Name This Plant

Buddies and I were walking in Fort Point State Park in Stockton Springs July 8th when we happened upon this plant which reminded us of Queen Anne's Lace on steroids. We tried using the Audubon New England Nature Guide App to identify the plant to no avail. We then tried the simple key on https://gobotany.newenglandwild.org/ and no items matched our description. Then we googled the phrase "giant Queen Anne's Lace." Aha! We made an immediate match - our plant is giant hogweed. Heracleum mantegazzianum, also known as  cartwheel-flower, giant cow parsnip, hogsbane or giant cow parsley is a plant in the family Apiaceae.  It can grow up to 14 feet high and have flowers that measure a foot across. The plant can cause painful irritation, permanent scarring and, in rare cases, blindness. It is phototoxic which means if you get the sap on your skin  and then expose the skin to light, you may have a  response resembling a third degree burn. Giant hogweed is on the federal invasive list. Next step is to call  the cooperative extension so the plant can be treated by professionals.

Lush-ness

When considering the glass half empty/glass half full debate, I am prone to say I am glad I have a glass. Therefore, I will not enumerate the many days of lower than average temperature this past April and May. And June. I am glad I have a garden. And the plants don't want a sweatshirt and a hat - they are getting taller and wider and greener with the extended Spring. Now the color begins.

The Progress of Seedlings and Cages

Do not be fooled by the white blurs in the background. Yes, there are white bags of yet-to-be-distributed horse manure. But the featured white blobs are sleeping geese. They are pretending to be bucolic. My network of lobster boat propeller cages and topiaries and wastebaskets keeps the geese at bay enough for Great Growth to occur. I thank the gods for the long photoperiod of Downeast Maine which, combined with the recently arrived warmth, grows my garden exponentially each day. Any seedling that is small however needs its own cage to survive.

Not Exactly Waiting

Knowing the forecast held three days of rain, I was active yesterday afternoon and this o'dawn planting my seeds. My perennials continue to thrill me in a very green way - everything in my garden is a shade of green. The weigela has buds, the peonies have buds. Yes, the ladies-in-a-bath and columbine are both actually blooming. But the blooms themselves are sparse and not photo worthy. There is not enough CONTRAST to qualify as color. Then I checked the mail. One side of driveway is spectacular with bunchberry. The other side of my driveway has hints of Indian Cucumber-Root with hundreds to follow. I love Spring. Oh, did you say it's June 4th? I say, "It's Maine."

Gardening in Somewhere Else

I was lucky enough to garden in Atlanta over the Memorial Day weekend and leave my constant highs of low sixties temperatures behind in Maine. All the moonflower seedlings were dutifully planted into the soil and awaited any glimpse of sun and warmth they could get. The moss rose continued to creep millimeter by millimeter closer to the grow light. I wished them well and boarded my plane. Meanwhile, the most superb garden helper in the universe helped me settle in some succulents, verbena, Rudbeckia maxima set off by Juncus fillformis 'Spirilis', and two pots of glorious firecracker plant, Russelia equisetiformis. A picture tells a million words.

Flowers at Last.

May 12, 2014
I hear it's snowing in Denver. I don't have snow but I also don't have soil temperatures above sixty. I did plant the Phlox drummondii seeds by the shed since that bed faces south and receives yet even more heat reflected from the adjacent shed walls. My computer and Shopbot generated trellis got two coats of red paint and was installed behind the weigela which is nicely waking up. The daffodils and jonquils are bloomed and, given the ten day forecast of No Great Heat, I believe will be with me for a nice while. The peonies have stuck their red stalks tentatively into the air and the garden is just a quilt of silvery green and chartreuse foliage. On the wild side, I have seen coltsfoot blooming by the roadside and there are bluets and violets everywhere.

Change

The gate is up and it looks superb but the geese have found an alternative route up to the garden. I have changed their title/job description from Compost Aides to Slug Patrol and that makes it all OK. There are many perennials that they do not nibble on. Therefore, these are the perennials which should grow here and do grow here. The moonflower seeds dutifully sprouted sandwiched between damp paper towels within Ziploc bags and then I planted them into pots. And then, voila - seedlings. Temperatures continue to yo-yo between forty something and fifty something although the Sun fools the weatherpeople and creates bursts of sixty something during my day. Tomas the rabbit is moved from the basement to his garden shed and loves watching the theater of growth and geese. At least, that's what I imagine he thinks.