Confederate Star Jasmine

While it has been grown in the Southeastern United States for centuries, hence the name, it is not native to the region. This beautiful and fragrant vine is native to Asia. It's also not a true jasmine, nor is it to be confused with jessamine, another climbing, flowering vine... clear as mud?

Confederate Star Jasmine does produce fragrant star shaped flowers. The one shown in this picture is especially exciting because it's the first time this particular vine has bloomed. We took several cuttings from Meredithe's cousin Tisha's house last Spring and this was the only one to survive. This Spring it added two more lateral vines and has now produced it's first flower.

It had lived in a container for a year while we babied it, but we put it in the ground a few weeks ago. We chose a spot at the base of four big pines that will eventually be right in front of the house. The vines should climb the trees up to about 30 feet. If we chose to we could prune off any climbing vines and use it as a groundcover or short shrub, but the trees are large enough to support it for years.

This specimen is special because of it's origins and the species as a whole is special to us, as we planted it on either side of the arbor for the wedding. Hopefully in just a few short years it will climb over the entire arbor and several large pines around the house. I can't wait for the sweet smell of jasmine on those hot Spring and Summer evenings!

It's A Bird! It's A Bee! It's A... Moth?!

No, seriously, it's a moth. The Snowberry Clearwing (Hemaris diffinis) is a moth. That looks like a hummingbird. That looks like a bee. You would think he'd be having some kind of identity crisis nervous breakdown, but no, he's just flitting about without a care in the world. Drinking nectar with his long curly tongue.

The Snowberry Clearwing's favorite food is obviously snowberry, but on our farm he was most likely dining on related honeysuckles, thistle, cherry and plum nectar. In the video he's drinking from the flowers of our butterfly bush.

They're fairly widespread in North America, although predominantly in the West and only commonly found in a few counties in Georgia. They start their life cycle as tiny, round, green eggs before they transform into green caterpillars with one big black horn apiece, right on their butts. When the caterpillars are fully grown they spin a cocoon in the leaf litter and transform again. Whatever stage of life they're in, be it green egg, green caterpillar, cocoon or bumble bee hummingbird moth thing, they're always welcome on the Gohn farm!

Fork-tailed Bush Katydid

This is a fork tailed bush katydid nymph. He's not fully grown, each katydid goes through a series of five molts, while developing into an adult. Each new nymph stage is known as an instar. I think this guy is probably in his third instar, of six. At full grown he'll look a lot like a grasshopper, with longer skinnier legs.

They normally prefer citrus flowers and fruits and have the ability to destroy citrus crops. I do have a grapefruit tree, but this hungry little guy is sitting on an apple leaf. He'll eat holes in the leaves, which could be damaging on such a young tree. Being young, this tree may not fruit this year, but if it did this little monster would be all over it. They attack the fruits while they can still get through the immature fruit skin. The fruit usually survives, but is left scarred.

I actually wouldn't mind him pruning the fruit off this tree this year so it concentrates on growing limbs, not fruit. In general, however, he's not welcome on the Gohn farm. There are organic approved pesticides available for controlling them, but I don't plan on spraying. Hopefully he'll make a nice meal for a bird, bat or toad and not feast on apple leaves all summer long.

Wild Plums

We've identified another species! This is one of many american plum trees growing wild on the farm. We could readily identify these trees both in summer and winter by their unique bark, but we didn't know what they were before now. Since Meredithe's Aunt Nancy, or "Auntcy", came to the farm last year we knew where these trees fell on the prune to the ground indiscriminately - allow to thrive spectrum. They were the latter, but we only knew them as "ones Tim liked", unlike privet, which is closer to the former.

There is one lone specimen down by the apple trees, but there are two large thickets of them up front and a small cluster of them by the front fence. We liked their beautiful bark and pretty white flowers in the spring, but knew little about them. While Tim was on the farm for the wedding he pointed them out as wild plum and I began to watch for the fruit.

Sure enough, wild plums! Meredithe tasted one and the juice was already slightly sweet, but the fruit isn't fully ripe until later this year. Hopefully the birds will save us some!

Agave

 

Above is our new agave plant at planting. We put it in the ground a few weeks ago, close to the arbor along the Western edge of the garden. It's at the top of a hill so you wouldn't think that too much water would be a concern, but there is a nearby depression that holds water longer than the rest of the hill. It worries me a little, but i'm hopeful that we won't have to move the plant. Below is a picture of the same agave a week later. You can see it concentrating its energy in the upper leaves and sacrificing the lower leaves. It probably lost roots during the transplant and is compensating by sacrificing leaves. Just the shock of transplant can sometimes be enough to kill otherwise healthy plants, but the healthy looking upper leaves are a good sign. Also pictured below are a couple "pups" we pulled off of the larger agave at planting. They are looking great!