There are great views of distant hills but that isn’t how Distant Hill Gardens gets its name. The property sits up on a knoll which was once called Distant Hill. What started out as 21 acres has now grown to 58 acres and includes its own Christmas tree plantation and a sugar bush that produces plenty of maple syrup each year.
There is a pond on the property along with several vernal pools and a cranberry bog as well.
I think this was the smallest water lily I’ve ever seen. It was a beautiful little thing that would have fit in a tea cup.
My favorite part of the property is the cranberry bog where round leaved sundews, pitcher plants, tawny cotton grass, cranberries, and rose pogonia orchids grow. Originally a pond with a small island, the island has grown into a floating mat of sphagnum mosses that now covers a large area. I’ve never heard of this happening so quickly but it has all happened since Michael and his wife bought the property. Michael figures that nearly a foot of peat has been produced in a little over 30 years, and that is astounding. I’ve always read that peat takes many thousands of years to accumulate.
Technically the bog is really a fen, which has less peat and more plant species than a bog. A boardwalk lets you walk right out into it and get close enough to the plants to touch them.
There were plenty of cranberries to be seen though they were far from ripe at this time of year. When they ripen the Nerries will harvest them.
Tawny cotton grass (Eriophorum virginicum) is really a sedge and has tufts of silky hairs at the end of a long slender stem. These examples were just starting to bloom but as the season progresses the white hairs will grow longer until the whole mass looks like a ball of cotton at the end of a stick. The white hairs are actually the flower bristles and the “tawny” part of this plant’s common name comes from the way they are often tinted a reddish brown coppery color. It was great to be able to see it up close just as it was starting to bloom.
Near the cranberry bog is a seep where all kinds of fascinating things grow. I never would have seen this tiny eyelash fungus (Scutellinia scutellata) without Michael’s help because I have trouble seeing red and it wasn’t much bigger than a pea. This fungus gets its common name from the eyelash like hairs that grow around its rim. You have to look closely at this photo to see them, but they’re there. This fungus seems to like a lot of water; this example grew on a rotting twig that was lying in water. Another common name is Molly eye-winker.
Another oddity that grew in the seep were swamp beacons (Mitrula elegans,) one of the only fungi that I know of that grows in water. They are classified as “amphibious fungi” and use a process called soft rot to decompose plant material in low-oxygen areas. Since they only decompose soft tissue they aren’t found on twigs or bark and this photo shows how they are growing out of a saturated leaf. Another common name is “matchstick fungus” and that’s exactly what they remind me of because they are just about the size of a wooden match. I had never seen this fungus before my visit to Distant Hill Gardens but now I’m seeing them everywhere.
Back in the cranberry bog a clump of northern pitcher plants (Sarracenia purpurea) grew far enough from the boardwalk to be just out of reach. Michael said that these plants were dying and you can see the progression of their death in this photo, from bright red to brown to white, where they finally fall over and lay like sun bleached bones on the reddish moss. He said he suspects that the plants are struggling because the pH of the water has changed slightly. That’s the thing about bogs and fens; the plants that grow in them are very fussy about growing conditions. Everything has to come together perfectly, and that’s why these plants are rarely seen.
Though many bog and fen plants are rarely seen, when they find a spot that they like their numbers can be amazing. Round leaved sundew (Drosera rotundifolia) was a good example of that and grew everywhere you looked. This is another plant that I have trouble seeing due to its color and very small size, but now that I’ve seen them growing naturally I hope to see more. Since bogs and fens are so low in nutrients this plant and others like the pitcher plant have evolved to be insect eaters. By doing so they get all the nutrients they need.
In just a short time at Distant Hill Gardens I saw more than a dozen plants and fungi that I had never seen before, and the high point was the rose pogonia orchids (Pogonia ophioglossoides.) This is a plant that I’ve hoped to find for years so I was very happy to see it. They were there by the hundreds and it looked like the fen was alive with pink butterflies. Michael surprised me by saying that they hadn’t been there but for a few years. Once the island in the pond started to grow and form sphagnum mats the orchids just appeared, as if they had been waiting for just such an opportunity. They were beautiful things and I felt very lucky to be able to get close enough to smell their delicate fragrance.
John Muir once found a rare calypso orchid and wrote “I never before saw a plant so full of life, so perfectly spiritual. I felt as if I were in the presence of superior beings who loved me and beckoned me to come. I sat down beside them and wept for joy.” As I knelt beside the rose pogonia with the water of the fen wetting my knees I knew just how he must have felt.
Life isn’t measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. ~Anonymous
Thanks for stopping in. If you’re able to I hope you’ll visit Distant Hill. It’s an experience you won’t soon forget, of that I am certain.
What a wonderful place and a great pity I live so far across the sea. I’d love to visit it. Strange you should see that insect eaters at almost the same time I saw some in Chelsea. They don’t really grow wild here so I’d never seen them before.
It’s a great place. I met a woman who reads the blog up there yesterday and was surprised to see so many people there. It’s becoming more popular, I think.
It does seem odd that you saw carnivorous plants in the middle of London. They’re rare here; I’ve never seen them before this visit. The people who care for them in the physic garden must really know what they’re doing because they’re very fussy plants.
Wonderful, and I agree about your thoughts of the water lily. For me it is also th color that impresses as I’ve never seen one so yellow… Overall, just a stunning series of shots and you do the Distant Hill garden justice 🙂
Thanks very much. I agree with your thoughts on the water lily. I’ve never seen one so yellow either, or so small.
A magical place. The Sundew and Picture Plants certainly enhance the mystery of it all.
They were great to see!
Such a fascinating place. It is lovely to hear about places which are growing and creating new vibrant environments. Amelia
Thank you Amelia. Yes, the owners give quite a lot of themselves to the community and it’s becoming a popular place to go.
Thanks for showing us these plants and especially the orchids.
You’re welcome Phillip, and thank you. Orchids are a little harder to find here than they are in the U.K.
As usual it was a wonderful follow-along hike. I’ve seen water a similar water lily and haven’t ever seen everything else in the blog! So… I sure enjoyed!
Thanks! I’m glad that you did.
I love water lilies, even the small ones are beautiful. Lots of fascinating finds in this garden.
It’s an amazing place! The great thing about that water lily was its small size. You could have fit several of them in a water feature no bigger than 15 inches across.
That certainly is a beautiful orchid. I am glad that you saw it.
Thanks, me too. I’ve been hoping to for quite a while.
The bog, or fen, reminds me a great deal of Lost Lake in Muskegon State park near me. You have many of the same plants in this post as I see at Lost Lake. I guess that isn’t surprising, the interpretive sign there says that many of the plants at Lost Lake are from the east coast, probably brought to Michigan by birds.
I went looking for the pitcher plants there that I had seen in previous years, but couldn’t find any. At the same time, the pink oogonia orchids have multiplied considerably. It must be that as the PH changes, the pitcher plants die and the orchids move in?
I’m going back tomorrow or Monday, I’ll be keeping an eye out for some of the plants and fungi from your post, that’s for sure.
Thanks Jerry! That’s interesting that many of your bog plants are from here. I never realized that-I always thought the plants you showed on your blog were native to that area.
I’m not sure about the pitcher plant / pogonia orchid interaction but I’m sure the pH of the water has a lot to do with how well they do. One of my orchid books says that rose pogonias often grow in huge colonies of 10,000 or more plants. That must be quite a sight. I saw just a few hundred and it was amazing.
I can’t wait to see what you find. Good luck!
Funny you should say that, I’ve already found whorled milk wort that I’ve been looking for over the past three summers. The sign there at Lost Lake made me think it was a large flower, the entire flower head is really only about the size of a quarter.
I don’t know that I’ve ever seen it myself but I’m glad you found it. There’s no substitute for seeing the real thing. I’m always surprised by how different they are compared to what I thought!
This post has made me wish even more that I could visit this beautiful garden! The Eyelash Fungus and the Swamp Beacons are wonders! So tiny yet perfect in themselves. The orchids are lovely! Your description of them looking like butterflies – gorgeous!
Thank you Claire. You sure could get a lot of ideas for your own garden there, including in and around your pond.
The orchids were beautiful and they did remind me of butterflies. They look so delicate but many of them are fairly tough. This one is one of the few scented orchids that we have.
We don’t have many scented orchids either and I’ve never seen any of them sadly.
I suppose flowers so beautiful don’t need much more than what they have to entice insects.
🙂 Yes that is so.
NHG, I will never see a water lilly again (as if I see so many, more truly I mean pictures of them) and not think of what you said the last time you had a pic of a water lilly: that inside the beautiful white petals was a glowing fire.
Your comment about the rose pogonia orchids that suddenly appeared as if from no where one day when conditions were right reminds me of so much of life: Situations, people, conditions appear when the time is right. MCS
Thank you Mary. The center of a water lily always does remind me of flames, especially in the white ones.
I agree that certain people and events seem to show up often just when we need them most. It’s almost as if it were planned!
Hi Allen: Excellent photos! Following up on our conversation, I will be at Distant Hill Gardens on Sunday, 8/2, arriving about 11 a.m. Paula
Thanks Paula. I should be able to be there then.
A wondrous tour. Thanks, Allen. What a remarkable job the owners have done there. My fave: that orchid.
Thank you Cynthia. The rose polygonia was definitely my favorite too but being able to see any of these plants up close is a rare treat.
What a great place to visit. It is amazing you saw so many plants you hadn’t seen before. I will have to put it on my list of places to visit!
Thanks Laura. I hope you get a chance to see it. It’s a pretty amazing place.
What a wonderful place, I am so glad that you found such a treasure trove of rare plants and took such excellent photographs so that we could enjoy them too.
Thank you Susan. I’m happy that it’s open to the public so we can all see plants that we wouldn’t otherwise be able to.