My Bit of Heaven - by Kristl Walek

[Ragged Robin]

Living here in the Alps the wild meadows are fabulous and full of wonderful native flowers that attract an enormous range of insects, many I have never seen before, these flowers adorn our front slope until now and I still get odd looks from neighbours who think I'm letting weeds grow..... I wouldn't be without them!

Have just spent some time thinking about what you describe and it is interesting what a weed is perceived to be - had no idea that the Princess Tree was so invasive in Maryland and a threat to native species and yet is still so prized in China.....in my dictionary a weed is described as a plant that threatens cultivated species!  I suppose this is how most think of weeds as being a nuisance in a garden setting - or on a farm, somewhere cultivated anyway.  The Butterfly weed is saved from ignominy by being noninvasive!

[Kristl Walek]

Arisaema dracontium harvest....

[Stephenb]

I've just come across your pictures of Peggy's Cove, Kristl! This was a big surprise and brought back some good memories as I was there in 1981. I had just moved to my first job in Norway and was sent to a conference in Halifax. To save money so that I could afford to see around a bit, I stayed in the campsite and planned to hire a bike. The bike shop didn't have a bike available, but after a chat suggested that I contacted some people local to the camp site who might be able to help. I think they felt pity on this young guy who could only afford a campsite. They invited me in for dinner, drove me to the conference every day and then on a free day drove me around the island first to their vegetable garden (our common interest) on the other side of the island and we ended up at Peggy's Cove and walked in the area some of your pictures are from, ending the day with a Lobster Dinner in Peggy's Cove - I even think I can see the building on Google Earth where we ate! I'd never had lobster before and haven't since either, apart from the next day when the conference dinner was also lobster (twice in two days). I rememer that we also picked Saskatoons in my friend's garden (must have been early autumn), an event that sparked a lifelong interest in unusual fruit. Thanks again for the memory - interesting so many years on to be told what plants I failed to identify that day 

[Kristl Walek]

Stephen,
That is a great story, and makes this beautiful area even more vivid for me now---I can't wait until next season to collect/taste the Saskatoons myself; in much greater abundance here than in Ontario---although I have heard that the berries of Amelanchier canadensis are not as tasty here as in the Canadian prairies, where there is so much more sun and heat to sweeten them.

[Kristl Walek]

I have been slowly working my way through the thousands of Ontario native plant pictures that Graham left with me during his visit. While there are hundreds of really suberb shots, this Monotropa uniflora really impressed me--as one rarely sees clumps this large; I have never seen one, in fact, with this many flowers.

[ranunculus]

Magnificent, Kristl.

[Ragged Robin]

What an incredible plant, almost translucent - are the stems as fragile as they look Kristi?

[Kristl Walek]

A lot of people when first seeing the parasitic, chlorophyll-less Monotropa (Indian Pipe, Ghost Plant) think it is a fungi---and I suppose that is the best way to answer your question---the stems snap like a mushroom if broken---and the stems themselves have that same substance-less quality.

[Lori S.]

 

I can't wait until next season to collect/taste the Saskatoons myself; in much greater abundance here than in Ontario---although I have heard that the berries of Amelanchier canadensis are not as tasty here as in the Canadian prairies, where there is so much more sun and heat to sweeten them.

Kristl, the Saskatoon berries we have on the prairies are Amelanchier alnifolia, so perhaps that accounts for some of the difference in flavour?  Unfortunately, I've never tasted the berries of A. canadensis, so I have no basis for comparison. 

P. S. I sent your seeds yesterday... should be there in a few days.

[Kristl Walek]

I can't wait until next season to collect/taste the Saskatoons myself; in much greater abundance here than in Ontario---although I have heard that the berries of Amelanchier canadensis are not as tasty here as in the Canadian prairies, where there is so much more sun and heat to sweeten them.

Kristl, the Saskatoon berries we have on the prairies are Amelanchier alnifolia, so perhaps that accounts for some of the difference in flavour?  Unfortunately, I've never tasted the berries of A. canadensis, so I have no basis for comparison. 

P. S. I sent your seeds yesterday... should be there in a few days.

Ah, quite right, Lori. Thanks for the correction. Locally here it is primarily A. laevis and candensis ---although I recall on a previous trip to the maritimes, collecting what I later believed to be A. fernaldii in Cape Breton---and these were amazingly sweet and delicious.

[Stephenb]

I presume that the plant in my friend's garden was one of the large-berried alnifolia cultivars such as Smoky (wish I'd asked at the time). I have another cultivar "Thiessen" in my garden.

...and yes, a fantastic picture of the Monotropa. I've found M. hypopitys a couple of times here.

[cohan]

i'm indulging in a second cup of coffee before i get outside to enjoy the sun and get some work done!
so i thought i'd do some catching up on this always engaging thread--Happy Belated! kristl
i'm looking forward to seeing the rest of your week touring, saw polly's cove already--i envy you those wonderful rocky places! add the ocean, and the magic doesnt need to be imagined!

[Kristl Walek]

Much of eastern Canada has had a very wet year, and this area of Nova Scotia has been no exception. So I have had no opportunity yet to experience the long, warm, glorious falls that are normally experienced here. Frost came even earlier than in Ontario, and most days it is rainy, cloudy, cold---the kind of wet-cold that sinks into your bones. In fact I had waited for weeks for a small window of a few dryish days over +5C to finish the outside work, clean the piles of seeds in the barn (where there is no heat) and to collect some of the late-ripening species.

But when one of those dry days comes, it is often glorious- like yesterday, when I headed off early with a list of seed to find in the wild. This part of the Annapolis Valley does not have the reds in the landscape I saw on the Atlantic side some weeks ago. With Betula and Quercus predominating, the views were mostly yellow and orangey-copper, with the brilliant, glossy red of some of small Roses punctuated here and there.

En route down the Granville Road, I stopped for a visit with friends who were spending the day harvesting different sorts of riches in the wild for wreath-making. The brilliant green stems of Kerria were combined in one batch with the long branches of the alien Rosa multiflora, which is out of control in the landscape here. A good thing to do with it. My friends husband makes shoes for the theatre and the wreath making space is normally his workspace. The foot size forms hung from the ceiling next to the branches from nature.

[Kristl Walek]

The seed collecting was a bittersweet experience, although I do not regret having spent the whole of the day outdoors. My primary goal had been to collect Myrica pennsylvanica and Acer spicatum. It turned out that I was mostly too late for the Acer (I should have gone on a rainy day about a month ago). And after hours of walking to try to find one batch of berries on the Myrica, I gave up---and only learned later that these are a favorite bird treat (surprising to me, with their perfumed waxy coating)---and one only has about a 2-day window in the wild for collecting the ripe seed.

I did manage to collect Solidago sempervirens, S. bicolor, Aster umbellatus and Rosa virginiana; and in a spontaneous walk into some woods off the road, discovered huge drifts of Symplorcarpus albus, ready for picking.

Consulting the Flora after my return, I discovered that the Snowberry is actually not native here---and the batch I ran into is most likely Symphoricarpus albus var. laevigatus "a more erect, western form with the leaves smooth beneath." The flora also stated that "it is difficult to separate from the typical variety".

I also found Hamamelis virginiana in a wet area. These had mostly ejected their seeds, but there were still enough unopened for my needs.

Ilex verticillata is here in incredible abundance, and every wet area along the sides of the road were brilliant with the red berries that the birds had not yet claimed.

[Ragged Robin]

Kristi, what great autumn scenes and colours Hamamelis leaves are some of my favourites for changing colours and the Ilex berries are astonishingly red in that backdrop.  Seeing the wreath-making in progress is fascinating - would love to see some of the results and wonder if any of the local native species are used?