A melody drifts over the meadows, to the accompaniment of cicadas and crickets and birdsong. The tune is deep purple and golden, and it calls to the small creatures of the air with a silken voice: “Come to me! Feed on my rich nectar while you may!” The little aerialists are happy to oblige, raising their voices in sweet harmony to the music of the wildflowers until all the world is ablaze with the Song of September.
BUZZ BIXBY: Good Morning and Happy Harvest to you! 
Welcome to Critter Radio’s broadcast of the 73rd Annual Harvest Festival Pollinator Parade, right here on 99.9 KRTR!
I’m Buzz Bixby…
CECILY SWALLOWTAIL: … and I’m Cecily Swallowtail…
BUZZ BIXBY: …and we’re your hosts for this wonderful panorama of floats, performers, balloons and marching bands, all celebrating pollinating insects and their buggy friends. It’s a beautiful day for a parade… Continue reading
The Conservatory at Longwood Gardens is a welcome respite from the dark and dreary days of winter. Outside the landscaped grounds are cold, bleak and brown. Step indoors and we are welcomed with warmth and color.
Beautiful flowers are everywhere. Some dangle in delicate shades of blush…
While others offer a brighter palette.
Past the Main Conservatory and the Exhibition Hall, the Silver Garden and the Banana House, each step deeper into the labyrinth of corridors and rooms reveals ever more exotic plants. Bird of Paradise.
Round the bend and we are met with a shaft of sunlight illuminating some unusual leaves. Ram’s Horn Croton.
Walking into the Fern Passage brings us among some truly weird and wonderful plants. Look up! See the intricate pattern made from the spore-dotted fronds of the Australian Tree fern that towers over your head.
Turn another direction, and we find ourselves face to face with suspended carnivorous pitcher plants. Smaller ones share a planter with tiny Venus Flytraps.
Wait – our favorite plants seem to be missing. Where are the club mosses? This is Longwood Gardens; they simply have to be here.
And they are. In fact, we were looking right at them. A helpful staff botanist is happy to show us what we missed.
Not mosses at all, club mosses are vascular plants. We are familiar with Lycopodium, which resembles a teeny tiny Christmas tree, but on this Christmas day, we are introduced to Huperzia, sometimes known as fir moss.
These particular Huperzia are called Tassel Ferns.
Passing through the Cascade Garden, we find ourselves in the Rose Alley, which speaks to us of both spring gardens and tropical climes. Water droplets glisten on colorful hibiscus.
Outside it is cold and windy, but inside the Conservatory of Longwood Gardens winter dreams blossom into weird and wonderful life.
Christmas morning at Longwood Gardens
As the year comes to a close, our souls protest the darkness of the oncoming winter. We must have light! Little wonder that many of our varied holiday traditions glow with strings of twinkling bulbs and shiny baubles.
On a cold, dark night, the holiday displays at Longwood Gardens are a particular delight for the eyes and the heart.
On entering the Main Conservatory, visitors are greeted with a towering tree trimmed in glass, glitter and feathers. White flowers and greenery line the dark pools and fountains.
Treasures of Christmas Past adorn a stair hall.
A child’s whimsical interpretation of Rudolph.
In the Orangery, the trees bear both fruit and delicately woven ornaments.
Oh, look! Here is a table is set for a festive holiday wedding! Polished silver and sparkling crystal gleam among the flowers and gifts in red and white.
When the sun sets, Longwood Gardens really shines. Lights twinkle from luminous trees everywhere you turn. Even a new moon adds its radiance to the festivities.
The Conservatory, aglow from within and without.
In this season of light in the darkness, I wish for a world without war, famine, poverty and pollution; a world where every creature has a healthy and protected home; a world where all people live in peace and prosperity.
Whatever your traditions may be at this holiday season, I wish for you good friends, good food, and good cheer!
The Wild Edge will return in early January. A Snowy Day!
Come forth into the light of things, let nature be your teacher. – William Wordsworth
Ha! You thought I would say “The Birds and the Bees”, didn’t you? Believe it or not, I do take photos of things besides birds. Herewith, a sampler of Spring Flowers and their Friends.
Dogwood, Yellow Iris and Crabapple blossoms at Heinz NWR. Of all the flowering trees, I think I like the Crabapples the best. What’s missing from these photos is the wonderful aroma that wafts over you as you pass near them.
A simple Dandelion in my yard, when I was playing with my macro set-up. I should have picked it long before it got to this point, but then I wouldn’t have been able to take its picture. Oh, well, more dandelions for me to photograph in the future!
One day we went to Longwood Gardens. These are just some of the wonderful blooms we saw. And no, I don’t know all their names.
Flowers need pollinators to reproduce, and here are a few busily at work in Crabapple and Wisteria.
It’s not at all unusual for me to get photos of the back end of critters. I guess you could say I’m often a little bee-hind.
FUN FACT: There are nearly 4,000 species of native bees in North America, at least 50 of which are bumblebees. This does NOT include the honeybees, which are non-native, having been imported from other parts of the world for pollination and honey production. One way bumblebees extract pollen is by a process called “buzz pollination.” The familiar buzzing of bumblebees is produced by the vibration of flight muscles, which in turn shakes the pollen out of the flowers. Pretty clever.
