December 2010 Newsletter

Mulberry Woods Native Plant Nursery Newsletter 
December 2010
Volume 1, Number 3.

Partridge Berry, Partridges, and a Best Ever Recipe for Dirt
Gentle Readers,
Winter is here, and the time for evergreens.  While little will be blooming for the next two months but the odd witch hazel, there are many native plants that provide visual interest in the winter.  Botanist William Bartram first noticed oak leaf hydrangea because of the exfoliating bark, not the blooms or leaves.  Alabama croton leaves will remain yellow, silver, and orange for some time to come.  And little two inch tall partridge berry (Mitchella repens) is as green and red as it gets all winter long, providing outdoor holiday decoration on its own, a miniature holly and ivy effect combined into one plant.

Partridge berry is sometimes listed as a perennial and sometimes as a vine, but technically it is a shrub (woody plant) or even more technically, a subshrub (note: we sell it as a perennial: http://mulberrywoodsnursery.com/?page_id=1296).  In the garden it is best thought of as a ground cover, and one of the few evergreens that will grow and bloom in partial and even deep shade.  With that said, my most robust plant is in my rock garden in a location that gets at least four hours of sun a day.  It has made a solid mat of green leaves that resembles a living carpet, but through which grows a large plant of green gentian (Gentiana villosa).

Most garden writers list partridge berry as a plant that needs constant moisture, but my wild plants have increased considerably during the past few drought years, even on dry west facing slopes.  The deciding factor seems to be the depth of humus that the plants grow in, with the more humus, the merrier the partridge berry.  Apparently powder dry humus is completely different from powder dry soil.

And do partridges eat the red berries?  Ruffed grouse certainly do up in the high Appalachians, but all our bobwhite quail, the native partridge, have disappeared.  I heard our last quail singing here about three years ago.  Bobwhites are #1 on the Audubon Society's list of disappearing birds, with an 82% population decline in the last forty years.  The culprit is the old "habitat destruction" combination of industrial agriculture and suburban sprawl.  Or think of it as native plants=native wildlife, and herbicide treated row crops and lawns=english sparrows and plastic flamingos.

Production Notes
Our seed page is up!  Check it out at http://mulberrywoodsnursery.com/?page_id=1149.  When the green gentian seeds are good and ripe and listed we will have a dozen species, including several that to my knowledge have not been sold commercially before.

And since everyone likes recipes for Xmas, I am giving away my favorite dirt/potting soil recipe.  This is a loose adaptation of Sam Jones' recipe from the exceptional book Gardening with Native Wildflowers.   Jones is an emeritus Professor at UGA and owner of Piccadilly Farm nursery in Bishop, GA.  I have provided a link to his book's home page on Amazon at http://mulberrywoodsnursery.com.  Anyway, back to the real dirt:

1 Part Wood's Soil (the more humus content the better)
1 Part Sand
1 Part Perlite
6 Parts Ground Bark

Mix in a wheel barrow.  Add slow release fertilizer and ground limestone.  Mix again and place in a 350 degree oven (don't do that last one).  Instead, throw it into a pot with a plant, water, and enjoy.  Come to think of it, without dirt we wouldn't need any other recipes, because we wouldn't have anything to eat.

An Incredibly Strange but Disturbingly True Hunting Story
The Incredibly Strange Gardening Story is on Xmas holiday this month, so we have hired a hunting story as a temp worker.  The gentleman who told me this story swears it is true, and it is almost too strange to be fiction.

My friend TL, a lifelong hunter, had a business customer of his who wanted to treat him to a December quail hunting trip as a Christmas present.  Due to a shortage of wild quail (see above), the customer decided to economize and booked a trip to a quail hunting "plantation" in south Alabama which featured a "canned hunt" for pen raised birds that are released just before the sports arrive to shoot them.  By the time TL found out the horrible truth it was too late to back out.

Arriving at the "plantation" TL noted that it was in fact a pine plantation planted in long rows of yellow pine--not natural quail habitat.  After it was explained to him that the quail might be a little disoriented--the birds were turned upside down and shaken to confuse them enough so that they didn't run away--the hunt began.

And in no time their dog was on the point!  The birds were flushed but only a few managed to become airborne, and none more than about three feet high.  TL didn't shoot while his companions blasted away: he just watched instead.  One pitiful little bird ran right toward him, TL said, and sought refuge by hiding under the bird dog.

TL said it was the first hunt in memory where he was unable to shoot a single partridge.  And on top of that, there wasn't a single pear tree in sight.

The Fine Print
All newsletters will also be posted and archived on our blog for those who wish to add a public comment.  Anyone irritated, annoyed, or in any way flummoxed by this newsletter should email me, Jeff Cupp, through the website http://mulberrywoodsnursery.com and be forever removed from this mailing list.

November 2010 Newsletter

Mulberry Woods Native Plant Nursery Newsletter 
November 2010
Volume 1, Number 2.

Neviusia alabamensis-- The Alabama Snow Wreath, a Harvard Grad?


Gentle Readers: November and rain already, with our three months of winter on the way.  As we plant people like to drone on and on about, fall is the time of year to get the shrubs in the ground.  Give them the opportunity to get as established as possible before next year's heat wave arrives.  But how about a little time traveling in the meantime?

The Black Warrior River at Tuscaloosa in 1857 bore little resemblance to its current state.  Acres of shoals were covered in spring by massive colonies of Spider Lilies (Hymenocallis), and the surrounding banks were practically devoid of development.  And it was here that the Rev. R. D. Nevius and University of Alabama Professor W. S. Wyman discovered the previously unknown shrub Alabama Snow Wreath, which was subsequently named Neviusia alabamensis by Professor Asa Gray of Harvard University in 1858.

Neviusia was first cultivated by Rev. Nevius at Christ Church, Tuscaloosa, then by Dr. Gray at Harvard Botanic Gardens, and went from there to glory at Kew Gardens in England in 1883.  As with many of our US native plants, it was much better appreciated by the "nation of gardeners" than it was in its own country; though one journal reported that the snow white blooms were ruined by the air pollution of London circa 1907.  Not long thereafter Neviusia was being grown in Sydney, Australia, where it blooms in September--that's springtime down under.

After its extended century and a half long trip around the world, Neviusia alabamensis is finally being recognized as a superior plant in its home region.  Many current gardening books about native plants extol its hardiness and virtues, and a few nurseries--including us, finally--now offer it for sale.  (Some years back I provided the Neviusia plant material used at the Southern Living/Southern Progress building in Birmingham).  And what could possibly be wrong with a beautiful, very early blooming, spreading native shrub that also happens to be bulletproof?

Plant this rarity now and enjoy its white blooms in March while most other shrubs are still dormant--Rev. Nevius reported that it flowered at Christ Church in Tuscaloosa as early as February 27.  In bloom it superficially resembles spirea, to which it is related.  For pictures and prices, go to our website http://mulberrywoodsnursery.com.  And by the way, the place where Neviuisa was discovered is now gone, blasted away as the Black Warrior was turned from a free flowing river into a navigation channel fit for barges full of coal.

Production Notes
I am currently making like a squirrel and caching seeds, though I prefer to call it planting, as I have very little intention of eating any of them.  Some buckeyes have already germinated and will have to be babied through the winter, even if I have found almost nothing (short of consumption by a rodent) that can kill a buckeye.  Many seeds need a winter or two of dormancy to germinate, so patience is a virtue for the seed propagator. And speaking of patience, our seed sales page is indeed coming soon!  We will have the usual and the unusual seeds for sale, from redbud to Clematis reticulata,  for all of you fellow seeds experimenters. 

Incredibly Strange but Disturbingly True Gardening Stories
England may in fact be a nation of gardeners, but the lengths they go to make compost will disturb some, and turn the stomachs of others.  We old farm boys will just be reminded of the two door four holer--and that wasn't a Pontiac.  It was an outhouse.  Still curious? See the English National Trust at http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-global/w-news/w-news-outdoor-peeing-could-activate-a-composting-revolution.htm
Don't say I didn't warn you.

The Fine Print
All newsletters will also be posted and archived on our blog for those who wish to add a public comment.  Anyone irritated, annoyed, or in any way flummoxed by this newsletter should email me, Jeff Cupp, through the website http://mulberrywoodsnursery.com and be forever removed from this mailing list.

October 2010 Newsletter

Mulberry Woods Native Plant Nursery Newsletter
October 2010
Volume 1, Number 1.

Clematis virginiana and Dry Humor

Gentle Readers: Twenty eight consecutive days without rain, one half inch of precip. in the last fifty. Last significant rainfall: August. It helps that gardeners and growers of plants are optimistic by nature. Either that, or just plain deluded.

However, when the old gardening cliche "laughs at drought" comes to mind, I can think only of one plant (other than cacti): the native vine Clematis virginiana. I don't believe that it actually enjoys drought, but it doesn't seem to be particularly bothered by it, either. Even in the middle of this, the third drought year out of the past four, the vine has bloomed and made seed like it was just another normal year. And that is without receiving one drop of supplementary water.

Clematis virginiana grows natively all over the Eastern US and into adjacent Canada. It has been called a "rampant grower" and various other hurtful names by snooty garden writers, as if near perfect adaptation to its environment presents a problem. But these days, anything that grows and blooms without help deserves one of my two favorite pet names: low maintenance, or better yet, no maintenance. In our experience the plant grows slowly for a year or two, then shoots up like a rocket to about twenty feet, covering everything it can grab onto. (Hint: Don't plant anything on your house that will eat it.)

But Clematis virginiana is not at all an eater of houses. After the flush of youth is over, the plant begins to die back and settles down into a much more sedate middle age--somewhat like yours truly. Here it may in fact require some maintenance: you need to clip off all of its old dead parts, if you want it to be nice and tidy. Of course planted along an out of the way fence or wall, or rambling among the shrubs, no one is likely to even notice it--except when it absolutely buries itself with white blooms toward the end of August, just when everything else is dried up and otherwise shriveled to bits. One of our vines bloomed right through the drought and heat wave of August 2007, without any water whatsoever. Surely a performance deserving of an award.

And we have Clematis virginiana in stock! These are all decent size plants, and the one gallon plants should grow and bloom like crazy next summer. Four and one-half inch pots are $5.95, and one gallon plants are $9.95, with shipping of course added to both. The gallon sizes, alas, may need pruning to fit into a box, as some of the vines are approaching the four feet long mark. Our order form can be printed from the website, and you can see pictures of the plant in bloom.

Production Notes
And speaking of drought tolerant, an enterprising University researcher "broke the code" on germination of the spectacular yellow flowering Southwestern desert columbine species Aquilegia chrysantha. We followed the instructions and can report that, wow, does it ever work. We have gone from having a few of these plants to sell, to by next year having a couple of hundred. That is, if they survive the chipmunks and the swamp rabbits.

Aquilegia chrysantha grows well here at the nursery, even competing with the native red columbine for Garden Domination. It forms a thick tap root like Silene stellata and other sandy soil plants--our biggest six year old stock plant has a crown over an inch across. And besides being awe inspiring in bloom, it also self sows modestly. Perennial plant gardeners may recognize this plant as one of the parents of the McKanna's Giant hybrids.

Incredibly Strange but Disturbingly True Garden Stories
And now time for the first installment of a regular feature, some odd gardening stories from around the world. If you have read this far, you probably have some more time to waste on the internets.

To find the story, go to the Mulberry Woods website, go to the "Visit" page (the link is at the bottom of the home page), and click on the words "garden gnomes." And maybe put those GPS things on all of your favorite gnomes.

The Fine Print
All newsletters will also be posted and archived on our blog for those who wish to add a public comment. Anyone irritated, annoyed, or in any way flummoxed by this newsletter should email me, Jeff Cupp, and be forever removed from this mailing list.

Cullman Festhalle on October 9

Buy Plants on October 9, the Last Day of Cullman Oktoberfest!

We will be attending the last day of Cullman Oktoberfest at the Festhalle Market Platz on Saturday, October 9, from 7 am until 1 pm. We will have a large variety of herbs, native perennials, native vines, and native ferns. And as always, you are welcome to place an order for pickup for any plant in our inventory--just email jeff@mulberrywoodsnursery.com. And remember that farmer's market prices are always a little lower than web listed prices.

The Nursery Grows

Mulberry Woods Native Plant Nursery and Farm is Open for Business!

We have been inspected, licensed, questioned, asked to fill out form after form, and waited and waited and waited for all of the various permission slips to come through--all so that we could legally sell one plant in a plastic pot. I daresay that we have been through more red tape than British Petroleum. And we have no dead people listed as references (remember that one?).

At any rate, don't expect a giant oil slick of native plants to clog up the Gulf of Mexico any time soon. Check here, instead, for the latest happenings at Mulberry Woods. We'll tell you which farmer's market we'll be attending and when. We'll tell you what new and exciting plants are coming on line. And sometimes we'll just give you some good advice about growing plants.

Wild Blueberries

When I was growing up on the farm in north Alabama, not too many miles from where I live at Mulberry Woods now, two little old ladies named Cleo and Clezelle would often come by to visit and share their wisdom about country living. "Little old lady" should here be taken in the Southern context: there was probably four hundred pounds of horseflesh, or rather human flesh, between the pair.

Cleo and Clezelle were experts on all things rural, and they could create an irresistible dialog while sitting in the swing under our white oak tree. They were particularly adept at ornithology, as well as they should have been, having reduced all of bird kind to two varieties, blue jays and peckerwoods. When a bird flew by, there was a short argument, but then quick agreement--that particular fowl was a peckerwood. I do, however, recall that they once both agreed that a bird sitting on our fence was in fact a redbird. The exception, perhaps, that proved the rule.

What, you may well ask, has this to do with wild blueberries? The fact is that the wild blueberries are blooming right now, and have been for more than a week, after the coldest winter in memory. In the late winter race to bloom first, Southern woody plant division, the wild blueberries always win. Alabama Snowwreath, Neviusia alabamensis, and Serviceberry, Amelanchier arborea, are always a close second. Buds out, good. No bloom, sorry, no cigar. Even the low to the ground Trailing Arbutus, Epigea repens, and Yellowroot, Xanthoriza simplicissima, can't beat the blueberry to the pollinators.

Still, what about blue jays and peckerwoods? Well, thanks to some DNA research by an enterprising botanist, almost all edible wild blueberries have now been lumped into one single species, the Highbush Blueberry, Vaccinium corymbosum. In all, seven different species of blueberries that I had spent years trying to learn to separate are now considered to be just one. I can almost hear Clezelle saying, "No, the only kind of bird that has blue on it is a blue jay." No more "low huckleberry" or even "rabbiteye," just a bunch of varieties of what is essentially the same thing.

Still, there can be great diversity within equality, and we tend to classify our wild blueberry bushes into two types, with a nod, of course, to the two little old ladies. We have tall ones and we have short ones, similar to the highbush and lowbush distinction that botanists maintained for all of those years. The tall plants bloom first and ripen first, but have tiny fruit. The small plants are almost identical in appearance to "rabbiteye" cultivars such as Tifblue and Climax, but have much smaller fruit. And their flavor is only about ten thousand times more potent.

I did mention flavor. Culinary dynamite comes in small packages, and these fruit are like plutonium in intensity. Taste them while picking, but try to not eat them all so you can try the following recipe. I have at least one bush which has the most bitter, foul tasting berries I have ever eaten, something like a combination of dirty sock and rancid vinegar. Don't eat those, or like they say in bad restaurants, don't eat the burned ones.

The earliest berries will be ripe by May, and sometimes even late April, which coincides with the tick, mosquito and chigger hatches. But what are a few pox marks compared to a bowl of wild blueberries?

Recipe for Wild Blueberry Sauce

Ingredients:
Butter (Amish butter if you can get it)
Wild Blueberries
Brandy
Organic Sugar
Lemon Juice (Meyer lemon is best)

Quantities are iffy on this one, as everything depends on how ripe and/or sweet/tart your berries are.

Start by adding a tablespoon of butter to a hot saucepan.

Add one quarter to one half cup of wild blueberries. More would be both excessive and exhausting.

Cook until you have a pan full of purple juice. Add the brandy to taste and cook out the alcohol. If you have too many bug bites, drink the brandy instead and add water. Explain that all the brandy flavor cooked out of the dish.

Add sugar to taste, usually a couple of tablespoons. Don't add too much--I hate things that are too sweet.

If it's good at this point, wait until you add the lemon juice. This is the real secret weapon. Taste one more time, pour over your chosen victim, such as a hot crepe, and then dig in.


Wild blueberries, early and tart, small and delicious. A harbinger of spring after a hard winter. And there is practically only one kind.

Cleo and Clezell would be proud.