​Last month, we visited the Snares, Enderby, Macquarie, and Campbell Islands as part of our trip to Antarctica’s Ross Sea. These islands are characterized by constant cold wet weather. The predators have all been exterminated allowing the native vegetation to rebound. Often called “The Galapagos of the Southern Ocean,” the Subantarctic Islands of New Zealand and Australia offer many unique plants that differ subtly between each island, similar to the differing shell shapes of the Giant Tortoises of the various Galapagos Islands.
 
Joseph Hooker, a friend of Charles Darwin and future director of the famous Kew Gardens in London, noticed this variability when he published his findings from his voyage as Ship’s Doctor under Captain James Ross to Antarctica. Hooker was struck by the richness of the flora. He wrote in his first volume of Flora Antarctica, “The most extraordinary of the megaherbs is the Pleurophyllum meadow, a community dominated by the large-leafed herbaceous composite, producing a floral display second to none outside the tropics.”
 
Of course, such overwhelming floral displays occur in the early spring (December) when we were not there, but we did photograph some late bloomers. 

​Most deciduous trees shed their leaves in autumn after they create an abscission layer where the leaf stalks meet the branches so that when the leaves fall off, it won't result in an open wound. Some beech and oak trees don't develop an abscission layer in the fall, so their leaves stay firmly attached.
 
Like all deciduous trees in the fall, their leaves turn colors. Their tan leaves actually contrast nicely with the reds, yellows, and oranges of their flashier neighbors. When I go for a winter walk, I enjoy seeing those tenacious leaves and appreciate their reluctance to leave home.
 
Botanists have a name for this: marcescence which means the retention of dead leaves that are normally shed. Although they named this phenomenon, they don't understand why it occurs.  It mostly happens when the trees are young, so maybe the saplings haven’t developed the knack.  That can’t be the only explanation because some tall, old beech and oak trees will drop their leaves from the top branches but not from the bottom.  It’s a mystery. 
 
As I photographed them last week, I noticed that the end of the branches often had no leaves but had emerging buds which leads me to believe that those buds pushed the dead leaves off. 
 
Although it’s a mystery to scientists, I believe that these trees know exactly what they're doing.

When hiking through the nearby forests, I often come upon moss covered stone walls.  I marvel to think of the sheer muscle it took for the farmers, even with the help of their cattle or horses, to wrest the stones off their fields, cart them to the construction site, and hoist them on top of one another in such a way that they still stand today.
 
These hardy folks often made the walls to corral their animals—mostly sheep--but it also had the added benefit of offering a neat place to put all those darn rocks. Here’s an interesting piece of trivia—In 1840 there were 600,000 sheep in New Hampshire which is two sheep for every human being. 
 
Although these stone walls are mostly found in the woods, I know that when they were laid, the land was clear cut with only an occasional wolf tree in sight.  Nature has reclaimed the land which has mostly gone back to the natural forest but with a big difference—now there are thousands of miles of stone walls meandering through the woods. Raccoons, skunk, porcupines, and weasels make comfy winter dens in among the rocks. I’ll bet the farmers hunted those animals for dinner and would probably shake their heads to learn that all their hard work has resulted in sanctuaries for those once hunted critters. They would be completed baffled if someone in the 1800’s told them people are going to write blogs about their stone walls in 200 years.

For 17 years, the Grantham Garden Club has donated subscriptions for two popular garden magazines: Fine Gardening and Garden Gate to Grantham’s beloved library. I recently learned that these magazines are available for card holders to check out and read in the comfort of their homes.
 
The latest issues include 2023’s Best New Plants for Sun and Shade, Veggie Garden Mistakes We Wish We Never Made, Tips for Fast Filling Gardens, and Four Season Container Inspiration.
 
Here’s some interesting information from Garden Gate:  When putting your vegetable garden to bed in the fall, leave the roots of legumes like peas and beans in the ground (clip the plants at the base). As they decompose, they release nitrogen into the soil.
 
To clean a vase, drop a denture tablet or two into a vase of water and let it fizz which will get rid of bacteria and mineral deposits—rinse thoroughly.
 
Fine Gardening has an article about growing sedums which included the idea that “some sedums are so tough and forgiving that you can actually propagate them by taking a leafy steam cutting without roots and planting it.” That’s not intuitive.
 
I love this suggestion from a Garden Gate reader who recommended that, if you’re a pickleball player, don’t throw out those cracked balls. Use them to fill the lower portion of a large pot before adding soil and plants. Brilliant.

​In my experience, people are either ‘language people' or ‘numbers people'.  I definitely fall into the ‘language’ category. So on first learning about the mathematical Fibonacci sequence I dismissed it as a bunch of numbers. When I did a little more research, I have to say that I was impressed.
 
Mother Nature in her wisdom has embraced Fibonacci which can be seen over and over again if we just look for it. Although the reasons for this are practical, I believe, that they also make trees, flowers, and plants more pleasing to our eyes. Maybe it’s the symmetry—the order of it all.
 
First I should explain the the Fibonaci sequence looks like this: 0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,55,89,114… and is derived from adding a number to the one beforehand.
 
As much as 90% of all plants organize their leaves in a way that involves Fibonacci numbers which helps every leaf get the maximum amount of sunlight and rain. This same principle is at work in the formation of pine cones, sunflowers, pineapples, and cacti. All have a double spiral structure that allows their smaller elements (seeds, for instance) to pack closely and efficiently. Look at the middle of a sunflower: you will see that the seeds line up in crisscrossing spirals radiating from the center, and if you count the number of spirals turning in each direction (clockwise/counterclockwise), they will always be Fibonacci numbers.  More disk flowers can be squeezed into an aster plant by using the Fibonacci sequence. If you count petals, leaves, or ray flowers you will find that most are Fibonacci numbers. 

GGC member and good friend Michele Dominy sent me a picture of a Fibonaci Garden display at the Chelsea Flower Show in London that she visited in 2016. Michele also send me this link to the Khan Academy which explains Fibonacci in a wonderful way.

https://www.khanacademy.org/math/math-for-fun-and-glory/vi-hart/spirals-fibonacci/v/doodling-in-math-spirals-fibonacci-and-being-a-plant-1-of-3
​
As Mathematicians have always known and what I understand a little better is that math can be beautiful.

​While doing research on Teddy Roosevelt for last week’s blog, I came across this story which is probably part factual and part legend but fun nonetheless
 
From everything I read, TR was a wonderful father, but in 1902 he made a decision that was unpopular with his six kids. He banned Christmas trees in the White House. He probably felt chopping down a perfectly good tree merely to use it as a decoration for a few weeks wasn’t right.
 
Two people dared to disobey the most powerful man in the country. His sons 8-year-old Archie and 6-year old Quentin were the culprits.  Unbeknownst to their father, they cut down a little conifer that was growing on the White House property, snuck it into the White House, and set it up in a rarely used room. They decorated the tree with lots of homemade ornaments and possibly electric lights with the help of the house electrician.
 
On December 25tth, the boys proudly led their family to their little Christmas tree. One can only imagine TR’s response to this unexpected development.  Possibly he was proud of his spunky sons, or possibly he was angry. The story continues that TR called in Forest Service Chief Gifford Pinchot to explain to the boys why cutting down the tree was a bad idea. To his surprise, Pinchot told them there are benefits to selection cutting as a way to manage forests. The following Christmas, a large, beautifully decorated tree graced the White House with TR’s blessing.
 
Wishing you all Happy Holidays!

​On a recent First Thursday Hike at the Fells, Simon Parson, the Education Director of the John Hay Estate, proudly introduced the group to the Roosevelt Tree which is a large sugar maple a short walk from the impressive main house.  Simon explained that in August of 1902, Teddy Roosevelt spent the night at the estate (in what is now known as the Roosevelt Bedroom) while on a campaign tour through New England.
 
I can picture TR walking with the Hays and picking out a nice spot to plant the maple sapling. Simon asked our forestry guide Dode Gladders how much longer than its current 120 years he thought the tree would live. I’m happy to report that Dode believes the tree will live for another hundred or maybe even another two hundred years.
 
Learning about this Roosevelt tree made me wonder if our 26th president was in the habit of gifting and planting trees. I was beyond pleased to find out that trees were his go-to housewarming gift.
 
His penchant for planting trees may have started in the 1890s when he planted a copper beech near the entrance to his new estate Sagamore Hill on Long Island in New York.  Fungus was the trees demise in 2019 but a new cooper beech tree was planted in its place. The wood from the old beech was repurposed as benches around what is now a National Historic Site.
 
Roosevelt didn’t plant the same type of tree but chose trees based on the climate. In 1903 when TR took his first trip to California, he planted a palm tree that stands to this day.
 
In 1905 Roosevelt went on a whirlwind tour of Texas. He spent 75 minutes in Fort Worth which included a quick stop at the Carnegie Library on Main Street--just long enough to plant an elm tree.
 
The University of Idaho folks were thrilled when Roosevelt paid a visit in April of 1911. His planting a blue spruce tree on campus drew a huge crowd. A celebration was held in 2011 to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of his historic visit and no doubt admire the famous spruce.
 
I wonder if TR ever heard that Chinese proverb “The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time to plant a tree is today.”  

Blustery wind and impending snow didn't stop a hearty group of 20 folks from attending December’s First Thursday Hike at The Fells. I learned so much great information from Dode Gladders, Forestry Field Specialist with UNH Cooperative Extension who led the walk. I remembered Dode from attending his terrific deciduous tree identification workshop for the garden club in September of 2021 so knew I was in for a great talk. 
 
Dode covered too much to explain here but I wanted to share two interesting stories. We stopped by a very strange looking tree with a dying left side and a healthy right side. Dode explained that a beech tree grew up so closely to a sugar maple that they became somewhat entwined. The beech was dying because of a multi-pronged attack. First its bark was drilled into by beech bark scales, invasive insects that have been spreading slowly from Nova Scotia since they were inadvertently introduced in the 1890s.  They can’t fly but have been walking south and have reached our area. The scales have mouths like hypodermic syringes which they use to penetrate the bark and suck out some sap. That doesn’t cause a problem to the beech tree in itself but two types of Neonectria fungi gang up to infiltrate those tiny holes and cause thousands of little infections that eventually kill the tree. As Dode explained, human diseases are mostly caused by bacteria and viruses while most tree infections are caused by fungi.
 
At a sugar maple tree, Dode pointed out a line of small round holes created by the yellow bellied sapsucker. This woodpecker pounds a line of the holes then flies off for a while giving the sap time to ooze out which attracts insects. When the woodpecker returns, it enjoys the protein rich insects followed by a sweet sap dessert.
 
The John Hay Estate at The Fells runs the First Thursday hikes all year round and is free to members. For non-members the hike is included with the cost of admission. There are different leaders and different walks each month. 

Despite wet instead of white precipitation, nothing dampened the holiday spirit of the 200 plus folks who piled into the Grantham Town Hall to enjoy some pancakes and meet the Big Guy himself along with his delightful wife.  Mr. and Mrs. Claus came by fire engine with sirens blasting to herald their arrival.
 
A few weeks ago, Emily Rinde-Thorsen who is the Grantham Recreation Department, reached out to the garden club asking for volunteers to dole out breakfast which turned out to be an easy sell.  So were the pancakes and sausage which were paid for with unwrapped toys and food items to be donated to a local charity. As the party was drawing to a close, the GGC volunteers watched the clock to see if the time or the pancakes would run out first. Luckily, the pancakes (just barely) lasted for the entire event.
 
The wide-eyed children were a joy to see dressed in their red and green finery. Santa was so gentle and kind that not one child shed a tear. Santa even got off his chair and onto the floor beside one toddler who was too shy to sit on his lap. Mrs. Claus explained that her husband has been hiking a lot lately and is slimmer and trimmer than we expected. We’re pleased that Santa is taking good care of himself.
 
Emily also recruited a bunch of fabulous Lebanon High School teens to help with crowd control, hand out gifts, replenish hot chocolate, and take care of all the clean up. Appropriately, they wore elf hats.
 
The main take-away from the garden club volunteers was that Grantham is a wonderful town for families and children. Everyone wants to join in again next December. 

​In August I had the pleasure of attending Erin Zagadailov’s garden party and learning about her wonderful apiary and cut flower farm right here in little Grantham, New Hampshire.  When Erin and her husband moved here from Chicago, her friends laughingly called her ‘Lady Grantham’ after the Downtown Abbey series. When deciding on a name for her bee business, Erin remembered her friends’ good natured teasing and thus ‘Lady Grantham Apiary’ was coined.
 
Erin and her husband Pavel decided what’s really important and took the risk of taking a hiatus from their high paying, stressful jobs to dedicate their lives to their family and to raising bees. Since that daring decision, they added two children to their hectic, happy days.
 
With no experience raising bees but armed with lessons from books and information from successful bee keepers, they tried their hand at keeping bees only to be unsuccessful for five years. Undaunted, they learned from their mistakes and made improvements and were thrilled to have three hives survive last winter. The colonies are doing well and going about their busy bee business of mostly foraging for pollen and nectar. Even baby bees help out cleaning the hive, nursing larva, and attending to the queen. Erin pointed out baby bees doing figure eights near the hive to practice flying.
 
This is the first year Erin has taken any honey from her hives. Her policy is not to harvest any honey unless a hive has survived the winter and is doing well.  Selling honey is not part of the plan. At the garden party, I enjoyed a honey tasting test with three types of honey—store bought, some from a neighbor’s hives and from her own bees. The store bought honey was dark and thick and had a decided after-taste, while the harvested honey was lighter, thinner, and delicious. Bravo Lady Grantham’s and neighborhood bees.
 
The bees head back to the hive before nightfall which is quite wonderful to witness. Erin timed her party so her guests could enjoy the very zen feeling of watching them fly home. Erin reads the bees activities and can tell how they’re feeling. She had brought an observation box of bees onto her shady deck so we guests could get a closer look. Later, when we toured her garden, Erin remembered the container and reported that the bees in the box and in the colony would all be unhappy if she didn’t put them back soon.
 
To support her apiary, Erin grows extraordinary cut flowers which she sells to subscribers who enjoy bouquets each week. Selling edible flowers may be added to her growing business. Erin invests all the proceeds from her flower sales into the honeybee colonies. The bees pollinate the flowers and the flowers provide pollen, nectar, and income for the bees—a very nice arrangement.
 
Along with her honey bees, many other pollinators such as bumble bees, butterflies, flies, and hummingbirds visit Erin’s garden. She pointed out multiple mud dauber wasp nests on the side of her house. Instead of calling a local exterminator, she’s happy to have these mud architects live there and enjoy the pollinator utopia that she and her husband have created.
 
Erin has graciously agreed to come and speak at the January 13th garden club meeting. Her topic will be ‘Creating a Backyard Pollinator Haven.'  Mark you calendars.