LAST POST FROM MEADOWLARK GARDENS, FOR A WHILE

There are several benches around the garden.  One has this view.  Many people have their photographs taken on that small bridge across the pond, including wedding couples.  

The whirligigs are new.  They have had others but I like the mirror effect, and you can just about see my dear other half beyond it.  The visitor center is on the right.

I believe this is some kind of potato plant.  When I checked with my plant finder, this page cropped up.  If you scroll down you will see a bloom very similar to the one above.  Its visitor is a Spotted Cucumber Beetle.  It is not a very good friend to the garden, and as pretty as it looks, there is no relation to the more beneficial ladybug.  It is a dreadful pest as it eats a wide variety of host plants, most definitely not good for field crops.  

Stella de Oro - 1985 - W. Jablonksi

You can click on its name to go to a page where it gives you five fool-proof perennial flowers to grow, this being one of them.

The next photo shows a seed capsule of a very pretty flower called 'Love-in-the-Mist' - Nigella Damascena'. I have taken photos of this flower before while in full bloom.  If you click on this link it will take you to another place we enjoy, Green Spring Gardens.  On that particular visit we were there in July of last year.  Scrolling down to the last couple of photos will show you what this flower looks like, seed pod and in full bloom.

The next few photos are from our walk around the largest pond.  We were sharing our space with a few Canada Geese.  

I have said it before I know but I love these geese.  We usually find them in close proximity of the path, and we keep a wary eye on them as we  pass by.  

One goose today ambled over.  This has happened before, these warnings signs where the goose gives a 'look' and today showed me its tongue.  I tell it quietly not to worry, we are moving along.  There are no nests this time, no little ones to protect but they are still a bit territorial.  

"Hope" is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul, 

And sings the tune without the words

And never stops at all.

And sweetest in the gale is heard;

And sore must be the storm

That could abash the little bird

That keeps so many warm.

I've heard it in the chilliest land

And on the strangest sea;

Yet, never, in extremity,

It asked a crumb of me.

Many of you know the poem by Emily Dickinson, it is one of my favorites.

There are several Weeping Willow Trees surrounding this particular pond.

I am not sure if these are actually weeping willows but we both enjoyed looking at them from an artistic point of view.

I think Claude Monet might have actually enjoyed painting them. 

This is the Common Milkweed.

If you go to this link it will tell you how important Milkweed is to Monarch Butterfly population, and which types of Milkweed they like.

"There are over 100 species of milkweeds in North America and not all of them are used by the Monarchs."  It is also important to note that "although milkweed plants are food for caterpillars, they are also poisonous to humans.  You must not get milkweed sap on your skin or in your eyes.  Milkweed is also toxic if eaten, so keep plants away from young children and pets."

I have always been at the gardens when the Alliums have been in flower, but not today.  

Above photo shows Giant Coneflower, Rudbeckia maxima, and is in the Asteracea family.  It resembles a Brown-eyed Susan, but the petals of the flower hang down, and the center is much taller.  It can grow up to 7 feet tall and is also deer resistant.

These are Bear's Breech - Acanthus mollis.
It grows up to 3 to 5 feet high, and 2 to 3 feet wide.  Grows best in full sun to part shade.  Virtually pest free but you have to watch out for powdery mildew.  It is native to southern Europe and northwestern Africa.

We are almost at the end of our walk.  One more hill to climb back up to the visitor center to reach our exit.  These are called Ostrich Fern, in the family Polypodiaceae.  They can range in color from olive to chartreuse, and vary in size from a quarter of an inch to as tall as 80 feet.  

Ferns have been around since the time of the dinosaurs, and are the oldest plants in the world.  They first appeared in the fossil record 369 million years ago, in the late Devonian period.  However, many of the current families and species did not appear until roughly145 million years ago in the early Cretaceous period.  By this time flowering plants had come to dominate many environments.

I also learned that there are 10,560 species of ferns.  The more I read the more interested I became, so forgive the ramble. I found all these interesting facts here if you would like see for yourself.  And if you like the look of those ornamental features near the fern in the above photo, they are called Fiddlehead stakes.  I came across them for sale online.

There are several chairs and benches in and around the garden, and some of the chairs are painted with nature in mind.  That large plant/tree would be a another lovely shady spot to sit under.  It's name is Pawlonia - The Empress Tree.  Very easy to grow and has the prettiest lavender blooms, which you can see at the site.  Growing 8 to 10 feet in its first year, it can reach a height of 40 feet tall.

The lilies were blooming beautifully, and there were a few daylilies also.

If there are novice gardeners out there who would like to know the difference between these two flowers, you can read about them at this link.

The last three photos were taken on the side of the visitor center, where there is yet one last planting bed to look through.  

 Nepenthes Righteous was the name on the little marker.

 Its full name - a hybrid - is Nepenthes 'Rokko' x stenophylla x truncate, and also a pitcher plant.  So much information here.  It is a slow grower and can take 5 to 10 years to mature.  

 So there you go, last photo from our visit to the garden.  I hope you've enjoyed them.  I know these have been pretty long posts.  My next few will be a lot shorter.

Have a great day everyone and thank you for coming along with us on our walk around Meadowlark.