Another Reason To Enjoy Late Bloomers. Berries Very Appreciated by the Birds

Clethra is the most interesting shrub planted - buds, flowers, fragrance, and pollinator attraction.

The two Clethra shrubs started out strong this spring, and I looked forward to their Cinnabon fragrance and blooms. The fragrance cannot be missed from 10 feet away. This seems to begin with actual blooming but lasts the rest of the season.

We are nearing the end of July and the buds are only starting to open up. I caught the first sweet and cinnamon aroma when a couple of buds bloomed. Once I moved them to the front yard, their bonus features began to be realized.

Everything else has bloomed, so the celebrity Clethra is the last to arrive at the party. Hundreds of Bee Balm and Shasta Daisy bloom, plus a second round of rose blooms have attracted the bees and a few butterflies. The Clethra opening increases the impact of a pollinator garden, yard, and property.

Clethra has no competition in fragrance and even less competition in petite, fancy blooms. I get an endless supply of garden catalogs, usually featuring strange flowers that will never be sold at the local hardware store. I have tried exotic and highly touted fancy blooms. Nothing compares to Clethra, which looks dainty but remains hardy and disease free.

 Joe Pye and Bee Balm flowers are crawling with various bees and insects once their buds turn to blooms. The vanilla scent is strong this year, like being in a car parked in the sun, with windows up and a new freshener doing its work.

Joe Pye takes second place for late blooming. The Military Gardening Club was fascinated with its growth, reaching 8 feet before the wind storm knocked down some of the tallest stalks. The buds were so promising; the large, compound blooms are more of a hairy version of the buds, truly anti-climatic, except for one thing. The blooms are at eye level and swarming with bees and insects. I watch them, inches away.

As Jessica Walliser promised - or threatened - the dynamic insect population easily becomes dominant over the flowers, an ever-changing movie ending in thousands of seeds. I have her masterpiece on Kindle, so I can match the insect desired to the most favorable host.

Berries for Birds and Scoundrels

Meanwhile, the birds are being fed better than Roman emperors. Scratch away some leaf litter and there are Wild Strawberries offering tiny treats. Triple Crown Blackberries are at all stages of growth, from pale to black. The Society of Scoundrels (squirrels) cannot keep up, so birds drop by all the time to check up on how their crop is doing.

Some of the meanest Raspberries ever grow in the jungle area.

 The white elderflowers signal where insects, birds, and squirrels will find nutrition. 

I tend to overlook the giant Elderberries, but why? I planted two varieties from Almost Eden and put a tool shed between them. Earlier they were 10 feet tall with big white clouds floating (elderflowers) in the green leaves. Now they are black fruit. I have to remember to try some of the thousands ripening.

Poke Weed flies in with the birds and grows to feed its transportation crew - almost like it was planned from the beginning.

 Like many plants, Poke has several sets of helpers. Scientists are divided, but this looks like a clear case of design.

Poke Weed is planted in abundance where birds congregation. They form a jungle around the abandoned bird (squirrel) feeder. They host beneficial insects in the bud stage and feed more birds than any other food with its fruit. This begins to develop in July.

Mrs. Ichabod loves berries, which are highly nutritious. The mutually approved deal is this - she gets as many fresh berries (blueberries, blackberries) and older leftovers are added to the barrel tops.

The Beauty Berries are just starting to form. They will finish the gardening season by glowing like lavender jewels. Did I mention they are bully plants? Yes, the two original samples now touch branches and seek to take over their section of the backyard. But they will provide the latest fruit of the year for birds to eat, a thank-you for entertaining us with song and feeder antics.

Berry Plants in the Creation Garden

The Peace rose is popular with aphids
and Japanese beetles.

Japanese beetles were in my Peace roses yesterday, reminding me of the need to feed, water, and shelter birds.

Here are tips from Master Gardeners:

Aerial Assault – Birds

Among bird predators, Starlings are the best known beetle-eaters, eating both the grubs and adult beetles.  Other birds known to eat grubs are robins, crows, grackles, catbirds, sparrows, bobwhites, blue jays, eastern kingbirds, woodpeckers and purple martins.  You can often see birds pecking at your lawn — they may be hunting — and eating — beetle grubs among other garden and lawn pests.

By the time the adults have emerged with their protective shells, it becomes harder to control their numbers.  Some birds like Starlings are known to eat the adult beetle although if truth be told, I have never witnessed a bird eating a Japanese Beetle.  Other area birds reputed to be Japanese Beetle eaters include robins, cardinals and catbirds.

Feed Birds Year Round

Next to beneficial insects, songbirds consume the most pest insects in your yard and the best way to attract birds is to provide them with year round food (bird feeders), water, and shelter.  An excellent review of attracting garden pest eating birds can be found at National Wildlife Federation’s eNature website.

Mow The Lawn Properly

Japanese beetles prefer to lay their eggs in turf grass that is short, avoiding grass that is more than 2 inches high.  Tall grass harbors natural beetle egg predators like ground spiders and ants.  And, cool season turf like fescue should be maintained at a higher length regardless for many other good reasons, so consider this one more reason for keeping your lawn mower setting at around 3 to 4 inches. 

GJ - The hint about longer grass may surprise a number of gardeners. Beetles that prey on pests are best sheltered in tall grass and areas that are never disturbed, especially higher ground.

Beautyberries are for birds at the end of the season.

Feeding the Birds - Retail
Yesterday we brought home a barrel of popcorn from the movie theater. Normally they have sunflower seeds in the hanging and platform feeders, finch seed in the squirrel-proof feeder.

Birds are always entertaining at the feeder, and the squirrels sometimes do more than sit on top of the seed and eat. Yesterday two squirrels were having a fight over the top squirrel title and swirling around the whole feeding area.

Wild Strawberries thrive everywhere, blooming early and often.

Feeding the Birds Berries - For Almost Nothing
The Creator has designed many plants to feed the bird population most of the year. Anyone who thinks this is all an accident may drink from my empty coffee cup. I did everything right to make a fresh pot this morning. When I went out to fill a mug and jump-start a blog post, the pot was empty. These are the steps in making a pot:

1. Empty the thermo-carafe and fill it with hot water.
2. Empty the coffee basket, place a new filter in it, and spoon 8 measures of coffee grounds into it. Replace the coffee basket in the slot designed for it.
3. Fill the tank with water.
4. Empty the hot water from the carafe and place it under the coffee basket.
5. Make sure it is plugged in and the start button pushed.

This is rather simple - if we omit the steps needed to get fresh water, a coffee pot, and ground coffee. But I missed one step today and had no coffee at first.

I did not press the start button, due to being a quart low in coffee myself. 

Therefore, the production of berries is a constant wonder to me, because these plants, domestic and wild, are always producing food for us and God's creatures, most of the year, with provisions for the end of the season. 

Elderberry flowers create clusters of berries.

Flower and Fruit

Berries are always flowering on their own particular schedule. Our Wild Strawberries were blooming with little yellow flowers in the shade, in early spring. Soon they had bright red berries for the birds. I saw more plants than ever before in the front and backyards.

Berries are a perfect example of Creation, Engineering, and Management. They flower to produce their fruit, feeding nectar and pollen to the pollinators, which make sure berries will form. The berry is the irresistible capsule for the seeds, so birds and humans have food to eat and seeds to plant from the fruit.

One way to ensure birds' favorite plants will grow in the Wild Garden is to stretch wire across it, so birds perch, poop, and plant their digested food, with fertilizer added. Since I have trees, bushes, and mulched areas for birds to enjoy, I have an abundant supply of their favorite foods - long in Wild Strawberries and Pokeweed berries.

The Beauty Berries grow last and linger on their plants, to serve as food for birds at the end of the season. They are toxic to humans.

Pokeberries are another birds-only fruit, growing in the cracks of the sidewalk and achieving full potential in the sun, reaching nine feet tall, stretching out branches to support the birds that first planted it.

Thornless Blackberries and Raspberries enjoy spreading through their root system, turning a few planted canes into a tangle of plants in a year or two. Rabbits adore these tough plants, so they may be a part of keeping them in check. On the other hand, that may be why I have a herd of rabbits in and around our home.

Blueberries like acid soil, so I mulch the pine needles and pine-cones from a neighbor to make a more acidic garden, which Blueberries and Hosta enjoy.

Gooseberries are so easy to grow that they were once a staple of food for rural and self-sufficient families. Talk up berries and someone will say, "My mother made gooseberry pie."

Elderberries are a tall, majestic plant, with large crowns of flowers and the impulse to send up new shoots of Elderberry plants to make a hedge of them. Insects love the flowers of all berries, but these berries are at eye level, so the pollinators are easier to watch at work.

Gooseberries grow on an unglamorous plant.

Management by the Creator
The management of the berry population is often ignored because we take it for granted. The appeal of berries for animals and humans will always ensure that they spread. Grains have to be cultivated. Corn has to be planted at the right time in large masses for its air pollination. Tomatoes - ach, don't get me started. They are tempting and nutritious but fraught with more problems than a sorority in a crowded house.

Lantana flowers create these crinkled fruits.