Photo of the Week: Arisaema triphyllum

The stripes on the unfurling jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum) grabbed my attention. Even though I've seen Arisaema thousands of times, this was the first time I really paid attention to the stripes. Somehow, the garden is always new, if only we open our eyes to see it.

Mmmm...Magnolia

How I love my Magnolia stellata* in the spring, there's nothing else quite like it. Big, multi-petalled fragrant blooms, white with pink at the base create an extravagant display... except when they don't. For the past two years I've been limited to posting images such as this:

a closeup of a single bloom because of the pitiful lack of blooms. The tree was suffering from a magnolia scale attack. I had feared the decline meant the beginning of the end for the tree. It required professional help to get it back in health.

 I'm happy to report that the tree appears to have made a full recovery. It must be at least 30 years old, and hopefully will bloom for many more springs.

*I'm not certain of the identity of this tree, but it appears to be of the stellata family. It could be Magnolia x loebneri 'Ballerina'.

What Wildflowers Want

Hepatica nobilis var. acuta

It sounds like a no-brainer, grow wildflowers, all you have to do is plant them and stand back. If only it were that easy. But just because a plant is indigenous to your area doesn't mean it will thrive in your garden. It's more than a matter of climate; wildflowers need specific growing conditions. Only if your garden can duplicate those conditions will wildflowers thrive.
Take for example the above-pictured sharp-leaved hepatica (Hepatica nobilis var. acuta). Hepatica thrives in my garden, but just a short ways away, it fails in the garden of Barbara Wetzel. It's not that I'm talented or a better gardener, actually converse is true. The reason has nothing to do with me and everything to do with my garden. For whatever reason (I suspect it's that my soil is more alkaline), the conditions that Hepatica need are found in my garden and not hers.
The odd thing is that sometimes, a wildflower will begin to decline, despite having performed well for many years. This is what has happened to Dutchman's breeches (Dicentra cucullaria) in my garden. I had it planted near the base of a tree, where it reliably bloomed every spring. Three years ago, there were no blooms, the buds had dried up. Again the next year, total failure, so I divided the plant and distributed around the shade garden.

Finally, one of the new clumps has produced buds this year. It's in a sunnier position than the mother plant. Could it be that the mother plant is no longer getting as much sunlight as it needs to form buds?
The lesson here is if a wildflower fails to thrive, try it again in a different location in the garden with different conditions. That might make all the difference.

This post is part of Wildflower Wednesday hosted by Gail of Clay and Limestone.

Surprising Paperwhite Science Experiment Results

Well, the results are in (actually they've been in for awhile), and I must say both the boy and I were pleasantly surprised. From the beginning to the end, the results have been dramatic.

As can be seen from this photo, the blue food color stunted the growth of the paperwhites. The difference was a statistically significant 6 cm on average reduction in height between the blue group (on the right) and the control group (on the left). Oddly, the yellow group (in the middle) showed no statistical difference in growth.
The upshot is this: if you want to stunt the growth of paperwhites growing in water so they don't flop over, it's worth giving blue food color a try added to the water. Even if you can't duplicate these results, the paperwhites and their containers will look pretty with vivid blue water.