In Jo's Yard - 63 Black Racer Snake

May 24, 2020, a Facebook friend who is wintering in Southern Florida, posts a photo of a black snake she sees in her yard.  That same morning, I come upon a Southern black racer snake (aka Eastern racer) among the pine straw bales on the north side of the house.  I take a photo – look up and it’s gone.  This non-venomous snake is aptly named, for how fast it moves, usually away from you. 

However, if they are cornered and feel threatened, they may vigorously shake their tail (making a rattling sound on the floor or dry leaves) and may release a foul-smelling "musk" on their captor or even strike if handled.  

This is actually my second encounter with a black racer.  Back in August 2019, a black racer snake (over 2' long, non-venomous, still scary) evidently chased a mouse into my garage - both stuck in the glue trap! Thank heavens Terry from Creative Garden Structures [Creative Garden Structures] was here working on my yard! He removed the glue trap from the black racer's head & "released it into the wild"! The mouse was a "goner".   

My neighbor mentioned that just this previous week, he observed a black snake crossing an open area on his lawn, and being attacked by mockingbirds.  The mockingbirds were dive-bombing the snake until the snake made it to cover of shrubbery by the house.  No doubt there is a mockingbird nest nearby, that the birds were protecting.  

Racer snakes are generally welcomed by gardeners.  Their diet consists of lizards, insects, moles, rodents, birds, eggs, small snakes, and frogs.  Their natural enemies are birds of prey such as hawks.  A hawk with its keen eyesight and ability to drop down from above, catching this snake, negating the snake’s acute awareness of what is going on at ground level.  Dwindling natural habitat and human interference are contributing factors in the demise of these snakes which are really beneficial to the environment. 

VIDEO LINK from YOUTUBE of mockingbird attacking black snake:         https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LflgPbQJm_o

RESOURCES:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_black_racer

https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/uw258

https://academic.oup.com/auk/article-abstract/72/3/296/5213324?redirectedFrom=PDF

Black Racer Snake over 2' long among the bales of pine straw in my yard

In Jo's Yard - 62 Helmut Skullcap

Helmet Skullcap (Scutellaria integrifolia) is just stunning when in full bloom in my wildflower garden.  I just love the deep blue color, and they remind me of little snapdragons.  It attracts a variety of pollinators including a wide range of bees, as well as some butterflies, like the Gulf fritillary, Eastern black swallowtail or Spicebush swallowtail.   

Helmut Skullcap dies back to the ground in the winter.  In the spring, it emerges with arrow shaped leaves, sometimes with a reddish tinge.  They may grow to 2 to 2-1/2 feet tall, and the flowers appear in the summer.  They are pollinated by the bees mostly, and the occasional butterfly visitor.  They produce a large number of seeds, and the next spring may pop up all over.  This is one plant that is easily removed or potted up to give to friends (or donate to native plant auctions, like the ones we have at our Villages’ Chapter of FNPS meetings – when we can get back together. 

RESOURCES:  

https://www.fnps.org/plants/plant/scutellaria-integrifolia

https://flawildflowers.org/flower-friday-scutellaria-integrifolia/

http://hawthornhillwildflowers.blogspot.com/2010/08/helmet-skullcap-scutellaria.html

July 2018 when first planted in my wildflower garden

May 2019 Helmut Skullcap is back for year 2                       June 2019 Helmut Skullcap in full bloom

In Jo's Yard - 61 Narrow-Leaf Ironweed

The Tall Narrow-leaf Ironweed (Vernonia angustifolia) in my backyard is starting to come back after a winter’s rest.  It is deciduous, dying back to the ground in winter and emerging in early spring. In March-April, it begins as a fresh green little pile of elliptical leaves with serrated edges.  By June it could be 2-3 feet tall, with stunning purple flowers.  I love that it is planted with the tall yellow starry Rosinflower – a beautiful color combination.   

This plant is attractive to bees, butterflies and birds, and currently, my birdhouse is right in the middle – and occupied every spring! 

In the fall, the Ironweed is quite tall, and sometimes leaning one way or another.  The purple flowers start to form seed heads.  The stems seem quite thick, but they are hollow, so it is possible to use hand clippers to cut them back to the ground.  Over winter, it can be hard to remember where they were, so you might want to mark them with sign, or pine cones, etc., so you can look for their emergence the next spring. 

RESOURCES:

https://www.fnps.org/plants/plant/vernonia-angustifolia

https://flawildflowers.org/wildflowers-blow/

https://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/162507/#b

http://hawthornhillwildflowers.blogspot.com/2010/07/common-ironweed-vernonia-angustifolia.html

                  MARCH 2019 – Narrow-leaf Ironweed starting to come back

                              JUNE 2019 – Narrow-leaf Ironweed in full bloom

                                        JUNE 2019 – Narrow-leaf Ironweed with Starry 
                                                       Rosinflower – lovely contrast

In Jo's Yard - 60 Wild Petunias

WILD PETUNIAS!  What does that name conjure up? Petunias run wild!  Fun times …. Gosh I’ve been in quarantine too long!  But my yard and garden is a refuge in these times of “corona virus lockdown”. 

I love my wild petunias (Ruellia caroliniensis) and I’ve doubled the number of plants since they were planted in September 2018, in my backyard (the west side of the house).  Fresh blooms every day for spring, summer and fall, April -  September.  It is the host to two types of butterflies, the common buckeye and the white peacock.  Its tubular flowers attract a variety of pollinators.  It will self-seed, and this spring (second spring in my yard), I have found just a couple of “volunteers” in the backyard bed. 

Wild petunias are winter dormant, and by late fall are getting leggy.  I was advised to trim them back.  They will die back to the ground, so the other advice I received was that I might want to mark where they are, so I could remember over the winter.  I marked them with pinecones from the pine straw the first two winters.    Now that I know where they are, or where they are supposed to be, I don’t think I need to mark them anymore. 

CAUTION: many big box stores sell the highly invasive Mexican Petunias (Ruellia simplex).  This invasive species will displace the native species. It does not respond well to herbicides.  I encourage you to “plant responsibly” – Native plants support native wildlife. 

RESOURCES: 

https://www.fnps.org/plants/plant/ruellia-caroliniensis

https://flawildflowers.org/resources/pdfs/Publications/10EasyWildflowersButterfliesBees.pdf

  September 2018 These Wild Petunias were planted in my backyard just 2 weeks earlier

                            June 2019 - My Wild Petunias in front of the Compact Firebush

                          Wild Petunia with White Peacock butterfly (from FlWildflowers.org)

In Jo's Yard - 59 Stokes Aster

In my Wildflower garden bed, I have Twinflower, Rain Lily, Tropical Sage, Scorpion-Tail, Milkweed, Goldenaster, Skullcap, Brown-Eyed Susan and Stokes Aster.  The Stokes Aster plant reminds me a little of the Starry Rosinflower plant – a group of leaves with stems and flowers rising up 10”-24”.  “Stokes aster is named to honor the English physician and botanist Jonathan Stokes who became well known for his work using foxglove (digitalis) to treat heart failure” according to the University of Florida. 

The foliage is evergreen.  It prefers sun to partial sunny areas (my Wildflower garden faces East).  The flowers are abundant and frequented by pollinators.  The buds and flowers are quite lovely.  Pinch of the spent flowers to encourage more flowering.  Otherwise, they are very low maintenance.  I’ve read that you may need to divide mature clumps, but at two-years in my garden I have not had to deal with that yet.  The usual color, shown in photos from my garden below, is a kind of lavender, but I have read that it has been cultivated in other colors.  It is easy to collect the tiny seeds, if you want.

RESOURCES:  

 

https://www.fnps.org/plants/plant/stokesia-laevis

https://gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/plants/ornamentals/stokes-aster.html

                  Planted in July 2018, starting to bloom in September 2018      

Nov 2018  Stokes aster plants in various stages of bloom

                    April 2019 Monarch Butterfly visits Stokes Aster bloom