fruit...threat...response

if anything the new york imports have luxuriated in the rains of may...they are green and robust...

there are berries...

in profusion across the beds...

and in the current, warmer temperatures, i am seeing definite signs of ripening...

with blooming pretty much done and berries underway the plants are adapting their reproductive strategy and putting out more exploratory colonists towards sunnier climes...moving north...along with any number of species fleeing changing climates...the plants in the south bed are bound to feel that pressure as well...sooner or later...at the moment however their motivation is closer at hand...

two days ago it looked like this...

the shadows to the south have grown since.

fruition

despite the severity of yesterday's weather my rain gauge says we only picked up three tenths of an inch...that doesn't mean it didn't bucket down at times...

to the extent that i could not find many intact blooms...native or new york import...the natives will bloom into october...however the new yorkers will be done with blooms very soon...there are not many left out there...

the season isn't done though...there are still metamorphoses to be seen...and they have been moving along in the south bed...

and in the east bed as well...more to come i believe...

the natives have been playing catch up all season so far...they have time and can work more slowly...then yorkers are under some time pressure...

stolon madness continues out east...i see at least thirty-five here...what do you see?

and the number making a break from the south bed increases daily...relentless is a fine adjective...these are every bit the perennials jerusalem artichokes are...it is a common trait... perennials are invasive.

metamorphosing

the new york imports have produced an abundance of blooms so far this season...

and the local berries have accelerated their output in an effort to catch up...

cousins continue to find one another in the patches...

these three i found on the fifteenth have already been fertilized and lost their petals as the process of becoming berries begins...

this new yorker...

and this local show how the calyx closes around what was the "pearlie" portion of the bloom to make the berry metamorphosis a mystery...

the stolon i pinned in a safer place is behaving itself and staying put...

this one however has made a break for it...fleeing the bed...intrepid colonist...time to find a pot.

"safe" is a relative term

as i have said, probably more times than anyone cares to have heard, strawberries are relentless colonizers...so are jerusalem artichokes...the sunchokes have the advantage of being native and getting to eight or ten feet in height with dense foliage that shades out competition...the berries are indeed "tough little plants" that can survive twenty below zero ( fahrenheit ) temperatures...but they won't beat the shade and while i intend to control the jerusalem artichokes as much as possible to provide the berries in the south bed all the sunlight i can this stolon was setting a daughter plant in a dangerous place and sending another even deeper into the shade...so it was time to move it to a "safer" place...

when i went to pick the stolon up i met some resistance because it had already begun to set root...we have interfered in the life of this plant in a timely fashion...

i moved it to a likely spot between another berry plant ( a transplanted potted one ) and some heart shaped leaves that indicate sweet clover which does not throw a lot of shade...

i took a small "v" shaped twig..with all the trees in the yard they are in ready supply...

and "pinned" the stolon tot he soil...firmly enough to hold it in place but not so forcefully as to damage the stolon..the stolon will continue on to produce yet another daughter...who knows where it will land..we will watch...we may pin it to a pot...we will see...

it is mid may, if you hadn't noticed...and may's pollinators have moved may's bloms along to becoming june's berries...the change is ongoing...we will watch that too.

booming

the season is moving along in berrytown...the locals have joined the imports in blooming with their distinctive yellow flowers...

the potted plants i transplanted to replace the ones browsed by, i suspect, rabbits are greening up and working on roots rather than blooms...they will join in next year if we keep the bunnies at bay...

there are imports blooming in all the beds...and, in their passion for colonization, in places that might seem unlikely...

like this one that has taken up residence in the afternoon shade at...

the base of a a towering egyptian walking onion...good morning sun...shade in the blistering afternoon...and something of a predator repellent to boot...

we have stolons hanging in air waiting to touch ground and root...

and bold ones skirmishing with the jerusalem artichokes...staking a claim to the helianthus turf and even being bold enough to move deeper into the danger zone of perpetual summer shade...we will be re routing this one to a safer spot..."tough little plants" or not, this is one battle they will not win...they found that out last year...seem to have forgotten...we will pin them...we will pot them...we will keep them in the sun.

production and reproduction

the season is getting along and i found the first local wild berry bloom yesterday...which i thought was a bit early but looking back is right on time...still..they have catching up to do...

there are multiple blooms and blooms to be on the new york imports on the north end by the russian olive...

and the east bed is home to multiple blooms as well so there will be berries in all three import patches which is encouraging...

once again, however, it is the south bed that is leading the way...this particular plant...

has generated five of the six stolons in this photo as the south bed berries take aim at the jerusalem artichokes' territory once again...

they are not stinting on the blooms down south either...there will be berries for the birds to spread seed and daughters on the march to colonize the beds...there will be stolon madness in the other beds as the weather warms...right now the south bed is the warmest and sunniest...give them time...they know what to do.