Author: Ruth Happel

I have always been fascinated by animals. It took longer for my interest in plants to develop, though my dad and his sister were both very focused on flora. As a kid, they would convince me to join their nature walks with the promise we might see a turtle. Inevitably we only saw flowers, and… Continue reading Box Turtle Feast

On summer hikes in the forests of upstate New York, my dad and I would frequently encounter a beautiful billowing pink cloud of blooms. He introduced me to Joe Pye Weed, pausing between each word, and pronouncing it in a deliberate way. It reminded me of how he introduced a friend, formally including the middle… Continue reading Joe Pye Weed

Though most people think of orchids as denizens of tropical forests and grocery stores, they are quite common in my yard. The cranefly orchid first makes its presence known in autumn and winter with two toned leaves that are green above and purple below. Each plant has just one leaf, which persists through the coldest… Continue reading Cranefly Orchid

When I first moved here over a decade ago, there was a patch of swamp milkweed growing wild along the driveway, at the edge of the creek. As a park was developed upstream, plans included shifting the flow of the creek and since then this patch has died out. Fortunately, I still have fourleaf milkweed… Continue reading Fuel For Monarchs

I have been fascinated by these ethereal flowers for a long time. On hikes in the Adirondacks, I would often find large clusters of them growing deep in the north woods. I’ve also seen them in nearby parks, but this year is the first time I’ve seen them in my yard. The cluster in my… Continue reading Ghost Flower

Growing up, before knowing how they were taking over the country, I loved honeysuckles. As a child, I enjoyed sipping the flowers, a tiny taste of honeyed sweetness. In middle and high school they always flowered around the time I was taking my final exams, and after hours of study I would step out into… Continue reading Major Wheeler Honeysuckle

Although most of my garden is either native with plants growing wild here, or introductions I have made with plants that would grow here if it was a less disturbed forest, occasionally I add plants that have value either to pollinators or to my preferences, or both. Growing up I remember fondly a small stand… Continue reading Diving Into Summer

My garden is designed to create a welcoming habitat for a variety of wildlife, so I was pleased this week to have an amphibian visitor, this pickerel frog. My love of frogs goes back to early childhood. My father, aunt and I would make an annual pilgrimage to the swamps of upstate New York in… Continue reading Pretty But Poisonous

Black cohosh is flowering now in my forest, apparently enjoying the string of 90-degree days and high humidity as summer approaches. It has an assortment of colorful names. My favorite is fairy candle, because when the last light hits them in the forest they seem lit up like fanciful candles. My first memory of this… Continue reading Fairy Candle

The first time I remember seeing wandflower was at Duke Gardens. I was visiting there with my aunt and uncle, who retired to Durham while I was living nearby. I would go on walks and hikes with them every weekend for the four years we overlapped, except in summer when they escaped the North Carolina… Continue reading Wandflower