Such a pretty spring flower

Oh my, it smells like rotting flesh!

The Paw paw is in flower and it's only taken 6 years. Not just one flower, there are two. There's little hope for fruiting, the flowers are on the same plant, but, I remain hopeful that a Zebra swallowtail will show up!

The back story (from earlier post)

Everything I knew about Paw-paws I learned from Captain Kangaroo...seriously. Back in TV land in the mid-fifties the Captain invited us to sing along and mime picking up Paw-paws and putting them in a basket. I hadn't the faintest idea he was talking about a fruit, actually a giant berry, but, I remember loving the game.

That was the last I heard about Asimina triloba or Common Paw paws until I became a native plant gardener and began learning to identify native wildflowers and trees. After a small patch was pointed out to me on a trail at Edwin Warner park my interest grew. Paw paws are not only a charming looking understory tree, but, it has good wildlife value for critters. It's a favorite host plant (larvae feed on the leaves and flowers) of the zebra swallowtail butterfly in the southeastern states and its only host plant for more northern locations. The fruit of the Paw paw is also eaten by forest mammals. But, it wasn't until my friend Terri Barnes of GroWild shared a few with me that I had any idea how wonderful they tasted~ a sweet, custard flavor that's quite hard to describe.

Beautiful in fall

A good looking tree and a good food source for critters~including humans! I had to have them in my garden. My friend Joanna (also a Tennessee Naturalist) told me about a local tree sale that was selling Paw paws and other native trees. Of course I bought one. I planted that seedling one spring day and then I planted a Paw paw patch!

Okay, patch might be too strong a description, but, I planted more Paw paws.

The Paw paw patch
A friend and I dug six small clonal divisions from his large Paw paw patch. Those divisions spent the rest of spring, summer and early fall in a nursery bed. They were watered regularly during the hot, dry summer and were planted about 10 feet from the other seedling in hopes that any flowers produced would be pollinated by flies and other pollinators attracted to their flowers' rotting flesh fragrance!

Paw paws don't self-pollinate, they spread clonally/vegetatively. No matter how big the patch gets, they still need Paw paws that are not part of its clonal group for pollination. Hopefully, my little patch will produce smelly flowers that will attract flies and beetles and Paw paw fruit will be in my future. (for more about flies go to: We can't all be pretty pollinators)


I broke these Paw paw rules and so should you: One, they're divisions and Paw paw divisions usually fail when transplanted; two, I planted in the fall and recommended planting is spring; three, this garden is any thing but a Paw paw's preferred growing site~i.e. well-drained, deep, fertile bottom-land.

Here's what I did:

1. Dug them in April from an established patch.
2. Planted them immediately into the kiddie pool nursery bed in a mixture of leaf mold, soil conditioner, compost and two bags of Complete Landscape Mix (expanded shale for drainage).
3. Watered and nurtured them
4. Planted them in mid-November in a part of the garden with deeper, rich soil, on a well draining slope near a water source. I planted them at the same depth they were growing in the kiddie pool using the soil they were grown in, taking special care with the fibrous roots, then watered them in well and mulched with leaf mold and fallen leaves to mimic their native habitat. 
5. Continued to water and nurture them through middle Tennessee brutal summers.

About Paw-paws, in case you wondered.
The Common Paw paw is the northernmost New World representative of the Annonaceae tropical family. It's called a "tropical fruit for the temperate area". It's a lovely understory tree with big leaves and large greenish-blackish fruit. Inside is a delightful tasting fruit that's pale to dark yellow with a network of dark seeds. The taste has been described as a banana-mango-pineapple~I don't know, I just thought it was good.

fruit

Asimina triloba is native to the eastern US from the great lakes all the way to the Gulf coast and west into Tennessee where I live and garden. It's found naturally growing in the hills around my neighborhood where it gets the excellent drainage it requires. Grown in full sun it will develop a narrowly pyramidal shape with dense, drooping foliage down to the ground level. Although, it's reported to fruit better in full sun it needs shade and protection from winds its first two years. Remember to plant two trees so they can cross pollinate and please don't dig them from the wild.

If you're fortunate and have generous friends you might try a Paw paw experiment like mine. What have you got to lose! I celebrate my two flowers. They encourage me to continue to break the established horticulture rules and I encourage you to keep breaking them, too.

xoxogail

Gail Eichelberger is a gardener and therapist in Middle Tennessee. She loves wildflowers and native plants and thoroughly enjoys writing about the ones she grows at Clay and Limestone. She reminds all that the words and images are the property of the author and cannot be used without written permission.

Baptisia and the Skipper

Silver Spotted Skipper nectaring on Baptisia sphaerocarpa.

Rita Veneble calls this skipper a Music City butterfly because it has guitars on the wings! I have to agree with her description~Just check out those bright white patches on the hindwings!

Legumes are its host plant, in fact you might find cats on any number of members of the Fabaceae family.  Females lay pumpkin shaped green eggs near host plant leaf tops and the hatched cats have to find their way to the host plant! Young caterpillars live inside of folded leaves, as they age they make a nest of silked together leaves. Chrysalids hibernate and emerge in the spring.

Adults perch upside down on the underside of leaves at night and on hot days

Silver Spotted Skippers aren't the only butterflies in my garden~But, they and other skippers might just be my favorites. Who could be immune to the charms of these big eyed critters that visit our gardens all summer and into the fall. Certainly not me! Skipper is the perfect name for these fast, agile, erratic fliers that seem to skip from flower to flower.

They look more like moths than butterflies, but, they are indeed butterflies. Skippers are small to medium, usually orange, brown, black, white, or gray. Some are brighter or iridescent colored. They all have those large eyes (even their caterpillar has a large head), short antennae (often with hooked clubs), stout bodies, and three pairs of walking legs. Adults of most species have a long proboscis and feed on floral nectar.

Skippers are members of the Superfamily Hesperioidea. We have about 275 in North America, where I live in Middle Tennessee, we have approximately 50 different skippers. I am thrilled to be able to identify three of them!

I'm not too concerned about not being able to identify them. I do know, that I want them in my garden. They are important plant pollinators (although, pollination is incidental); they are part of the garden food chain, as consumers and food; and, because of their sensitivity to environmental toxins they are an important indicator species of ecosystem health. If you have an abundance of skippers and butterflies~you probably have a healthy garden habitat.

Now, I am going to the garden to inspect the legumes for folded leaves and check for cats!

xoxogail

Gail Eichelberger is a gardener and therapist in Middle Tennessee. She loves wildflowers and native plants and thoroughly enjoys writing about the ones she grows at Clay and Limestone. She reminds all that the words and images are the property of the author and cannot be used without written permission.

Winged Elm

The morning light was still gray when I climbed the ladder to try to get a photo of the twig with its corky ridges. Ulmus alata is the botanical name and those corky, ridged wings on young stems are a hallmark of this native of tree. 

Winged Elm is a fast growing deciduous tree endemic to the woodlands of the southeastern and south-central United States. Elms are host plants to over 200 butterfly and moth species (think important bird food) and squirrels and chipmunks eat the nutlets of the samaras.  It has delightful early spring blooms that pop against a blue sky, but, today they're a silhouette promise of what's to come.

xoxogail


Gail Eichelberger is a gardener and therapist in Middle Tennessee. She loves wildflowers and native plants and thoroughly enjoys writing about the ones she grows at Clay and Limestone. She reminds all that the words and images are the property of the author and cannot be used without written permission.

A Swallowtail Stopped By

To nectar on the Butterflyweed.

Forewing with diagonal band of yellow spots. Tails are edged with black and filled with yellow

I waited patiently for it to stop flitting and pose prettily with wings fully spread, but, it was feasting madly.

It superficially resembled an Eastern Swallowtail while gliding about, but once it settled on the Asclepias tuberosa, it was clear that it was not one of my regular garden visitors. The coloring was wrong and it had an unusually large wing span. I was pretty sure it was a Giant Swallowtail and just as I've read, that first sighting was dazzling! (go here for more images)

What a beauty and the 6.3 inch (16cm) wing span makes it the largest North American butterfly.

Speaking of North America, the Giant Swallowtail is on the move. It's moving further north and further west! In the last few years it's been spotted in Los Angelos, CA and Ontario, Canada. You might want to check out this article about its migration to Canada.

The Giant Swallowtail Butterfly/Papilio cresphontes' flight is a graceful series of strong flaps and long glides. It spends its time on the wing, nectaring or patrolling for mates (if male). It's welcome in most gardens, but, is considered a pest in Florida where citrus trees are its chosen host plant. Once they mate the female lays one bright orange egg on a host plant~here in Middle Tennessee it's either the Prickly Ash tree/Zanthoxylum americanum or the Hop Tree/Ptelea trifoliata, when the egg hatches the caterpillars, which resemble bird droppings, begin to eat the leaves and young shoots. (If you want to see the larva that looks like bird poo go here!)

 

It might not be welcome in a Florida citrus grove, but, it's more than welcome to stop by my garden and nectar all it wants, after all, I garden for wildlife.

xoxogail

Gail Eichelberger is a gardener and therapist in Middle Tennessee. She loves wildflowers and native plants and thoroughly enjoys writing about the ones she grows at Clay and Limestone. She reminds all that the words and images are the property of the author and cannot be used without written permission.

A Few Good Reasons To Plant Milkweed

Danaus plexippus

You will soon discover Monarch cats dining at the asclepias table! In this case A incarnata or Swamp Milkweed is hosting the dinner. You may have your own favorite milkweed to serve, but, here at Clay and Limestone, A incarnata has passed the test and is bringing diners in at an astonishing pace.

Proving that if you plant it they will come; and, there won't just be one of them, but many.

They are fascinating looking critters.

The caterpillar/larva are banded with white/cream, black, and yellow stripes.

It has three pairs of thoracic legs and five pairs of prolegs.

It has 2 pairs of sensory tentacles, one pair on the head and another pair near the end of the abdomen.

Soon~They'll stop eating and attach themselves, head downward, to a nearby twig; shed their outer skin; and, transform to a chrysalis. That transformation takes a few hours. I will be watching to see when the chrysalis process begins, so we can then watch the cat pupate to butterfly!

Isn't nature miraculous and amazing!
xxoogail

PS Because it bears repeating, if you want pollinators in all stages of their life cycle~plant host plants and never, never, never, ever use pesticides. I do mean never.


This post is also part of a series on native pollinators in the garden~ Earlier posts and their links are listed below for your convenience.

Part I~Now Is The Time To Bee-gin Thinking About Bees ( here)
This Is The Place To Bee ( here)
If You Could Plant Only One Plant In Your Garden~Don't (here)
Must Bee The Season of The Witch (here)
Go Bare In Your Garden (here)
We can't All be pretty Pollinators (here)
Eye, Eye Skipper, Big Eyed Pollinators (here)
What's In Your Garden (here)
Carpenter Bees (here)
Got Wildflowers?(here)
It's Spring and A Gardener's Thoughts Are On Pollinators (here)
The Wildflower and The Bee (here)

Other bee posts you might want to read~
Count Yourself Lucky To Have Hoverflies (here)
Bumblebee Hotel (here)
Still Taking Care Of Bzzness (here)
My Sweet Embraceable You (here)


This post was written by Gail Eichelberger for my blog Clay and Limestone Copyright 2011.This work protected under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Please contact me for permission to copy, reproduce, scrape, etc.