day trips Archives - Wild Roots

Mountain Laurelpalooza at Black Run Preserve

mountain laurel flower kalmia latifolia bloom

There’s a lot to love about Black Run Preserve, but maybe the best thing in my mind is how close it is to home. Most other Pine Barrens hikes are a 45-minute to an hour drive for us, but we can get to Black Run in under 25 minutes. (When you have a 2-year-old in the car, that extra 20 minutes can seem like an hour.)

Visiting Black Run feels almost like you’re being transported.? You’re driving in the worst kind of Jersey suburban sprawl, then all of a sudden, right around Route 73, you cross from the inner to the outer coastal plain, and everything changes. The sandy, acidic soils give rise to a completely distinct plant community. Far from being barren, these woods are teeming with life?though it’s limited to a relatively small number of species that have co-evolved to thrive in these infertile landscapes.

We’d never been to Black Run in the spring before, but after seeing the many mountain laurels (Kalmia latifolia) scattered throughout, we made a note to try to get back at the right time to see them in bloom. This past weekend was just about the peak.

Warning: If you get bored easily by pictures of flowers, this may not be the post for you.

Everywhere we looked we spotted?Mountain Laurel in bloom.

Practicing more naturalistic, ecological landscaping at home makes any walk out into nature more interesting, because inspiration is everywhere. Though we haven’t had much success (any success) growing mountain laurel yet, seeing the way the shrubs mix with ferns and high bush blueberry helps give us a nice reference point when thinking about how to incorporate different types of plants in a (slightly more composed) way that mimics natural plant communities.

Here’s some intermingling with Ostrich Fern (Matteuccia struthiopteris), another common Black Run sight.

Again, it’s amazing how different the landscape is from our own for how close it is.? Note the classic Pine Barrens sand.

Mae rolled in ready for action, having insisted on wearing both her new pants and new skirt at once. She also managed to find the perfect walking stick.

One highlight of our walk was getting to meet this Fowler’s toad.?A family was hiking a few hundred yards ahead of us, and their son very thoughtfully decided to bring the toad he caught back to show Mae.?She was very pleased, but a little nervous about touching it. There were also a lot of what looked like Spicebush Swallowtails (Papilio troilus) and other butterflies flitting about, but none of them stayed still long enough to get a picture.

A Fowler’s toad, attempting to demonstrate how not to be seen

There are only about twenty species of tree that are native to the inhospitable soils of the pine barrens.?Aside from the pines, of course, you’ll see a lot of oaks (mostly swamp oaks) and sweetgum in Black Run, as well as the occasional sassafrass.

A young sassafrass tree (Sassafras albidum), which is a host plant for the Spicebush Swallowtail butterfly

Black Run is fairly heavily wooded, with most of the open, sunny areas being grassy wetlands.? But we did spot a big colony of sweet fern in a bright opening in the upland woods.? It’s actually a small shrub, not a true fern.? And it loves sunny spots with crappy soil, so it’s a good one to try in any problem spots in your yard.? The leaves also smell great when you rub or crush them.

Comptonia peregrina

Ok, to wrap things up, here’s one more flower shot, this time with some cool lichen that Lindsay spotted.

Black Run is well worth a visit, and if you get there in the next week or so, you’ll still be able to catch the big show.

Trail Map

We parked at the main lot on the east side of Kettle Run Road.? For our hike, we mostly followed the wide trail marked in blue on the map, turning around when it started getting perilously close to naptime for the youngest member of our party, though there are lots of side trails to head out on as well.? The lot was packed with cars, but with all the side trails it didn’t feel crowded.? Despite the bogs, it didn’t seem buggy, but we did find one tick (luckily unattached), so use appropriate caution.

Spring Blooms at Mt. Cuba Center

When we last made the trip to Mt. Cuba Center, northern Delaware’s native plant showcase, fall bloomers were making their last stand, and trees were shedding their leaves.

It looked pretty different this time around; their woodland-dominated landscape was still bright and sunny in the last weeks before the trees leafed out.? So while most plants were just breaking their winter dormancy, it was a great time to see the spring ephemerals put on a show.? These are the plants that take advantage of the brief window in woodland areas between when the weather and soil warm up and the trees fully leaf out and cast shade over the ground.

Toad Trillium – Trillium cuneatum

Trilliums (a.k.a. wake-robins or toadshades) are the classic example.? They appear in early spring on the forest floor, rapidly complete their full flowering cycle, and enter dormancy as their leaves, stems, and flowers wither away, leaving no trace by early summer.

White Trillium – Trillium grandiflorum

Mt. Cuba has a great selection of ephemerals.? Virginia bluebells, Quaker ladies (houstonia), bloodroots, and other species carpet the forest floors.

Other spring flowering plants, like the woodland phlox species, foamflowers, and celandine poppies which were blooming in abundance this weekend, stick around after flowering, and their foliage provides a nice groundcover throughout the summer.

It was also a great time to see other parts of the landscape waking up.? Fern fiddleheads were unrolling everywhere you looked, trees and shrubs were beginning to flower, and leaf buds were opening up.

Bloodroot, foamflower, and trillium

Ferns unfurl as a small woodland creature darts in the background

Ferns unfurl as a small woodland creature darts by in the background.

False rue-anemone (Enemion biternatum) and celandine poppy (Stylophorum diphyllum) blanket the ground.

Christmas fern (Polystichum acrostichoides) fronds manage to stick around and stay green through the winter, then finally die back just as their replacements emerge.

Newly emerged foliage of an oakleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia).? First described by Philadelphia’s own William Bartram, this southeast native is at home in mid-Atlantic gardens.

Mt. Cuba Center‘s gardens are open Wednesday through Sunday from 10 am ? 4 pm, April-November 19. We recommend bringing a picnic lunch if you’re headed out on a nice day. Mt. Cuba also offers classes year-round in ecological gardening, conservation, art and more.

Whitesbog Village: Blueberries, Beauty and Feminism

It’s going to be a cold week with Christmas festivities at the tail end, so I wanted to get outside yesterday despite the rain. We drove about 50 minutes to Whitesbog Village, and it was well-worth the distance and eventual “OMG we’re missing our toddler’s nap window! Now she’s literally pulling her hair out!” moment on the way home.

Whitesbog, a registered national and state historic site, is part of Brendan T. Byrne State Forest. It features a “village” of beautiful old buildings and 3,000 acres of cranberry bogs, blueberry fields, reservoirs, sandy roads, woodlands, streams and trails. Not only that, it’s a site on New Jersey’s Women Heritage Trail due to the work of “Blueberry Queen” Elizabeth Coleman White. She’s the one who brought Jersey blueberries to the masses after extensive research for growth habits, taste, scent and texture.

According to the Whitebog website, White also focused her research on the American holly (ilex opaca). “She even founded her own nursery business?Holly Haven, Inc.?and is credited with having helped to rescue the American holly from obscurity. She was even one of the first members of the Holly Society of America, founded in 1947.”

Volunteers have worked hard for decades to restore and preserve Whitesbog Village, including White’s old house. It’s a gorgeous place to stroll along paths lined with mountain laurel and other native plants, view cranberry bogs, check out White’s original test garden and experience the beauty of the Pines.

The Whitesbog General Store was closed yesterday morning, which was a bit of a bummer, because I was looking forward to picking up a few last-minute Christmas gifts. It’s typically open Saturdays and Sundays from 10am to 4pm February through December, and carries blueberry and cranberry preserves, honey, candy, books on the Pine Barrens, and items handcrafted by locals.

The store and other buildings within the village date back to the late 1800s and early 1900s. The largest building, which is basically rubble now, was the packing and storing facility that was damaged in two different fires. In the other adorable buildings, Whitesbog Preservation Trust tells the story of Whitesbog Village and holds events, such as art shows, festivals and a holiday craft fair.

We knew we were in a good place when we walked up to find this awesome banner of a Jersey Devil playing banjo. Whitesbog regularly holds a Blueberry Music Jam, an acoustic jam for local musicians, which I’m hoping Tim will attend, banjo in tow.

The trip was still fun without anything in particular going on and a tiny bit of rain. Speaking of that rain, inspired by a story in the Introduction of a book I’m reading, How to Raise a Wild Child, I let Mae try splashing her boots into the puddles. She’s a kid. She should be allowed to splash in that puddle to see what it’s all about, even if it means she gets a little dirty.

One highlight was meeting a landscaping volunteer who saw me taking pictures and led me to the most awesome looking fungus. He admittedly isn’t a “fungus guy” so wasn’t quite sure what it was, but he did then proceed to show us all kinds of plants, native and not. He’s most certainly a plant guy, a weekend botanist, as he says.

The volunteer showed us a small American climbing fern (lygodium palmatum), a rare native fern with S2 status, meaning there are only 6 to 20 known occurrences in the state due to habitat destruction.

Speaking of destruction, here’s a photo of the old packing and storing facility, or what’s left:

As I’ve mentioned in other posts, when the more showy flowers of spring, summer and fall die off, some of the other aspects of the landscape finally get time to shine. This evergreen moss, which popped up all over the grounds and trails, is a beautiful contrast to the greys and browns of winter. Seeing it here led me to, once again, look into native mosses that could work in our garden. We don’t live in the Pine Barrens — we don’t have that sandy soil — so while this one wouldn’t work, there are others. But that’s for a later post.

Looking out from the trails closer to Elizabeth’s old home, the scene is stunning even on the gloomiest day just before winter settles in. I can’t wait to return in different seasons to observe how it changes.

Part of the trails has a boardwalk, which Mae loves, and there is a real range of plant species. The forest of Whitesbog includes sweet gum, pitch pine, red maple, black gum, holly, and Atlantic white cedar.

We believe this next photo is of a really old American sweet gum, but would love to be corrected if we’re wrong. Identifying trees without leaves while wrangling a dog and toddler can present a challenge at times.

The grounds around White’s house have a mix of natives and non-natives, though as far as I understand, the Whitesbog Preservation Trust’s goal with maintenance is to keep her collection of friendly non-natives healthy, get rid of invasives and add only plants native to the Pine Barrens and this region in particular.

This low-growing shrub, bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi), can be found close to White’s house, and is prettier than this photo suggests. It’s a great native groundcover for those of you with that signature Pine Barrens sandy soil. It’s a host plant for the Hoary Elfin, Brown Elfin and Freija Fritillary butterflies, and its bright berries are edible.

As always, we have lots of other plant photos to share, and will continue to do so on Instagram. But all in all, it was a great little family adventure. And again, we weren’t even there when one of the many events was happening!

Franklin Parker Preserve: A Pine Barrens Treasure

Cranberry Meadow at Franklin Parker Preserve

While the Pine Barrens are rightly known for their wild beauty, there’s not much virgin wilderness there. The Pine Barrens were the site of a great deal of early American industry (hence the profusion of ghost towns) and agriculture. We took a quick late-fall hike this morning in one such area, the Franklin Parker Preserve, which was a major cranberry growing operation in its past life.? You can still see the canals, raised levees, and even old railroad tracks, but the land is very much reverting to a natural state.

The area we explored is now a mix of grassy wetlands and pitch pine forest. We started at the trail head across the road from Chatsworth Lake and followed the red trail west and then south, connecting with the green trail for a short 3-mile loop?the perfect hike to enjoy Tim’s birthday and still get home in time for Mae’s afternoon nap.

The 16-square-mile preserve, New Jersey Conservation Foundation’s largest, is a beautiful, fascinating network of sandy trails, short bridges and roads through pitch pines, blueberry fields, swamps, lakes and tributaries of the Wading River. According to the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, Franklin Parker Preserve is home to more than 50 rare, threatened or endangered species.

The preserve is just over 30 miles from Collingswood, mostly down Route 70, which means it takes about 50 minutes. It’s worth every minute.

We didn’t see all that much wildlife on this morning’s hike, save for a kingfisher and lots of dragonflies, but she loved all of the talk about the turtles and snakes that live there. One of the highlights was when a dragonfly kept flying around us and landing on her hat.

I could keep telling you how wonderful the trails around Franklin Parker Preserve are, but some things are best said through photos. Enjoy.

Reindeer Lichen

Classic Pine Barrens: Pitch Pines

All Bundled Up, Mae Enjoys the Ride

Red Trail, In the Pines

Pretty Pine with Lichen

Cranberry Meadow Franklin Parker Preserve

A.R. DeMarco Cranberry Meadows Natural Area, managed by the New Jersey Conservation Foundation

Beaver Dam

The Vibrant Fall Colors of Franklin Parker Preserve

Cardinal Meadowhawk Dragonfly

A Late-November Trip to Rancocas Nature Center

A morning, or even just an hour, spent walking in a quiet, natural setting can do wonders to ease your mind, de-stress and keep things in perspective. That’s exactly what we did Sunday morning on the 3 miles of Rancocas Nature Center trails, which stretch across the wide range of habitats found within the 210-acre Rancocas State Park.

It was a beautiful walk through meadows, wetlands, and pines, with lots of bridges and boardwalks for Mae to run on. (She’s got a thing with bridges.) We saw just one other person, a runner lucky and smart enough to opt for trails over pavement.

It was downright peaceful for the Sunday after Thanksgiving, a couple days after Black Friday with the holiday craze in full swing. Most of the plants had already died back or turned to seed, but the area had not lost its allure. Seeing a field of flowers after their peak season is a reminder that the outdoors should be enjoyed and appreciated year-round.

The browns, grays, and purples with pops of green is a palette I like, and somehow brings on an even deeper sense of calm than the colors of spring and summer.

Goldenrod Gone to Seed

When we started down the trail from the main building, Mae spotted a goldenrod that had turned brown and gone to seed and said, “Flower!” I was impressed, because it didn’t look like the flowers we see in most of her books. Kids, man. They’re awesome.

We got there before the building had opened, so we’ll have to return soon to check out the turtles and other wildlife on display. I guess it was about 10AM, and look at that light in the photo above. It was pretty much perfect, though I don’t doubt that an earlier or later walk would be just as good.

I could feel the temperature drop as we walked from the sunny meadow into the pines, which made me wish again that our neighborhood was full of trees (ahem, summer utility bills), but Mae didn’t agree. That was the exact moment she wanted to take off her coat and run around.

One of the other neat things about late-fall and winter hikes is that berries, evergreens, and mosses that might not be as visible at other times of the year burst through the many shades of brown.

For gardeners, getting out in natural settings this time of the year is also beneficial for strategizing. You can notice what leaves are still hanging on, where the interest remains, and add those plants to your little plot of land if the conditions are similar. I spotted a little eastern red cedar that stood out when it otherwise wouldn’t, and just seeing it there pretty and green proved Tim right that it could work nicely along our back fence.

It’s funny how both having a child and learning more about native plant gardening has changed my perspective. Together, they’ve made me walk slower, look for new things to discover (like, really look), and recognize the beauty in flowers not longer full of life and color.

I cannot wait to go back and take photos of the same scenes again as the seasons change. Mae will love the butterfly house, the bees, and the dragonfly pond that will come alive in the summer, and we hope to get some snow so that we can experience it there among the trees.

We didn’t spot any wildlife other than a turkey vulture and a woodpecker, but I’m sure we will during future visits at different times in different seasons.

Also, we weren’t exactly quiet, since we basically had the trails to ourselves and gave Mae the opportunity to run wild a bit. Next time we’ll practice our whisper in hopes of seeing a deer.

The Rancocas Nature Center offers events and educational programs for all ages. They have a summer camp and is just a couple of miles off 295 and a 25-minute drive from Collingswood. The nature center is open six days a week, Monday through Saturday, 10-4 PM, and Sunday 12-4 PM. The trails are open every day until dusk.

Oh, and I should say, because it is Giving Tuesday: It didn’t require more than one visit to Rancocas Nature Center for us to decide on membership. (Note: RNC requires you to apply via snail mail, so we’re not members yet!) All fees all go toward “the continued environmental education of our children,” a cause we can certainly get behind. After all, we should always have places like this to take our children and to escape for a few hours ourselves.

Teaching Children to Love Nature: It’s Simple

As a parent of a 16-month-old, I’m often trying to come up with activities that will get us out of the house and fuel her curiosity.

We’re lucky to live just outside of Philadelphia, so we have a lot of museum options, an aquarium and a few zoos within a short drive, but going to them is more of a special occasion or every-so-often thing for us. Annual memberships are still pretty expensive and one trip to the aquarium would cost us close to $70.

What I’m looking for when it comes to activities for Mae is something a bit simpler, easier and yet also educational. And that’s why just getting outside in a natural setting has become my favorite activity, along with reading and the imaginary and sometimes not imaginary cooking we do.

Instilling an appreciation of our earth and the environment and the wonders of nature is important to us as parents, and simply going outside among the trees and flowers and stones and plants and animals is something that Mae enjoys. I know she won’t remember our recent trips to Black Run, Bartram’s Garden, Crows Woods or Saddlers Woods, but my hope is that she’ll enjoy herself in the moment and maybe, just maybe, those experiences are planting a seed.

In “Beyond Ecophobia,” David Sobel suggests that we cannot expect our children to care about our earth ? and issues like climate change and environmental sustainability ? if we don’t teach them to love nature. “If we want children to flourish, to become truly empowered,” he says, “then let us allow them to love the earth before we ask them to save it. Perhaps this is what Thoreau had in mind when he said, ‘the more slowly trees grow at first, the sounder they are at the core, and I think the same is true of human beings.’?

When we take walks, there isn’t much teaching going on. Sure, sometimes I’ll have her count acorns or leaves, but really I just want her to explore. I point out squirrels or other things, because I hope she’ll understand that we’re surrounded by interesting and beautiful things when we’re out in nature. I want her to learn to quietly observe, and to see just how beautiful our natural world is.

?Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.? ? Rachel Carson

No, I’m not able to get it together enough to be taking her to magnificent places every few days. We go to small nature preserves and parks, which suit her just fine for now. She’s small and I’m letting her walk as much as she wants to, which makes for some very slow walks and pitiful distances (for an adult).

When we first pulled up to Crows Woods in Haddonfield a few weeks ago, I was surprised that Mae was reluctant to actually enter the wooded area. Maybe she was expecting a playground or a trip to my parents, and that initial view didn’t meet that expectation. But I actually think she found it a little scary. I didn’t push her, but I picked her up and walked toward a tree to show her its leaves. “Down!” she said after that, and off we went down the path.

Mae ended up plopping down and just moving some dirt around for a while, which is fine. She enjoyed seeing the squirrels and hearing a bird here or there. She found some excellent rocks and even yelled out, “Buddy!” recognizing this as a place her dog brother might like. It was nice just to be out in the fresh air, going slowly.

So if you’re looking for activities to do with your toddler (or child of any age), try this:? Forget about memberships and baby gyms and obstacle courses and trampolines or whatever else, and just get outside. I think more of us adults could use a few moments just to slow down, breathe in some fresh air, not worry about distance walked or hiked, and just enjoy the natural areas we still have available to us.

Visit a 600-Year-Old Tree in NJ Before it Falls

Take a look at this White Oak tree for proof that native trees should be prioritized over non-natives. At 600 years old, this tree’s life finally has come to an end. Meanwhile, those living in developments built in the ’70s are already losing the Bradford Pears lining the streets.

We’re planning to make the hour-long trip up to Basking Ridge to see this beauty in real life before it’s cut down in the spring. It’s just too amazing to miss out on, especially because it’s here in our little state.

That reminds me: If you ever need a reminder that us humans are just passing through and the longer-living species among us deserve more respect than we often give them, check out The Oldest Living Things in the World, a beautiful book by Rachel Sussman. I found it at Inkwood Books in Haddonfield.

While up north checking out the oak tree, we’ll head over to Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge. It’s an 8,000-acre refuge that includes a 3,660-acre Wilderness Area that became the first of its kind in 1966 within the Department of the Interior. It’s an example of what the hard work of some passionate environmentalists can accomplish, as it was local residents battled the Port Authority of NY and NJ in court to prevent them from turning it into a regional airport.

The Pokeberry and the Epiphany in the Meadow Garden

This morning Tim and I were trying to remember what triggered our intense interest in native plants and restoring the local ecosystem. There is one moment that comes to mind for me. We were walking through Longwood Gardens’ Meadow Garden last summer, admiring the beauty of the whole landscape rather than attempting to identify the specific plants that together create it.

At least that’s what I was doing. That, and obsessing over the fact that our newborn daughter’s skin might be exposed to the sun. (Which is how I spent approximately 35% of the Summer of 2015.)

We stopped at the Webb Farmhouse to feed the baby and take a break from the sun, and browsed the galleries inside. And that’s where I found it: A photo of American pokeweed (Phytolacca americana), a plant we’d found and tried to remove from the perimeter of our backyard.

“Wait, that’s supposed to be there? That’s supposed to be there!” A little light flashed on in my brain and so grew my interest in what else belonged in our backyard. It was a little bit of a struggle at first to convince Tim not to replace the plants growing along the one side of our property with some other, nicer, more exciting varieties of natives. Now that we’ve removed a large portion of our lawn, I’m seeing them pop up all over the far back area of it. Our plan is to allow them to grow, but control them just enough to make room for other plants.

A few fun facts about American Pokeberry:

The berries are a food source for songbirds and other bird species, along with other animals like foxes and opossums.
The plant serves as a common side dish in Appalachian culture, and is still cooked (at least three times) and eaten by the most daring foragers among us.
Indians and early settlers used the root in poultices and certain drugs for skin diseases and rheumatism (wiki)
The mature berries of the plant might even have a role to play in the solar industry, “used to coat fiber-based solar cells, increasing their efficiency in converting sunlight into electricity” according to this amazing source of info on the plant.

It’s also highly toxic when raw. Recently I saw a fellow mom post a picture of the berries of a pokeberry plant to our local mommy group on Facebook, and the overwhelming response was, “Rip them out!” More on this later, but my approach is to keep it growing, watch Mae closely in the yard and teach her about not eating it as soon as that’s a lesson she’s ready for.

Either way, I think I’ll always think of that first discovery when I come across a pokeberry plant in the wild. Not just because it reminds me of the start of my more conscious love of native gardening, but also because that moment at Longwood proved just how fun it can be to notice and learn about nature’s details. It makes every walk more exciting.

I’ll leave you with this footage of Tony Joe White on the Johnny Cash Show singing about the very berry featured in this post. Do yourself a favor and watch it.

A Fall Visit to Mt. Cuba Center

We’re lucky to have so many public gardens in our area, and even luckier that several of them focus on showcasing native plants.? We recently got a chance to take a trip to one of these: Mt. Cuba Center in the rolling hills of northern Delaware (no, the state’s not entirely flat – there’s a tiny strip of the piedmont running through the northern tip).

With about 50 acres of woodland, meadow, and wetland gardens, plus a rare all-native formal garden, it’s a great place to appreciate the versatility and beauty of natives.? We visited on its last weekend of the season at the end of October (it will be closed through the spring), but even though the biggest blooms of the summer had past, there was still plenty to see.

Oak leaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia) beginning to show fall color in the woodland garden

Wild columbine (Aquilegia canadensis) makes a great groundcover long after its spring blooms are gone

Muhly grass (Muhlenbergia capillaris) on the edge of the meadow doesn't do much most of the year, but it puts on a great show in the fall. I don't think I realized the butterfly was there when I took this picture.

Muhly grass (Muhlenbergia capillaris) on the edge of the meadow doesn’t look like much most of the year, but it puts on a great show in the fall.

Mae and Lindsay crossing through the hillside meadow area.

A wider shot of the meadow

Seed heads of bee balm (Monarda fistulosa) on the edge of the meadow

Two question mark butterflies (Polygonia interrogationis) doing at best a B- job hiding in the leaves

One flower that was still blooming profusely was this aromatic aster (Aster oblongifolius ‘October Skies’). We planted a whole mess of these in our yard this fall – hopefully they look as good as this in a year or two.

One of the cool things they’ve been running for a few years is their trial garden, where they test different species and cultivars to see which are most suitable for gardens in the mid-Atlantic.? So far they’ve released thorough reports on asters, coneflowers, baptisia, coreopsis, and heuchera (though not all of them seem to be currently up on their new website).? I’m looking forward to the upcoming monarda and phlox reports.

The trial garden – I think that’s part of a bluestar trial you’re seeing in the foreground

As part of Mt. Cuba’s mission, they try to show the versatility of native plants.? To that end, they’ve tried to combat the notion many gardeners have that natives only really work for naturalistic gardens.? They recently re-did the formal gardens directly next to the house with all native plants.? Personally, I’m more drawn to the naturalistic look (hence our decision not to name this blog Highly Cultivated Roots), but I thought they did a great job.? We didn’t get great pictures of the formal garden, but you can see some photos here on their virtual tour, and read more about how they created them here.

They also offer a wide variety of classes and even a certificate program.

We’re excited about heading back next year – if we’re lucky we’ll be able to swing a spring, summer, and fall visit to catch all of the plants at their best.

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