leaves, not cutting back flowers, or gathering up all the seed heads (like the remaining seed heads of this northern sea oats [Chasmanthium latifolium, Zones 5–9]) just saved me several days of work because with managing the end-of-the-season duties at the arboretum there’s still much to be done. More on that soon! Thank you for sharing more inspiration and information from Hortus, Allyson! You continue to encourage us to look at gardening from a perspective beyond just the beauty that we create. A trip to your amazing arboretum and botanical garden is definitely on my agenda for spring.   Have a garden you’d like to share? Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit! To submit, send 5-10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden. Have a mobile phone? Tag your photos on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter with #FineGardening! Do you receive the GPOD by email yet? Sign up here. Fine Gardening Recommended Products Pruning Simplified: A Step-by-Step Guide to 50 Popular Trees and Shrubs Fine Gardening receives a commission for items purchased through links on this site, including Amazon Associates and other affiliate advertising programs. Pruning Simplified shows you exactly how to do it. This must-have guide offers expert advice on the best tools for the job, specific details on when to prune, and clear instructions on how to prune. Profiles of the 50 most popular trees and shrubs—including azaleas, camellias, clematis, hydrangeas, and more—include illustrated, easy-to-follow instructions that will ensure you make the right cut the first time. The Nature of Oaks: The Rich Ecology of Our Most Essential Native Trees Fine Gardening receives a commission for items purchased through links on this site, including Amazon Associates and other affiliate advertising programs. The Nature of Oaks reveals what is going on in oak trees month by month, highlighting the seasonal cycles of life, death, and renewal. From woodpeckers who collect and store hundreds of acorns for sustenance to the beauty of jewel caterpillars, Doug Tallamy illuminates and celebrates the wonders that occur right in our own backyards. He also shares practical advice about how to plant and care for an oak, along with information about the best oak species for your area. Source link

[iamownerofme]

Happy Monday GPODers! Today Allyson Levy of Hortus Arboretum and Botanical Gardens in Stone Ridge, New York is reminding us to leave the leaves! Allyson has shared her knowledge, and the incredible plants her and her partner Scott Serrano grow on 21 acres several times last year: Growing Pawpaws, Special Fall Plants, Fall is for Purple. Each time she enlightens us to exquisite, and sometimes unusual, plants to grow as well as ways to support your local environment and wildlife with your garden. To learn more about the incredible land they tend, and when you can visit, check out their website: hortusgardens.org As co-director and co-founder of Hortus Arboretum and Botanical Gardens I am often asked about how we deal with winterizing the gardens which is no small task with over nine acres of cultivated gardens! However, for nonprofessionals, even those with small home gardens, chores can seem overwhelming and never-ending. However, now that we are well into December, there are some strategies that if you didn’t follow this season are worth incorporating and putting on your 2025 to-do list. High on your list should be the mantra “leave the leaves”. This is a good one for sure, giving us gardeners the opportunity to do other tasks that maybe aren’t centered solely on plants. Now that the majority of deciduous tree leaves have fallen, except for the few marcescent Oak species and some Beech trees with leaves still clinging onto branches, reminders of the season that was. If this “leave the leaves” is a new phrase for you, or you just didn’t get around to taking out your leaf blower, or garden rake, rejoice, because the garden world has finally embraced this slogan since it is right in step with keeping a more naturalistic garden. For those of us who live in urban or suburban environments buying those tall brown “waste” bags to fill up with your lawn debris to leave on the sidewalk for pickup can now become a thing of the past. And even if you did tidy up your leaves this past fall it is a task that you can take off your 2025 list. The rationale behind this is simple. Fallen leaves break down over time and add nutrients to your plantings. Even different species of oak trees, notorious for keeping their leaves intact due to their high carbon to nitrogen levels, are still beneficial. Fallen leaves can trap snow, leading to additional moisture for both tree and perennial roots. But what they don’t trap are early spring bulbs, which have no problem emerging from the soil despite a layering of leaves covering them. Snowdrops (Galanthus spp.), Crocus (Crocus spp.), and Daffodils (Narcissus spp.), along with a whole range of other early spring bulbs and ephemerals manage to push their way up through the leaf litter. Even more importantly fallen leaves provide places for insects like moths, butterflies, wasps, and ground beetles to lay their eggs as well as well as a place to overwinter by offering protection from predators and the elements. Then come early spring when you’re ready to “clean-up” you can easily address any big piles of leaves that haven’t completely broken down by lightly raking them apart so they are loosened up some but still kept in place. If you require a more tidy look you can gather them up to put into your compost, where the leaves can continue to break down over time. If you maintain a large garden, or if the leaves are all over the place you can run a mower over them and shred them up, essentially mulching them. Okay, so now you have one less chore to do. But what about all your spent stems and flower heads that are left in the garden? Can you leave those in place, too? Yes!! Seeds have many strategies for propagation, and wind is often one of the ways plants do this on their own. It is always smart to gather some of the seeds in fall to sow yourself, but because many native plants need to be cold-stratified in order to germinate, leaving seeds on the plant and letting Mother Nature do the job is one way to ensure future plants. Of course, wind doesn’t pay attention to your garden design and plants may grow far away from the original “mother�� plant. Above, rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus spp.) seeds in late fall get disbursed by the wind, but the seed heads remain. Regardless, many flowering plants still retain the seed heads after the seeds have been strewn, and they can be often very decorative as well. Above is a Japanese Angelica (Aralia elata, Zones 4–9) seed head before and after its seeds have fallen. You can leave your helianthus, echinaceas, symphyotrichum, solidago, and pretty much any annuals, perennials, grasses, and fruiting branches in place especially those still holding onto persistent berries or seed heads. Birds will thank you for it, as will many species of wasps and other insects that use the hollow stems, think Joe Pye (Eutrochium purpureum, Zones 3–9) for egg-laying and/or overwintering in. The availability of “brown” plant material is one of the most important factors for encouraging an increase in the population of all sorts of insects including bees. Forget buying a “bee hotel” and let nature make them for you. Besides, there are many flowering plants that provide visual interest “off-season.” Above are viburnum berries for the birds. Clematis seedheads are stunningly ornamental and may be even more visually interesting, or at the very least last a lot longer than the actual flowers. Virgin’s bower (Clematis virginiana, Zones 6–8) seed heads have just as much visual interest as their flowers. Late blooming perennials like the shade-loving Japanese anemone (Anemone hupehensis var. japonica, Zones 5–7) have seed heads that surprisingly persist through winter, with only a really strong wind blowing them apart! And if you live in a place where it snows, any heavy dump will do the work of bringing down those leftover seed heads and stems for you. However that snow dump can be messy with some stems down, others bent over at weird angles, while some are left unperturbed. Does that mean you need to go out and tidy it up?? The answer is no. As with the leaves, leave the plant material alone. At least for now. Having stems of various heights with different diameters of stems encourages a wider diversity of nesting habitats for a larger amount of different insects including stem-boring moths, and cavity-nesting wasps. Any fallen-over stems provides protection for ground-dwelling bees too. Come March or April, depending on where you live, you have plenty of time to clean up and tidy if that’s your thing. However, there is something you can do that is even more beneficial, which is to assist the whole process come spring by breaking up both the standing and fallen stems either by hand or lopper and leaving the now brown material alone. Think of this chop and drop as a mulch for your soon-to-be emerging spring plants. They will have no problem growing up through the plant debris, and come late spring, you won’t even see that. Plus any insect that is still residing in the dead plant material, or any of their eggs essentially stays in place. You may even begin to do what I have started to do, which is during the season using this chop and drop method when I am pruning or cleaning up a plant; I will cut the branches, stems, etc., into smaller pieces and throw them down around the base of the plant, allowing the material to break down in place. No need to drag a wheelbarrow or tarp to your compost for this. Just let the material break down in place. So, of course, leaving the leaves, not cutting back flowers, or gathering up all the seed heads (like the remaining seed heads of this northern sea oats [Chasmanthium latifolium, Zones 5–9]) just saved me several days of work because with managing the end-of-the-season duties at the arboretum there’s still much to be done. More on that soon! Thank you for sharing more inspiration and information from Hortus, Allyson! You continue to encourage us to look at gardening from a perspective beyond just the beauty that we create. A trip to your amazing arboretum and botanical garden is definitely on my agenda for spring.   Have a garden you’d like to share? Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit! To submit, send 5-10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden. Have a mobile phone? Tag your photos on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter with #FineGardening! Do you receive the GPOD by email yet? Sign up here. Fine Gardening Recommended Products Pruning Simplified: A Step-by-Step Guide to 50 Popular Trees and Shrubs Fine Gardening receives a commission for items purchased through links on this site, including Amazon Associates and other affiliate advertising programs. Pruning Simplified shows you exactly how to do it. This must-have guide offers expert advice on the best tools for the job, specific details on when to prune, and clear instructions on how to prune. Profiles of the 50 most popular trees and shrubs—including azaleas, camellias, clematis, hydrangeas, and more—include illustrated, easy-to-follow instructions that will ensure you make the right cut the first time. The Nature of Oaks: The Rich Ecology of Our Most Essential Native Trees Fine Gardening receives a commission for items purchased through links on this site, including Amazon Associates and other affiliate advertising programs. The Nature of Oaks reveals what is going on in oak trees month by month, highlighting the seasonal cycles of life, death, and renewal. From woodpeckers who collect and store hundreds of acorns for sustenance to the beauty of jewel caterpillars, Doug Tallamy illuminates and celebrates the wonders that occur right in our own backyards. He also shares practical advice about how to plant and care for an oak, along with information about the best oak species for your area. Source link

[shelyold]

Happy Monday GPODers! Today Allyson Levy of Hortus Arboretum and Botanical Gardens in Stone Ridge, New York is reminding us to leave the leaves! Allyson has shared her knowledge, and the incredible plants her and her partner Scott Serrano grow on 21 acres several times last year: Growing Pawpaws, Special Fall Plants, Fall is for Purple. Each time she enlightens us to exquisite, and sometimes unusual, plants to grow as well as ways to support your local environment and wildlife with your garden. To learn more about the incredible land they tend, and when you can visit, check out their website: hortusgardens.org As co-director and co-founder of Hortus Arboretum and Botanical Gardens I am often asked about how we deal with winterizing the gardens which is no small task with over nine acres of cultivated gardens! However, for nonprofessionals, even those with small home gardens, chores can seem overwhelming and never-ending. However, now that we are well into December, there are some strategies that if you didn’t follow this season are worth incorporating and putting on your 2025 to-do list. High on your list should be the mantra “leave the leaves”. This is a good one for sure, giving us gardeners the opportunity to do other tasks that maybe aren’t centered solely on plants. Now that the majority of deciduous tree leaves have fallen, except for the few marcescent Oak species and some Beech trees with leaves still clinging onto branches, reminders of the season that was. If this “leave the leaves” is a new phrase for you, or you just didn’t get around to taking out your leaf blower, or garden rake, rejoice, because the garden world has finally embraced this slogan since it is right in step with keeping a more naturalistic garden. For those of us who live in urban or suburban environments buying those tall brown “waste” bags to fill up with your lawn debris to leave on the sidewalk for pickup can now become a thing of the past. And even if you did tidy up your leaves this past fall it is a task that you can take off your 2025 list. The rationale behind this is simple. Fallen leaves break down over time and add nutrients to your plantings. Even different species of oak trees, notorious for keeping their leaves intact due to their high carbon to nitrogen levels, are still beneficial. Fallen leaves can trap snow, leading to additional moisture for both tree and perennial roots. But what they don’t trap are early spring bulbs, which have no problem emerging from the soil despite a layering of leaves covering them. Snowdrops (Galanthus spp.), Crocus (Crocus spp.), and Daffodils (Narcissus spp.), along with a whole range of other early spring bulbs and ephemerals manage to push their way up through the leaf litter. Even more importantly fallen leaves provide places for insects like moths, butterflies, wasps, and ground beetles to lay their eggs as well as well as a place to overwinter by offering protection from predators and the elements. Then come early spring when you’re ready to “clean-up” you can easily address any big piles of leaves that haven’t completely broken down by lightly raking them apart so they are loosened up some but still kept in place. If you require a more tidy look you can gather them up to put into your compost, where the leaves can continue to break down over time. If you maintain a large garden, or if the leaves are all over the place you can run a mower over them and shred them up, essentially mulching them. Okay, so now you have one less chore to do. But what about all your spent stems and flower heads that are left in the garden? Can you leave those in place, too? Yes!! Seeds have many strategies for propagation, and wind is often one of the ways plants do this on their own. It is always smart to gather some of the seeds in fall to sow yourself, but because many native plants need to be cold-stratified in order to germinate, leaving seeds on the plant and letting Mother Nature do the job is one way to ensure future plants. Of course, wind doesn’t pay attention to your garden design and plants may grow far away from the original “mother” plant. Above, rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus spp.) seeds in late fall get disbursed by the wind, but the seed heads remain. Regardless, many flowering plants still retain the seed heads after the seeds have been strewn, and they can be often very decorative as well. Above is a Japanese Angelica (Aralia elata, Zones 4–9) seed head before and after its seeds have fallen. You can leave your helianthus, echinaceas, symphyotrichum, solidago, and pretty much any annuals, perennials, grasses, and fruiting branches in place especially those still holding onto persistent berries or seed heads. Birds will thank you for it, as will many species of wasps and other insects that use the hollow stems, think Joe Pye (Eutrochium purpureum, Zones 3–9) for egg-laying and/or overwintering in. The availability of “brown” plant material is one of the most important factors for encouraging an increase in the population of all sorts of insects including bees. Forget buying a “bee hotel” and let nature make them for you. Besides, there are many flowering plants that provide visual interest “off-season.” Above are viburnum berries for the birds. Clematis seedheads are stunningly ornamental and may be even more visually interesting, or at the very least last a lot longer than the actual flowers. Virgin’s bower (Clematis virginiana, Zones 6–8) seed heads have just as much visual interest as their flowers. Late blooming perennials like the shade-loving Japanese anemone (Anemone hupehensis var. japonica, Zones 5–7) have seed heads that surprisingly persist through winter, with only a really strong wind blowing them apart! And if you live in a place where it snows, any heavy dump will do the work of bringing down those leftover seed heads and stems for you. However that snow dump can be messy with some stems down, others bent over at weird angles, while some are left unperturbed. Does that mean you need to go out and tidy it up?? The answer is no. As with the leaves, leave the plant material alone. At least for now. Having stems of various heights with different diameters of stems encourages a wider diversity of nesting habitats for a larger amount of different insects including stem-boring moths, and cavity-nesting wasps. Any fallen-over stems provides protection for ground-dwelling bees too. Come March or April, depending on where you live, you have plenty of time to clean up and tidy if that’s your thing. However, there is something you can do that is even more beneficial, which is to assist the whole process come spring by breaking up both the standing and fallen stems either by hand or lopper and leaving the now brown material alone. Think of this chop and drop as a mulch for your soon-to-be emerging spring plants. They will have no problem growing up through the plant debris, and come late spring, you won’t even see that. Plus any insect that is still residing in the dead plant material, or any of their eggs essentially stays in place. You may even begin to do what I have started to do, which is during the season using this chop and drop method when I am pruning or cleaning up a plant; I will cut the branches, stems, etc., into smaller pieces and throw them down around the base of the plant, allowing the material to break down in place. No need to drag a wheelbarrow or tarp to your compost for this. Just let the material break down in place. So, of course, leaving the leaves, not cutting back flowers, or gathering up all the seed heads (like the remaining seed heads of this northern sea oats [Chasmanthium latifolium, Zones 5–9]) just saved me several days of work because with managing the end-of-the-season duties at the arboretum there’s still much to be done. More on that soon! Thank you for sharing more inspiration and information from Hortus, Allyson! You continue to encourage us to look at gardening from a perspective beyond just the beauty that we create. A trip to your amazing arboretum and botanical garden is definitely on my agenda for spring.   Have a garden you’d like to share? Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit! To submit, send 5-10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden. Have a mobile phone? Tag your photos on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter with #FineGardening! Do you receive the GPOD by email yet? Sign up here. Fine Gardening Recommended Products Pruning Simplified: A Step-by-Step Guide to 50 Popular Trees and Shrubs Fine Gardening receives a commission for items purchased through links on this site, including Amazon Associates and other affiliate advertising programs. Pruning Simplified shows you exactly how to do it. This must-have guide offers expert advice on the best tools for the job, specific details on when to prune, and clear instructions on how to prune. Profiles of the 50 most popular trees and shrubs—including azaleas, camellias, clematis, hydrangeas, and more—include illustrated, easy-to-follow instructions that will ensure you make the right cut the first time. The Nature of Oaks: The Rich Ecology of Our Most Essential Native Trees Fine Gardening receives a commission for items purchased through links on this site, including Amazon Associates and other affiliate advertising programs. The Nature of Oaks reveals what is going on in oak trees month by month, highlighting the seasonal cycles of life, death, and renewal. From woodpeckers who collect and store hundreds of acorns for sustenance to the beauty of jewel caterpillars, Doug Tallamy illuminates and celebrates the wonders that occur right in our own backyards. He also shares practical advice about how to plant and care for an oak, along with information about the best oak species for your area. Source link

[iammeandmy]

Happy Monday GPODers! Today Allyson Levy of Hortus Arboretum and Botanical Gardens in Stone Ridge, New York is reminding us to leave the leaves! Allyson has shared her knowledge, and the incredible plants her and her partner Scott Serrano grow on 21 acres several times last year: Growing Pawpaws, Special Fall Plants, Fall is for Purple. Each time she enlightens us to exquisite, and sometimes unusual, plants to grow as well as ways to support your local environment and wildlife with your garden. To learn more about the incredible land they tend, and when you can visit, check out their website: hortusgardens.org As co-director and co-founder of Hortus Arboretum and Botanical Gardens I am often asked about how we deal with winterizing the gardens which is no small task with over nine acres of cultivated gardens! However, for nonprofessionals, even those with small home gardens, chores can seem overwhelming and never-ending. However, now that we are well into December, there are some strategies that if you didn’t follow this season are worth incorporating and putting on your 2025 to-do list. High on your list should be the mantra “leave the leaves”. This is a good one for sure, giving us gardeners the opportunity to do other tasks that maybe aren’t centered solely on plants. Now that the majority of deciduous tree leaves have fallen, except for the few marcescent Oak species and some Beech trees with leaves still clinging onto branches, reminders of the season that was. If this “leave the leaves” is a new phrase for you, or you just didn’t get around to taking out your leaf blower, or garden rake, rejoice, because the garden world has finally embraced this slogan since it is right in step with keeping a more naturalistic garden. For those of us who live in urban or suburban environments buying those tall brown “waste” bags to fill up with your lawn debris to leave on the sidewalk for pickup can now become a thing of the past. And even if you did tidy up your leaves this past fall it is a task that you can take off your 2025 list. The rationale behind this is simple. Fallen leaves break down over time and add nutrients to your plantings. Even different species of oak trees, notorious for keeping their leaves intact due to their high carbon to nitrogen levels, are still beneficial. Fallen leaves can trap snow, leading to additional moisture for both tree and perennial roots. But what they don’t trap are early spring bulbs, which have no problem emerging from the soil despite a layering of leaves covering them. Snowdrops (Galanthus spp.), Crocus (Crocus spp.), and Daffodils (Narcissus spp.), along with a whole range of other early spring bulbs and ephemerals manage to push their way up through the leaf litter. Even more importantly fallen leaves provide places for insects like moths, butterflies, wasps, and ground beetles to lay their eggs as well as well as a place to overwinter by offering protection from predators and the elements. Then come early spring when you’re ready to “clean-up” you can easily address any big piles of leaves that haven’t completely broken down by lightly raking them apart so they are loosened up some but still kept in place. If you require a more tidy look you can gather them up to put into your compost, where the leaves can continue to break down over time. If you maintain a large garden, or if the leaves are all over the place you can run a mower over them and shred them up, essentially mulching them. Okay, so now you have one less chore to do. But what about all your spent stems and flower heads that are left in the garden? Can you leave those in place, too? Yes!! Seeds have many strategies for propagation, and wind is often one of the ways plants do this on their own. It is always smart to gather some of the seeds in fall to sow yourself, but because many native plants need to be cold-stratified in order to germinate, leaving seeds on the plant and letting Mother Nature do the job is one way to ensure future plants. Of course, wind doesn’t pay attention to your garden design and plants may grow far away from the original “mother” plant. Above, rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus spp.) seeds in late fall get disbursed by the wind, but the seed heads remain. Regardless, many flowering plants still retain the seed heads after the seeds have been strewn, and they can be often very decorative as well. Above is a Japanese Angelica (Aralia elata, Zones 4–9) seed head before and after its seeds have fallen. You can leave your helianthus, echinaceas, symphyotrichum, solidago, and pretty much any annuals, perennials, grasses, and fruiting branches in place especially those still holding onto persistent berries or seed heads. Birds will thank you for it, as will many species of wasps and other insects that use the hollow stems, think Joe Pye (Eutrochium purpureum, Zones 3–9) for egg-laying and/or overwintering in. The availability of “brown” plant material is one of the most important factors for encouraging an increase in the population of all sorts of insects including bees. Forget buying a “bee hotel” and let nature make them for you. Besides, there are many flowering plants that provide visual interest “off-season.” Above are viburnum berries for the birds. Clematis seedheads are stunningly ornamental and may be even more visually interesting, or at the very least last a lot longer than the actual flowers. Virgin’s bower (Clematis virginiana, Zones 6–8) seed heads have just as much visual interest as their flowers. Late blooming perennials like the shade-loving Japanese anemone (Anemone hupehensis var. japonica, Zones 5–7) have seed heads that surprisingly persist through winter, with only a really strong wind blowing them apart! And if you live in a place where it snows, any heavy dump will do the work of bringing down those leftover seed heads and stems for you. However that snow dump can be messy with some stems down, others bent over at weird angles, while some are left unperturbed. Does that mean you need to go out and tidy it up?? The answer is no. As with the leaves, leave the plant material alone. At least for now. Having stems of various heights with different diameters of stems encourages a wider diversity of nesting habitats for a larger amount of different insects including stem-boring moths, and cavity-nesting wasps. Any fallen-over stems provides protection for ground-dwelling bees too. Come March or April, depending on where you live, you have plenty of time to clean up and tidy if that’s your thing. However, there is something you can do that is even more beneficial, which is to assist the whole process come spring by breaking up both the standing and fallen stems either by hand or lopper and leaving the now brown material alone. Think of this chop and drop as a mulch for your soon-to-be emerging spring plants. They will have no problem growing up through the plant debris, and come late spring, you won’t even see that. Plus any insect that is still residing in the dead plant material, or any of their eggs essentially stays in place. You may even begin to do what I have started to do, which is during the season using this chop and drop method when I am pruning or cleaning up a plant; I will cut the branches, stems, etc., into smaller pieces and throw them down around the base of the plant, allowing the material to break down in place. No need to drag a wheelbarrow or tarp to your compost for this. Just let the material break down in place. So, of course, leaving the leaves, not cutting back flowers, or gathering up all the seed heads (like the remaining seed heads of this northern sea oats [Chasmanthium latifolium, Zones 5–9]) just saved me several days of work because with managing the end-of-the-season duties at the arboretum there’s still much to be done. More on that soon! Thank you for sharing more inspiration and information from Hortus, Allyson! You continue to encourage us to look at gardening from a perspective beyond just the beauty that we create. A trip to your amazing arboretum and botanical garden is definitely on my agenda for spring.   Have a garden you’d like to share? Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit! To submit, send 5-10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden. Have a mobile phone? Tag your photos on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter with #FineGardening! Do you receive the GPOD by email yet? Sign up here. Fine Gardening Recommended Products Pruning Simplified: A Step-by-Step Guide to 50 Popular Trees and Shrubs Fine Gardening receives a commission for items purchased through links on this site, including Amazon Associates and other affiliate advertising programs. Pruning Simplified shows you exactly how to do it. This must-have guide offers expert advice on the best tools for the job, specific details on when to prune, and clear instructions on how to prune. Profiles of the 50 most popular trees and shrubs—including azaleas, camellias, clematis, hydrangeas, and more—include illustrated, easy-to-follow instructions that will ensure you make the right cut the first time. The Nature of Oaks: The Rich Ecology of Our Most Essential Native Trees Fine Gardening receives a commission for items purchased through links on this site, including Amazon Associates and other affiliate advertising programs. The Nature of Oaks reveals what is going on in oak trees month by month, highlighting the seasonal cycles of life, death, and renewal. From woodpeckers who collect and store hundreds of acorns for sustenance to the beauty of jewel caterpillars, Doug Tallamy illuminates and celebrates the wonders that occur right in our own backyards. He also shares practical advice about how to plant and care for an oak, along with information about the best oak species for your area. Source link

[januishstory]

Happy Monday GPODers! Today Allyson Levy of Hortus Arboretum and Botanical Gardens in Stone Ridge, New York is reminding us to leave the leaves! Allyson has shared her knowledge, and the incredible plants her and her partner Scott Serrano grow on 21 acres several times last year: Growing Pawpaws, Special Fall Plants, Fall is for Purple. Each time she enlightens us to exquisite, and sometimes unusual, plants to grow as well as ways to support your local environment and wildlife with your garden. To learn more about the incredible land they tend, and when you can visit, check out their website: hortusgardens.org As co-director and co-founder of Hortus Arboretum and Botanical Gardens I am often asked about how we deal with winterizing the gardens which is no small task with over nine acres of cultivated gardens! However, for nonprofessionals, even those with small home gardens, chores can seem overwhelming and never-ending. However, now that we are well into December, there are some strategies that if you didn’t follow this season are worth incorporating and putting on your 2025 to-do list. High on your list should be the mantra “leave the leaves”. This is a good one for sure, giving us gardeners the opportunity to do other tasks that maybe aren’t centered solely on plants. Now that the majority of deciduous tree leaves have fallen, except for the few marcescent Oak species and some Beech trees with leaves still clinging onto branches, reminders of the season that was. If this “leave the leaves” is a new phrase for you, or you just didn’t get around to taking out your leaf blower, or garden rake, rejoice, because the garden world has finally embraced this slogan since it is right in step with keeping a more naturalistic garden. For those of us who live in urban or suburban environments buying those tall brown “waste” bags to fill up with your lawn debris to leave on the sidewalk for pickup can now become a thing of the past. And even if you did tidy up your leaves this past fall it is a task that you can take off your 2025 list. The rationale behind this is simple. Fallen leaves break down over time and add nutrients to your plantings. Even different species of oak trees, notorious for keeping their leaves intact due to their high carbon to nitrogen levels, are still beneficial. Fallen leaves can trap snow, leading to additional moisture for both tree and perennial roots. But what they don’t trap are early spring bulbs, which have no problem emerging from the soil despite a layering of leaves covering them. Snowdrops (Galanthus spp.), Crocus (Crocus spp.), and Daffodils (Narcissus spp.), along with a whole range of other early spring bulbs and ephemerals manage to push their way up through the leaf litter. Even more importantly fallen leaves provide places for insects like moths, butterflies, wasps, and ground beetles to lay their eggs as well as well as a place to overwinter by offering protection from predators and the elements. Then come early spring when you’re ready to “clean-up” you can easily address any big piles of leaves that haven’t completely broken down by lightly raking them apart so they are loosened up some but still kept in place. If you require a more tidy look you can gather them up to put into your compost, where the leaves can continue to break down over time. If you maintain a large garden, or if the leaves are all over the place you can run a mower over them and shred them up, essentially mulching them. Okay, so now you have one less chore to do. But what about all your spent stems and flower heads that are left in the garden? Can you leave those in place, too? Yes!! Seeds have many strategies for propagation, and wind is often one of the ways plants do this on their own. It is always smart to gather some of the seeds in fall to sow yourself, but because many native plants need to be cold-stratified in order to germinate, leaving seeds on the plant and letting Mother Nature do the job is one way to ensure future plants. Of course, wind doesn’t pay attention to your garden design and plants may grow far away from the original “mother” plant. Above, rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus spp.) seeds in late fall get disbursed by the wind, but the seed heads remain. Regardless, many flowering plants still retain the seed heads after the seeds have been strewn, and they can be often very decorative as well. Above is a Japanese Angelica (Aralia elata, Zones 4–9) seed head before and after its seeds have fallen. You can leave your helianthus, echinaceas, symphyotrichum, solidago, and pretty much any annuals, perennials, grasses, and fruiting branches in place especially those still holding onto persistent berries or seed heads. Birds will thank you for it, as will many species of wasps and other insects that use the hollow stems, think Joe Pye (Eutrochium purpureum, Zones 3–9) for egg-laying and/or overwintering in. The availability of “brown” plant material is one of the most important factors for encouraging an increase in the population of all sorts of insects including bees. Forget buying a “bee hotel” and let nature make them for you. Besides, there are many flowering plants that provide visual interest “off-season.” Above are viburnum berries for the birds. Clematis seedheads are stunningly ornamental and may be even more visually interesting, or at the very least last a lot longer than the actual flowers. Virgin’s bower (Clematis virginiana, Zones 6–8) seed heads have just as much visual interest as their flowers. Late blooming perennials like the shade-loving Japanese anemone (Anemone hupehensis var. japonica, Zones 5–7) have seed heads that surprisingly persist through winter, with only a really strong wind blowing them apart! And if you live in a place where it snows, any heavy dump will do the work of bringing down those leftover seed heads and stems for you. However that snow dump can be messy with some stems down, others bent over at weird angles, while some are left unperturbed. Does that mean you need to go out and tidy it up?? The answer is no. As with the leaves, leave the plant material alone. At least for now. Having stems of various heights with different diameters of stems encourages a wider diversity of nesting habitats for a larger amount of different insects including stem-boring moths, and cavity-nesting wasps. Any fallen-over stems provides protection for ground-dwelling bees too. Come March or April, depending on where you live, you have plenty of time to clean up and tidy if that’s your thing. However, there is something you can do that is even more beneficial, which is to assist the whole process come spring by breaking up both the standing and fallen stems either by hand or lopper and leaving the now brown material alone. Think of this chop and drop as a mulch for your soon-to-be emerging spring plants. They will have no problem growing up through the plant debris, and come late spring, you won’t even see that. Plus any insect that is still residing in the dead plant material, or any of their eggs essentially stays in place. You may even begin to do what I have started to do, which is during the season using this chop and drop method when I am pruning or cleaning up a plant; I will cut the branches, stems, etc., into smaller pieces and throw them down around the base of the plant, allowing the material to break down in place. No need to drag a wheelbarrow or tarp to your compost for this. Just let the material break down in place. So, of course, leaving the leaves, not cutting back flowers, or gathering up all the seed heads (like the remaining seed heads of this northern sea oats [Chasmanthium latifolium, Zones 5–9]) just saved me several days of work because with managing the end-of-the-season duties at the arboretum there’s still much to be done. More on that soon! Thank you for sharing more inspiration and information from Hortus, Allyson! You continue to encourage us to look at gardening from a perspective beyond just the beauty that we create. A trip to your amazing arboretum and botanical garden is definitely on my agenda for spring.   Have a garden you’d like to share? Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit! To submit, send 5-10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden. Have a mobile phone? Tag your photos on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter with #FineGardening! Do you receive the GPOD by email yet? Sign up here. Fine Gardening Recommended Products Pruning Simplified: A Step-by-Step Guide to 50 Popular Trees and Shrubs Fine Gardening receives a commission for items purchased through links on this site, including Amazon Associates and other affiliate advertising programs. Pruning Simplified shows you exactly how to do it. This must-have guide offers expert advice on the best tools for the job, specific details on when to prune, and clear instructions on how to prune. Profiles of the 50 most popular trees and shrubs—including azaleas, camellias, clematis, hydrangeas, and more—include illustrated, easy-to-follow instructions that will ensure you make the right cut the first time. The Nature of Oaks: The Rich Ecology of Our Most Essential Native Trees Fine Gardening receives a commission for items purchased through links on this site, including Amazon Associates and other affiliate advertising programs. The Nature of Oaks reveals what is going on in oak trees month by month, highlighting the seasonal cycles of life, death, and renewal. From woodpeckers who collect and store hundreds of acorns for sustenance to the beauty of jewel caterpillars, Doug Tallamy illuminates and celebrates the wonders that occur right in our own backyards. He also shares practical advice about how to plant and care for an oak, along with information about the best oak species for your area. Source link

[tranzitnotes]

Marcescence: Nature’s Enduring Charm

Nature’s resilience: Marcescence in Vidarbha. Latitude-Longitude-Altitude! @tranzitnotes

Marcescence, the retention of dead plant organs that normally are shed, is a fascinating phenomenon observed in certain tree species. Within the rich tapestry of Vidarbha’s forests, marcescence adds an intriguing layer of complexity and beauty. Located in the eastern region of Maharashtra, India, Vidarbha boasts diverse ecosystems ranging from dry deciduous forests to teak forests, providing a…