Thank you!
| 
| Many people contributed to the success of our recent plant sale.
First, many thanks to John Allen and Randi Starmer who organized and ran the big event.
On the day of the sale, many helpers made the day run smoothly and also shared their knowledge as they chatted with our customers:
Sylvia Albrecht, Soule Leiter, Beth and Dave Mitchell, Jacquie Orzell, Linda Rossiter, and Mona Rynearson.
Special thanks to Soule Leiter who also staffed our booth at Sycamore Hills the day after the sale.
Thanks also to our vendors: The Plantsmen Nursery, Pippi's Perennials, White Oak Nursery, and especially to Maple Hill Nursery, who again generously donated a shrub.
|
Wild Ones Annual Meeting
and Conference
| | Designing Your Home Grounds for Beauty and Sustainability
|
| This meeting will be held in New London, CT at Connecticut College on Fri./Sat. Nov. 5-6. It's part of the 8th Annual SALT* Seminar for Homeowners
*Smaller American Lawns Today
SALT is a movement originating at Connecticut College. It is aimed at reversing the lawn mania in America by restoring home grounds to more harmonious productive ecologically sound naturalistic landscapes. SALT promotes the practice of using native plants and designing environmentally sound lawns that encourage biodiversity.
For more information and to register...
|
Robert Michael Pyle comes to Syracuse!
Robert Pyle is our nation's premier butterfly expert, as well as a scientist, writer, and open-space advocate. He will present the program "Eden in a Vacant Lot" on Thurs. Oct 7 at 5:30 pm at the Palace Theater in Eastwood. He'll also be leading butterfly hikes at Baltimore Woods on Oct. 7 and Oct. 8. Don't miss this opportunity! For more information, contact Baltimore Woods. |
|
Greetings!
Onondaga Lake (EPA photo)  | SEPTEMBER 26 PROGRAM
We're pleased to begin our new program year with a presentation on Wetland and Shoreline Restoration Efforts by Joseph M. McMullen of Terrestrial Environmental Specialists, Inc. He'll discuss the planning, including the selection of native species for planting, and results of the successfully completed wetland restoration effort at the LCP site, as well as future plans for restoration along the Onondaga Lake shoreline and Geddes Brook/Ninemile Creek areas. Input from the group on these proposed plans is welcome.
We meet at the Le Moyne College Library (directions) on Sunday, September 26 at 2:00 pm. Please join us and bring a friend. Our meetings are free and open to the public!
Earn a donation to HGCNY: Two of our sponsors have offered to donate to HGCNY if you purchase plants from them through the end of September, so please mention that you are from HGCNY if you visit them. Thank you!
* Maple Hills Nursery is located on the corner of Pompey Center Rd and Indian Hills Rd in the town of Manlius.
* Pippi's Perennials is located at 12 Sherry Lane, Kirkville, NY.
Additional presentation
On Wed. Sept. 22 at 1:00 pm, I'll be giving a presentation on Greening Your Yard at OASIS, the senior (50+ yrs.) learning center.
Register with OASIS for this presentation.
Janet Allen, President
Habitat Gardening in Central New York
|
|
|
A perennial sunflower
Sunflower (H. annuus)  | The prototypical sunflower (Helianthus annuus) is a towering plant with a huge flower and seed head, and (as its botanical name implies) it's an annual that must be replanted each year. They're such cheerful flowers that's it worth planting them just to make people happy, but there are habitat benefits, too. It's a bee magnet while it's flowering and a bird magnet when it goes to seed.
You can get the same benefits--habitat value and cheer--with their perennial relatives. One example is woodland sunflower (H. divaricatus). Woodland sunflower
(H. divaricatus)  | This plant is shorter (2-6 feet high) and has smaller flowers than its big relative, but there are many more flowers on a plant. Although we usually picture H. annuus growing in a big, sunny meadow, H. divaricatus actually evolved as an understory plant in our eastern deciduous forests, so it can grow in partial shade or sun. It's a host plant for Silvery Checkerspot butterfly, provides nectar for bees and other beneficial insects, and seeds for birds, such as goldfinches.
One caution: It does spread by underground rhizomes, so you'll need a place where its enthusiasm won't be a problem.
|
 Would you have seen them?
Excerpts from a MonarchWatch
listserv post:
"The sky was covered with monarchs flying from the north. Then more came, and more and more and more. First hundreds, then THOUSANDS, then tens of thousands. The sky was covered. What a sight! I am so lucky to have witnessed this migration.
Almost as amazing was how many people went about their busy lives, never looking up to notice the sky had changed from deep blue with white clouds to deep blue with solid orange wings!"
|
Common green darner  | Dragonflies migrate, too!
Certain species of dragonfly migrate, either en masse or
individually.
Dragonflies follow weather fronts, fleeing cold fronts in
the fall on their way south and chasing warm fronts in the spring when
moving north.
The best-known migrant is the Common Green Darner.
To read more from the Minnesota Odonata Survey Project...
Adapted from Journey North:
There are two different populations of green darners. The RESIDENT population doesn't migrate. They breed and lay their eggs in the north
over the summer. The babies, or
nymphs, spend the winter beneath the ice.
In spring, they emerge from the water and spend the summer as adults.
The other population of green darners is MIGRATORY. They arrive from the south each spring to breed in the north. Their young emerge in late
summer of that same year, and migrate south during August and September.
Apparently the migratory population alternates generations between breeding
in the north and breeding in the south, but both groups spend most of the summer in the north.
Adapted from Science Daily:
Scientists tracked 14 green darner dragonflies with tiny radio transmitters. Green darners are among the 25 to 50 species of dragonflies thought to be migratory among about 5200 species worldwide.
They found many similarities between migrating dragonflies and songbirds, such as:
* The dragonflies' routes showed distinct stopover and migration days, just as the birds' did.
* Groups of both birds and dragonflies did not migrate on very windy days.
* Both birds and dragonflies only moved after two successive nights of falling temperatures.
They concluded that the rules governing migration may be simpler and more ancient than we thought.
|
|
|
|
|
