Turks Caps are easy to grow from the little red apple-looking seed pods they put out in late fall. I have verified that through an experiment I decided to undertake last December 2022.
I harvested the seed pods from a very large, pink Turks Cap at the El Camino Real Master Naturalist Wildscape at the Bird and Bee Farm on FM 334 with the hope of growing some in my yard. Turks Caps naturally have a vivid red flower. These had been modified to bloom a light pink. The one at the wildscapesits right next to an even bigger Red Turks Cap.
I googled how to process the seed pods. It was recommended to put them in the refrigerator whole until late February or early March. In late February of 2023, I then did as recommended and removed the seeds from the red pod. Each pod produced quite a few seeds. I planted 16 of them in seed starter packs. I should add that I also took a baby plant from the Pink Turks Cap and put it in a pot at the same time I took the seed pods. I planted one full pod in the flower bed where I intended to put all of them. It is a heavily shaded bed which Turks Caps are known to like. The potted one was getting 6 hours of sun a day.
All of them grew. The potted one grew very tall since it had a head start, I think, and bloomed a lot. Butterflies and bees are very fond of the blooms. I moved the starter plants to a flower bed in my front yard in late March. The full pod plant grew at a faster pace than the seeded plants, but all of them did grow. They grew the most in the shadiest part of the bed.
The whole pod plant bloomed first of the ones in the bed. About half of the others bloomed in the fall. The blooms were all pink – at first. To my surprise, I went to water them one day, and one in the shadiest part of the bed was also blooming red at the same time it was blooming pink. The potted plant had pink blooms throughout the season. The others native gene pool came through. It would appear that they can be planted in any manner I tried.
All of them were still alive up to the freeze. I fully expect them to come back in the spring – even a small one my son weedeated down because he thought it was a weed. It re-sprouted quickly. What I really want to see is what color they bloom.
On Christmas Eve I walked around outside after we had three inches of rain during the night. I wanted to see what everything looked like. The sun was out.
I found a little Black Oil Sunflower blooming that had been dropped by a bird. It was right beside one of my bird feeders. Nothing else blooming but that little flower.
Of course, the warm weather and rain has made many Gulf Coast Fritillaries wake up from their winter nap too early. But this one little flower held the hope of a much-needed sip of nectar.
The flies and bees were also trying to be first in line for a drink. I wish I had more for them.
Maybe they will be lucky and find more flowers in the fields around our home.
It is always amazing to see nature at work. Who are you gardening for?
Yes, it’s misting and chilly outside this morning. The trees love it.
The holidays are close and there is excitement in the air.
There are also some little gems still out in the garden that are so beautiful. Soon, they too will slip slowly into their winter nap.
Here are some of the gems: a Snailseed vine, a water bowl for the dragonflies, raindrops on a pipevine, a Pink Salvia, a Mexican Petunia, some Yellow Bells, and a rare Salamander.
Go outside and find all the treasures of Mother Nature. She is always there for us to see, and make us feel better.
Usually, I’m the one editing and uploading blog posts for other people, but today I have time to write my own post for this blog. If you live in Milam County, Texas, there’s a very good chance you’ve had some rain over the past few days, very welcome rain, in fact, even if some of us got a lot very quickly.
It’s been wet.
Where I live, at the Hermits’ Rest Ranch in northwest Milam County, we got close to six inches of rain. That’s how it goes here these days, months of drought followed by a big flood. I was expecting it.
Our spring is now springing anew.
It’s also autumn, and since I’m not one of those people Donna wrote about yesterday who think there’s nothing going on in nature this time of year, I thought the days after a big rain would be the perfect time to see what’s blooming or seeding, who’s flying around, and who’s up and about after a rain. Since one of my hobbies is documenting what flora and fauna are around at different times of year on this property, I knew it would be a good idea to document what’s here on iNaturalist (you don’t get Master Naturalist hours for work on your own property, but I’m fine with that, since this is my own research).
That’s an overfull tank!
As the title of this post hints, I found most of my interesting sightings on the ground. Looking down will quickly dissuade you of any notion that nothing’s blooming, growing, and reproducing this time of year. The very first thing I found on the ground was my favorite: this gorgeous leopard frog. I didn’t get a side view, so I can’t tell if it’s a Rio Grande one or a regular one, but it’s pretty.
It’s a big one, too.
As I walked down to my front pond, I saw another resident out of its usual watery location, this pond slider, who must have been going from the back pond to the front. There are so many of these in there, and I bet the flooding moved them around a bit.
Trachemys scripta
Once the sun came out, so did the butterflies and moths. I’m transfixed by the Ceraunus blues (Hemiargus ceraunus) and was really pleased to find them drying off their wings so I could see the blue part when they were sitting still, for once. But I also enjoyed the many sulphurs (not pictured, as they are blurry), Gulf fritillaries (Dione vanillae) and pearl crescents (Phyciodes tharos). There were also monarchs, who refused to pose, and lots of skippers.
Blue wings showingUsual view of ceraunus blueGulf fritillaryPearl crescentSorry they are blurry. Pretty sure they’re fiery skipperes.Lunate zale moth (Zale lunata)
Speaking of flying insects, there are also dozens of dragonflies and damselflies out scarfing up meals. Saddlebags, pond hawks, pink ones, and red ones all flitted by me. But these are the two that sat still briefly.
Variegated meadowhawk (Sympetrum corruptum), who blends with rocksThe common familiar bluet (Enallagma civile)
And for our pal Eric, I documented some spiders, including a rabid wolf spider mama and my bold jumping spider buddy who lives in my mailbox. There are also many orb weavers out, including these orange ones that may be spotted orb weavers, but I can’t get close enough to get a good photo.
Rabidosa rabida and egg sacOrb weaver in the airThat’s an orb weaver web, all rightHey, Suna, would you get the ants out of your mailbox?
Not a great photo of a pipit.
Of course, this is a great time of year for birds, and this is one time when it’s just fine to look up. After all, birds can be found in the water, on the ground, in the bushes, in trees, on poles, and in the air. I’ve been having a blast with the Merlin Bird ID app on my phone, which has helped me a lot with figuring out all the different sparrows and sparrow-esque birds out in our fields. I say “sparrow-esque,” because just this week I realized one confusing sparrow was, in fact, a pipit. (The link goes to my personal blog post about the birds.) Once Merlin identified it and told me what to look for, I could easily identify it from both sight and sound (and a lovely sound it is).
The list of actual sparrows I have seen and heard includes way more than the annoying house sparrows that have invaded from Europe! Here’s a list:
Clay-colored sparrow
Harris’s sparrow (seen in the winter, not now)
Lark sparrow (bigger ones)
Savannah sparrow
Swamp sparrow
Vesper sparrow
These are probably phoebes, but may be kingbirds. Darn that phone camera.
That’s a lot of sparrows. Added to that are the two kinds of wrens and the amazing meadowlarks (I could listen to those guys all day), and there is a lot of brown to go around. I almost forgot the killdeer. You can’t really forget them, because they never shut up. Between the killdeer and the crows, it can be hard for poor Merlin to hear the more delicate bird calls. The crows have much to tell each other, though I do enjoy all their different kinds of calls and other vocalizations.
Also quite vocal are the loggerhead shrikes and the phoebes. You can’t miss them. Plus, the shrike leaves tell-tale evidence.
A dragonfly captured and impaled by a loggerhead shrike.
You’d think I was done with the birds, but no way. We have large flocks of cardinals here, many warblers (this week the yellow-rumped are around), starlings, grackles, and three kinds of woodpecker (downy, red-bellied, and pileated).
There were two more cardinals on the same fence.
And then there are the water birds. Merlin messed up big time and identified this as a crow. It was right next to me when it croaked, and it sure sounded like a great blue heron to me.
Not a crow.
A seasonal water bird that’s around right now is our belted kingfisher. I do have a photo of it, but it’s a blurry thing with a white neck ring that you know is a kingfisher if you’ve ever seen one. I got to enjoy watching is catch a couple of fish today (and make a lot of kingfisher trills), but there were willow trees between me and the bird, so no photos. Nonetheless, that was a wonderful experience!
The kingfisher was fishing from these trees.
I’m impressed by how many birds are are still here or migrating through, since many summer residents have moved on. I’d miss the tanagers and buntings more if other beautiful singers hadn’t taken their place. But enough on birds. I’m overly chatty.
I had originally intended to focus on all the plants that are blooming or making pretty seeds/berries right now on the ranch, but I got distracted by all the other teeming wildlife. Autumn is a great time to look for flowers here, though, so allow me to share a few of the plants I’m enjoying right now. It’s fun to watch groups of flowers fade away while others start up!
Crow poison (Nothoscordum bivalve) and a tiny insectViolet ruellia (Ruellia nudiflora), still hanging in thereI never get this plant right. Broomweed or something else.Texas Indian mallow (Abutilon fruticosum)Common dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)White mouth dayflower (Commelina erecta)Tall Goldenrod (Solidago altissima)Lindheimer’s doveweed (Croton lindheimeri)Slender yellow wood sorrel (Oxalis dilenii)Not a plant. Mushrooms coming up.Rio Grande copper lily (a rain lily) (Zephyranthes tubispatha)Tie vine seed pods (Ipomoea cordatotriloba)Carolina snailseed (Cocculus carolinus)Ragweed, not sure whichA view looking into our wooded area
Well, if that doesn’t convince you that autumn is a great time to go out in nature and look down for a while, I don’t know what will. Heck, you might even see a milkweed beetle.
Fall has finally arrived, or so say the weather people. Seems a little warm for fall, but I don’t mind because I do not like to be cold.
Most people think all the plants are gone, all the butterflies are gone, and so on.
BUT, take another look! There’s life out there in abundance.
Some plants don’t show themselves until October and November. I actually have Pipe-vine caterpillars on my pipe-vine plants now.
One special tiny plant is seldom seen. It’s a lady tresses orchid. There are several varieties of this pretty little plant. Do you have them on your property? One of them, the Navasota lady tresses, is a Federal and State protected plant.
Here are just a few photos I took on October 25 on our property in Milam County, Texas.
Nature Along the El Camino Real 