May favorites

Between the outburst of spring in April and the symphony of flowers that begins in June, is the quiet month of May. The garden is lush and green. A few favorites made their appearance in my garden this week.

The passionvine (Passiflora incarnata) started blooming this week. Bees adore this native vine and so do I. It wanders around the garden, but it is always interesting to see where it will pop up next.

My daughter painted this pot for me on Mother's Day one year long ago. The golden oregano (Oregano vulgare "Aureum") enhances the blue tones.

On the house, Jackson vine (Smilax smallii) is used a trellis for coral honeysuckle. Jackson vine is the kinder, gentler smilax, a well-behaved companion for the honeysuckle.

More coral honeysuckle. At the entrance to the backyard, Carolina jessamine (Gelsemium sempervirons) is used as a trellis for coral honeysuckle. A distorted oak tree is a trellis for the Carolina jessamine. This all sounds impossible, but this combination is mature this year and looks lush.

Pile o' Pipevine

On the East side of my garden, beside the gate, is a tangled mass of pipevine (Aristolochia tomentosa) about 5 feet in diameter. I planted the pipevine years ago to feed the caterpillars of the pipevine swallowtail butterfly (Battus philenor).

This twisted mass started life as a red oak tree that shaded the bedrooms in our house from the hot summer sun. Twelve years ago, Hurricane Fran blew by, an unexpected event as our home is 200 miles from the ocean. The winds uprooted the oak, which grazed the neighbor's roof and fell with a sickening thud. It left a rootball standing 8 feet into the air.

When the woodcutter chainsawed the trunk, I asked him to leave the rootball. Thinking it might make an interesting sculpture, I spent the next many weekends chipping the soil off the exposed roots. What remained was a giant mass of twisted roots, Medusa.

The following November, an ice storm brought down a second oak tree standing nearby. This oak tree grazed the roof of the neighbor's house in the exact same spot and crushed half of my root ball sculpture. With Medusa unbalanced and broken, I hoped to create a second sculpture, twisted sister. But surprisingly, when the woodcutter cut off the trunk, the rootball jumped back, uprighting itself halfway into its original hole.

Now what? The rootball could not be budged. It was positioned on a diagonal with half the roots against the soil and the other half suspended in the air. In the end, I used pieces of the trunk to shore up the suspended rootball, creating a habitat for chipmunks. Over the top, I planted a native coral honeysuckle (lonicera sempervirens). A dogwood tree planted itself at the highest point and at the lowest, I planted a buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis).

Near what remained of Medusa, I planted the pile o'pipevine. This year, a critter of some kind is shredding what remains of the trunk beneath. I have never seen nor heard it working so it is most likely a nocturnal creature, looking for a meal of insects in that old stump.

Chippy

He was rescued from the mouth of a cat when he was a baby, which may explain the disappearance of half his tail. He spent the winter in the home of a botany professor, who fed him carrots and sunflower seeds, and named him Chippy. When spring came, he seemed depressed. So he was dispatched to my garden.

Chippy arrived in a box of shredded newspaper, secure inside a second box from an office supply company. His rescuer selected a spot at the edge of a sizable pile of brush in a shady corner of the garden. He opened one box, then the other, and watched for several minutes while Chippy looked around cautiously, then quickly made his escape. He disappeared into the garden.

I have been watching for Chippy and although I have seen dozens of chipmunks since then, they all seem to have tails of the normal length. Several times on Sunday, I walked by a spot of ivy on the shady side of a fence and heard the startled squeek of a chipmunk. Chippy?

I still leave sunflower seeds and carrots by his box. They are always gone whenI go back to check a few hours later. Maybe a squirrel is eating the food and Chippy is out enjoying the fruits of my garden.

On the menu today:

Salvia urticifolia and Baptisia 'Purple Smoke' Both natives

My favorite hosta, Sum and Substance

Chionanthus virginicus, native fringe tree

Coreopsis tripteris and Asclepias syriaca, both natives, look great together

Early spring garden, perfect for chipmunks.