Qreen Anne's Lace

 

 

 

Daucus carota, Queen Anne's Lace, is the ancestor of our grocery store carrots. If you taste the root, you can taste the carrot-ness of it. But the foliage is poison, or so they say. It is sometimes classified as an invasive noxious weed as it is said to overcrowd pastures. What I say to that is if the pastures were properly mowed, it would not become a problem in the first place, but I am not here to discuss pasture management.The seeds of Queen Anne's Lace have been used as a contraceptive for over 2000 years. It is a food stuff for swallowtail larvae, attracts predatory wasps, and has been shown to boost tomato production when grown near tomatoes. Likely this is a result of the association with predatory wasps. They lay their eggs on the tomato hornworms body and ultimately kill the hornworm. The eggs are those white things on tomato hornworm's body. Never kill a hornworm that has those white egg attachments.
Queen Anne's Lace was brought to this country by European settlers and has become so ubiquitous that many people think it is a native wildflower. It has also invaded Australia. I don't think of it as a weed though. I enjoy it's beauty and like to use it in floral arrangements, even thou the pollen tends to drop around it. to me this adds to the beauty, similar to a fallen petal under an arrangement.
Like a carnation , the flowers take up color added to the water it sits in. Try this with the kids. put a little food coloring into the water of a vase of Queen Anne's lace flowers and watch what happens.
The red dot that sometimes appears in the middle of the flower is a drop of queen Anne's blood when she pricked her finger making the lace. In actuality it attracts insects.
The dried umbels hold the seed. They contract, becoming concave and result in another common name for the plant: bird's nest.
A word of caution. Queen Anne's Lace is easily mistaken for Poison Hemlock. Click here to see.

Beautiful Privet

The blooms on the privet bushes are fading now, but they certainly were glorious this year. I suppose there will be a bumper crop of blue berries this fall, to help them in their quest for world domination. Spreading by both berries and underground runners, they cannot fail in the hospitable southeast. Their genus is Ligustrum and they are a smorgasbord board for wildlife. The flowers attract all kinds of bees, wasps, and other pollen eaters, so beware ye that are allergic to stings. However, the insects are usually so busy at their tasks that even if they bump into you they will get up and fly on without stinging. The berries are eaten by all kinds of animals and birds and they help in the dispersal of the seeds, leaving seeds along fence lines and the few other places where privet is not already. In Winter deer browse the stems to bareness depending on other available foods, but they never damage it enough to kill it.
It is for sale in many nurseries, especially the variegated variety.And there are many varieties and species out there. Some imbecile had them planted at Tiger Town, sculpted into small trees. Cute. Although I guess they are cheap, or should be. The main expense would be in planting, and they are not likely to die or have to be replaced.
They are generally for sale on ebay. Once I emailed a seller on ebay and said I was glad someone had found a way to get rid of their privet, but got no answer, Imagine that!
Originally the common name privet came from "privacy hedge" because it was usually planted as a screen around the privey.
Just like the invasive Wisteria, I am usually not aware of how much of it is around until it flowers. And like Wisteria, it is beautiful when it flowers. But harden your heart. It is in a class with kudzu, forcing native vegetation to the brink. In forests it competes with trees as well as other understory, reducing forest yield and taking the water and nutrients for itself.
In my experience the best way to rid yourself of it is to not let it get started in the first place. It is easy to pull up when it is small and when the ground is wet. Goats love it and if you keep them fenced in with privet they will destroy it with repeated browsing, but it takes a while. I got rid of a good bit of it around my house by hiring someone to cut it down while I followed them painting the stumps with a toothbrush dipped in a shrub killer. I used it undiluted . This concentrates the herbicide to a small area and puts the poison where you want it to go.
Killing the large plants of course does nothing for the zillions of seed that lie in wait for their chance. I pull up small seedlings in the yard all the time. I have observed that running over them with a mower just flattens them out and they grow horizontal. So... Remain Vigilant!!

Invasive Plant: Clerodendrum bungei

These 2 pictures are of Clerodendrum bungei, also known as rosy clerodendrum or peanut butter plant (because of its odor, although I think this is a misnomer). The top one I snagged from the internet and the second is one growing in the edge of my woods. The first time I ever saw this plant growing was at Westville, and I asked some of the women who were working there about getting a cutting of it. They looked at each other and smiled and then offered that they all had plenty around their houses that they would be happy to give me cuttings of. It should have clued me in. Several years later I actually bought a plant and set it in my flower bed. It had a hard time getting started (luckily), but then started to spread by suckers underground. It took about 3 years to eradicate if from the bed,but in the end persistence, roundup, pulling, and digging got rid of it. Except. At the last I relented, falling prey to it's lovely flowers. I planted a piece in the edge of the woods and wished it luck. It did not need luck. All it needed was opportunity.
Over the course of several years when I busily ignored the patch, it spread mightly.
One day I noticed some lovely pink flowers in the edge of the woods, and have been using roundup for 3 years on it now. I spray around the outside working my way inward. I still have a patch about
8 feet across, and the suckers are easy to escape notice as they run out to find new homes and start other colonies.
I'm working on it though. Some mistakes can't be redeemed, but I plan to pull this one back from disaster.
It is claimed that the flower is pleasantly fragrant, but I have never been able to get past the
odor of the leaves, which to me is badddd...
A few years ago a friend pointed out to me a large patch growing in Auburn. But by then it was too late: I already had this Clerodendrum's number.
I hear that people plant it in a place by itself and mow around it to control it. but my advice is: DON"T.
It grows well in both shade and sun, likes a good bit of water but is drought tolerant. Does this sound like an invasive waiting to happen? At my house in poor soil it grows to about 4 feet tall, and is a rich dark green. Lovely, huh?

More Gardens of Niagara Falls

These white flowers are fall blooming anemones. I tried these a couple of times but each year when the flower stalks shot up some larvae proceeded to chew them to nubins. So I was pleased to enjoy these. These are much larger than my plants ever got, but mine were pink. What I saw of them.

These 2 pictures are of a Clerodendrum tree. It was very fragrant, and I was glad to meet it in person. Steve Thomas told me he had one that I assume is like this or similar and he reported it as invasive. I know that Clerodendrum bungei, the rose clerodendrum, is very invasive. I made the mistake of planting it several years ago and have been trying to keep it sprayed out with roundup ever since. It also smells bad to me. Maybe I will post a picture of mine one day and label it the Monster that Devoured the Understory.