A Few More Matthaei Flowers

 
I think this will be the last day for Matthaei Botanical Garden pictures. But I just want to show these few more.

This was a new one to me. Maybe you plant clock vine in your planters. I like it too. But I did not know there is a blue clock vine, Thunbergia battiscombei, native to Africa. Kinda funky, and my color.



Next up is a prairie plant. Although it doesn't look as if the restored prairie is being tended much these days, there was one thing in bloom. This is false indigo, a nice showy prairie plant. Baptista leucantha


I have to show you this, because it's pretty awesome. This is a really rare and endangered plant, the Pitcher's thistle, Cirsium pitcheri. I showed it to you once before. I found it growing naturally at Arcadia Dunes last year. That was my first time to ever see it. Although it was certainly planted at MBG, the fact that it seems content to grow, and has buds here is pretty awesome. Having multiple populations of endangered species is a really good thing. Yes, it's that scraggly, silvery tall plant in the middle.


Finally, just because I showed you this once before, I have Malaysian orchid tree, Medinilla magnifica. This was in the Conservatory, of course. This one was labeled, so I've confirmed that's what it is.



Love, love, love visiting great botanical places. One more coming up soon. Stay tuned!

In other news: my computer was being bad this morning, so I didn't finish some things I started. But in the afternoon, I buckled down and wrote two chapters in The Bigg Boss.

	See Arcadia Dunes- Pitcher's Thistle See Stan Hywet-Medinilla
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More Matthaei

 
One more day of Matthaei Botanical Gardens "big picture," posts, and maybe a few more individual plants tomorrow. There is so much I could share from there, but other things are happening too, so I don't want to get totally hung up in Ann Arbor.

Anyway, I'll start with the bonsai collection. When I was there it was kept in a sealed off courtyard and the public only got to see them a couple of times a year. There's a club that meets regularly to work on these little trees. A few of the specimens were ones that were started so long ago that I must have seen them way back when.

However, I think my favorite is this one, begun in 2004. I'm drawn to the style that looks like miniature landscapes. That's sometimes called Penjing. I like the design aspect of the single trees, but ultimately the landscapes make my heart sing. This is a larch, Larix laricina. Keep in mind these are real trees, carefully trimmed so they look full grown but are only about two feet tall.


There is a small rock garden. I also love rock gardens. This one is not my favorite style, but it is more traditional. There was one section that had some lovely blooms.



I also wanted to show you the inside of the Conservatory, just to give an idea of scale. This is the tropical room. There is a similar-sized temperate room and a smaller desert house.



But I saved the "best" for last. It's only best because I also have a strong personal connection with this garden. It's a traditional Tudor Herb Knot Garden.

The knot is in the center design. This one then has four large beds arranged around the knot with paths between. The beds are divided by fragrant, medicinal, kitchen, and everlasting herbs.

The thing is... this garden was built from scratch during the years I worked there. See all those border plants. You might recognize the boxwood with the lighter green leaves. The other border plants that look somewhat blue-green are lavender (herb- pretty purple flowers- lovely fragrance). Care to guess how many of them it takes to surround those garden spaces? I don't recall the number of boxwood, but it's 2000 lavender plants. I know. I planted almost all of them. In one day. In the rain. I only helped with the boxwood... not nearly so impressive a memory.

But, again, from nothing, this is now a beautifully designed space with mature plants and plenty of educational opportunities.



In other news: I did a bunch of stuff for the Writers' Rendezvous, did some other little tasks that seem to take more time than they should, and wrote a chapter in The Bigg Boss. That took a while. I wrote half of it, scrapped it and started over because it was boring- a real snoozer. The newer version is much better. Called my friend Ester, and she helped me craft a missing piece of this entire book to make it immensely better!

	See Constructed Wetland
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Matthaei Botanical Garden Constructed Wetland 1995-2018

 
I found the old pictures, so here is the journey I want to take you on. Lots of pictures, but I think you'll see why. Just beyond the parking lot of the Matthaei Botanical Gardens, and adjacent to the Plants of the New World Gateway Garden is a wetland bursting with, um... wetland plants.



It was not always so! In fact, it wasn't even wet. There was a small drainage ditch that crossed the area and dumped into Fleming Creek. And that was the issue. At the time, MBG used a reverse osmosis system to treat the water used on the plants. Once a month the tanks flushed and spewed out rusty water and a lot of calcium carbonate (chalky water). It was unsightly. Fleming Creek is one of the few remaining wild watersheds of SE Michigan and the Watershed Council was up in arms.

The solution was determined to be a constructed wetland to filter out these contaminants with long-term monitoring and quantification of the environmental health of the water. This was exactly what I was studying, and Dr. Robert Kadlec set me up to oversee the project. He planned the size of the wetland needed to do the job, and we started from scratch.

First the site was cleared with the exception of a couple of trees. The pictures of construction were taken in 1995.



Next came the hog hoe to shape the pond. The construction crew was very careful and managed to save both the trees we wanted and didn't compact the soil around them so much that they later died.



Slowly the deep hole (about 3 feet) began to fill.



The crew still had to construct the outlet weir that would let the water drain to Fleming Creek.



Then a new entrance to the trails was designed, with a bridge across the constructed wetland.



By the summer of 1996, the pond had filled to the desired level and I was trying to establish native plants along the edges. The ducks found the water immediately and raised babies that summer.



Here's pretty much the same view last week, 22 years later.



The largest and deepest area of the wetland. I worked like crazy to get various kinds of reeds, rushes and sedges and other flowering plants started there. Some came in on their own. Some I planted. I spent hours and hours (days) pulling non-native plants.



This is the same area last week, although taken from the other direction.



This is one of the trees we worked very hard to save. It's a baldcypress, Taxodium distichum, far north of its native range. So this is a specimen tree, and it likes to be damp. There was a lot of concern about whether it would survive the construction trauma.

How do you think it did?

Several years after the wetland was built and the monitoring was ongoing, an effort was made to make the entrance more attractive. Mike Hommel, MBG staff, designed this wall, and then I built it. I envisioned it covered with Virginia Creeper. Guess what? It is!



A lot of the plants I worked hard on are gone. Funding to keep up the attempt at maintaining native plants ran out. But I could still see evidence of some of my plantings.

The monthly monitoring determined conclusively that MBG was having no deleterious effect on Fleming Creek. I returned to Ann Arbor once a month for several years after the project was completely finished to pull water samples and do the tests. I had a laboratory and a desk.

I'm pleased to see that the project is still doing its job. It's not surprising how much it's grown in over 22 years, but it was still a bit shocking. I wonder if there might be an aesthetic reason to deepen a spot in the middle again, but all those plants are doing exactly what it was designed to do.

Made me feel good.

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Critters at Matthaei

 
This is still not the post I want to bring you, but don't worry. I have enough interesting material from Matthaei Botanical Garden to last a few more days.

These are the critters I encountered and managed to catch with the camera on my walk around the trail system.

First is a red-spotted purple admiral butterfly sitting on a Cow Parsnip. There was lots of it in bloom and the butterflies were loving it.



Then I bring you a bunny. I know, they aren't that special, but I just love them.



The next two pictures are pretty cool. I have to say that these were the most common dragonflies when I worked there, and they were still everywhere. They love all the small ponds and wetlands around the property.

First we have the male Common Whitetail dragonfly. Really easy to identify, and they will perch on logs, rocks, etc, so you can get a good view of them.



Then we have his Mrs. This is the female Common Whitetail dragonfly. It's really similar to the twelve-spotted skimmer, but the angled yellow bands on the sides are not quite the same.



We'll end this trip through the garden with another bluebird. I'm so happy that they have become fairly common again. I'll never think, "Oh, just a bluebird." They were in real trouble in the 1970's, and the pretty-much-grassroots movement to put out bluebird boxes made a huge difference in their population. You know I love blue, and they are such cheerful little additions to the sky/lawn/orchard/fenceline.



Maybe tomorrow I'll find those other pictures!

In other news: and this is why I didn't find them today... I was at a vendor event with my books all day. Did well... actually made money. Sometimes you have to just chalk up these events to publicity and networking. Then I came home, put everything away and did the record keeping. I also watched Justify become the 13th TRIPLE CROWN WINNER!!!! Citation won the year I was born, and Justify the year I turned 70. I like it.

	See Matthaei Botanical Garden
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Matthaei Botanical Garden

 
You'll have to wait till tomorrow for the post I wanted to do today. I think I have to re-scan some old photos. Meanwhile... here are some fun pictures from the same location I plan to tell you more about.

I worked at Matthaei Botanical Garden in Ann Arbor in a number of different capacities from about 1994 to maybe 2001. Sometimes full time, sometimes part time. It's the best place I've ever worked. That's what I want to tell you about, but today you'll just get some nice pictures from my recent visit.

This is part of the perennial garden, which is less impressive than they would like it to be. The deer refuse to be deterred, so these are critter-proof plants only.


How about those allium!



Inside the conservatory are tropical, temperate and desert houses. This is Rangoon Creeper, in the tropical section.



Here's a general view in the desert house with a blooming Perfoliate Crassula.



You know I love succulents. Crinkle Leaf is the appropriate common name for this, scientific name Andromischus cristatus.



Moving outside, this is an information kiosk, but check out the roof!



And finally, for today, just a nice view of the barn from the prairie trail. I used to get to mow the trails- one of my favorite jobs there, although there was hardly a bad task (OK, maybe a couple).



Hopefully, I can find the other pictures I want to scan for another day.

In other news: I wrote Chapter 7 in The Bigg Boss, and then I worked at Shagway Arts Barn for part of the afternoon and the evening. Thus the late post.

	See Fort Wayne Succulents
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