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While driving across the USA for a Photography Workshop in Yosemite National Park I stopped at Devil’s Tower National Monument in Wyoming. This photo of Devil’s Tower was taken from a rest area along the highway just outside of the park.
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This “volunteer” Foxglove plant started blooming on my back patio. The plant was growing in the cracks between the bluestones. Once it started blooming, I put a tomato cage around it so it wouldn’t blow over. Since Foxglove plants are biennial, I must have ignored the plant the previous year (2019) — not removing it as a weed. Where it came from is a mystery. Foxglove seeds are very tiny, similar to the size of Poppy seeds. I have been planting wildflower mixtures (from American Meadows) for several years as I try to convert much or most of my backyard into a wildflower meadow. So maybe the seed blew in from there. I am always questioning when plants start showing up in the spring — are they a desired wildflower that I want or are they an undesired weed that would be competing for space, water, and nutrients.
It is hard when dealing with perennial or biennial plants that don’t flower the first year. Sometimes I can look up an identification with a picture uploaded to the PlantNet app. I do recognize infestations of Mile-a-Minute vine, Mugwort, and Poison Ivy. This spring I have observed at least two Foxglove plants blooming (one purple, and one white) in the backyard wildflower meadow. I also have another dozen Foxglove plants transplanted earlier this spring from a neighbor’s raised bed garden growing in some soft pot planters. Some of them have just started to bloom.
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While working part time in Boulder, Colorado, I would often visit Rocky Mountain National Park. It was only an hour drive away, and I got to see the park during all four seasons. On this morning, a springtime storm was brewing.
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The Jack-in-the-Pulpits are true native plants growing in my backyard. I did not plant them; they were just here. Mostly hidden in the back shaded sections. The green flowers provide camouflage making them easy to miss. You don’t want to mistake the stem with three leaves which I did at one time thinking they were Poison Ivy. Before having the back frog pond expanded a couple of years ago, I successfully transplanted a number of the Jack-in-the-Pulpit plants into soft pot containers that are blooming this year in my front yard.
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Two Canada Geese parents with six gooselings swimming in the pond at the local Sourland Mountain Preserve. I used to stop by the preserve on a regular basis to see and photograph the birds, frogs, turtles, butterflies, and flowers. There are several hikes out from the pond that go into the woods, or you can follow the natural gas line right-of-way path up the “mountains”. A mountain in New Jersey isn’t that high.
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