It's Fun To Participate In All These Memes

I'm joining in the memes hosted by Nature Notes hosted by Rambling Woods, St Germain's and Today's Flowers meme.

It's fun to participate in all these memes because you not only get to see other blogs; read others'experiences and stories; enjoy others' pictures and videos. But, you also get to discipline yourself to remember to participate in the memes; find appropriate topics; take required pictures and/or videos; write it up. Otherwise, with a full-time job and work-load and responsibilities increasing every year, it's very difficult to maintain a blog unless there are some kind of discipline or external pressure. So, these memes keep me in tow, and I would really like to thank all of them. Are there any more memes that I can participate in? If you know about them, please let me know.

For todays-flowers meme, I present to you two native wild flowers of the USA. Robin's Plantain (Erigeron Pulchellus) is an an esay-to-grow, low-maintenance, mat-forming plant. It slowly colonizes through rhizome and seeds and form a neat ground covering math with evergreen basal-rosette type leaves. Thus, it's a good ground-cover plant that will suppress any weeds. But as I mentioned, it colonizes slowly. It neither like too much sun; nor like shade. So, it's ideal for a place where there is dappled sunlight or perhaps sunlight for a couple of hours max. It likes dry, drought-type soil. Too much water can kill it. The flowers are daisy like and absolutely gorgeous with a hint of purple/pink/yellow. They form on tall stalks and blooms profusely from spring to the beginning of summer (say from April to June; or whenever spring comes and ends). The flowers are good source of both nectar and pollen and native bees really like them. The flower is found throughout the eastern and south-central USA. I have two of these plants in my garden. I do not take any sorts of care of them -- not even pruning or dead-heading or cutting down of the dead stalks -- absolutely nothing required. It's a self-cleaning plant which thrives on neglect. The picture below shows when the plant have just started blooming. You can see all the many buds on the plant.

Another native plant is two-leafed Miterwort. It's a shade-loving plant. So, if you have a dark-shady region, plant a group of these plants. At least during the spring, that place will become bright with it's tiny white flowers. Again, it's a plant that thrives on neglect. I do not take any care of these plants -- no pruning, weeding, nothing -- but they come back year after year with more vigor and beauty. It's an woodland plant. It's ephemeral beauty can only be enjoyed during the spring. Rest of the time, it's an evergreen low ground-covering plant. It also spreads through rhizomes and seeds. It's found throughout the eastern and central part of the USA and Canada. The flowers are good source of pollen and nectar and liked by native bugs. Native Americans used both the plants -- Robin's Plantain and Miterwort -- for various remedies.

Aren't these two beauties? Such small plants but with big hearts and beauties who want to share all its pollens and nectars and flowers with everyone. But alas! such native plants, nowadays, have no place in most gardens. True they only bloom for a few weeks; true their blooms (not the bloom of Robin's plantain though; it's blooms are size of Asters) are tiny. But, they bring important source of food, at a time when food is most required after the long harsh winter, for native birds and bugs. Their seeds are eaten by native song-birds. People plant tulips and daffodils in their places but they do not provide seeds for native birds; also, how many native bees do you find on tulips and daffodils? At least I don't find any. I'm not against daffodils and tulips. I have lots of them in my garden. But along with such exquisite flowers, people should also plant some native plants as well.

Okay enough preaching for today :-P. Now, I present some other cuti-pies from my garden. The last picture is very hazy because I had to take it through two layers of glass. The Blue-Jay has decided to make its nest outside our main door, in the Rhododendron tree!! If I go out with a big camera, it flies away. I have somehow tamed it though by offering sunflower-seeds and peanuts. Apparently, Blue-Jays can be easily tamed; they also can mimic human-voice (much like parrots) if they are brought up from a hatchling stage!! But with all its intelligence, I have to say that this bird is quite dumb. I gave it a big peanut. It took it and planted in the lawn, perhaps as a future food-stock. But the dumb bird doesn't know that it will not remain as a future food-stock but will become a peanut plant :-). Blue-Jays are credited for spreading oak-trees throughout the USA, after the last ice-age. Acorns are their most favorite food.

Chipmunk

A Blue-Jay

The Blue-Jay in the Nest. Can you see her?

If you click on any of the pictures, they get enlarged and you can see them in more details. Here are the thieves of bird-food. I love squirrels but I'm now getting a bit annoyed. They are dominating the bird-feeders. Here are some of their poses -- the way they sit and steal all the sunflower seeds.



And when the dogs shoo them away, they go up in the trees, sit and watch for the dogs to go away; then they again come down and start the broad-daylight stealing!!