Prospect Cemetery Prairie

Thanks to a recent Facebook post from Grand Prairie Friends, we decided take a short ride to Paxton to see some spring prairie flowers. The site is right off the road and one enters though the unlocked memorial gate. There is no path so we just wandered about the cemetery complete with old grave stones lying about. The site has a serious Day Lilly and Iris problem which is being worked on. It was so enjoyable to see plants that once were native to this area that, sadly, one seldom sees any more.

prairie phlox, Phlox pilosa

false toad-flax, Comondra umbellata

yellow star-grass, Hypoxis hirsuta

wood betony, Pedicularis canadensis

hoary puccoon, Lithospermum canescens

This site is a reminder of what we have lost. It was sad to see the barren adjacent farm field, the plastic factory across the street, the landscapes of the neighborhood homes and the neglected tombstones lying about. All signs of what our society is up to, except for some folks at Grand Prairie Friends who make an effort to maintain some of the few remaining high quality prairie remnants in our area. The folks at Habitat Home thank you.

Starved Rock

The last few days have been spent at Starved Rock State Park.

The weather was cold but with proper clothing one was able to hike the icy trails to see the beautiful frozen water falls,

and hike up to starved rock and view the bald eagles and other waterfowl.

We stayed at the Lodge which has the largest double stone fireplace in Illinois. If you do decide to go I would strongly recommend a pair of ice grippersfor your shoes or boots. The well traveled trails have become a combination of matted snow and ice and are very slippery. A week day visit is preferable; I was told that the weekends can get quite busy.
If you prefer guided tours, there is an all day trolley tour on Wednesday and on Thursday morning there is a guided hiking tour.

The Dawes Arboretum

On a recent trip out to Boston, we decided to stop and visit the Dawes Arboretum in Newark, Ohio. We were certainly glad we did. It is a wonderful combination of trees, history and nature. Although the Dawes family's country home was closed to visitors that day, there was plenty else to do. The friendly person at the gift shop informed us of the Dutch Fork Wetlands just down the road. It was a sunny cool day, perfect for hiking around the arboretum and wetlands. We barely got to see everything before the place closed at dusk.

There is a nice Bonsai collection at the visitor's center. On the lower level of the visitors center is the nature center that has this really nice observational bird feeding station.

Holly Hill is where you will find a mature collection of hollies. The hollies were really nice to view this time of year with all their red berries.

The rare tree and oak collection was a good place to collect nuts.
Perhaps my favorite place to view was the Cypress swamp, even though it was dry at this time. This would be a great place to see in the spring.
One of the nice things about this place is that you can drive to all the various collections and sites to see. We did not spend much time at the Japanese garden. the Azalea Glen and Rhododendron Glen were not at optimal viewing, nor did we take the time to hike the "Deep Woods." There is also a nice observation tower that overlooks the lake and hedge lettering if you like that sort of thing!

We took the short drive over to Dutch Fork Wetlands and hiked the trail to the bog and back.
Perhaps one of the unexpected delights of the place was seeing many really old Beech trees which we do not have in East Central Illinois.

Burr Oak

These beautiful acorns are not growing here at Habitat Home. These acorns are growing on trees planted in Millennium Park in the heart of Chicago. These Burr oaks are planted just outside the Lurie Garden that is also located in Millennium park. This garden is full of native plants and designed by one of my favorite designers, Piet Oudolf. The diversity of plants and the way in which they are planted has made me wonder about redesigning the meadow area at Habitat Home. When I first started gardening I wanted one of every plant, now after seeing this garden, I want hundreds of just a few native plants. The massive plantings were quite impressive especially when viewed against the city skyline. It was also interesting to sit on the benches and watch as the dragonflies and other insects flew above the plantings.

The last photo is of Cloud Gate, a sculpture, also located in Millennium Park. No photo can do this interactive piece of art justice. It was so engaging to all who viewed it. I would be very satisfied to have just one of these!

University of Wisconsin Arboretum

On our recent trip to northern Minnesota, we stopped at the Universty of Wisconsin Arboretum in Madison, Wisconsin. There we  viewed and hiked a number of recreated native habitats, prairies, savannas, woodlands and ponds. The visitor's center has been entirely landscaped with native plants. It was a delight to experience and that is where I saw the plant, cream false indigo Baptisia leucophaea. I was particularly interested in this plant because I have tried to establish it here at Habitat Home but have not been successful. It was growing in an area that was much like those at Habitat Home so I will try once again.

Another recent interest was furthered by the purchase of the book Field Guide to Wisconsin Sedgesby Andrew Hipp at the arboretum's bookstore in the visitor's center. My interest in sedges was previously aroused by reading the book The American Meadow Gardenby John Greenlee, in which the importance and prevalence of sedges in recreated meadows was discussed. Since we have a meadow area already started at Habitat Home, I am interested in further developing that area with sedges. So perhaps there will be future photos and information on native sedges...of which there are a lot!

Collins Pond

We left Habitat Home and took the short quarter mile walk to Collins Pond, part of the Champaign County Forest Preserve District's Homer Lake Park.  The spring ephemerals are in more abundance and variety than we've seen on our property, as in the scene above showing lots of spring beauties and dutchman's breeches in the woods just above the Salt Fork River.  Several other photos of the flora and fauna are included below.

American toad (Bufo americanus)

another American toad (Bufo americanus)

Slider (Trachemys scripta)

White Trout-Lily (Erythronium albidum)

Dutchman's breeches (Dicentra cucullaria)

Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis)

Left: Great waterleaf (Hyfrophyllum appendiculatum), basal variegated

Right: False hellebore (Veratrum viride)

easily uprooted small honeysuckle

Stan Hywet (Boston Trip Part 3)

On the drive home from Boston, we had a hard time deciding where to stop. The book Gardens Across America, Volume I East of the Mississippi is a great resource for finding gardens to visit while traveling.

We decided to stop and visit Stan Hywet and were not disappointed. This was the estate of F.A. Seiberling, the founder of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. He built a magnificent 65 room Tudor Revival mansion on 75 acres where stone had once been quarried. The name Stan Hywet is old English for stone quarry.

The estate beautifully combines formal gardens, the cutting/vegetable gardens and orchard with the natural areas surrounding the estate. The birch allée vista is not to be missed nor the walled English garden pictured below.

Mount Auburn (Boston Trip Part 2)

While in Boston we visited the gardens and arboretum of the Mount Auburn Cemetery. Yes, that is right, a cemetery! Mount Auburn is a designated National Historic Landmark, founded in 1831 on 175 acres of meadows, hills, ponds and woods in Cambridge. It was America's first landscaped cemetery. Today it continues in its role as a cemetery, as a beautiful landscaped park and now also as a bird sanctuary for migrating birds. The cemetery contains more that 5,500 trees of nearly 700 different taxa, most of which are labeled with common and scientific names. Twenty eight of the trees here are state champions. There are also graves of many noted Americans, beautiful cast-iron fences, an ornamental garden, the beautiful Bigelow chapel and many, many monuments, memorials and interesting gravestones. The view from Washington Tower is worth the climb. This photo was taken before we even walked up to the steps of the monument.

Inniswood (Boston Trip Part 1)

We have been traveling to Boston to visit our son. Along the way, we stopped at Inniswood Metro Gardens located in central Ohio. The gardens are nested in amongst 121 acres of a nature preserve, once part of a 37-acre estate of sisters Grace and Mary Innis who enjoyed nature and gardening. The sisters later donated the house, gardens and property to the Metro Parks, which now maintains the gardens along with Inniswoood Garden Society volunteers.

The sisters' garden is located in the area around the house and has been developed for children. "To Nurture the Nature of the Child in Everyone" is it's motto. This area contains a tree house, farm house, prairie, wetland, turtle mound, trellis cave, secret garden, circle maze and a wonderful story maze.

Some of the other gardens we enjoyed while at Inniswood were the circle, conifer, rose, cutting, memorial, white, woodland rock and the herb garden. The photo below shows the knot garden that is located in the herb garden. Like all the other gardens in this park, it is well designed and beautifully maintained.