Latest Mother Nature's Garden

plants resupinate

Lifestyles

Mother Nature’s Garden: Do your plants resupinate?

Plants do amazing things. Vines can twine in either counterclockwise or clockwise directions. Our native wisteria twines counterclockwise, ...

ferns

Lifestyles

Ferns: Old friends and new ones

I went to art class last week obsessing about woodcocks and how to draw their intricately mottled feathers. ...

Praying to the plants

Lifestyles

Mother Nature’s Garden: Praying to the plants

Every spring I make the rounds of local state parks so that I can photograph both ephemerals and ...

mother nature's garden

Lifestyles

Mother Nature’s Garden: Identifying and documenting plants

One of the joys of living in the country is roaming about looking for interesting plants and then ...

Mother Nature's Garden

Lifestyles

Mother Nature’s Garden: February is an in-between month

February is an in-between month for wildflower enthusiasts. It’s still winter, but there are glimmerings of life in ...

Mother Nature's Garden

Lifestyles

Mother Nature’s Column: Stillness and quiet

For my family, the period from Halloween until the end of the year can be a wild, crazy, ...

importance of trees

Lifestyles

Mother Nature’s Garden: The importance of trees

When we moved into our current home 35 years ago, our street was lined with dogwoods, and nearly ...

Hardy Citrus

Lifestyles

Mother Nature’s Garden: The Hardy Citrus

Several times this past summer, strangers stopped me to ask about an odd plant they’d seen off Milnwood ...

chinese yam

Lifestyles

Mother Nature’s Garden: The Chinese Yam: Friend or Foe?

There are two kinds of alleys in my hometown: The neat, tidy ones with pavement and carefully trimmed ...

Honeyvine

Lifestyles

Mother Nature’s Garden: Honeyvine: Friend or Foe

Several days ago, I took a very early morning walk through my neighborhood because I was hoping to ...

Mother Nature's Garden

Lifestyles

Mother Nature’s Garden: Who was Bouncing Bet

Who was Bouncing Bet and what was she doing? And how did black-eyed Susan get her name? The ...

wildflowers

Lifestyles

Mother Nature’s Garden: Talking about some ‘unloved’ wildflowers

Every year people get super excited when the first Virginia bluebells appear. And when the pink lady’s slippers ...

cream violet

Lifestyles

Mother Nature’s Garden: Let’s talk about serendipity & cream violet

There’s a certain amount of serendipity involved in taking people to see wildflowers. You just never know whether ...

Mother Nature's Garden

Lifestyles

Mother Nature’s Garden: The amazing things that plants do

While plants don’t move around like animals, that doesn’t mean they’re incapable of reacting to their environment. For ...

Mother Nature's Garden

Lifestyles

Mother’s Nature Garden: In search of Twinleaf

The earliest spring ephemerals have finished blooming, but there’s still time to see twinleaf (Jeffersonia diphylla.) Several years ...

Skunk Cabbages

Lifestyles

Mother Nature’s Garden: The Skunk Cabbages are back

“If you are afflicted with melancholy at this season, go to the swamp and see the brave spear ...

plant native

Lifestyles

Mother Nature’s Garden: What makes a plant native?

“Ditch lilies are native. I know they are; I saw it on the internet!” “Dandelions must be native. ...

Mother Nature's Garden

Lifestyles

Mother Nature’s Garden: A much needed hike and old friends

It’s Boxing Day, and life has mostly returned to normal here at Mother Nature’s Garden. The dogs are ...

Lifestyles

Mother Nature’s Garden — Japanese Knotweed: A seriously tough plant

Since the late 15th century, we humans have moved around 13,000 species of plants from their native habitats ...

Lifestyles

Mother Natures Garden — Goldenrods: Tenacious and beautiful

“You can see the goldenrod, that most tenacious and pernicious and beauteous of all New England flora, bowing ...

Lifestyles

Mother Natures Garden — Turtleheads: Flowers with an interesting shape

Even though the days are still warm, there’s a chill in the early morning and late afternoon air. ...

Lifestyles

Pickleweed: A great natural condiment

Way back pre-pandemic, when travel was easy, I spent some time in Cornwall with friends. It was a ...

Lifestyles

Common grass pink: An interesting native orchid

We tend to think of orchids as fragile, delicate plants requiring pampering, but they are extremely resilient and ...

Lifestyles

Mother Nature’s Garden — Magnolias bloom offering fragrant pleasure

It’s magnolia time! The sweetbay magnolias have finished blooming in the wet lowlands along the High Bridge Trail, ...

Lifestyles

Mother Natures Garden — Hexastylis: A plant with a steep learning curve

For years I’ve found heartleaf (Hexastylis spp.) all over Cumberland, Appomattox, Powhatan, and Prince Edward Counties. There are ...

Lifestyles

Fireworks in the woods

One of my favorite spring ephemerals, the eastern shooting star (Primula meadia), has a variety of common names ...

Lifestyles

Wildflower Symposium celebrates spring

Spring is definitely here. The days are longer, the temperatures are warmer, and there are blooms appearing everywhere. ...

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