They Won’t Change Their Behavior

 

This is the time of year when the fruits of the exotic Nandina domestica shrub are particularly noticeable and reminders go out from conservation groups to remove the fruits (and even the shrubs) to protect birds. Shrubs like these were recommended in the past to support fruit-loving birds – called frugivores – during the winter. So why now the change to remove them to protect birds?

Cedar Waxwing

The advisement is primarily to protect Cedar Waxwing birds, a Georgia winter resident that sometimes gorges on abundant fruits. The fruits of nandina contain cyanide and other alkaloids. In small quantities, it appears that most birds are not harmed but there have been several incidents in Georgia (Decatur and Thomas County) specifically where Cedar Waxwings have died. It is generally understood that poisoning occurs when the fruit is ingested in large quantities, such as when gorging.

Some people think this harm is overhyped – that the number of reported cases is too low. However, it takes a lot of effort to determine what killed a bird, assuming someone reported the deaths to begin with. So it is very likely that the deaths are underreported. Some people have even suggested it's the birds fault. 

Bottom line: these birds aren’t going to change the way they feed (i.e., gorging occasionally) in our lifetime so using nandina and hoping for a different outcome isn’t a viable approach. We have the big brain. It’s up to us to do the right thing.

Nandina domestica

I should also mention this plant is tracked as an invasive species in Georgia, capable of creating new populations thanks to spread by wildlife. I pull out 2-3 new seedlings per year in my yard; if all 47 homes in my neighborhood also got two new seedlings per year that would be 98 new plants per year in just my neighborhood.

In addition to those two reasons for avoiding this plant, know that if you instead use a regionally native plant, you’ll be contributing to the ecosystem and likely providing more support for birds even if that plant doesn’t have fruit. If you’re planting shrubs specifically for fruit, choose something else.  

There you have it: 3 reasons to get rid of nandina in your garden (or avoid adding it). When we know better, we can do better.

January 2024 Moment in Nature

It's been a cold week here and I've not spent much time outside. Yet even the walk to the mailbox can bring a moment of joy in the nature around us. During this relatively dull period, the sounds of winter birds are more noticeable when there are fewer visual distractions.

One of my favorites is the brown-headed nuthatch. While they are considered year-round residents, I seem to notice them more in the winter and early spring. Their squeaky calls are very unique. They are out and about this week and their busy sounds are my #momentinnature for this month.

If you'd like to hear them, this video on YouTube captures the sound perfectly.

A Backyard Year (the book)

 

The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year is a new book by Margaret Renkl. While I usually read her essays in The New York Times where she is a guest columnist, I was interested in reading this because it is a seasonal compilation of many of those essays as well as new ones. Many of you may have noticed that my own blog is a seasonal effort, and I have considered publishing some of my favorites in a similar compilation.

With that perspective in mind, this is a thoroughly enjoyable read, and I like the way she groups the essays into the seasons as well as mixing in new bits called ‘Praise Song’ (some of these inserts are only a paragraph, so ‘bits’ seems like a good description). The NY Times describes her as a “writer who covers flora, fauna, politics and culture in the American South,” and her flora/fauna essays often mix in some of that Southern culture because, well, life is so very intertwined. As a result, I find the stories to be a pleasure to read on several levels, including with humor (in particular, see page 39).

One of the review comments on the jacket is worth repeating: “Margaret Renkl has the mind of a naturalist and the soul of a poet. Let this magnificent devotional be your eye-opening, heart-expanding daily companion, and it will change how you see the world.” We need more of that “change how you see the world” inspiration in our life. The monthly #momentinnature posts that I started in January 2021 have been an attempt to inspire readers to see the everyday world around us. [I was in turn inspired by a friend who has been doing it for much longer (we should all pass along inspiration!).]

Margaret Renkl's stories illustrate that nature can be such a part our daily lives. If we let it be. If we cultivate it. If we notice it. And that is the way it should be. In our yards.

Here is a nice interview with the author about the book.

Hike Local: Stone Mountain Park

 

Winter hikes can be useful for kids during the winter break so we took our 5-year old grandson to hike the walk-up trail at Stone Mountain this week during his school break. He was interested in all the rocks (examining small bits of it for minerals), but I was interested to see what plants I could recognize so this blog is about what I found on what is called the walk-up trail that goes to the top of the mountain.

Winter can be a challenge for identifying plants that have gone dormant. However, many of them leave clues behind (dried leaves, distinctive twigs, even a few tardy leaves, plus fruit and seeds) and I found enough clues to keep me busy (and lagging behind while the youngster raced ahead with my husband).

Quercus georgiana

Quercus georgiana

The first plant that caught my attention was Georgia oak (Quercus georgiana). This lower-growing species of oak is endemic to granite outcrops. Most of the plants were still holding onto dried leaves but I found a couple that still had good green-red leaves. Next I spotted the first of what would be many populations of sparkleberry (Vaccinium arboreum). Many of them still had a few reddish leaves and had fruit on the branches. Apologies for the blur; those little berries make it tough for the camera to focus.

Sparkleberry (Vaccinium arboreum)

Winged elm (Ulmus alata)

Winged elm (Ulmus alata) is common there but this particular individual really caught my attention; these wings are huge! At first I thought it might be a sweet gum, which also has winged twigs, but the very slender twigs encased in these wings were a clue it was the elm. Many plants are off to the edges of the trail where plants have created small woodland communities in the cracks of the rocks in soil created over time by plant debris. I spotted this small fern several times there; I think it is a marginal fern (Dryopteris marginalis) which is reported to be in the park and can be somewhat evergreen.

Fern with native goldenrod (left) and grass (below)

Pines are all around the trail (there’s even a huge one in the middle, sharing a large crack with an oak tree). Four species are reported in the park: loblolly pine (Pinus taeda), shortleaf pine (Pinus echinata), Virginia pine (Pinus virginiana), and pitch pine (Pinus rigida). This tree at the top of the mountain was quite stunted; it is probably Virginia pine or shortleaf.

Here are a couple of photos to show perspective: the youngster running up the trail and the view from the top with protected lichens (behind the fence) with a view of Atlanta in the background.

Note: For a good reference book for plants found in association with granite outcrops, see the book “Guide to the Plants of Granite Outcrops” by William Murdy and Eloise Carter.

Hike Local posts are an occasional feature in this blog (find the previous ones here) about hikes that are fairly local to the metro Atlanta area. My focus is on the plants that I found along the way.

Graffiti dating to at least 1899 is visible on the walk-up trail. I wonder if this one was meant to illustrate the Georgia oak. Do those look like acorns on the tips of branches to you?

2023 in Pictures

I take a lot of pictures throughout the year and not all of them make it into a blog post. At the end of the calendar year, it’s a good time to reflect on the beauty of nature as well as share some of the extra pictures.

I believe that each day is an opportunity to find and appreciate something beautiful in the native plants and creatures of Georgia.

Red-shouldered hawk

We have at least two species of hawks in the area and in January I was able to get a good look at this red-shouldered one in our backyard. This photo also represents the change we've seen here: construction in the neighborhood behind us finally reached our boundary and we now have this big white house in our view. I wish they had at least painted it brown! 

The tiny flowers of American hazelnut (Corylus americana) bloomed in February. I rescued this plant several years ago in Dawson County. This shows the red female flower and the male catkin.

Corylus americana

I was able to capture another special flower in March. Florida maple (Acer floridanum) is found throughout my neighborhood (and my yard) but this one near the front of the neighborhood is the biggest and gets enough sun to flower. Strangely, this is the first year I have managed to catch it in bloom! 

Acer floridanum flowers

I spotted this tiny moth in April on my equally small butterweed (Packera glabella) flowers. This is the Southern longhorn moth, Adela caeruleella. There are so many tiny things to notice in the native garden! 

Southern longhorn moth

Vaccinium arboreum

 

In May, I stopped by Nearly Native Nursery in Fayetteville after speaking to a garden club in the area. This sparkleberry (Vaccinium arboreum) in their garden was at peak bloom. This shrub needs to be better used; the foliage is gorgeous and the birds feast on the tiny fruit in late fall.

Malaxis unifolia

Ipomoea pes-caprae

I was leading a plant rescue in June when I found this green adder's mouth orchid (Malaxis unifolia); it is not a rare orchid but it seems uncommon (perhaps because it is so small that it gets overlooked). 

In July we went to visit my mom in Florida and I found a new-to-me morning glory with a bunch of common names: Goat-foot Morning Glory (which matches the translation of the Latin name, Ipomoea pes-caprae), Bayhops, and Beach Morning Glory. This species is also found in south Georgia.

Ostrya virginiana

Juglans sp.

A hike in August found a population of Eastern hop-hornbeam (Ostrya virginiana) with spectacular displays of fruit. You can see why people thought it looks like hops. On a road that I travel every week, the lush cover of walnut foliage caught my attention in September. This picture doesn't quite capture the magic, but I had to stop and try.

Aster (front) and Turtlehead (back)

Deer in front

It was a good year in the garden for the turtlehead (Chelone glabra) inside my fence. It bloomed for weeks and was still looking good when this aster (Symphyotrichum puniceum) started blooming. Both of them love the damp conditions in this low spot. 

In November, I spotted this buck sitting on my lawn outside my front windows. He had gotten up by the time I got back with my camera.

I was cleaning seeds from calico aster (Symphyotrichum lateriflorum) for our chapter's December seed swap when I was struck by how much the empty seedheads look like flowers themselves. I made an impromptu bouquet of them.

Symphyotrichum lateriflorum seedheads

Wishing you a good year in 2024 and more native plants and critters in your daily life. This year's numeral photo was hand drawn at my request by our grandson Max who is 5 1/2 now.

A Few of My Favorite Things

“What’s your favorite blog post that you did?” is actually a question I get fairly often. At almost 700 entries and 13 years in, it can be hard to remember them all, much less pick a favorite. Yet, I tried this month to pick some of the ones that I feel turned out pretty well or that I particularly enjoyed doing. Browse through them as you wait out the winter (and for this song to get out of your head).

The order in which I list these does not imply that the first is my favorite, but I was pretty happy with the post that included the Landscape pyramid – a visual for considering the magnitude of different plant categories. There are a number of posts that feature an assist from my husband with a graphic design that helps to illustrate my point and this was probably the first one.

Cues of Care – this is a post inspired by an article that I read by a wonderful Georgia conservation champion and I wanted to amplify and preserve the concept.

Cottage Garden – I helped with a friend’s project and created suggestions for others that want this look.

The Pollinator Gardening series is a collection of 3: post one, post two (with downloadable plant charts), and post three). As you can imagine, I put a lot into this 3-part series.

I Can’t Believe It’s Not the Native – this post highlights confusing similar plants that are exotic, featuring another great graphic by James.

Plants for Native Bees (plus this one) features a chart by James that is a counter to a graphic circulating on social media about plants for bees (their chart had mostly non-native plants to support honey bees).

Native Fruits – for those looking to have native fruit-bearing plants (at 45K views, this is my most-viewed post of all time, in case you wondered) plus a follow up post in 2023.

Native Plants in Containers – I like to encourage people with small yards to use native plants in containers.

Easing Into Using Native Plants – I try to include plenty of beginner topics to make the concept less intimidating; this is a post with ideas for getting starting with native plants in the landscape.

And the seasonally appropriate Christmas in Dixie.

I'm sure I forgot some really great ones; I've enjoyed hearing from some of you over the years when a particular post really spoke to you. If I ever do a compilation in book form, it's going to be really hard to choose just a few.

There are definitely some categories of blog entries over the years. I have done many individual plant profiles (like my very first one about mapleleaf viburnum) but there are also some plant groups (like evergreens). I have also done categories like these listed below (these links go to search results, read more about searching this blog here):

Native plants and birds

Native plants and pollinators

Native plants and fall color

Native Shrubs

Georgia State Parks

Book reviews

Posts on identification like winter twigs and leaves and how vines work (just to name a few)

Special Plants, Special Places

Landscape Spotlight

Gift Ideas for Naturalists

Appreciating Native Plants on Roadsides

Failure to Thrive

As we approach winter – a time of cold, short days with dormant plants – this is certainly a gloomy topic. Still it is one that needs to be explored and understood, especially for those just starting to use native plants. Using native plants is not a panacea for the garden: they don’t magically thrive when we plop them into the ground.

I have learned from some of what has happened to me and share that in the hopes that you might have better expectations and ideas of how to get more success out of your efforts. 

In my experience there are 3 main categories of plant failure: critters, suboptimal growing conditions, and lack of follow up. To help mitigate the first two issues, monitoring your new plants can rectify some mistakes.

Critter Defense

Squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits, moles, voles, and deer don’t magically leave native plants alone. On the flip side of that statement, they also don’t automatically gravitate towards native plants either. Their behavior is strictly driven by how they live: looking for food, living their life, trying to get the fuzz off their new antlers … don’t take it personally. Your best defense is a good offense!

Strategies for protecting our plants include:

• Physical deterrents to tunneling critters like sharp rocks in the planting holes. I like to use an expanded slate product call Permatill. Place a handful (or more) at the base of each planting hole for perennials and bulbs to protect the roots. Other small rocks like pea gravel may also work. I lost six native lilies over the last two years because of voles.
• When planting perennials that might be disturbed by squirrels, I stick a utility flag through the rootball (careful if this is a bulb!) for a few weeks/months to help anchor the plant against light disturbance. Seeing the flag when I’m outside also helps remind me to check on it.
• Physical deterrents to browsing include fencing (the only reliable defense against antler rubs on small trees) and smelly sprays and granules. I use Liquid Fence, but there are many products out there.
• Fences and electric wire are more expensive options for deer (but do not protect against small critters).

 

You can buy blank flags in many colors to help mark plants

Smart Planting

Gardeners are obligated to do the work of determining where new plants should be placed. Mother Nature drops seeds and beguiles critters and birds into helping to disperse her bounty. If seeds end up in ideal conditions, they grow and thrive; if they land in poor conditions then they die. Gardeners take grown plants and place them into chosen spots. If we pick the wrong spot, our plants will not thrive. You must do your homework for native plants just as we would have done for any exotic plant.

•  Light and Moisture - I explain in detail how to evaluate the light and moisture in your yard in this post. Match the plant to your conditions. Consider moving plants when conditions change (a tree falls down and brings more sun or trees fill out and cause more shade).
• Regionally Appropriate - choose plants that you know are native to your area whether it is the Piedmont region or the Coastal Plain or the Mountain eco-systems. These plants evolved with the insects in your area and, in the case of butterflies in search of larval hosts, will likely support what’s flying around. For example, gardeners in the Piedmont aren’t expecting to have the deep south-based Palamedes swallowtail butterfly visit so would not plan to include red bay (Persea borbonia) as one of their host plants.

Monitoring New Plants

Gardeners are obligated to care for newly installed plants: water them, put them back after the squirrel dug them up looking for an acorn, and evaluate how they are growing. Here are some care tips:

• Follow up – plants grown in nursery conditions with perfect soil, plentiful water, and nutrients need help adapting to their new home whether they are native or not. Sticking them in the ground and thinking that they’ll instantly adapt because they are native may lead to failure. You should monitor any newly installed plants for a full year (more in the beginning, less towards the end); did you get the light and moisture right?
• Water them as needed in the absence of natural rain. If you have sprinklers, make sure they are in the spray zone.
• Address damage from critters or humans (did a delivery truck run over your new perennial bed?).
• Move them if appropriate.
• Replant them if they were dug up.
• Cage or spray them if they are being eaten. Cage them if there is antler damage on woody saplings; take heart, rubbing is not always a fatal injury.

Understand that growing takes time! This article talks about the sleep, creep, and leap phases of plant growth. While the article focuses on perennials, this absolutely applies to woody plants as well.