The meadows at the tops of some higher peaks in the southern Appalachians, locally known as balds, have spawned many theories. Possibly no one explanation fits them all, ranging from lightning fires to soil conditions. One of the more intriguing ideas is cold weather during the Ice Age prevented trees from growing on some summits,… Continue reading Gregory Bald Azaleas
Author: Ruth Happel
Fastest Flower in the East
I first remember seeing mountain laurel as a child on a June visit to my aunt and uncle, at Mohonk Mountain House in the Catskills of New York. We visited at least half a dozen other times over the years to see laurels at peak bloom, alerted by my aunt to especially good seasons. Every… Continue reading Fastest Flower in the East
True Purpose of False Flowers
Last week I mentioned my fondness for true Solomon’s seal. My dad’s early explanation of the names for the true and false Solomon’s seal, suggesting the true was a better plant than the false, imprinted a prejudice that still lingers. This week I worked hard to overcome my bias as the false Solomon’s seal started… Continue reading True Purpose of False Flowers
True or False?
My dad would always bring along his trusty flower field guides when we headed north for the summer. Upstate New York is full of amazing flora, and we found everything from carnivorous plants in lonely bogs to alpine flowers on the highest Adirondack peaks. There were also many flowers we saw each year in the… Continue reading True or False?
April Showers Bring Mayapple Flowers
Thirty years ago, when living in central North Carolina, I went on a fascinating expedition with Stephen Hall. He had recently completed his PhD at the nearby University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. His studies focused on the movement and dietary patterns of box turtles. He described how he tracked their slow but purposeful… Continue reading April Showers Bring Mayapple Flowers
Montrose Memories
Every year around this time, the native dwarf crested iris bloom in my woods. They are most prolific on my steep rocky hill, though also flowering in a few other spots scattered through the forest. In my garden, I am enjoying the flowers of Iris cristata ‘Montrose White’, a domestic variety. It is an elegantly… Continue reading Montrose Memories
Memorial Flower
This week is the culmination of a long wait. Finally, a pinkshell azalea is flowering in my garden. I grew a couple in my first garden in the early 1990s. They grew but never flowered in the five years I was there. I hadn’t tried again in my assorted gardens until last spring. When my… Continue reading Memorial Flower
Dogwood Winter
When I was growing up in suburban New York, my dad seemed especially fond of dogwoods. Though we didn’t have any growing wild on our small lot, he added two of the white native trees and a pink cultivar. This dominated the view out my bedroom window, and their profusion of flowers in spring always… Continue reading Dogwood Winter
Foamflowers
I first became familiar with foamflowers as part of a nature trail my dad maintained in Lake Placid. My mom played in the Sinfonietta there every summer for over 50 years, and when I was a teenager, they bought an old house with a couple acres of mostly woods. As a professor, my dad had… Continue reading Foamflowers
The Cutest Trillium
Trilliums are among the gaudiest flowers in Tennessee forests. With around 50 species ranging from the western US to Asia, the highest diversity is in the southern Appalachians. One of the most recent discoveries was Trillium tennesseense right here in east Tennessee. It was found less than 10 years ago, in a park I hiked… Continue reading The Cutest Trillium