More Signs of Spring
March 18, 2020 by New Hampshire Garden Solutions
Last week we had enough warm days to melt just about all the snow and then we had a rainy day on top of it, so the Ashuelot river was filled nearly to bankful. The word “Ashuelot” is pronounced Ash-will-ot if you’re from this area or Ash-wee-lot if you’re from away. The word is a Native American one meaning “collection of many waters,” and that’s exactly what it is; in Keene and surrounding towns all the streams and tributaries empty into this river, so it can fill quite fast.
I was able to practice my wave catching skills at the river in Swanzey. Nothing teaches you that a river has a rhythm more than trying to catch a curling wave in the viewfinder of a camera. The trick is to match your rhythm to the river’s. Too fast or slow with the shutter release and you’ve missed it.
Blueberry buds are swelling and the bud scales are starting to pull back a little but it will be a while before we see leaves on them. Blueberries are everywhere you look here and many birds and animals (and humans) rely on a good crop each year. Most years nobody is disappointed. Native Americans called blueberries “star berries” and used them medicinally, spiritually, and as food. One of their favorite uses for them was in a pudding made of dried blueberries and cornmeal.
This is the first time an annual chickweed has appeared on this blog in March but some varieties of the plant are said to be nearly evergreen in milder climates, and we’ve had a mild winter. I think this one is Common chickweed (Stellaria media,) a very pretty little thing to see in March. And it was little; this blossom could easily hide behind a pea. I’ve read that chickweed is edible and is said to be far more nutritious than cultivated lettuce.
Ground ivy (Glechoma hederacea) has suddenly appeared here and there but I’m not seeing a lot of blossoms just yet. Soon I’ll be seeing flowers by the hundreds in some places. It’s a pretty little thing which can also be invasive, but nobody really seems to care.
I thought I saw a lot of frog eggs in this small pond but I couldn’t get a good shot of them. I left the photo in anyway though, because I liked the colors and because I wanted to tell you that spring peepers, the tiny frog with a loud voice, have started to sing. I heard them just the other day and it was a very welcome song.
There is yellow hidden in the willow catkins and I’m guessing that I’ll see flowers this weekend.
There just happened to be a poplar tree beside the willow and it too displayed its fuzzy catkins.
Red maples (Acer rubrum) have responded to the warm temperatures in a big way and though last week I saw a blossom here and there, this week I’m seeing them everywhere. This photo is of the sticky, thread like female stigmas that catch the pollen from male trees. Soon they will become seeds; many millions of them.
Last week I saw no male red maple blossoms but this week I saw thousands, and many were already producing pollen. This usually happens in mid-April, so this year they’re about a month early.
Virtually every part of the beautiful red maple tree is red, including the male stamens.
Male and female red maple flowers often grow on the same tree but this is only the second time I’ve ever seen them grow out of the same bud cluster as these were doing. Just when you think you have nature all figured out it throws you a curve ball.
Last week I looked at this spot and didn’t see a single sign of reticulated iris (Iris reticulata) but this week there was a basket full of them. What a beautiful color. They are also called netted iris; the “reticulata” part of the scientific name means “netted” or “reticulated,” and refers to the netted pattern found on the bulbs.
Each petal wore a pretty little badge. If I understand what I’ve read correctly reticulated iris flowers are always purple, yellow and white, but the purple can be in many shades that vary considerably.
But here was a very pretty little reticulated iris that looked blue to me and in fact my color finding software sees several shades of blue. Apparently this plant didn’t read what I read about them always being shades of purple.
I saw a different vernal witch hazel (Hamamelis vernalis,) much wilder looking than most of the restrained blossoms I see in spring. Quite often plant breeders have to sacrifice something when they breed for larger or more colorful blossoms, and often what is sacrificed is scent. I think that was the case with this plant because its scent was very weak. Many vernal witch hazels have a scent strong enough to be detected from a block away.
Hundreds of crocuses bloomed in one of my favorite color combinations.
Oh to be a bee, just for a day.
The fuzzy bud scales of magnolias are opening, revealing the buds within. Though the flowers of this one are white its buds are yellow.
American hazelnut catkins (Corylus americana) have taken on their beautiful golden spring color but the tiny male flowers aren’t showing quite yet. The catkins have lengthened and have become soft and pliable in the breeze though, so It won’t be long.
Tiny little female American hazelnut flowers are all over the bushes now so it looks like we’ll have a good crop of hazelnuts again this year. Native Americans used these nuts to flavor soups and also ground them into flour. In Scotland in 1995 a large shallow pit full of burned hazelnut shells was discovered. It was estimated to be 9,000 years old, so we’ve been eating these nuts for a very long time.
Yes that’s a dandelion. A lowly, hated weed to some but in March, to me it is as beautiful as any other flower I’ve seen. I hope you can see the beauty in it too.
The spring came suddenly, bursting upon the world as a child bursts into a room, with a laugh and a shout and hands full of flowers. ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Thanks for coming by.
Posted in Nature, Wildflowers | Tagged American Hazelnut Catkins, American Hazelnut Flowers, Ashuelot River, Canon EOS Rebel T6, Common Chickweed, Crocuses, Dandelion, Early Spring Plants, Ground Ivy Blossom, Highbush Blueberry Buds, Keene, Magnolia Bud, Native Plants, Nature, New Hampshire, NH, Olympus Stylus TG-870, Poplar Catkins, Red Maple Flowers, Reticulated Iris, Spring, Swanzey New Hampshire, Vernal Witch hazel, Willow Catkins | 33 Comments
With all those blossoms, I’m surprised you didn’t get a shot of a pollinator! 🙂
There were very few flying at that point but now I’m seeing insects everywhere!
Wonderful collection of shots.
Thank you Ben. I hope you’re seeing plenty of blossoms where you live!
Things seem a little behindhand probable due to all the rain and wind storms we’ve been having.
I think you’ll catch up!
Let’s hope so. 😀
A beautiful spring post, Allen! I love reticulated iris and to see so many together is very special. I also have a number of blue reticulated iris, some a very pale sky-blue.
Take care of yourself, my friend.
Thank you Clare. I hope you and your family are safe and will continue to be so. They’ve cancelled all schools and universities here and I thought of Elinor and Alice when I heard that, because I thought the same might happen there.
We’ll get through it if we pay attention to the doctors and scientists.
Those are beautiful, uplifting spring photos, Allen! I too, have read chickweed is edible, and like purslane, more nutritious than lettuce.
Thank you Lavinia. I’ll have to try it one day!
So much to see outside on our daily walks! And I never knew there was an alternative pronunciation to “Ash-will-ot” before. 🙂
Thanks Cathy, I hope you’re seeing all these blossoms and more!
I’ve heard Ashuelot pronounced both ways for years. I really don’t know which one is the Native pronunciation.
Spring is such a happy time of year. And it certainly is early this year!
Yes! I saw dandelions blooming in February.
Nice work on the wave catching. Your signs of spring are very cheering.
Thank you. The weather is very up and down and changeable so I think everything is getting a bit confused, but more flowers are coming along.
Wow! What a bounty of spring flowers and buds. Thank you for sharing. I know spring bulbs and flowers are blooming in the nearby city, but out here in the country, we’re having to make do with the blooms of snowdrops! Still, it’s nice to see. This is the hopeful time of year and since many of us are forced to stay inside, we look forward to early spring flowers.
Thank you Cynthia. I think the best thing about spring this year is how it might make people want to get outside where they are not so close to each other. I’m certainly enjoying being outside!
Lovely. Thank you for your posts during this difficult time.
You’re welcome Adrian, I’m glad you enjoyed it!
What a cheerful lovely post, Allen!I think we’re all needing that. Forecast is for 76° here Friday, then 27° overnight Saturday. The pendulum is still swinging widely (or is that ‘wildly’). That Longfellow quote is so on the mark, huh? Yay!! It’s SPRING!
Thank Ginny! I think it’s “wildly” but whatever it is ours is swinging the same way.
But we still have more flowers coming and right now that’s what is important to me!
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your beautiful photographs and your gentle words. It is especially appreciated right now as a reminder that even as we work our way through C-19, the world continues to turn and bring with it the joys of spring.
Thanks too for the wonderful quote from Wordsworth. Just perfect!
You’re welcome, and thank you very much. I don’t believe that we have to suffer as long as we follow the instructions and use common sense. I think we can still have a very enjoyable life, even when it does have to change some. I hope you can get outside and see some flowers in person!
Spring clearly has arrived to judge from your beautiful photos of the buds of different plants, some of which we have here (Thanks, Europe!).
Ah, the dandelion, of which we also have the common and false variety! How could people not like them? You can enjoy their beauty while eating them.
Yesterday I was roaming the RR tracks of my nearby town. (Some young winos were watching me. One curious woman, about 35, sincerely tried to help, so for her trouble I gave her 500 pesos, about 75 cents.) I was looking for a particular nightshade, Solanum, that I had seen the day before growing in a vacant lot in downtown Valdivia. I wanted to pull up its roots to see if it had little tubers, in which case if it did, it would be the ancestor of our potatoes, S. maglia (https://images.app.goo.gl/ENWAPeACtMruiFEcA), common in S. Chile, or if it didn’t, it would be S. nigrum ( https://images.app.goo.gl/XPf1pdAhLyj4tXbm9)
Well, I found a different Solanum, some chicory ( https://images.app.goo.gl/eq28Uc8Ebup5HxrDA), and a beautiful blue-flowering plant with long red stamens I hadn’t seen before, “Viper’s bugloss”(https://images.app.goo.gl/1BFtxit1tWhBjX4s9). Strange name.
Anyway, I left and took the bus to Valdivia. The bus service in Chile is fantastic! I went to the vacant lot near the plaza and began roaming among that mystery species of nightshade and the trash taking photos and pulled up two plants. Many Chileans walked by perhaps wondering “What makes that weedy, trashy lot so interesting? Is he looking for scraps of food or a little wine left over in a bottle?”
Well, there were no tubers. What a relief! I could now identify it for sure as black nightshade, Solanum nigrum, on the HVAA data base.
“That’s my story, Allen, and I’m stickin’ to it!”
On Wed, Mar 18, 2020, 5:09 AM New Hampshire Garden Solutions New Hampshire Garden Solutions posted: ” Last week we had enough warm days > to melt just about all the snow and then we had a rainy day on top of it, > so the Ashuelot river was filled nearly to bankful. The word “Ashuelot” is > pronounced Ash-will-ot if you’re from this area or Ash-wee-lot if you’” >
Thank you Ron, you’re very lucky to live in such a place!
At work there is an old flower pot outside and one fall all of the sudden a plant came up in it. I was finally able to identify it as black nightshade because of the black berries, but that’s odd because I’ve never seen it here. It was quite small but I think that’s because of the size of the pot.
I’ve never seen Viper’s bugloss either but I’d love to find it. It’s a pretty flower.
Do you think seed from the black nightshade came in your soil?
I’m not sure, I don’t know where the soil (or the pot) came from. It was there when I started there years ago!
Maybe a bird.
Yes, we have lots of them there.
What a colourful post so good to see in these confused times, thank you very much for going out and taking all those beautiful pictures. May you and your family come through unscathed from this horrible virus.
Thank you Susan. Nothing is more calming than flowers, in my opinion. My children are young enough to breeze through it, so I hope we’ll be fine.