The shrub has bright pink flowers like a traditional Weigela, but grows only 1.5’ – 2’ tall by 1.5 – 2’ wide at maturity. Interestingly, the ‘My Monet’ cultivar also has leaves that are mottled white, green, and pink, thus making it colorful and attractive from spring through autumn, instead of just when the flowers are in bloom. Many gardeners enjoy collecting a variety of variegated plants, so we plan to sell and install more plants with colorful splotches. We recently sold a marbled-leaf form of Hibiscus syriacus (Rose of Sharon) called ‘Sugar Tip.’ It has pale pink flowers with rose-like double petals, green and white variegated leaves, and a smaller-than-normal mature size of 5 – 6’ tall by 4 – 6’ wide. Still another category for collectors is weeping or contorted plants. At this year’s Fall Plant Sale, we showcased a gracefully-drooping Ginkgo biloba ‘Weeping Wonder’. Approximately half of its leaves are a recognizable fan shape, while the other half are extremely long, narrow, and finger-like. In the autumn, the leaves turn an intense yellow-gold. After the leaves have fallen, the pendulous branches provide continued interest in the winter garden. Look for more weeping, gnarled, or twisted specimens at next year’s plant sales! Collector’s Corner will also give Landis visitors the opportunity to build a long-term, comprehensive assemblage of many cultivars within one genus or species. Hosta lovers are perhaps the best-known among collectors to enjoy the multi-year process of finding new hybrids of a single genus, but tree and shrub aficionados can also use this accumulative endeavor for almost any genus. Landis Arboretum recently began creating a new Syringa (lilac) area. We then featured many different Syringa cultivars at several plant sales: one type was a dwarf form, one was a hard-to-find color, and one had unusual purple petals with a white edge. Hydrangeas normally have rather bland green leaves that act as a visually neutral, supportive background for the extremely large and colorful flower heads. At the Fall Plant Sale, we showcased Hydrangea quercifolia ‘Little Honey’, which has common white flowers that get a blush of pink in autumn. The exciting, collectable characteristic of the plant, though, is its bright chartreuse leaves that remain colorful from spring through autumn. In support of our efforts to educate the public about unusual plants and to give Landis Arboretum members access to rare specimens, we will host a lecture and mini-sale by plant experts from Broken Arrow Nursery on Saturday, June 27, 2020. This retail nursery in Connecticut is well known to collectors for its knowledgeable staff, hybridization programs, and acres of indescribable oddities. Since Landis Arboretum is known for its oak collection, perhaps we should acquire Broken Arrow’s Quercus robur ‘General Pulaski’ to showcase its strange, puckered, tightly-packed leaves. The tree grows 10’ tall by only 3’ wide at maturity, making it a useful (and unique) columnar plant for tight spaces. For evergreen admirers, Abies concolor ‘Winter Gold’ is a form of white fir that features bright yellow needles in the dead of winter. Color-centric gardeners will expect Nyssa sylvatica ‘Wildfire’ to display brilliant scarlet leaf-color in autumn, but will be thrilled with the striking burgundy tones of the new foliage as it emerges in the spring. The Broken Arrow Nursery event will likely be a full-day affair with options to attend two different lectures and two different pop-up sales. The nursery will also allow members to pre-order plants from its catalogue or website and will bring those items to the event for customer pick-up. More details and registration information will appear in our 2020 Calendar of Events and on our website and Facebook page, in addition to Constant Contact mailings. Look for this article in future issues to discover what striking and collectible plants we will be offering. The Landis Arboretum is a trusted source for beautiful, hardy, and healthy plants – and the expertise to help you select and care for them. Your garden’s fall maintenance is a way for your family to enjoy each other’s company while tidying up before winter sets in. Most kids really love to dig, so edging the garden, digging potatoes, or planting a second season of crops such as spinach and lettuce are great ways to engage them -- and they learn to appreciate the natural world in the process. Whether it’s flowers or vegetables, involving your children in planting and harvesting ensures that they are more likely to take ownership and care for them.
Another fun project is creating a simple fire pit to enjoy on chilly autumn nights. This can be used to burn some of the dead woody material that was cleaned up. A small fire is a great way to bring people together. ‘Smores anyone? Don’t forget the fun involved in bringing the finery of fall indoors. An excellent family project is selecting traditional fall décor from your garden, yard or field -- mums, asters, gourds, cornstalks, pumpkins, and, of course, leaves. Leaves are a good way to educate children about the natural world by calling attention to their many different shapes, sizes, and colors. And how about an outing? Landis has several trails on which to appreciate the sights, sounds, and smells of fall. If you’d like your visit to be a bit more structured, join us when we ask the public to help us “put the gardens to bed.” It is typical for families and groups of friends to come out and pitch in. We accomplish a lot in a few hours , and children usually learn something too – including the value of teamwork and the ways in which nature works its wonders. This season’s “Fall Garden Clean-Up” is scheduled for Tuesday, October 15, from 10 AM to noon. Bring the kids! As Louise became more involved, Gus did too: “I was shanghaied or conscripted, whatever it was, but I woke up, and I was here.” Over time, there were lights that were hung in the propagation room, a leaking water line in the greenhouse fixed, brackets in the shed installed to organize plant sale materials – just a few of a myriad of tasks that benefited from Gus’ handiwork and mechanical aptitude, his “stock in trade.”
“He’s always been a hands-on kind of guy,” Louise says. Gus grew up on a farm, and his father maintained that a farmer needed to be a “jack of all trades,” a conviction that Gus still lives by. He still works the family farm, cultivating about 15 acres of soybeans and managing a woodlot. He also operates a 3-bay car wash in Grand Gorge. Most of his professional life was spent in law enforcement. Gus served 33 years and retired as a Lieutenant with the New York State University Police. He was employed at several campuses (including SUNY Cobleskill, where he met Louise, who was a residence director at the time), the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, and as an investigator for the NYS Education Department’s Office of Professional Discipline. He’s also a self-described “people person” – his police work taught him those skills. He found that the Arboretum offers an opportunity to meet and learn from “as diverse a group of people as you’ll ever know.” He added, “No matter what interests or skills you bring to the Arboretum, there is a place for you.” But it’s not all work at Landis, he pointed out. There is the opportunity to be surrounded by nature – and to learn about the natural world. Gus singled out George Steele’s workshop on the white-tailed deer and Anne Donnelly’s on dragonflies as especially interesting. He hoped that more young people would discover the Arboretum, and is encouraged by the Arboretum’s outreach to families with children. To experience Landis’ dark skies and a Star Party, hosted by the Albany Area Amateur Astronomers, he said, would be something that every child would remember for the rest of his or her life. Landis is open every day, all year long – and is a much shorter drive from the Capital Region than most people imagine, he pointed out. “You don’t even have to hike,” Gus said. “ Just sit on the deck and enjoy the view from the Meeting House. It’s incredible at any time of year, especially summer into fall.” Gus and Louise are often seen at area events promoting the Arboretum’s many attractions. Visitors to Landis may encounter Gus on a ladder, directing traffic at the plant sales, or underneath a tractor. He stated, “I’m proud to be part of the crew that makes the place run.” When the old man died the boy often dreamed he was alive again, and awaking cried, knowing him gone. Long years afterward the boy, grown man, had forgotten the early years, until at the village store he heard the hunters talking, and one mentioned the grandfather. “Never would let us shoot a crow,” the hunter said. “Called ‘em his chickens.” And the years swung back over the boy. Stoneboat: a flat sledge or drag for transporting heavy articles (such as stones). A teacher, Henry Adams said, affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops. This poem, by Arboretum founder Fred Lape, focuses on memories of a boy and his grandfather. The grandfather is remembered vividly, “brown red hair / circling a bald spot, round Dutch face, and eyes / that twinkled like sun on running water.” So too are those moments they shared and those simple lessons: herding cows, clearing fields, preparing corn for planting, hoeing the corn. The grandfather casually remarks that he regards crows as “our black chickens.” Long after the grandfather’s death, the boy, now an adult, overhears a remark about his grandfather’s odd affinity for crows, and the years come flooding back – replete with a lesson? But if you take the time to get to know them, slugs have an unexpected friendliness, or maybe it’s just curiosity. If you ignore the slime and pick one up, it starts inspecting you almost immediately. Probably by feeling the warmth of your hand, the slug pokes little finger-like antennae out of its wriggling body. The top pair are light sensors (sort of like eyes), and the lower pair detect odors. To the delight of kids, the slug can magically retract these antennae and then promptly stick them back out again, seeming to look you over with their long-stalked eyes. Slugs are generally referred to as pests. Google “slug,” and hundreds of sites pop up with some ferociously poisonous ways of getting rid of them. Seems like no one likes slugs. They’re not crowd-pleasers like, say, fireflies. Everyone bemoans the fact that there aren’t as many fireflies around as there used to be. But if you want fireflies in your backyard, then at least a part of that yard has to become firefly habitat. Lawns are not firefly habitat, especially if they’re mowed as short as a Marine’s crewcut. Fireflies need tall grass, so the more areas you don’t mow, the more fireflies you’ll see. As larvae, fireflies overwinter in leaf litter, so the more leaves you leave unraked and the more garden you leave untidied, the better. And here’s the amazing thing—if it weren’t for slugs, we’d see even fewer fireflies. As adults, fireflies have wings and can flit from place to place. Depending on which species of firefly they are (and there are many), they might eat flower nectar or pollen. Some eat small insects, including other fireflies. But as larvae, fireflies are earthbound and confined to stuff they can find on the ground. And they’re carnivorous: they don’t eat plants. They eat worms and snails and - you guessed it - slugs. So even if you don’t fall in love with a slug when you look deep into its eyes, remember that the lowly slugs help keep the fireflies sparkling. If you want a summer night filled with fireflies, you have to welcome rainy days and slugs. For starters, I rely on just two kinds of bird food: black oil sunflower seed and what I call “bird food goop.” I mix vegetable shortening with the cheapest mixed bird seed I can find. An easy feeder for the goop is a small-sized log about a 2 or 3 inches in diameter and 1 foot long. Drill 1 inch diameter holes about 1 inch into the log in a variety of places. Attach a cord or a hook to hang it. Fill the holes with the bird food goop. Simple. Even easier: take a cardboard egg carton, remove the top, then attach a string to it. Fill the cups with the goop. You’ll get chickadees and woodpeckers hanging on it and getting much needed fat for energy. Of course you can spend a lot of money buying bird feeders to fill with the sunflower seed, but there’s much more fun in designing your own. Plus if you’re repurposing plastic and cardboard containers, there’s an added benefit in the care for our environment. I’ve designed an inexpensive bird feeder out of three 32-ounce Gatorade plastic bottles. First make a container for the seeds. Take two of the bottles and cut off the bottoms. Take one bottle and cut slits 2 1/2 inches up from the cut-off bottom parallel to its ridges. This allows you to crimp the open end of that bottle so that it can fit and slide into the open end of the other. Snap the two bottles together. Now make a place where the birds can get the seeds. Take the third bottle and cut the top off, just above the narrow indentation that goes around the bottle (about 2 inches down from the bottle opening.) This will form the portion of the feeder that the seeds will spill into. Cut out two opposite or three alternating holes, like windows, around the bottle near the bottom. That’s where birds will have access to the seed. Cut two slits about 1 1/2 inches long down from the top where it was cut off. To finish, snap the seed container portion into the opening of the third bottle. Attach a string or wire to the top of the feeder. If a squirrel chews it up, no problem -- build another one!
Finally, as far as feeder ideas, there’s the human bird feeder. Yes, a human. This works great at a picnic table, though you could set it up on a lawn chair. Build a frame large enough to hang an overcoat with a brimmed hat to top it off. Place this in the middle of your feeding area. Sprinkle seed on with the hat and coat. You could even glob the bird food goop onto shoulders or in pockets. The birds will get used to this “scarecrow” laden with food and use it. If you have someone that would like to have an up close experience with the birds, simply place the coat and hat on that person. Have them sit in the chair or at the table. Sprinkle seed on the hat and about the coat. Remind them to stay still - they are the feeder! Be sure to put feeders up where there is shelter for the birds to perch and avoid predators. Christmas trees at the end of the holiday season are fine. Don’t forget water. Winter is a hard time for birds to find it, so providing a heated birdbath will provide an additional incentive. I’m never sure who enjoys these backyard feeders more, you or the birds! The UCSQ began with an early piece of Gershwin’s “Rialto Ripples’”(1917) and played selections in chronological order, culminating in his “Someone to Watch Over Me” (1929). Each member of the Quartet took turns speaking before each piece they played to give the audience information about Gershwin’s – all too brief -- life and work.
The Quartet’s cellist, Robert Gosselink, retired from SUNY Cobleskill as the director of music almost 20 years ago and began to pursue his interest in the cello. He stated that the Gershwin program was selected for the Landis audience. The Quartet has played a wide range of repertoire at the Arboretum for several years now, starting when the Meeting House was just a wooden, bare-bones structure. Robert said the acoustics have improved. Alison McMahon fell in love with the viola around the age of eight and has been playing ever since. She said that “playing at Landis is like playing at the top of the world,” a reference to the panoramic view of the Schoharie Valley from the Meeting House. Violinist John DeValve was a former orchestra director and a current member of the Schenectady Symphony Orchestra. He said that he enjoys performing at the Arboretum because of the appreciative response of the audience. He stated that Landis has the largest turnout of all the venues they frequent. Beth Brandel plays the violin and holds a Master’s Degree in Music Education. She has played as a member and as a soloist with chamber orchestras, including performances at Carnegie Hall and Kennedy Center. She loves Landis’ wide open sky and rolling hills. Most of the concert goers were return visitors for the UCSQ. Even younger, first-time attendees said they recognized some of the music – since Gershwin’s music has become part of our American heritage. The ages of audience members varied significantly, but the movement of heads and feet in time with the familiar tunes did not. Fred began his connection with big trees at the age of five, when his mother took him to see an ancient oak tree overlooking the valleys of Richmondville, NY. She explained that this old tree was a relic, all that was left of a mighty forest that once was. On that day, Fred chose his path in life: he would speak for the trees, especially big, old majestic ones. He never stopped looking for the next big tree, thinking that there just might be a bigger one waiting to be discovered. His tree hunting adventures were shared with his father during many back road and city drives. Together they identified nearly three-quarters of the champion trees on the New York State Big Champion Tree Register. Fred was recognized as one of the tree measurers for New York State, becoming an official measurer for the American Forests Cadre Team in Washington, DC. He became ever more dedicated to these arboreal giants. He went on to co-found a group of experts known as New York Old Growth Forest Association. The team surveyed old growth and advocated the preservation of numerous forests and big trees. Perhaps the most important of their successes was preventing the logging of the Zoar Valley in Erie County. This forest is now recognized as one of New York State’s premiere old growth forests. Fred and his colleague and mentor Bruce Kershner co-wrote the New York State old growth protection bill, the only one of its kind in the country. The bill was officially named the Bruce S. Kershner Heritage Tree Preservation and Protection Act, in honor of this conservationist. The bill became effective on September 4, 2008, and now serves as a protection for trees on public lands that are home to old growth. Over the years, Fred has spoken out on behalf of trees on WAMC, a National Public Radio affiliate. He has also made many regional radio broadcasts and presentations to organizations in the Capital Region, thus earning him the moniker “Tree Man.” Eventually, Fred experimented with a new type of platform on Facebook as a way to communicate with other big tree aficionados. The site “Big Tree Seekers” quickly grew, first nationally, then internationally. Today, the group has over 35,000 followers worldwide, making it the largest group of big tree advocates on the planet. While it can’t boast a billboard in Times Square, Fred maintains another Facebook page dedicated to promoting ancient forests and champion trees, which currently has a quarter million followers worldwide. This is a time of unprecedented destruction of our forests with devastating consequences for our planet. While we at Landis do some small part by conserving our local trees, big and small, the stakes are ever higher. Fred is famous for saying “think local and act global.” The Lorax spoke: "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better." Fred, too, speaks for the trees. For all of us. For the generations to come. Listen. Act. As a high school junior in Charleroi, PA, Ed frequented the local radio station near the mall where his parents shopped. He "seemed to be at the right place at the right time" and was eventually able to land a job at that station. His next position in broadcasting was as a DJ at KDKA in Pittsburgh, PA, the oldest radio station in the United States. He bought his first station in 1979 in Ebensburg, PA. About 11 years ago, he purchased WSDE 1190 AM in Cobleskill, and then four years ago, 94.3 FM was also licensed to Ed. And now he is adding 100.1 FM to his acquisitions.
Ed and his wife Alla live in the 'Burgh, as he calls Middleburgh. He brings – literally – his music throughout the area by hosting “on location” remotes, as he has done at the Arboretum. During the plant sales, you may have noticed the sounds of station WSDE music with horticultural tidbits shared by the experts. And did you know that plants respond to music too? In Schoharie County and the surrounding communities, we are truly fortunate to have three radio stations among our listening options, thanks to Ed Sherlock and his love of broadcasting. Please note when you visit the Landis Welcome Center, you – and the plants – can hear the sounds of WSDE playing softly in the background! A bit of history on Shelly and her company: Shelly ran cross country at Gloversville High School, graduated from the University at Albany, and was employed by Leavenworth and Company. She earned her CPA, became a partner, and eventually took over the company in 2011, creating Shelly Van Nostrand, CPA, PLLC. Originally in two locations, the company relocated both offices to one larger site at 105 South Comrie Avenue in Johnstown. The move allowed the firm to better serve their clients in and around the greater Fulton and Montgomery county areas. It provides a wide range of services including accounting for businesses, families and not-for-profits; personal and corporation tax preparation; trust and estate accounting; sales tax work; payroll processing and reporting; quarterly W2 preparation relating to payroll operations; and any customized detail work required for tax submissions.
Shelly’s employees keep abreast of changes and trends in the dynamic field of accounting. The company’s philosophy is to prepare and assist its clients in streamlining their internal processes to enhance business operations, resulting in a more profitable bottom line. Shelly’s leisure time is focused on her children’s activities and running the rail trail. This August she plans to enter the Landis 5K race with her son. It’s the perfect time for families to enjoy the Arboretum’s picturesque trails. Check our website or Facebook page for more information on this upcoming event at Landis.” What do Little Leaguers, King Arthur, and Bentwood chairs have in common? You may have guessed – ash is the connection. Ash wood is elastic, shock resistant, and strong. It is tough, yet bendable and lightweight. The unique characteristics of the wood have yielded a plethora of uses, including baseball bats, tennis racket frames, hockey sticks, polo mallets, spears, tool handles, oars, scythes, hayforks, plows, furniture, bowling alleys, church pews, and airplanes. Sometimes the wood has unique grain patterns which are used for veneers and interior finishing. As firewood, however, ash is mediocre. Also ash is not suitable for outdoor uses as it does not hold up in contact with damp ground. For the herbalist, a white ash leaf rubbed on a bee sting or mosquito bite supposedly relieves the itching. It does appear that ash has touched all of our lives. According to Algonquian Indian folklore, an arrow shot into an ash tree created the human species. The Norsemen and Greeks have similar legends. Perhaps the stuff of legends has to do with the fact that most ashes are large trees and that their wood was associated with weapons and tools. The white ash, although nondescript in many respects, makes a large pleasantly shaped dominant feature on the landscape, whether in the natural environment or cultured. The white ash and other ashes worldwide must have touched the spirit of those early Indians, Norsemen, and Greeks. About sixty species of ash are found worldwide in the North Temperate Zone. Each species has its own differentiating characteristics but all have certain traits in common. Ashes are related to olives, privet, lilacs, jasmine, Chionanthus, and forsythia. To be specific, the ashes belong to the olive family, Oleaceae, many of which are warm temperate or tropical species. In a sense, most ashes are north country cousins, lacking the petaled flowers, fragrance, and desirable fruits of other olive family members. The wood, however, does contain an oil similar to olive oil. White ash is a good coppicing species – it sprouts from the stumps of fallen trees. The roots of the cut trees regenerate shoots at a remarkable rate. Young fast growing trees provide the desired sapwood sought by most ash wood users. The tree also transplants easily and is pH and sun tolerant. Landscapers especially look to the white ash for fast growth in problem areas. To distinguish white ash, Fraxinus americana, look for these tell-tale markers. The compound leaves are pinnate with five to nine (usually seven) wavy edged and stalked leaflets. The leaves are green above and whitish green downy surfaced beneath. The leaves are opposite each other on the stout twigs. Leaf scars are crescent-shaped to semicircular. The flowers are dioecious, with sexes on separate trees. The flowers are petalless and appear before the leaves. The fruit is a single-winged samara, one to two inches long. The white ash covers hardiness zones three to nine and has done well in Europe, as few of our tree species have. The native distribution extends from Nova Scotia to Florida and west into Minnesota and Texas. The best growth is in well-drained, moist and loamy soil. It will exceed twenty feet in twenty years, rapid growth for a hardwood species. White ash in the virgin forest supposedly reached 175 feet. One of the largest presently is located in Palisades, New York, and is 95 feet with a trunk circumference of 25.3 feet.
You know that bees pollinate, but what about mosquitoes and blackflies and such? Well, first of all, only the females bite and suck blood to get the protein they need for egg development. But both males and females eat nectar from flowers to gain energy and nutrients. Getting at that nectar is also the work of pollination, and that makes them pollinators.
With all those bugs, er, “insects” flying and crawling and hopping about us they’re a ready-made subject for a young nature lover to study. For starters, one can begin an insect collection. No need to kill any insects for a collection. Look for dead insects around lamp fixtures and windows. I keep my eye open for dead insects in parking lots and building entryways. Insects hit by cars sometimes get blown off and on to the ground. I’ve found some amazing samples of dragonflies and butterflies that way. Building entries have night lights that draw insects. I once found an incredible sample of a giant water bug in front of a store window that must have died after being attracted to the lights of the store. You can’t pin these insects in the official entomological way, but you can use egg cartons or those candy boxes with a clear plastic top to store them and show off in your insect museum. There are also inexpensive “bug boxes” with a magnifier top, available online. What captures most young entomologists’ interests, though, is catching live insects. Easily done. Go for simple equipment. A four or five-gallon plastic tub to store equipment in also doubles as a holding container for live creepy crawlies. Plastic spoons and small paint brushes can be used to capture individual insects. Repurposed white plastic yogurt, cottage cheese, or other food containers make great capture and observation tools. An old white sheet, inexpensive insect and aquarium nets, or, even better, an old wire mesh kitchen strainer round out the list. And the budding entomologist will eventually want some insect books. The simplest and least expensive are the “Golden Guide” books. Where to catch insects? Well, they are all around us. Any pond or still water area will be packed with all sorts of aquatic insects. Use the kitchen strainers or aquarium nets to scoop up insects hiding in the bottom sediments and floating water plants. Place your scoopings into a water-filled tub and look for creatures swimming about. Capture them with the spoons and paint brushes and place them in white food containers for close study. Check out land habitats for terrestrial insects. Place a white sheet under a bush or the low branches of trees. Shake the branches. Watch for the insects that fall down onto the sheet. Capture them with spoons and paint brushes. Isolate them in food tubs to observe and photograph. Gather up a pile of dead leaves in the forest and spread them out on a white sheet. Look for all sorts of creatures crawling about. If something flies away, I say “no worries”: there’ll be so many more that you’ll have your tubs full before you know it. Use an insect net to sweep into leaves and branches or tall grasses and unmowed areas. Dump your net catchings onto the white sheet or the large plastic tubs and start capturing crawling, jumping and slithering insects. Before you know it, you’ll be doing your own National Geographic insect documentaries! .And there are many other places to see the Landis volunteers in action. As a not-for-profit organization, the Arboretum depends on its volunteers to supplement our limited staff resources for maintenance and improvement of our buildings and grounds.
And volunteers are on the road. Arboretum volunteers are out in the community year-round, sharing information about all things Landis, from our programs and events to our natural beauty and collections. And volunteers work behind the scenes. We build and maintain our website and our social media, design and develop our publications, offer the use of our rustic facilities and green spaces to brides and grooms, and promote Landis as a community resource. Every year Landis celebrates our extraordinary volunteers on a Sunday afternoon in September. Rain or shine, we toast these special people with everything good - food, drink, music, and lots of smiles and conversations. Our annual Volunteer Appreciation Party will be held this year on Sunday, September 29, from 2:00 to 4:00 PM at the Meeting House. No charge: just let us know you are coming at (518) 875-6935 or info@landisarboretum. See you in September – if not before. Contact Anne Donnelly at [email protected] or (518) 875-6935 to find out more about how you can get involved as a volunteer. There's a place for everyone, whatever your talents and interests. And join us for the party! Sadly, gardeners often forget to include the shrub on their list of important plants for fall. The leaves turn a deep, but soft, burgundy which is the perfect companion for an adjacent planting of a fall- blooming perennial with white or pink flowers, or a shrub with chartreuse leaves.
Most experienced gardeners will tell you that fall is an excellent time for planting perennials and woody plants. Landis’ Fall Plant Sale is open to the public on Saturday and Sunday, September 7 and 8, from 10 AM to 4 PM. The members-only “Pick of the Pots” preview party will be held on Friday evening, September 6, from 4 – 6 PM.
The trail also includes a special collection of native ferns, both common and rather rare – “Nan’s Ferns,” Ed dubbed it. Nan remembered that the soil was a challenge and that Ed wielded a mattock so that they could set in some of the specimens. Both Ed and Nan received the Arboretum’s Great Oak Award for their contributions to the Arboretum, Ed in 2014, and Nan in 2018. Nan grew up in rural Massachusetts, immersed in nature even as a child, delighting in wildflowers and wildlife. She has always gardened, admitting that she is often “happiest with her hands in the dirt, seeing something beautiful.” At one time, her entire yard was a perennial garden. Her life is still full of outdoor activities such as hiking, snowshoeing, and skiing. In fact, it was two mutual interests, skiing and botany, that brought Ed and Nan together. An encounter between one of her sons and one of his at a ski resort led the former to say to Nan, “You gotta know Ed Miller. “ Ed was able to identify a rare orchid that she had found. And that, in turn, led to an enduring friendship. It was a friendship in which neither one needed “entertainment,” she said. She remembered that “a hike in the woods was enough for us, or a sunset, or a cloud.” Nan went to college in Boston – “I should have majored in botany, not archeology,” she mused. She settled in the small town of Rowe (population 400) in the northern Berkshires, holding several offices in the town’s government and its historical society, editing two editions of the town’s history, and writing the town’s newsletter. She published a natural history of the area, “Wildside Adventures.” She donated 90 acres of her property to the Franklin Land Trust that is now the “Nan Williams Land Conservancy.” She ran a farm and maintained a herd of Highland cattle. She raised three children. As he aged, her friend Ed had to give up so much: his home, his hiking and skiing, his driving, even, at the end, his newspapers. But he never gave up the Arboretum: “This was his world,” she said. He saw the Arboretum in terms of education – but also treasured it for “appreciation and enjoyment.” He was, she remembered, a born teacher: “He was always inquisitive, always wanted to know more.” Of course, all of these qualities are reflected in his legacy, the Native Plant Trail. Someday, she said, she’d like to finally solve the problems that seem to plague the Bog Garden. It’s been a long lasting battle to keep those plants in good condition. She’s been so busy for so long with the native collections that someday, she confessed, she’d like to see the rest of the Arboretum! Rowe is a two-hour drive from Landis, but it’s a drive she’s made many times and will continue to make as long as she’s able. “I feel like I’ve always been here,” Nan said. Ed loved the Arboretum, she said, and believed that love was “catching.” Nan enjoys the people here, the “energy” of the plant sales, and, on this particular morning, the cheery yellow of marsh marigolds in bloom. Ed planted those in ditches at the Arboretum, she noted, and that thought brought a smile to her face. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), ticks are most active between the months of April and September. The main types of ticks in our region are the American dog tick, the blacklegged tick, the brown dog tick, and the Lonestar tick. Each of them carries an array of pathogens. They live on the ground in areas with thick vegetation and high humidity, which of course includes forests and fields.
First the etymological science. Ticks go through four life stages: egg; six-legged larva; eight-legged nymph; and adult. After hatching from the eggs, ticks must eat blood at each stage in order to move on to the next one. It can take up to three years to complete a full life cycle, and, on an encouraging note, most ticks will die because they can't find a host for their next feeding. All my research sources recommended wearing light colored clothing. Not only is it easier to detect a tick, it also is less attractive to a tick. Long pants, long sleeved shirt, pants tucked into socks. Second was the use of Permethrin. Permethrin is an insecticide in the pyrethroid family. Pyrethroids are synthetic chemicals that act like natural extracts from the chrysanthemum flower. They should not be applied to skin but rather on clothes. More “natural” products can be made with ingredients such as chrysanthemum, 2-undecanone (derived from the stem and leaf of wild tomato), garlic oil, rosemary, lemongrass, cedar, peppermint, thyme and geranium. Both options, synthetic chemicals and the more natural products, will repel ticks. If you are a gardener, you might do several things to keep your property less hospitable to ticks’ survival. Let “neat and tidy” be your motto: keep the grass mown short, the beds weeded, and leaves and dead plant material promptly removed. Be wary of wood stacked outdoors – if possible, move it into full sun. Cedar mulch was mentioned as a natural tick deterrent and a 3 foot border can be created to act as a buffer between the lawn and wooded areas. Also mentioned were the addition of specific plants such as chamomile, lavender, mint, and rosemary to your garden. These plants will help to ward off ticks as well as mosquitos and fleas. I also found wildlife and domesticated birds mentioned as another way to keep ticks away. The best tick predators are opossum, Guinea fowl, and chickens. Other birds, such as wild turkey and birds, are both predators and carriers of ticks. If you feel ticks have already made a home in your garden and you need to decontaminate, I came across a few recipes that are plant, people, and pet safe. Please check out the ‘Rosemary and Cinnamon’, ‘Citrus Fruits Repellent’, and ‘Hot Chili and Garlic Repellent’ recipes at www.sproutabl.com/preventing-and-repelling-ticks-as-a-gardener/. Other great web resources cited in this article are the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at www.cdc.gov, and NY State Department of Health at www.health.ny.gov. Research shows that red dyes in artificial nectar are not good for hummingbirds. Although it’s hard to prove that red dye is bad for them, many wildlife rehabilitators report weakened hummingbirds with red-colored droppings. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology states: “There is very compelling anecdotal information from experienced, licensed rehabbers that hummers who have been fed dyed food have higher mortality and suffer tumors of the bill and liver.”
Even if you skip the dye, there’s another problem with the feeders. They’re not for the lazy. All reputable sources (the Audubon Society, Cornell, and the National Wildlife Federation, for example) agree that the feeders must be properly maintained. You can’t just stick them on the porch and forget them. Since sugary water is an excellent medium for the growth of pathogens, it easily develops mold and mildew. And black mold can cause a horrid infection in hummers. It’s called candidiasis, and it causes a swollen tongue, leading to a death of slow starvation. It can also be transmitted from an infected mother to her young when she feeds them. So, you have to clean the feeder. A lot. Every two days in hot weather. Here’s what one bird seed company’s website advises for each cleaning: “Disassemble the feeder as much as possible so every nook and cranny can be effectively cleaned, and use small scrub brushes to be sure corners and crevices are all cleaned. Allow the feeder to dry completely before refilling, which will help minimize any residual contamination.” Are you kidding me? How many people actually take the trouble to do all that? There are better ways to help the hummingbirds. One way is to provide flower nectar from real flowers. Hummingbirds have excellent color vision and are especially attracted to the color red. Their long beaks are adapted to be inserted into tube-shaped flowers. (I once saw a hummingbird fly over to a wall-mounted fire extinguisher and try to suck nectar from the tube-shaped nozzle.) So when you’re gardening this summer, consider hummingbird favorites: bee balm (Monarda), phlox, geraniums -- anything brightly colored (especially red or pink) with tube-shaped flowers. Also think of hanging baskets with plants such as fuchsia. And it’s not just about the flowers. Hummingbirds don’t live by nectar alone: they also need to eat small spiders and other insects. Leave unmowed spots at the lawn edges where they can get this needed protein. All of those messy-looking patches can be good foraging grounds for a mother hummer looking for nutritious baby food. The more blossoms and bugs there are in your yard, the better chances are that you will be seeing these birds in their miraculous flight. Careful thought and planning can be beneficial to the hummingbirds – and you! Oak wilt is a systemic, lethal disease caused by the fungus Bretziella fagacearu (previously known as Ceratocystis fagacearum). The fungus is spread via root grafts and beetles feeding on sap at open wounds or on the leaves of healthy trees. Once inside the tree, the fungus begins to replicate, eventually preventing the uptake and movement of water. Symptoms of the disease first appear near the top of the canopy. The outside of the leaves turn bronze, brown, or dull green, usually starting at the top of the leaf, while the base of the leaf remains green. Some leaves curl and begin to drop soon after symptoms appear. It is more likely to affect red oak than white oak. An infected red oak typically dies within two months, while a white oak can live with the disease for several years. If infected, a tree will begin to show symptoms in mid-summer. In the past, preventative measures included trenching between tree roots, pruning only during hard winter, and removing diseased trees. Today, focusing on reducing monoculture plantings, restoring soils, and applying fungicides in urban environments are proven to be more effective. It is important to note that there are ways to “control” the disease rather than just “contain” it. Containing it means to create a barrier and hope it doesn’t spread. Controlling the disease takes more effort and involves going within the barrier to remove the oaks, allowing native species to regrow. In essence, you woule remove all oaks, especially in a monoculture setting. Oak wilt could impact Landis. At Landis, we have several species of trees and plants mixed in with our oak forests, which would prove helpful in mitigating the spread of the disease should it occur. While our historic oak collection is at risk as the roots make contact, they are also mature and strong, which might help them survive. Sadly, if oak wilt were to occur at Landis, in essence, we would remove all oaks from our property in order to prevent the spread of the disease to other locations. There is hope, however. Oak wilt was recently found in South Bristol, NY (Ontario County). After removal of infected trees and root trenching efforts to prevent spreading, the disease site is now receiving a clean bill of health. Working together, the Department of Environmental Conservation and the landowner were able to eradicate the disease and prevent neighboring forests from being destroyed as well. We will continue to monitor the situation, continually checking the health of our oaks. While we hope no action will be necessary, we also are committed to preserving the greater forest environment, both inside and outside the Arboretum boundaries. 1 lb fresh spinach, washed and chopped
1-2 carrots, chopped 1 onion, chopped 1-2 turnips or 1-2 parsnips, cut into chunks 1-2 potatoes, cut into chunks 4 cups chicken broth Dill, preferably fresh, to taste Hard-boiled eggs, one per serving Sour cream Place carrot, onion, turnip/parsnip, potato, and dill in a soup pot. Add chicken broth. Bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for about 20-30 minutes. Add spinach and simmer for a few minutes. Serve hot with a sliced hard-boiled egg and a dollop of sour cream. Honey bees are one of 20,000 different species of bees in the world. They are our most important pollinators. The flowers they are attracted to are food sources for them and, in the process of collecting their meals, they spread pollen to other blossoms. The pollination fertilizes the blooms so they will produce fruits, seeds, vegetables, and other food items. For example, while people don’t use the Arboretum’s crab apple orchard as a source of food, plenty of such winter birds as American robins, cedar waxwings, and the occasional flock of pine grosbeak certainly do. These birds are part of a vast food chain. While serving as food for larger predators, they also act as controllers of insects. Small animals also feast on crab apples on the branch or drops on the ground. This food web, a web of life, starts with a pollinating bee.
In a Ted Talk (“Why Are Bees Disappearing?”) by Maria Spivak, we are warned that one-third of the world’s crop production depends on the disappearing bees. There are many threats to the honeybee including varroa mites, pesticides, and in large part, a lack of food. Around the world a dependable succession of edible pollen throughout the growing season is being lost. In a mono-crop culture, bees have access to a single short-term source of pollen; when that crop stops flowering, the food source disappears. So a series of flowering trees and plants are a much more sustainable source of food for our honey producing friends. The collection of flowering plants, shrubs, and trees at Landis offers just what honeybees need. While honey bees and other pollinators have been part of the Landis scene since Fred Lape and his family ran a farm here, it was not until recently that a hive has been re-introduced. Anne Frey, a master beekeeper and former president of the Southern Adirondack Beekeepers Association, maintains a 60-hive apiary and has tutored beekeepers in the area for many years. She was approached by Landis’ Executive Director Fred Breglia about the possibility of establishing a hive or two at the Arboretum as an integral part of the Arboretum’s nature education mission. Having taught several introductory beekeeping courses for the Arboretum, she agreed. According to Anne, the outlook for the Landis honey bees is pretty good. She notes that, although “mites, viruses from mites, and starvation are the main problems here, this past season was very good for nectar and pollen collection. I don’t overharvest. With our area lacking in major agriculture, we hardly have any agricultural chemicals around. The flowers . . . around here are overwhelmingly wildflowers and forest tree blossoms. I think this year there will be two hives, since the first one has grown nicely and can be split.” Jim Paley, who attended one of Anne’s workshops last year, noted that “it really opened my eyes to the life of honeybees and the sophisticated [way] beehives operate.” He added, “I had no idea that honeybees can be fairly docile. In my ignorance, I thought that when a beekeeper opened a hive, the bees would all attack . . . . Anne showed up with a veil and bare arms, no gloves . . . . [W]hen Anne opened the hive . . . pulled out a rack with hundreds of bees on it, and passed the rack around our group, no one got stung!” On your next trip to Landis, make note of the honey bees and their work. The gaily painted hive is on a downslope from the greenhouse and the area is fenced off to allow the bees to do their invaluable work undisturbed. Visitors can watch the activity from a distance; binoculars may be helpful to get a closer look. Or for a first-hand experience, register to take one of Anne’s classes, given this year on May 19th and September 8th. Go ahead: download the UniGuide app from Google Play or the App Store. Once installed, it will show featured tours near your location and their distance from you, arranged by proximity. You’ll discover sites of which you were never aware. There are attractions that are indoors, like the NYS Capitol in Albany or the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA, and outdoors , like Landis and Lisha Kill. Each venue has one or more “stories” which are audio tours of that station. You can download tours in advance, either to prepare for your visit or to avoid problems in areas with spotty cell service.
The UniGuide’s tour of the Landis Arboretum indicates that currently there are 6 stories from which to choose. Story #1 talks about the Farmhouse, barn, and Van Loveland Gardens, then crosses the road and follows the Fred Lape Trail and gives information about the dawn redwood tree. Then story #2 has information about the conifers and other plants found further along the trail. The six stories will eventually lead you past the Meeting House and end at the Bog Garden. Of course, you can visit Landis “virtually” without stepping foot on our grounds, but there is no substitute for a real life visit. Having UniGuide will greatly enrich your experience. More information on UniGuide is available at www.uniguide.me. The school was run by two women from Massachusetts. Each year, they took about twenty children of wealthy parents from the Massachusetts coast and Long Island Sound area, provided each with a horse, and taught them the requisites of lower grade or early high school education. My job would be to ride horses with the children each afternoon and in the evenings to teach a couple of the older ones algebra. For this I would receive the use of a little cabin on the property to live in and my board. I was provisionally engaged. I should come up that afternoon to ride with the children as a tryout.
I had never ridden a horse in my life. My experience with horses was good, but it was with horses hitched to wagons or sleighs. I didn’t even know on which side of a horse one mounted. I went frantically back to Carmel to the man from whom the school hired its horses and explained my predicament. “Give me a gentle horse and do the best you can for me in the hour I still have left.” I pleaded. I can’t remember whether I learned anything about riding in that hour, but I went back to the school at two o’clock, hoping for a miracle. Instead of the gentle horse I had asked for, the owner of the horses gave me a contrary gelding with . . . an aversion to being mounted and an addiction to biting when annoyed. I suppose the man hoped that I would fall off and that would be the end of what he considered a bad risk for the school. But I managed to mount, after some difficulty. Fortunately, the saddles used were western saddles, from which it is hard to fall off, and once in the saddle I managed to get my horse more or less in line for the exercises we were to do. I also managed to keep the horse occasionally in line for the exercises and, at the end of the afternoon, dismounted successfully. The ladies must have been desperate. I was engaged. Then followed two weeks of sore legs and blisters on my rear and my knees. But I was young, with strong legs and arms. The horse ran away with me once, but I got him under control and eventually learned to like him. At the end of three weeks, I could ride reasonably well. The winter in my little cabin beside the Carmel was enjoyable if not productive. In June we took the children back East by train, and I returned to Esperance and to the serious business of writing. In the spring the fields will be wet and muddy. Wear dark colored clothes -- and boots. At the edge of the field, listen for the “peent” song and try to figure out where in the field the male is singing. After several “peents,” you’ll hear the flute-like whistling sounds as he takes flight. You might even see him silhouetted against the darkening sky. While the bird is flying in a large circle high above you, walk carefully in the direction you heard him singing. No need to run. He’ll repeat his song and dance routine several times. The big trick is to stop and stay still before he starts to land. How will you know he’s starting to land? The flute-like flight sounds will change to a slower stuttering warbling. When you hear that change, stop and stand still. If there is a clump of tall plants nearby, hide near that. If you are hidden and stand still, the woodcock will repeat his “peenting” song several times before taking flight. When he does, continue your sneaking up. If you are patient, and good at sneaking up, you’ll be able to get a few arm lengths away from him as he returns after each flight to do his song. If you are that close, you’ll hear him gulp some air that he’ll need to sing his song, just like when you take a breath to sing yourself. George Steele is Nature Educator at Landis and a member of the Board of Trustees. He offers many workshops for children and families with children at the Arboretum, all of which are listed in the 2019 Calendar of Events. Fred and I decided to start on the upper part of the two-mile trail first. The ground was very wet and soggy once we crossed the yellow bridge, so we started laying rocks to step on. The more rocks we laid in place, the better the trail looked -- and our feet stayed dry! After reaching the first long hill, things went pretty well for the next few days. It was mostly raking leaves and sticks and cutting down trees and big limbs, trying to leave the trail as natural as possible. We laid more rock at the stream crossings. As we raked and cut and moved limbs, winding through the forest, we reached the end of the existing trail and the highest elevation of Landis! It was a happy day for us. But we were not done yet, although it was all literally downhill from there. At the point where you cross a field and head into the woods, we cut some steps into the hill for a single file trail. Along the first eighth of a mile, you can hear the water flowing over the top part of the falls, and then you can actually view the stream from just off the trail. Down the hill we went from there. This area gets quite muddy and slippery when it rains, and it rained a lot this fall while we were building the trail. So down we continued. More wet spots. More rocks laid. We finally made our way down to the bottom of the hill, where you will see two waterfalls meeting and flowing into one stream. Across that bottom section, finding the right rocks for dry footing was difficult, so we cut disks out of a downed tree and laid them on the trail. We laid double-stacked culverts and filled in a big crevice to keep hikers from jumping across and possibly spraining their ankles. This was the day we had an extra pair of eyes watching us from the top of a hemlock tree: Mr. Porcupine. He observed us at work all day in between his naps. From here we spent more time raking and moving more rock. On our last day on the bottom we did it: we connected with the Acorn Trail! Together with five volunteers and Fred, we spent a total of 158 hours as I worked towards earning my Eagle Scout rank. My mother, Charlene King, also deserves credit: she was there every day to keep us going. This spring, after the snow melt, the waterfalls will be at their most impressive. It will be a good time to hike the trail. Dahkeya King is a member of Boy Scout Troop 15 in Richmondville, NY. He is a senior at Cobleskill-Richmondville High School. Dahkeya attends Capital Region BOCES at the Center for Advanced Technology at Mohonasen in a welding and metal fabrication course. He plans to join a steamfitters’ or iron workers’ union after graduation. Sue has always been an avid reader, and her reading list is eclectic and all-inclusive. She instilled her love of books in her three children by reading to them from their earliest years on. The Amish barn that houses her antiques business gradually “morphed” into a used book store. Then one year she read the “fine print” on an Arboretum plant sale ad and realized that books as well as plants were a big part of the spring and fall sales. She worked alongside Ken and Marion Hotopp and, as she said, “their spirit rubs off.” Sue became a regular book shop volunteer and Landis enthusiast.
The Hotopps have willingly ceded some of the responsibility for the books sales to Sue, but she said that her mentors Ken and Marion will always remain “the bookies” who began the tradition of book sales at Landis and will remain actively involved in its success. Just last year, the book sale and the raffle (which Sue introduced) brought in over $2000 in revenue for the Arboretum. Volunteering is just who she is, she explained. Her volunteering has run the gamut from Candy Striper in high school to the Elks in her married years, from blood drives to soup kitchens. She served as president of the Jefferson Historical Society and, during the winter months she spends in Florida, she is active in the local Friends of the Library. But her volunteering experience at Landis is different, she said: it’s “ a unique opportunity . . . [at] a very unique place: the level of cooperation is so incredible. There are no demands: whatever you give is appreciated . . . . ” Sue also pointed out that “it boils down to the people. I get the warmest feeling [from them]. I’ve met such a variety of people here, but there is a commonality in gardening and books . . . and protecting the land for future generations.” Sue grew up on what had been a 70-acre farm in New Jersey, and her garden there included both vegetables and perennials. But for more than 40 years, she and her family spent their summers in Jefferson, creating memories that she and the children still cherish. Sue permanently relocated to Schoharie County after her retirement from the legal department at Johnson & Johnson in New Brunswick, NJ – taking care to bring a cutting of a lilac that grew in her grandmother’s garden. Although she has acclimated to life in Upstate NY, she admitted that the short growing season still leaves her with green tomatoes in August! (She has since discovered Shaul’s produce stand.) “I’ve lived a blessed life,” Sue said. She counts the Arboretum as one of her blessings. And we are blessed to have her. |