Whipper Snipper: Anonymous Attack!

So, for a few years I've been saying (lamenting) that the person who invented the whipper-snipper should be taken out each week and whipper-snipped around the ankles.  Oops, did that sound harsh?  If you don't mind a little rant, read on...

     The Honeylocust (Gleditsia triacanthos) above, and below, I bought and planted several years ago.  Discovered this week it had been "kindly" mowed and trimmed around, by whoever was doing the mowing for the neighbour at the cottage next door.  How kind (grumble, grumble).

Then I found that most every little tree and shrub that borders the next property was also harshly treated.  And I have quite a few young specimens along the property line. 

  Now, I must say, the owners of the neighbouring cottage next door are wonderful, cooperative, and accommodating.  I like them a lot; I like what they do.   It's just that whatever team of young ones doing the mowing and trimming got quite a bit too ambitious.  I wish they would not be so generous to mow into my lawn.  

  Above and below are photos of a thriving little Amur Cork Tree (Phellodendron amurense).  About four years ago, when it was quite tiny, it had the bark whipped off at the base, and finally now the bark has sealed over the holes and healed.  

    Well, it's back to square one.  

 On the happier side (gotta inject some sunshine into this lament), I found a nest in this little tree, with what looks to be thee hatchlings and two eggs.  Did not linger long enough to discover what kind of bird.  

Nearby, admittedly in some tall, weedy grass, a little Bristly Acacia (Robinia hispida) was trimmed down to a bare, black twig.  It was, so I hoped, protected with a wire tomato cage, but the anonymous snipper was thorough.

In another locale on my property, far from the wandering whipper-snipper, is a mature locust shrub, coming into bloom for the second time this season.  It's a great little thing, found 'wild' in Nova Scotia on an old dump site in Wolfville.  (That's where I collected this, a decade ago.)

Well, the litany of scarring becomes a stanza of decapitation.  Below you see what remains of a Hydrangea 'Blue Billow.'  One branch with leaves, the rest - gone.  Sigh....

Amid some tall grass I have some things planted in a temporary spot, including this Clematis recta 'purpurea.'  The second photo shows the work of the avid mower of lawns, except that 60% of this plant was not cut off.

I have been nursing a yellow-flowered currant (Ribes aureum) to health, even propping it up (and thinking I was well protecting it) with a tomato cage and a small stake.  Note how the neighbours employee kindly skinned the bark off this little shrub.  

Should I go on much longer?  The local weed-whacker did! Here is my cliché shrub, Dappled Willow (Salix integra 'Hakuro Nishiki).  Planted everywhere, yet I could not resist getting one.  Not too much damage here.  

The final victims were several Burning Bushes (Euonymus alatus).  These came as seedlings some years ago from a gardening friend in Parrsboro.  Now in their permanent locations, I've been hoping they would get healthy and fill out, branching up from the base.  And they started to do that very thing, last year.  

 Well, they just got a trim.  See the nice, green-barked twigs, now short and de-leafed?

Not to mention the bark.  

     OK, I've ranted, I've shared my pain; I think I got this out of my system. :-) I've got to end on a happy note.  So I'm changing the subject completely.  Here, simply, is a shot of the Cup Plants (Silphium perfoliatum), in the prime of their first blooming season.

If you suffer the unintentional destruction of some of your garden specimens, I hope it's not the end of the world for you.  Carry on.  Most plants have such will to live; most will survive to thrive another day.   I reigned myself years ago to the fact that there will always be some casualties due to human error.  Hey, I even mowed over one of my small tree seedlings myself, this spring, a Tree Heaven (Ailanthus altissima).  It has grown back with a vengeance.  

    But... don't forget risk management, and send those local whipper-snippers to the dump!

Wildflower Wednesday: Pink, Pink, Pink, Yellow

At first glance this could be a geranium, but no... see the four petals, instead of five?  This is an Epilobium I see in the occasional ditch here in Nova Scotia.  E. hirsutum, Great Willowherb.  There is a healthy patch of it near my home, across from a farmer's market.  

Less showy, prominent, or common than Fireweed, E. angustifolium, Great Willoherb is still a good six or seven feet tall, alongside the cattails. (Well, I guess Fireweed is now Chamerion angustifolium... the nomenclature is always changing!)

It grows long, narrow seedpods, typical of its genus, that will open to shed their fluffy, flying seeds.  

   A bit closer to home, along our long driveway, a patch of Crown Vetch comes up each year.  I guess Coronilla varia (or Securigera varia) has been planted around the province, and gone a bit wild in places.  Does not seem to be spreading.  I've always been charmed by it and thought it a nice surprise to find.  

(Pay no attention to the Goutweed that the Vetch is clambering over!)

     When I wander into the adjacent, abandoned field, big clumps of Joe Pye Weed can be found.  I knew Eupatorium purpureum (or Eutrochium purpureum) as a wetland wildflower long before I saw varieties in people's gardens.  

 On sunny days I've seen it teeming with small, orange butterflies.  This dark, damp evening, only a few aphids and ants were enjoying this clump!

I always see it in the wild doing better than the bits in my garden.  The aphids seem to win on my property.  These wild clumps, with their roots in wetter places, fare very well.  

And, tramping back to the driveway, I find a new plant to me this summer.  At first glance, the blossoms fool one into thinking it's just the oh-so-common Bird's Foot Trefoil.

But this is growing like a vetch or other "pea," with tendrils at the ends of the leaves, with only two leaflets.  It's quite thick, matted, and luxurious in this abandoned field.  

This is Meadow Vetchling, Lathyrus pratensis, one more of the many, many introductions to North America of the Pea family, Fabaceae.

Check out Clay and Limestone for more links to Wildflower Wednesday in the gardening blogosphere.

Belated Bloom Day July '13

Left my camera home when I was at the Cottage yesterday, so I'm catching up today.  I have not yet visited Carol's May Dreams Gardens to connect with many other Garden Blogger Bloom Day posts.  Check it out on the 15th of each month.

  The hot, muggy weather here is fine with most plants... roses and day lilies are thriving.  Lot's of things putting on a show.

 I'm so glad last year's seedlings of cup plant (Silphium perfoliatum) are doing so well.  The plants are certainly robust, and just starting to bloom this past weeekend.  I will need to move them before next year.

The blooms of agave-leaved sea holly (Eryngium agavifolium) are subtle, but the structure of the whole plant is spectacular.  Growing perennials from seed is encouraging when a neat-o plant like this arises!

     A weed I collected this spring that is not too common in the province is viper's bugloss (Echium vulgare); it's great to get another true blue flower.  No offence intended toward good ole Clematis 'Jackmanii'.

 

I will say the day lily season is starting with a bang.

 

The bleeding heart, below, should bloom for quite a while.  Collected from my parent's home, it likely was planted years before by my paternal grandmother.  I like to think so, anyway.

I love the late-blooming azaleas, so I bought this reddish one just the other day.  Has a nice fragrance too.  I think it is named "Millennium."

     And the roses keep blooming... This is a moss rose I collected in a nearby ditch a decade ago.

 These final shots - for those who are curious - are of dyer's greenwood (Genista tinctoria).  A couple seedlings were kindly given to me by some friends here in Hants County.  First saw this plant blooming in Cape Breton, where it is wildly prolific in one North Sydney neighbourhood.

Good luck gardening AND blogging.  I can't seem to catch up with either... but am having fun trying!