Wild Flowers of Ireland - Howth

On a day trip from Dublin, Ireland, I had the pleasure of taking the DART (train) to the town of Howth.  

Howth is a rocky headland or peninsula that extends into sea in north Dublin Bay. Much to my delight, it is an area of wild natural beauty supporting many wildflowers. Here is encountered gorse for the first time.  These pictures were taken in early September, 2015. We had a perfect day walking around. 

Howth has two distinct habitats sea cliffs and dry heaths.  From the train station there is a bus to the summit and then choice of two walking routes that meander around the cliff-side slopes above the sea. The day we visited there where people from many nations enjoying the blue skies and  colorful patchwork of flora and abundant bird life.  

I especially liked the blazing yellow gorse and vibrant purple heathers - the contrast with stones and grasses was beautiful. Gorse is a spiny evergreen prone to seaside dry condition. It was so abundant. No fragrance sadly. 

Howth Sea Cliff Path - Sept 2015
Gorse and Heather

Read on for more sites and wild flowers we enjoyed. Also see my other reviews of Ireland sites and adventures.

Morton Arboretum - Springtime Woodland Beauty

Daffodils naturalizing the woodland

Today I had the pleasure of visiting the Morton Arboretum - just west of Chicago. I was a tad worried that it was too early in the year to visit - but I was so wrong!

The woodlands and grounds are awash in native woodland spring blooms! Miles and miles of trails - be that pavement or with mulch.

People young and old enjoing the grounds. It was interesting to hear people talking about the shape and form of trees and would they look right at their home. That's great to take a long view to support trees! So many old growth trees needed to be removed - ash and elm disappearing in favor of maples I guess.  Nice that people are thinking about some diversity!

At the arboretum it's easy to identify the different species. This spring the fruit trees and flowering shrubs add to the ambiance.  This was such great inspiration for my own woodland restoration efforts!

Thousands of Trout lily and groves of May-Apple were so beautiful. Not a single buckthorn tree in sight!

Open Woodland - No Buckthorn!

Mayapple flowers in Spring

Highly recommended :)

Here are just a few shots from the day.

Wildflowers and Native Plants - Southern California Desert; A Tourist View

Native Plant: Joshua Tree - Spring 2014

I celebrated National Park day hiking around Joshua Tree which is about 2.5 hours west of LosAngeles, California. The trip and these photos were taken April  19-20, 2014.

Blooming Yucca - Joshua Tree, Spring 2014

I've wanted to visit Joshua Tree National Park after seeing photos - very Suessical landscape! I wanted to also see the desert in springtime bloom. The flowers, the Joshua Trees, large cactus, and the rock structures - without any one, it wouldn't have been nearly as enjoyable. Check out the Wildflower bloom report provided by the Park.  The Joshua Tree was named by Mormons after the prophet Joshua because it reminded them of Joshua waving his people toward the promised land. These trees are native only to Southwest USA in the higher and cooler Mojave Desert, at above 3000 ft. It's Yucca Brevifolia, very tall (40 ft) and it can live for 1000 years.   Visiting the desert in April meant the weather was warm enough to wear less layers - but it didn't mean don't bring water, wear hats or sunscreen!  We did several hikes including 49 Palms Oasis, Cholla Cactus Garden, Octilla Patch, Ryan Ranch, Wall Street.

Wildflowers and Native Plants of Peru - A Tourist view

Native Plants flowering at Machu Picchu, Peru

From adventure traveler to casual tourist, the Inca Trail provides an unforgettable experience. I traveled it over forty years ago and still dream of the cool, lush, humid Andean rain forest full of unusual flora and fauna. The mystery of the high city and long forgotten tales. If I was taking the trip today, I'm sure I would soak up all the bromeliads and orchids which are native to this area.  The native flower is an orchid! Peruvian native plants are often lusted after house plants :)  The abundance of unusual native plants in Peru is acute in the Machu Picchu Sanctuary and nearby areas. Peru hosts more than 3,000 known orchid species, and some experts claim that this is only half of the Peruvian native species; more to be discovered!  So just think, if you take this hike you might discover an orchid that you could call your own?!

Arizona Wildflowers - A tourist view

Hiking - Vermilion Cliffs, AZ

The desert can be so beautiful! This year I had the pleasure of spending time in Arizona and Utah during early spring. I just caught the beginning of the splendor of desert flowers - I'm sharing a few shots of those I encountered on the trail.  As we got off road on BLM lands and into Vermillion Cliffs, Grand Staircase Escalante, Grand Canyon, and Bryce Canyon - the little pops of color from mother natures blooms were unexpected and pleasurable. Hiking with the fragrance from sage and wide open spaces - Priceless!

While I'm tagging these are wild flowers or Native flowers - someone local with much more experience may say some of these are invasive. Like I say, this is a tourist view :)

Woodland Restoration - Adding in Mature Trees

One of my major projects is the restoration of a woodland adjacent to my house. I think I should start to call it a garden restoration, since as I've continued to clear away at the under-story of buckthorn, I'm finding more and more decorative plants. I've even found old wire supports for peonies which are sadly  all faded away.  I also found a new favorite wildflower - the privet. This year as I was clearing I came across 10 or so bushes in bloom. The fragrant is so wonderful! Can't wait until next year as these mature some more!

Anyway, the parcel I'm working with is approximately 294 ft long x 62 ft wide. It's the eastern portion of the woodlands that is closest to my house. That's right - it's 0.42 acres. Nearly a half acre that used to be someone's showcase garden, and is not trash.

Woodland restoration satellite view - google maps. 

In the photo to the left - this is the area between the two roughly horizontal roads and approximately three-quarters of the distance between the major road on the right-hand side, and the end of the photo on the left hand side.  I call this my "guerrilla garden."

The photo is wintertime clearly - so it's hard to see just how dense the trees are.  In the next photo below, the perspective is from the intersection in the lower right hand side looking back against this parcel. There is a little rock garden I carved out, a big overgrown rose bush, and a big burning bush (almost 12 feet tall!). Almost every thing else is buckthorn and poison ivy.

Before restoration, east side of woodland - looking west.

Happy days - removing buckthorn by the truck-full

I've started clearing from the south and east sides of the woodland (garden.) Mostly because this is the side that I see all the time!  For the past 10 years I've been planting the little saplings givin away for free on Arbor Day in this space. I think about half have thrived.

Nobody else in this neighborhood had the vision that I did for the restoration. This includes the owner of the land whose house is way off to the left hand side of the first photo (which is why they don't care about it at all.) Every time I was out there hacking away at the "trees" - someone would stop and complain, or I'd just get dirty looks. I generally have the buckthorn piled up in the street for pick-up so I have also gotten actual notes in my mailbox about what a mess I'm making in the neighborhood.  This sentiment was particularly acute when I had completely cleared the eastern side - the after clearing photo below. More open, light streaming through, room for growth....plus, the property owner was now so pleased she is begging me to keep going!

After clearing Buckthorn - wide open spaces

Digging a big hole for tree

It was pretty interesting watching them plant these trees.  They are to be planted in  a low area. I was worried about the quality of the soil. There were a few surprises. For example, we found lots of pavement chucks and stones. Looks like someones dumping ground for road work. :(  On the positive side, the soil is rich so we didn't need amendments.  The trees were planted to sit about 8-10 inches above ground level. This is because the water pools here with heavy rains and we wanted there to be some portion above water. Then soil was ramped away from the trunk to match the existing ground level. Then we applied mulch over that. Later I'll also apply a layer of wood chips.

In addition to these evergreen trees, I planted two serviceberry and one crab apple that I purchased at the Garfield Park Conservatory Alliance plant sale a few years ago.  In addition I had a few native plants from local sale - a button bush and two chokeberry. I also picked up a few items from close out a Lowes (distressed for $1 - $5 each ! Yeah)  These were three golden privet, and two mountain fire pieris. Lastly, I picked up some daylilies and hosta for free of craigslist and scattered these in front of the trees.  I had some leftover stone from a porch demo that I used to create a little pathway.  In fall I'll distribute the existing flowers from the left had side along the front as well.

June 2013 - Woodland Restoration with new trees

Taking the long view - I really hope the next owner is passionate about this garden. In the past few days as I've been out there working neighbors driving by have actually yelled "great job" as they fly by!  In a few years I'll start redistributing some of the saplings into the open spaces created by continued removal of buckthorn, dying elm and ash.  I envision my kids coming here years from now and showing their own children the "little trees" then cared for as a child - which should be reaching for the stars.

Dreaming big!

Teresa Marie

Spring Wildflowers - Naturalizing

Emerging Trillum Wildflowers - April 2011

Springtime wildflowers are plentiful near my yard.  There are a few Trillium recurvatum  and  White Trout Lily  Erythronium albidum.  and Solomon's Seal (although I don't know if it's a real one or a false one. :)  )  The problem was that these wildflowers shared the same space as and overgrowth of Buckthorn, scrub trees and who knows what.  So it needed to be fixed.

So we reclaimed it - taking out all the small trees and buckthorn, and the poison ivy and kudzu.  We took great care to preserve all the wildflowers as we took out all the garbage.   It took us nearly a month.   We then layered in dirt and had sod put down.  Also put in a stone border.

West shade Garden - White Trout Lily

Here you can see some of the native Illinois spring wildflowers in full bloom.  There are 1000's of the Trout Lily - it's a wonderful blanker of white.  This close up picture shows the neat varigation on the leaves.  They come and go pretty quickly.  They are doing awesome!  The other beauty is the Trillium.  It has three petals, three sepals and three leaves.  I have both red and white flowers. 

You'll see that we also put down sod lawn. It's very shady so I keep putting down seed every spring as well  - although I think there is not enough light for even the best shade seed. Hence, over time this area might take on a more woodsy feel, which is just fine with me!

I spent the whole day today in the garden. It was awesome!

Happy Gardening!