Flower Day Bad Axe - June 4, 2019

One of my favorite perennial plant sharing gardening groups has a sale that happens annually in Bad Axe, Michigan at the fairgrounds.

In Michigan we wait a long time for spring to arrive every year and I am sure that because of the long wait, the harsh winters, and the build up and the excitement of the final arrival of spring, we appreciate this time of year more that people living in warmer climes .

I foolishly decide every winter NOT to feed the birds, then after the first heavy snowfall and freezing temperatures, I relent - - and I'm glad I do.  I feed sunflower oilers and niger - which might be what we used to call thistle. I don't feed mixed seeds because that seems to attract English Sparrows and I want only wild birds here.

Although both sexes are pale earth color green in the winter, American Goldfinch males turn bright yellow in spring. This boy was feeding on dandelion seeds which I provide in abundance. (Tongue in cheek!) Clicking on photos will enlarge them.

I have several maturing currant bushes in my yard here that I've grown from cuttings. The ancestors of these bushes grew in my Grandpa Harding's garden on West Outer Drive in Rosedale Park. They were no doubt taken from his family farm in South Lyon when he and Grandma moved to Detroit where he was an orthodontist  in the Fisher Building. Over the years I have taken cuttings each time I've moved and the current group of currants looks like they might actually produce enough currants to make my all time favorite pie - currant pie.

I remember a few years ago David and I visited Aunt Jean and she gave my brother and me a frozen currant pie made from the berries in that garden, Grandpa Harding's garden. Amazing.

This still struggling bush with yellow clove scented flowers is a rare black currant. Years ago it was decided that Ribes aureum was the alternate host to a fungus that threatened to destroy all white pine trees and they were therefore systematically sought out and destroyed all over the state. They were wrong, however. It is not an alternate host for the fungus.

This plant's ancestor was found many years ago growing in front of a very old house near the Royal Oak Farmers' Market. At first I thought it might be a Forsythia. It wasn't. That bush has since disappeared. This plant was started from a cutting from a bush in my house in Royal Oak that was started from a cutting from that lonely bush by the market. Black currants can be made into Cassis or Kir, a black currant liqueur that is used to make Kir Royale or Vermouth Cassis - my favorite before dinner cocktail. I only wish everyone could smell the scent from these wonderful flowers.

 Unintended consequences: - Look closely at the tubular flowers of that Ribes. They probably evolved that way along with a moth or butterfly that used its long tongue perhaps on those flowers to reach the nectar as an adult. Perhaps even as a caterpillar that Lepidopteran feasted on their leaves. Nearly wiping out that bush may have inadvertently also nearly wiped out or even made extinct that particular Lepidopteran. Perhaps other species had also co-evolved with that species of Ribes.

Last year, keeping with a Ribes-theme, I planted a few gooseberry bushes. I have had gooseberry pie, an old fashioned favorite. It looks like there may be some berries this year although I doubt enough for a pie, maybe along with the currants - - - .  I also have volunteer wild currents and wild gooseberries in my garden. I know that the wild gooseberry fruits have spines on them. I wonder how they can be  removed/neutralized. Cooks must have done that to make pies and jam before spineless gooseberries were bred.

This bleeding heart is one of several others in my yard that were bought at club sales here in the Thumb over the years  and  has fully matured into a wonderful old fashioned cottage garden plant.

Also maturing now in my north garden is a nice yellow Baptisia, a legume. There is also an old fashioned blue plant in my front garden and I've noticed finally a few volunteers. The cool thing? I believe deer and rabbits leave them alone, a very important feature that I must now add to my list of "must haves" before I adopt a new plant. Things I now look for in a new plant: - pretty flowers, wonderful scent, survives in Michigan's Thumb, produces volunteers but does not become invasive, left alone by deer and rabbits (unless they are very, very hungry). Asparagus-like now, the Baptisia leaves gradually unfurl and at the tip of each column are several yellow/deep purple pea-like flowers.

Legumes are things like peas, beans (lima beans, green and yellow beans, soy beans), clover, Baptisia, locust trees, etc. that are sometimes called colonizers because they can live in poor soil like after a fire or after the topsoil has been destroyed. Their roots have nodules on them where bacteria live. Those bacteria add nitrogen to poor soil preparing it for more fussy plants.

I've twice added May Apples from garden club sales. They are surviving and may be spreading. I was told they may become invasive. I don't care - as long as they are left alone by deer and rabbits, I'm fine. Most ferns fit that requirement also so I've added many new "easy" ferns. And they are doing very well. Ostrich ferns, Oak ferns, Sensitive ferns, Hay Scented ferns have all found a loving home here and rabbits and deer ignore them -. The sweet woodruff with its lovely white flowers came as a volunteer along with the May Apples as a bonus. Sweet indeed.

A happy congregation of 

small daffodils, chive buds, and ornamental grass.

So far Rhododendrons have been 'picky eaters' here. Most struggle. I realize the soil is not perfect for them, it's not acidic enough, and the winters are particularly hard. I do not baby my plants, I do not cater to their every whim. To survive here plants have to be able to ignore the running and carousing dogs, not be tasty to herbivores like deer and rabbits, and not have to be fertilized and sprayed with killer chemicals. These two Rhodos have survived even if they haven't exactly thrived. I have high hopes but we'll just have to wait and see what happens, eh?