New Growth

Trailing arbutus has been a center of our attention for the twenty-eight years that we have been here.  Our small naturally occurring patch is still here and with its wire cage cover it no longer occasionally disappears but its poor location keeps it small.  The plants in the first photo are our last successful attempt to transplant this native treasure.  Placed under a huge old White pine tree, these Arbutus live on a deep deposit of rotting pine needles.  The dark green leaves are perhaps several years old.  The light green leaves growing from fuzzy stems are new growth.  Today just seemed like a good time to look in on these plants.

This picture clearly shows different stages of new growth.  The sizeable bright green leaf is new growth but is older than the new stem to its left.  It has a new leaf that has just started to grow.  In the center of the photo, at least two seed berries can be seen.  They are flanked by the remains of  blossoms that were not fertilized.  This plant produces viable seed every year but we can not be certain that any new plants appear here.  Their first year's growth consists of three small leave while the two mature plants have spread filling the protected area under the cage.

These plants grow adjacent to the lane far away from our other plants.  The center of this photo shows many female flowers that have failed to grow seeds.  Earlier this year I watched a bumble bee enter these open blossoms.  She was much larger than the flowers and frequently pulled the petals from the flowers as she backed out.  I saw this ground covered with white petals.  That in itself does not guarantee sterile flowers but some factor  left these clusters sterile.  In the upper right corner of the picture a developing seed cluster is visible.

This is the planting under the huge pine tree.  Old leaves are dark green while new leaves are bright and light.  This combination of old growth and new leaves is what makes it impossible to spot new growth from seed.  We are pleased that these two original plants are doing so well.  New growth now extends beyond the cage inviting us to try again to root cuttings and drawing in rabbits to feed on these apparently tasty leaves.  We were very lucky as this old pine did suffer breakage from that heavy snow storm but none of the fallen branches hit this cage.