
MOTHER NATURE'S GARDEN
New apps for field work
Not too many years ago, hiking meant carrying a heavy backpack filled with my favorite field guides – ...
Not too many years ago, hiking meant carrying a heavy backpack filled with my favorite field guides – ...
A good part of last year was spent hiking with a list of plants that needed to be ...
It’s been so hot and dry that I decided Oct. 4 would be my last major hike before ...
While mucking about in a swampy area at Holliday Lake State Park last month, I stumbled upon an ...
In the early days of the commonwealth, the naming of rivers was arbitrary. Settlers along a particular waterway ...
It’s been so hot that my hikes have been reduced to half-hearted slogs up and down the back ...
There are some native plants that I just can’t keep straight in my head unless I see the ...
Wildflower people are both incredibly generous and seriously obsessive. This spring I’ve been the recipient of untold generosity. ...
In my ongoing rambles in the woods, I visit new places every year, but I also return to ...
Walk across any unkempt lawn (mine!), waste area or woodland clearing this month and you’ll find basal rosettes ...
By late February, most of us are so desperate for early signs of spring that we’re overjoyed to ...
When people on my Facebook wildflower page talk about plants, there can be massive confusion. Many of them ...
Visit that massive stone heap, Blenheim Palace, in October and you’ll find the walls near the main entrance ...
When I was a kid, about a 1,000 years ago, mushrooms were an exotic food that came in ...
As many of you know, I manage a Virginia Wildflower Community Page on Facebook. It has just under ...
Yesterday I was driving on the Powhite Parkway, getting ready to merge onto 288 S. when something bright ...
I’ve been searching for wildflowers since I was about 12 years old. It’s what my dad and I ...
Roses are very old flowering plants. Fossil evidence shows that they’re around 35 million years old. The cultivation ...
Virginia has quite a few species of native orchids. Some are showy, while others are almost drab by ...
It all began with a series of posts on my Facebook wildflower community page. There was a flurry ...
Walk through just about any wooded area in Prince Edward or surrounding counties and you’re likely to find ...
Nearly 10 years ago, I found some trailing arbutus (Epigaea repens) at Holliday Lake on the Lakeshore Trail. ...
Dandelions. Children are endlessly fascinated by them. They’re often the first flower that kids can identify, and probably ...
It’s still cold in the woods, so February is the perfect time to take a leisurely stroll through ...
Just like people, plants manage to slip into our country uninvited; they hitchhike in packing materials or grain, ...
There is renewed interest in using natural, native materials for holiday decorations. It’s part of the nativist movement ...
It’s been immortalized in song, grown at Kew Gardens as an exotic, used to make ink, eaten as ...