Instrument of Grace

Common Cinquefoil?

I thought this little gem might be Common Cinquefoil, Potentilla simplex. I saw it during our walk on an interior path on Sears Island, ME. There is something incredibly pleasing about its perfect simplicity, don't you think?

After looking at many images online, I'm reconsidering whether or not this is cinquefoil. In my North Woods Wildflowers, Common Cinquefoil is the only flower looking remotely like this one. This plant's distinctive heart-shaped petals, I thought, should make identification easy. Now I'm wishing I had paid more attention to the foliage.

Can you identify this plant?

Plants on South Bubble

One of the things I noticed during my walks (and climbs) in Acadia was the plants. Of course I noticed the plants - I'm a gardener! Often, I'd look up and realize Garden Man and Garden Punk had left me far behind because I had become engrossed in some plant by the trail. As I said in an earlier post, it delighted me to find varieties of some of the very same plants I have in my own garden or that grow nearby.

On that first hike we took in Acadia, up to the summit of South Bubble (did I mention it was strenuous?), we started off in a heavily wooded area. As we climbed, it became more rocky and open. As soon as the trail began to move into sun, I noticed the viburnums. The leaves looked just like those on the Viburnum plicatum var. tomentosum I have growing in my yard, only the leaves were much smaller. The growth habit was the same, too, but the plants were just a few feet high. Since we were there in July, I didn't notice any flowers, but there were some fruits, held above the foliage just like a Doublefile Viburnum. I wish I'd taken pictures of these, but I didn't.

When there was a little more sun, I noticed these low-growing plants with tiny dark pink buds and pink flowers. When I bent down to take a closer look, I was delighted to find miniature Mountain Laurel flowers. Turns out, this lovely little plant is Sheep Laurel, Kalmia angustifolia. The little leaves are about two inches long and the flowers are barely a half inch across. These bear a few of the marks of a very wet spring and summer on their leaves, but they were blooming their hearts out.

As we got closer to the summit and there was more and more sun, we began seeing Vaccinium angustifolium, lowbush blueberries, with berries in various stage of ripeness. It was amazing to me these hardy little plants could flourish and bear fruit on what little soil was contained in the crevices between the rocks. It looked as if they were growing on almost bare rock. The leaves of these blueberries bear heavy marking from the wet weather, but the plants seemed to be thriving in their harsh conditions.

Although Acadia is located in Zone 5 and I'm located in Zone 7, we share many of the same plants, and that delights me. Do you have varieties of viburnum, kalmia or vaccinium in your garden?

Transplanting Jack-in-the-Pulpit

Several years ago, we cleared some box elder trees (trash trees in my opinion) and brush.  After clearing them, we found two Jack-in-the-Pulpit plants.  They were located at the base of an ash tree, and we were thrilled to find them.  We left them be and enjoyed them, though they seemed to have a rough year.  The smaller green one was used by leaf-cutter bees, so its leaves had a number of chunks removed.  They both began to look a bit ragged as the summer went along, but the green and purple one produced a seed head.  I just let it be, and they both came up the next year.  At that point, I got curious and looked them up on the internet.  Lo and behold, Jack-in-the-Pulpit are really woodland plants preferring shade.  When we'd cleared the box elders and brush, we'd removed the shade.  Our two plants weren't in sun all day, but they did have sun a majority of the time.  Once we discovered they needed shade, we decided to transplant them.  This spring was the time.  I was afraid to transplant them because I was afraid I'd lose them.  We'd really come to love them and wanted to have them around for along time.  Since I knew nothing about transplanting them, I looked it up on the web.  I found sources saying transplanting them would be easy to sources saying it would be hard.  All of the sources said they didn't like to be overly wet in the winter or spring.  Joy.  We're having a VERY wet spring.  I decided to dive in anyway and move them.  I started with the green one, which was smaller.  I used a perennial fork and dug far away from the plant, not knowing what I would find.  I knew they were bulbs, but I didn't know how large the bulbs would be.  I was surprised to find the soil wasn't as bad as I thought, and the clump crumbled when I lifted it.  To my surprise, there wasn't one bulb, there were many.  Some of the bulbs were very tiny, about a quarter inch in size, and had a single leaf attached.  Based on my reading, these were one year old plants.  Some bulbs were slightly larger and had two leaves, making them two year olds.  Each of the three blooming plants was at least three years old, and their bulbs were closer to an inch in size.  I guess I got about 6 or 7 plants from the one clump.  Once I'd planted them in our woodland garden, I tackled the larger green and purple clump.  I guess I got 10 or more plants from that one.  The babies are all nestled in a single location and appear to be doing well.  After more than a week in their new homes, I think they'll make it if I can keep the squirrels from digging them up.  The blooming plants also appear to be doing well and have actually gotten larger since I transplanted them.  As we were planting them in their new homes, we found a leaf cluster from another plant just next to where we were planting, so we have a third cluster we didn't know about. It's not yet blooming, but it's right where it should be.  I hope I have a happy tale to tell next spring and that all the transplants make it through.  Stay tuned. Here is a photo of the green and purple one blooming before it was moved.