Polar vortex

Record cold temperatures make living outdoors a risky venture. 

During last week's polar vortex, even the resilient hellebores were damaged.  The deep purple buds nearest to the house are ruined, but the foliage will recover and the plants should bloom next year.

The rosy pink hellebores are hardier, even though they are the same species.  These are waiting for the next sunny day to open their flowers.

The pale pink flowers of the camellias turned brown.  Perhaps the entire plant will die to the ground, as it did the last time we experienced sub-zero temperatures in the mid-80's.

The flowers of the paperbush look unchanged but the fragrance is gone.

The natives fared better. The golden ragwort looks as cheerful as ever. An early spring bloomer, the flowers are already forming in the center of the plant.

The native honeysuckle that threads through the clethra bush looks fine.  The flower buds survived the cold winter blast and will be ready for the return of the hummingbirds in a few weeks.      

Life is hardest on the animals.  Arctic wind is cruel.

In a corner of my yard partially protected by a fence is a brush pile, a shelter for our suburban wildlife -- squirrels, possums or foxes.  The fence breaks the wind and the branches, leaf litter and soft soil offer shelter.  While I do not see any animals about, there are small hidey holes here and there throughout the pile.

I wonder what is hiding in these tiny dens.

While bird feeders and berry-bearing trees and shrubs are useful, a quiet brushpile can mean life or death on a cold windy night.  It can mean survival during a bitterly cold winter in the backyard wildlife habitat. 

Fern forest

Last week we flew to South Florida where C. had a three day business meeting in Pompano Beach, between Boca Raton and Ft. Lauderdale.  While he was working during the day, I was left to my own devices with a rental car.

Early in the week I drove 8 miles due West to Fern Forest Nature Center, an urban wilderness preserve featuring native plants and wildlife viewing areas.

Online reviews advise visitors to bring insect repellant, but nights in Florida are cold in January, so there are no mosquitos in the wetland areas.

Trails wander among several native plant habitats.  Through the swamp and hammock, a raised walkway keeps visitors dry.

Wetland habitats are thick with vegetation that press onto the walkways. 

Trees twist overhead to gather sunlight.  In the hammock, vast trees and strangler figs with mottled trunks are draped in Spanish moss.

In the swamp, there are 30 types of ferns, large and small.

 

 

The prairie habitat has few trees and wide open spaces.

Visitors online complain that they saw no wildlife and that was the case for me last week.  With one exception.  Along a path not far from the Nature Center, I saw two zebra longwing butterflies doing a courtship dance.

Ten years ago in my garden in NC, I planted native passion vines to attract zebra longwing butterflies but they never visited.  Seeing those two black and yellow butterflies in their native habitat in Florida last week was a surprise treat.