The Aptly Named Beautyberry

Posted on September 13, 2009 by Meredith

The American Beautyberry, Callicarpa americana, is truly a sight to behold in the fall. The strikingly vibrant magenta-colored berries stand out boldly against the light-green foliage of this open, airy shrub.

But aside from its beauty, what makes this shrub truly valuable is that it is a fall and winter food source for more than 40 different songbird species, as well as other birds. It also is enjoyed by mammalian wildlife, including the opossum and raccoon. Its deer resistance probably depends on your area and the harshness of seasonal weather. In some areas, deer leave the mature plants alone, but they’re happy to nibble on young shrubs and sometimes the berries. In general, though, it’s best to plant the shrub in a protected area if you are concerned about deer.

American Beautyberry is an excellent shrub for understory growth, and understory plants are a key part of successful wildlife habitats. They can provide food and/or places to hide, and despite its airy nature, the Beautyberry does both, particularly when several of the shrubs form a small colony.

In the summer, the shrub has delightful pale flowers. But it is the beautiful clusters of purple berries that really provide that wow factor come fall. There is also a white variety, but if choosing a color most attractive to birds, I’d stick with purple.

The deciduous shrub is typically 5-6 feet tall when mature, but I’ve seen some get more than 8 feet tall. It prefers partial sun/partial shade, but with extra water and attention, it can handle more sun, too. But as an understory plant, it is at its best.

American Beautyberry, according to wildflower.org, is native to all the states of the southern U.S., on up into Maryland, Missouri, and Oklahoma. It thrives in a variety of conditions of soil, water, and light conditions, and it is easily grown from seed as well. A worthy plant for your wildlife habitat!

Feeding the Hummingbirds

Posted on August 30, 2009 by Meredith

When I started my garden last year, I focused primarily on choosing native butterfly/caterpillar and hummingbird plants, and I kept telling my husband about how different our yard would look next year (which is now this year). But I knew that he wouldn’t really get into it until he saw his first hummingbird. For my husband, hummingbirds remind him of visiting his grandparents in Uvalde, and so the little birds are quite special to him. Now that our garden is growing and we get hummingbirds regularly, it’s fun to watch my husband get such enjoyment out of our garden.

We have many varieties of hummingbird plants now, but the plants are still more or less small, so the main visits are to the feeders, though I’ve seen visits to the Salvia and Flame Acanthus. We had just one feeder up for many months, and then a few days ago, I found a second hummingbird feeder in the back of our garage, and we set it out. I don’t know whether it was the combination of two feeders or the fact that migration is underway, but that very day we had five hummingbirds zooming around. We sat out on chairs and enjoyed trying to identify them. I couldn’t get pictures of them all at once — they were all flitting about trying to push the others away from feeders while trying to sneak in some sugar themselves.

Of the two feeders, I much prefer the UFO-shaped HummZinger feeder over the taller, more traditional feeder. There are a few reasons for this, but primarily the Hummzinger is much, much, much easier to clean, and it has a built in “moat” to keep the ants out. It’s all plastic, which is a bummer, but the design is sound and it feeds da birdies, so I forgive it. It helps keep the wasps out, too. It’s also more affordable than the blown-glass feeders, which my dogs would break anyway. It’s very noticeable how quickly the liquid goes down in the tall one, so I’m not sure if it means the tall one is the first choice for the hummingbirds. This is worth investigating!

We had to visit one of the big building stores yesterday for house repair stuff, and as I wandered through the garden center just to see what was there, I passed by a couple buying hummingbird feeders and food. I decided to offer them some friendly advice, that making your own sugar water is better than buying commercial syrup because red food coloring is reported to be dangerous for hummingbirds, plus making your own saves money. But this couple just looked at me quite annoyed, and the husband stated that hummingbirds won’t come to the feeders unless it has the red liquid, and I could tell by his tone that he considered me to be foolish and ignorant and that I needed to mind my own business. So I said very pleasantly that yes they do come to the feeders without red liquid, and I moved on, hoping that because the wife also said that they would, that maybe she’d actually someday stop buying the red liquid. But I’m not so sure the husband will. Tried to help. Denied. Move on. Clearly this guy is not a friendly garden blogger or garden blog reader!

But I thank him for the inspiration behind today’s post — tips for attracting hummingbirds to your yard, with details on feeders and making the syrup.

Do plant nectar-filled native plants (tubular ones are particularly attractive to the birdies). Here in Austin, some favorites are Turk’s Cap, Flame Acanthus, Red Yucca, Crossvine, Coral Honeysuckle, among others.
Set out hummingbird feeders as well (edit: unless you live in an area with bears — eep! thanks, RoseyPollen). Hummingbirds consume plant nectar and tiny insects for vitamins and protein, and they use a feeder’s sugar water to fuel their crazy energy needs. Hummingbird feeders with perches give tired birds a chance to rest a moment while they feed.

Make your own sugar syrup for the feeders. Don’t buy red commercial products. Use one part white cane sugar to 4 parts water. According to hummingbirds.net, you don’t have to boil the water first, but you do need to replace the feeder’s syrup every three days and replace stored, refrigerated syrup every two weeks. They also state that turbinado sugar and beet sugar are NOT good choices, so stick to the white cane sugar (I laugh because I’m trying to steer my family away from white sugar but I feed it to the birdies? ha). And absolutely NO honey or gelatin or food coloring. I mix:
1 cup white sugar
4 cups water
Clean the feeders regularly (give a good hot rinse each time you replace the syrup; every 3 or so weeks for a major cleaning), but NOT with bleach or soap or detergent or anything toxic. Some sites say to use bleach, but bleach is extremely bad for the environment and potentially reacts with the plastic as well, so I don’t use or recommend it. Vinegar is a great alternative to bleach, but no matter what you use, rinse extremely well.

Other than that, be patient. This time of year, many hummingbirds are in migration. Next month, my family is going to the Gulf of Mexico to hopefully see migrating hummingbirds en masse, so I hope I’ll get a few good pictures to share.

FYI, I looked into making my own hummingbird feeders with recycled bottles. But upon investigation, I learned that the long tubes used for the typical upside-down feeders, homemade or store-bought, tend to leak, causing all sorts of problems. I decided to save the money and avoided purchasing the tubes. I still hope to make my own someday, but I won’t be using an upside-down version.

Gardening Gods, Why Do you Forsake Me

Posted on July 24, 2009 by Meredith

Gardening is still such a mystery to me. What should work doesn’t, and what shouldn’t work does. I know there are all sorts of Murphy’s Laws when it comes to this crazy hobby. Here’s what I’ve discovered about the way gardening works. Gardening gods, why do you forsake me?!!

*Why is it that you promise yourself most determinedly that this time you will not buy any plants, and when you get to the nursery you realize that not just one, but two of your most coveted hard-to-find plants have just arrived off the truck? (here is more Dutchman’s Pipevine — the other, non-pictured is a native milkweed I rarely see)

*Why is it that you wait so long for the first monarch of the season, and when you finally see one you discover all your milkweed is covered in aphids?

*On the same note, why is it that ladybugs show up when there aren’t any aphids and leave before the ferocious onslaught of the little sap-suckers?

*Why is it that your darling dogs have an impelling need to lay on and compact any dirt you till, and another impelling need to dig up any freshly planted garden bed? (This photo, by the way, is of the naughty dog that keeps getting in the pond. She’s usually camera-shy. Don’t be fooled by her gorgeous fur. It hides an imp.)

*And why is it that your yard can have plenty of available (dog) fertilizer but you can’t use one bit of it to make compost?

*Why is it that the bag that spills in the car is not the bag of pine straw, and not even the pleasant smelling potting soil, but the compost made from cow manure?

*Why is that you set out birdfeeders for hummingbirds and cardinals and what you get instead are gluttonous, wasteful doves and predatory wasps? (Ok, really, I get them all.)

*Why is it that the pond you enjoy so much attracts, among other creatures, hornets and wasps that take a nice long, happy drink before going and killing your beloved caterpillars? (Sad note: the monarch caterpillar in the milkweed picture above, along with all its buddies, disappeared during the writing of this blog entry. Stupid, but necessary predators.)

*Why is that you attempt to sacrifice yourself to the gods for some rain by putting up a metal trellis while standing on a partially metal ladder with wire cutters and a hammer in your hand and thunder and lightning in the distance, and all you get is a few sprinkles, like a spit in the eye?

*Why is it that you don’t realize you have to stop at the grocery store on the way home until after you’ve covered yourself in stinky compost while bagging it at the nursery?

*Why is it that you buy a beautiful tree that you are determined to keep alive because it needs to shade the A/C unit and because it is replacing one that died, and it dies while the one that the dogs dug up multiple times over the winter is the one that is thriving? (Actually, three trees the dogs mostly destroyed came back and are doing well.)

*Why is it that the young trees you rarely water (including two you forgot about for weeks in your garage after the last frost) survive, but the ones you faithfully water on a recommended schedule die?

*Why is it that the plants you still haven’t managed to put mulch around are doing better than the ones you surrounded with three inches of mulch?

*Why is it that the most amazing, beautiful sights in your garden happen when your camera is nowhere near?

*Why is it that a random new seedling grows in your yard and you have to wait until it gets big to find out what it is, or whether it is friend (keeper) or foe (weed or invasive)? This one looks like a friend, I hope, but I don’t know what it is yet.

*Why is it that your son doesn’t want to work outside when it’s hot, but then when it’s cool and overcast, he still doesn’t want to work? Oh wait, I know that one.

*(from the son) Why is it that your mom always makes you work, but barely ever lets you goof around? Oh wait, I know that one. (from the Mom: clearly I just let him goof around)

*Why is it that your beautiful plants take so long to grow, but your weeds grow like… well, weeds?

*(from the other son) Why is it that every time you want to plant something, your mom doesn’t have a plant to plant? But when you don’t want to plant something, she has lots and lots.

*Why is it that you lovingly make several cost-effective environmentally-friendly thistle socks for the birdies, and the finches tear such big holes in them until the socks won’t hold any more seed, making you want to reconsider plastic? (technically these two are the brand-name socks — I’d already removed the destroyed homemade ones… I guess I better get busy making more)

*Why is it that you work so hard to create a great garden for your new veggies and then realize that you managed to let some of your herbs die in the process?

*Why is it that you can spend so much time making your outside yard beautiful and neglect your poor house plants?

*(from the husband) Why is it that dinner isn’t ready yet? Oh wait, I know that one.

Got any to add? Please share them! I have a feeling this is a non-ending list!

Author’s edit on 7/26/09: How could I forget this major one: Why is it that I finally start gardening, and Texas finds itself in the middle of perhaps its worst drought ever, with drastically reduced water availability and temperatures over 100 degrees all summer long?

Ibis Blooms and Pond Fish to Avoid

Posted on July 2, 2009 by Meredith

Here’s a lovely tree I bet everyone will want to have. Just look at the size of these beautiful red blooms!

Allright, allright, they are scarlet ibis nesting in a tree in the San Antonio Zoo. Yesterday I herded my own little pack of wild animals among exotic plants and creatures from all over the world. I had great intentions to go from the zoo over to the San Antonio Botanical Gardens, but somehow the day slipped by and we were still at the zoo. By the time I realized that I wasn’t going to make it over to the gardens, I’d wished I’d taken more pictures of the beautiful plants that graced the zoo. Still, I did manage to get a few.

Like this banana plant. I hope they treat the apes and monkeys to these yummy treats when they are ripe enough!

This bamboo was gigantic enough to unfortunately invite some graffiti from zoo visitors. While I hate to see such careless destruction on the part of passersby, I found the bamboo an interesting setting for urban art and lettering.

I did find that the zoo was pretty good about labeling the various Texas native plants around the park, but the exotics weren’t so well labeled, at least not the ones I was particularly interested in, of course. Oh, I really liked this plant, whatever its name might be.

This is a very vibrant shrimp plant — I’m not sure of the variety. My young (and red) shrimp plants still aren’t blooming. I hope that they’ll be busy bloomers in their second year, if not this year.

The lion’s tail, also called lion’s mane, is very striking. This was the first time I’d seen one in person.

The zoo has opened a butterfly center, which was delightful. Many different species of butterflies fluttered all around us, enjoying nectar and orange slices. The monarchs were quite willing to pose.

It was a zoo trip, so I can’t resist throwing in a couple of other animal pictures. Apparently I developed a rapport with some of the park residents. Like this komodo.

Lorikeets are great pollinators in their native region.

I really don’t know why the piranha kept looking at me like this. It was quite… unnerving. I can definitely say that I’m glad they aren’t in my pond!

On a similar note, back on the home front, I’m also glad that I chose NOT to put a killifish in my pond. I came home to discover that the killifish we had is the culprit behind my disappearing fish in my indoor aquarium — I found this out because it had my last neon tetra sticking out of his mouth (after it apparently devoured all the rest). Needless to say, he’s off to a new home with bigger bullies than he is, and the rest of my fish can be at peace. I had planned to add a local variety of killifish to my pond. HA! No more. I didn’t bother to take a picture of the killifish before I grabbed that net and got him out of there! Sorry! Look it up — and then don’t buy one!

On the plus side, we did get a bit of rain here in Austin. I did a little happy dance.

And I found a surprise little bloom in my pond. I really need to learn the name of this plant sometime. Now that it’s blooming, it doesn’t look like the plant(s) I thought it might be. Ah well, the bloom will be the identifier when I next visit the pond center. It’s a Pickerel Weed — thanks, Bob!

Bee happy! It’s Pollinators Week! June 22-28, 2009

Posted on June 22, 2009 by Meredith

What’s all the buzz about? It’s National Pollinator Week here in the United States. It’s a time to spread the word about the desperate plight of our flower-visiting, pollen-spreading friends. Because of pollinators’ declining populations, many farms and flowers are already in trouble! Missing native plants, too many pesticides, and diseases have all contributed to drastically reduced numbers of bees, butterflies, and other pollinators.

That’s a queen butterfly on Gregg’s mistflower (Conoclinium greggii) — the butterflies, especially queens and monarchs, go crazy for Gregg’s mistflower. I had hoped to get some pictures of bees visiting my flowers, but they were camera-shy (there were some yellow-jackets, though, but they were a little TOO friendly, if you know what I mean). At least my trusty butterfly and hummingbird friends came out for pictures. Ignore the lawnmower cord and ugly ground in the background.

How can you help? If you have a garden, especially an organic one, you are probably already doing tons to help the populations of bees and other pollinators. But Pollinators Week for me is an excuse to go out and buy a native plant just for the sake of the wildlife, so as soon as I finish this blog entry, the boys and I are going to Natural Gardener to pick out something new. And we are determined not to let it die in the hot Texas sun (maybe a shade plant, lol). Not sure what to get? Enter in your zip code for an eco-regional planting guide on what plants are helpful in your region.

A kidneywood — bees love this plant! Well, they will, once it’s big and blooming (it’s a tiny little thing right now). Whenever I pass a larger kidneywood, bees are swarming all over it. I can’t wait!

Plant something new in your garden that is a bee favorite. Go native — invasive plants contribute to the plight of beneficial insect and bird populations. Plant larval food for the caterpillars and rejoice when you see your plant get eaten by little happy caterpillars. Build a little habitat that might be a perfect home for a hive. Make a mud puddle for bees and butterflies to drink from. Do you have fruit bats in your area? Build a bat house for them!

Make a commitment to avoid pesticides and chemical fertilizers. This is HUGE. Even organic pest controls can affect the population of good insects — so research before you buy and/or use any kind of product or method! And educate your friends and neighbors about the plight of bees and the dangers of pesticides and chemical fertilizers!

In this picture, there’s milkweed, flame acanthus, blackfoot daisies, and pentas, all together.

This is one of my favorite butterflies — the Gulf Fritillary. It has a stunning orange wingspread, but underneath it’s orange, silver, and black. I’m not sure which side I like best, which is why I like it so much.

Ah, here’s one of my absolute favorites of the Texas natives, the wafer ash, or hop tree (Ptelea trifoliata). It can be hard to find in a nursery, but it’s easy to grow from seed, and they’re all over. Our dogs ate the top off our first one, and it amazingly grew back, the determined little thing. The wafer ash is a host plant of the giant swallowtail and tiger swallowtail. It’s part of the citrus family, and it’s one time that leaves of three (trifoliata) are a good thing. They have nothing to do with poison ivy, by the way, so get that out of your mind!

Swallowtails enjoy other citrus — we have a mandarin orange, lemon, and two lime trees growing. No fruit yet! But I’m hopeful that as long as I don’t kill them, I’ll have fruit someday. Look, here’s a little fly sort of a thing on my lime tree. Flies are great pollinators!

Here’s a yellow jacket on the baby Goldenball Leadtree (Leucaena retusa). Yellow jackets are minor pollinators as well as predatory wasps. I’m happy to have them around my garden, just not building hives under my eaves right where I’m building a new bed! The yellow jackets and I are currently having a discussion about where it’s ok to build a hive and where it isn’t. I haven’t killed one, but I do remove their little hives in an effort to get them to move elsewhere. Oh, and the dogs also ate the goldenball leadtree over the winter, too. It grew back. Yay for native plants.

This one is almost native — it’s a Mexican Anacacho Orchid. We planted it a little too deep, I think — it lives, but I feel it’s struggling a bit. I hope to get a true native Anacacho Orchid in the fall. They are gorgeous when blooming.

Bees even like catmint! Catmint’s not just for cats anymore!

And who could forget the all-time bee favorite, the sunflower. Here’s mine:

My last batch of seeds I lightly spread into the ground where I wanted them to grow. They didn’t. So now I’m trying to grow sunflowers in little planters, and hopefully they’ll grow into seedlings. I love sunflowers. My husband said he always thought of them as a weed, not as a pretty flower (gasp!). When he sees them in the back of the yard with the prickly pear and the white TX honeysuckle and the goldenball leadtree, he’ll come around. I know he will.

So in honor of Pollinators Week, bee happy and make a bee happy. And then those vegetables and fruits and pretty flowers and trees you love will be around for you — and your grandkids– to enjoy.

Bird Socks and a Garden Mom’s Pride

Posted on June 16, 2009 by Meredith

Put me in nature, and I’m happy. That’s how I’ve been all my life, and though my moods might change, the nature lover in me never will. I’m an animal lover, too, and if any of these two parts of me rub off on my family, then I feel I’ve done right by them. Goodness knows enough bad parts of me have probably been shared with them already!

It has often been difficult, however, to pry my husband and children away from computers and other monitors. Oh, I insist on sports and cycling and hiking with the dogs, but it’s not hard to figure out what they’d prefer if given the choice. That’s pretty much why I don’t ever give them a choice when it comes to my planning for us to be outside, be it for enjoyment or working in the yard. Sometimes I get a grumpy, groaned response when I announce it’s time to take the dogs to the creek, but a good mom knows when to ignore this or put her foot down. The hardest part is getting the family out of the door – once you get them away from the house, they have a good time, unless you accidentally forget to tell them that they’re not allowed to bring their Nintendos in the car. It’s all over if a nearby game beckons them.

My kids have been involved in our new garden since I began it in the fall. Amazingly, they’ve been fairly willing to help at least a few minutes each day, and they delight as I do when birds and dragonflies and butterflies and other creatures come visit our blooming flowers and pond. But last weekend the effect I’ve had on my kids became truly apparent. My oldest son had friends come over for a birthday party, and when they arrived, he didn’t pull out the video games or Nerf guns. He took them outside to see our pond, and when they finished looking at that, he and his brother showed them the butterfly garden and thistle socks and birdfeeders. I didn’t get to hear the conversation, but I watched through the window as they pointed to different places in our yard and played tour guide. My heart swelled, and I’m still smiling.

And I also get to smile about our thistle sock experiment. We have a winner! The finches have found the thistle socks, and the clear favorite is the kitchen lace, which I kind of hoped for because it looks the prettiest in the tree. I guess I’m a girl after all – sometimes I forget that in a house of boys. Surprisingly, the next choice of the finches, based on missing thistle, is the jersey sock. The green netting has some holes poke into it, but it doesn’t look like they’ve touched the brand sock or the pantyhose (though there is a run in the pantyhose, so one must have landed on it). I’m also glad the finches chose the kitchen lace sock, because it’s the one my youngest son stitched by hand, his first attempt at sewing anything with a needle.

So I think I’ll make a few more lace socks, and then rotate them as I refill thistle. The lace socks aren’t exceptionally durable, however – the finches are a little rough in their endeavor to get to the thistle, but I can make a bunch for cheap, and I think they’ll last a pretty long time anyway.

The activity at the other feeders is busy nonstop. The hummingbirds are starting to fight over their feeder (and I’ve gotten to see them visit the flame acanthus and salvia). And it’s a nonstop parade of creatures at the other feeder. Cardinals, finches, blue jays, doves, squirrels, and titmice all for the most part are playing nice and taking turns (well, not so much the blue jays — they are the classic bullies). But we’re entertained, and so are the cats and dogs inside.