Huckleberry is blooming

[Tom]

 


Spring is upon us.  The temperature is rising to the 70's, intermittant rains dampen the ground, and the trees are bursting in blossoms.  This is the huckleberry beside the house, where we park the car.  It won't be long and I'll be snacking on big blue berries. 



The Bradford pear is white with bloom too. I hope the fruit takes and I can keep the squirrels off of them until they are ripe enough to pick in August.






Azalias are beginning to bloom but I have other colors that haven't shown their heads yet.



And the little Laurel Oak in the front yard is densly covered in catkins.  The worm-like male flower composed of little bracts, calyx's and stamens full of enough pollen that everything, including the car windshields, is covered with the yellow stuff.

Achoo!  'Scuze me.  My eyes have been burning, my nose running and I've been sneezing for three days now.  I'm not as bad off as some folks who are really laden with allergies, but it didn't make me happy to step into an ant bed when I took the pictures of the azalias.  The dang things covered my right foot in an instant and I chased some as high as my knee.  While I was putting the pictures on the gallery, I felt something crawling on my forearm.  It was an ant.  They sure have my foot burning.  :D

[SwampDonkey]

Tom, are your huckleberries tart like cranberries or sweet like blueberries? ;D

Nice azalias, we have a similar plant here, rhodora has pink blooms to. Grows near bogs and swamp.


Anyone got an ID on a 4 foot tall shrub with a stout stem and leaves in a helical whorl at the top? I seem to recall a big bud. This is a shrub near wetlands. Leaves are entire if I recall. I can't find it in the books. It was on the edge of a thinning site we cut. It was growing in the poplar. This site went from a  band of poplar next to cleared field, followed by a band of softwood down slope and then hardwood at the bottom (maple). Some butternut seedlings, ironwood and ash mixed in. Big drop of 30 feet into a wetland after that. Weird how the land was that way, but I think it was because of glaciers as their are gravel ridges all over that spot. A large esker goes by there for miles, but there are some short sharp-hilled (steep) gravel knolls. Some rare NB plants have been found in the area. Most of the good land is field because it's great soil in that area.

[Tom]

Tom, are your huckleberries tart like cranberries or sweet like blueberries?

It's just another blue berry, Swamp Donkey.  It's not as intense a flavor as high bush, nor does it have that white, dusty coating on it, but it is a larger, sweet blue berry just the same.   This particular one was identified over 20 years ago and left to its own devices, eeking out its living next to a little liveoak that grows by the driveway.  Full sun would probably cause it to bear better, but I enjoy the snacks anyway.  Unfortunately, I've had family members who preferred the mowed grass lawn and English Garden look of purchased plants in geometric designs and the few natural ones around the house were saved at dire risk of bodily harm.  They deserve a place in the world now whether genetic manipulation has created a "better" plant or not. 

[SwampDonkey]

I planted 3 striped maple "moose wood" in the back yard to eventually form a clump. I like the striped bark, big leaves and the lime green seeds. Quite showy when you come across a grove of them in the woods. Kind of like a bamboo forest. :D