Fall Formed Flower Buds

We still have snow covered ground anyplace where the slope of the ground dilutes the strength of the sunlight but we can walk about and find plants mostly free of snow.  Trailing Arbutus is widely described as impossible to transplant but we have found success.  This native plant is among the early flowers that form their buds in the fall.  It seems reasonable that a flower bud would be fragile and tender but since flowers will be open as soon as four weeks from now an early start is essential.  Oak leaves are covering areas of these plants but any work among possibly frozen or brittle plants will wait for reliable warmth.  The promise of incredibly sweet scented flowers after a winter of isolation is a major mood booster.

  

Pinxter is another native plant that forms its flower buds in the fall.  Our deer herd are fond of eating these buds so wire cages surround the plants at some distance to keep these future flowers beyond their reach.  Sweet scented pink flowers will soon fill this area.  We have found this plant resistant to reproduction.  Root runners are expected but have yet to be seen here.  Many open seed pods indicate that an abundance of seeds were present at the end of last year.  Try as I might, I have yet to see a seed.  They are described as having milkweed like fluff at both ends of the seed.  Seeing that and having seeds to plant are totally unrealized goals.  We will try again this year.

Snow drops are the first to flower, frequently while surrounded by snow making them popular without limit.  Early widespread transplantation makes its native occurrences impossible to describe.  We follow the centuries of moving this plant about totally disregarding the purity of our native plant shade garden.  The Sumac berries cover this ground with bright red seeds.  It seems that every seed germinates so we will spend a great deal of time weeding out baby Sumac trees. 

Becky took a first walk in our main garden near the house.  A deer herd of some size summer feeds on our plants but have been largely absent when deep snow covered this ground.  Retreating snow revealed the heavily chewed on bony remains of one of our deer.  When snow melt is complete, it is unlikely that any fleshy remains will be found.  Coyotes usually pull of pieces and drag them into the cover of Japanese Honeysuckle to eat their meal.  A small pile of bones and fur will be moved to a distant compost pile.  
 

Early Arbutus Flowers

Returning home from a therapy session today, I decided to drive to the back and check on the garden by the woods.  In two places string fastening the wire fence to the posts had rotted.  Temporary repairs were made and naturally a stop was made to look at the Arbutus plants.  Six plants, three of each gender, were transplanted here in 2013

Arbutus plants form their flower buds in the fall.  I was expecting to see only white tipped buds.  These were more swollen than expected.

Open flowers came as a complete surprise.  Most of the buds remain tightly closed now but here are open flowers.  Looking at the base of the blossom, one can see five objects resembling grains of wheat.  Those structures will in time produce pollen identifying this as a male plant.  The appearance of the pollen is quickly over and I have yet to see a pollen laden anther.

These two plants were placed in a deep deposit of white pine needles.where nothing resembling soil as I know it exists.  Arbutus plants require extremely acid but poor ground in which to grow.  The growth of these plants is visually different from the others.  Long stems bearing sparse leaves is the rule here.  Each gender is present here and seed production happens each year.  Despite the occurrence of mature seeds, we have yet to see the appearance of a new plant from seed.

This is our only patch of wild plants.  We have no idea just how many plants grow here or what genders are present.  We became aware of their existence when we first purchased this land twenty-five years ago.  Flower buds are rather numerous now so the gender question should be answered this year.

It is surprising how small this group of plants is considering their age.  They were eaten to the ground by a starved rabbit and that is the reason for the cage.  Apparently that is a common experience for wild Arbutus plants.  These have totally disappeared several times in the past before we learned what was happening to them.  Now all of these native treasures grow under wire cages.  We would prefer that they grow without a wire cover but we need to keep them alive and expanding.

These flowers are on a plant far removed from the other pictured plant in bloom.  A close look down into the base of the blossom will reveal a green thing growing above the bottom of the open flower.  It is the pollen grabbing stigma marking this as a female plant.

This is a picture of our first group of transplants.  When these four plants were moved in May of 2011, we did not know that some would be girls and others would be boys.  As luck would have it, one female plant is surrounded by three males.  One new plant from seed did appear here but the seed that grew was in the soil clump surrounding a transplant.

We cannot leave without mentioning the outstanding feature of this plant.  It is obviously a low ground cover with dark shinny leaves but it is the fragrance that has made this plant famous.  One must place his nose close to the soil to sample the scent.  The flower is sweet beyond description and accompanied  by the smell of rotting pine needles, it is an experience will be enjoyed and remembered possibly forever.  Each year as the blooming period comes to an end, I make a promise to myself that I will live long enough to experience the scent of Arbutus at least one more time.  That is a promise that I have kept once again.

Arbutus In November

In terms of survival it seems that arbutus, Epigea repens, is risking a lot by forming its flower buds before winter.  So much can go wrong between now and May flowers.  These plants were placed at the base of a northwest facing slope.  A north slope is supposed to shed its leaf cover to winter wind helping arbutus avoid smothering.  Sunlight reaches the ground here only in late afternoon.  That should preserve snow cover.  I have been removing some of the fallen white pine needles to keep light striking these evergreen leaves.  For now, we can only hope and wait.

These plants were moved here this spring.  That story was told in a previous post.  We are not claiming success yet.  Several years survival will be required first.  As these transplanted roots venture out into our soil they must find some mysterious soil microbe if the plant is to survive.  For now we are delighted at the likely prospect of arbutus flowers next spring.

The arbutus cuttings did not do as well.  Of the forty cuttings taken only four show any signs of life now.  These will be placed in the ground near the mature plants soon.  I expect to see no signs of life from these next spring but I must give them a chance.  A new sandy mix will be tried next year.  This year all of the cuttings included a heel of the stem.  Next year we may try some straight stem cuttings as well.