Early August Arbutus Buds

This is how our oldest transplants looked today.  Bright green new leaves obscure the older darker growth.  One of my unanswered questions is the life span of an arbutus leaf.  Seldom is a dead leaf seen and the plant is evergreen but there has to be a point where leaf death happens.  The unbroken canopy of new leaves my hide the dying old leaves from my prying eyes.

We knew that arbutus forms its blossom buds ahead of winter.  We had no idea that buds formed this early.  The season of the moment is summer not fall.  Bud clusters form at the joint between the stem and a new leaf.  Many buds form at the end of the new growth bud they also occur well short of the end of the new stem.  It may be safe to say that flowers will appear only on new growth.

This is our wild patch that is more than one quarter of a century old.  We are in agreement that this is the largest appearance that these plants have ever made during our ownership of this land.  This is only two summers of regrowth following decimation by a hungry rabbit.  It appears that pruned to the crown is a frequent occurrence for wild arbutus.  This likely explains many reported failures with arbutus as a garden plant.  I am tempted to brew up some arbutus leaf tea and discover for myself the popular taste.  Apparently there is nothing toxic in an arbutus leaf but the human body produces a poison from the components of the leaf tea.  We will leave the tasting to the rabbits.

We had many incompletely formed bud clusters earlier this year.  Last year's fall drought and my inability to carry water to the plants then were identified as the cause.  This bald tan bud cluster might be the remains of buds incompletely formed one year ago.  They may also be the remains of unfertilized female blossoms from this year.  New buds can be seen on the new growth pushing out from the end of the old stem.

Our more recent transplants have made contact with the stones intended to support the wire cage.  New growth will likely surround all of the stones next year.  Reaching the edge of the protective cage will soon follow.  When that happens, we will remove the edge stones that prevent predators from slipping under the cage and allow the arbutus to grow at will.  Growth outside of the wire will likely be eaten but we cannot expand the size of the protected area.  We did intend to introduce this wild plant to a natural environment.  There may be more rabbits per acre now but that is out of our control.

This young female plant receives no direct sunlight planted under a huge white pine tree.  Her growth habit is totally different from our other plants.  Dark green centered leaves mark the extent of the plant as it was when winter ended.  Light green leaves at the ends of long stems are this year's new growth.  We will be able to see what happens to the older leaves as more time passes.  The leftmost stem in the nine o'clock position sports new buds.

Our drought is over for the moment and everything is growing at a reckless pace.  These arbutus plants should be well ready for fall.  Thoughts of extensive sweet flowers are hard to deny.  They are half a year away but we are looking forward to their appearance.

Rainy Day Visitors

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.  I'm not sure this picture qualifies for quite that many.  Still over the last two days, I have had a wonderful time watching the wild turkeys with their babies and the deer with theirs.

During yesterday morning's light rain, the turkeys arrived first.  Four hens in a line walked slowly across Ed's newly mowed grass. I have often seen turkeys walk in single file, but not this time.  Behind them were the five babies also in a line.  They traveled from east to west eating whatever popped up in their path.  When they reached the area behind the shade garden, they stopped.  The adults flapped their wings and shook like wet dogs and the babies followed suit.  Next they lined up again, but with the babies in front this time.  I thought for sure they would disappear into the tall grass, but they stayed in the short grass.  One hen stayed with the babies and the others wandered off on their own.  The five babies followed what I assume is their mom in a fascinating game of follow the leader.  When she ate, they ate.  When she hopped up on Ed's stone wall they all managed to climb up there to join her.  She flapped her wings and they flapped theirs.  She sat up there preened her feathers and they preened too.  I got a great look at the babies through my binoculars.  Not everyone would say that wild turkeys have a pretty face, but these babies are still cute!  When mom took a big hop down to the ground, the babies flew to join her.  I enjoyed all this turkey activity so much, but  just when I though I should be doing something more productive, a mother deer and her two fawns entered the mowed area from beneath the trees.  For a time the deer and turkeys seemed to ignore each other, however one of those twin fawns is rambunctious.  He ran at top speed skidding on the wet grass, narrowly missing his mom and the other fawn and jumped, landing right behind one of the turkey hens goosing her with his nose and front feet and making her hop  out of the way.  This caused all of the turkeys to gather back in a group and the Mother deer seemed to take a dim view of the fawn's behavior herding her family in the other direction away from the turkeys.  This was all wonderful fun and I thought the show was over.

After a night of rain, this  morning everything in the garden was wet.  Ed headed out to the inside of the garden square to try a little weeding.  When I looked outside I was surprised to see the turkeys right back here again. The fact that Ed was out there weeding seemed to make no difference to the turkeys.  Before I could join him a loud clap of thunder sent Ed inside.  It was followed by a period of heavy rain.  We could not see the garden for a time, let alone the turkeys.  As soon as the rain let up a little the turkeys were back behaving much the same as yesterday. This time they were really wet and when the sun came out all of the turkeys made their way to the top of Ed's  stone wall.  They flapped and preened.  A couple of the babies sat right down there on top of the wall. They were there for some time.  One of the hens was facing the woods and it was at that moment that Mother deer and her two fawns emerged from beneath the trees.  Remembering yesterday's fun the  rambunctious fawn streaked toward the turkeys.  As he got close to the birds he realized that they were towering over his head.  A turkey hen is a very large bird and is a lot more intimidating when it is facing you.  The fawn skidded to a stop just short of the stone wall.  He abruptly turned flashing his white tail and headed back to the safety of  Mom and the rest of the deer family.   The turkeys took their own sweet time getting down from the wall. The hens did not fly!

All during this morning's light drizzle, the turkeys and the deer wandered around in separate groups enjoying the short grass.  If any of them went into the garden I never caught them.  By this afternoon the drizzle remained, but the visitors were gone.  It had been quite a show!  I wonder id they will be back for an encore?