Foliage Friday - Rattlesnake Master

Good afternoon! I hope your Friday is going well! Welcome back to another edition of Foliage Friday.

Here is your friendly plant post, where I talk about a plant I love and hopefully convince you to either plant it or just be more knowledgeable about it.

Plant:Eryngium yuccifolium, Rattlesnake Master

Why: I have spent the last 3 (scorching hot days) in the nursery working in a few beds that contain rattlesnake master.  Let me just tell you... working in 94 degree weather, sweating, planting seedlings, and snagging your face on these flower heads is not the best experience! I was starting to get fed up with them to tell you the truth... but when a few visitors from another site came out to the nursery on Tuesday, they were very impressed with the rattlesnake master's progress in the nursery. Is that so? I decided I needed to learn more about it so I could be impressed, too!

Landscape info: Prefers full sun and even moisture, which makes it easy to grow in a prairie setting, as well as a low maintenance yard plant. It is commonly used in roadside plantings, as well. There are no reported insect problems or diseases. It does not have weedy-like qualities and self pollinates. A huge attracting feature are the unique, spiky flowers that form into balls. Be careful! They sort of hurt if you brush against one. :)

 A full shot of the rattlesnake master plant

Other uses: The early American pioneers believed that the roots could be used as an antidote to a rattlesnake bite, hence the name of the plant! But it is not believed that this actually works, there are disputes about the effectiveness!

A picture of the rattlesnake master roots

Fun facts: The rattlesnake master is actually a member of the carrot family, but it sure does take on the qualities of a succulent, doesn't it? The dried seedheads of the rattlesnake master were used as rattles by the American Indians. The specific epithet, yuccifolium, is Greek for "like yucca leaves." Check out a previous post for information about the yucca. :)

Some information and pictures from: http://www.illinoiswildflowers.info, http://plants.usda.gov, and yahoo images

I took a picture...

Here are some pictures that I snapped with my phone or otherwise and haven't posted... until now.

I took a picture....

... of my tan line after a month of work

... of the purple coneflowers at work because they are my favorite flower

... of the nest of robin eggs I found in my parent's backyard

... of the photobooth strip Shannon and I took at Ted's wedding last month

... of the hatched robin eggs in my parent's backyard

... of my grandma's 40 year old lilies she removed from her house 

and gave me to plant at my parents house

... of the steer at the farm drinking water our of the water spicket like a water fountain

You should take some random pictures and tell us why you took them! I love random, fun pictures!

Now Introducing Mr. and Mrs.....

A few weeks ago, I was very lucky to witness a good friend of mine get married to his long time girlfriend. It was a wonderful ceremony and reception!

I met Ted my freshman year of college. I had just been elected to president of Central Campus (CCRG) and he had just been elected the senator for Central Campus from Student Government Association (SGA). As a side note, SGA and the area governments did not have a history of getting along very well. But, I didn't really know that and was more nervous that he would find my first meeting as president horrible, since had more experience that I had.

Luckily, none of that happened. In fact, at this time, Shannon and I were the only elected officials (President and Vice President respectively) and we had a few programs to throw right away. Ted stepped right in to help us out and attended all of our events as the next school year started. We also realized that he went to a rival high school and lives about 15 minutes from us back at home! Small world!

As the year progressed, Ted became more than an ex-officio of the CCRG executive board, he became more like a member of the board, and we treated him like one of us; one of the family. And before long, he became a dear friend to Shannon and me. Neither of us had a car on campus our sophomore year, and we frequently needed help getting to stores to buy supplies. Guess who stepped up to drive us, no matter the day, time, or how much he had to do? You guess it, Ted.

My junior year I became Vice President of  all the residence halls and Ted became President of Student Government Association. We were both thrilled that we were able to work together for another, just in a different capacity! We served the student body in different ways, but worked extremely hard to bring SGA and ARH together, while achieving our goals. I couldn't ask for a better person to serve with than Ted!

The friendship didn't end as he graduated from ISU, thankfully. When we had school breaks, Shannon, Ted, and I would meet up for dinners, text, and update each other. When I was down at ISU for my last job, Ted was in town doing grad school and we STILL met up to catch up and reminise.

Over 4 years of a friendship and Ted is one of the dearest people to me (and I'm sure Shannon, too). That made us even more thrilled to get an invitation to his wedding to his wonderful fiance, Michelle, whom we also went to college with. I don't think we ever thanked her for all of her patience with us when we stole Ted away for CCRG events!

Enjoy some pictures of the ceremony and reception below. :)

 Ted being escorted in by his parents

 

 Michelle, the beautiful bride, being escorted in by her parents. Cue blubbery Amy!

 Saying the "I Dos"

Kiss the bride, Ted!

Leaving the church... I loved the bright flowers. And of course I love the big smiles on the new couple :)

Our gift all wrapped up. We found shiny silver paper and bright green (sparkly) ribbon for a bow. (Ted's favorite color is green!). We also added 2 stickers that represent Shannon and me. Shannon - crayons (art major). Me - gardening tools (horticulture major). We thought we were soooo clever hehe.

A dark picture of the couple's first dance. Awww!

Posing with Ted during the reception. Good ol' times together!!

Roommates/best friends dancing the night away at the reception!

Congratulations, Ted and Michelle. You both are amazing people and I wish you all the happiness in the world. Thank you for having us at your wedding, it was such an honor and a wonderful day. :) Lots of <3!

Foliage Friday - Japanese Maple

Happy Friday! Yikes, this post is barely getting in under the wire today for Foliage Friday! Oops, I had a busy, busy day and it almost slipped my mind.

Here is your friendly plant post; where I talk about a plant I love and hopefully convince you to plant it or just be more knowledgeable about it.

Plant: Japanese Maple, Acer palmatum

 Japanese Maple as a common cultivar, Bloodgood

Why: Well, first of all, I think it's time for another tree in the Foliage Friday mix. I do love trees (see: blog title).  Then, I honestly couldn't decide on a plant to do, so I asked my mom. After a little while, she suggested the Japanese Maple. I am just proud that she knows what one is to ask to learn more about it! Maples are seriously one of my favorite genera of trees, I have no clue why. They are so common and over planted, but for some reason I love them.

Landscape info: There are MANY different cultivars of Japanese Maples, so there are many different landscape uses for them. Some get a little taller (15-25 feet) to be used as a tree, while others remain small and can be used as a shrub in landscaping. Naturally, this tree is found as an understory tree, as it can survive with dappled canopy shade. It's leaves are unique because of how deep the lobes go (see below picture. ) Depending on the cultivar, leaves can be green, yellow, red, orange in summer, and can change again in fall! It needs constant and steady water, as it does not do well in overly dry locations. There are no reported major pest problems.

Close up of leaf shape - 5-9 lobed palmate leaves

Other uses: Besides being used as a landscape tree, Japanese Maples can also be cultivated into bonsai trees and are pretty popular!

Fun facts: The Japanese Maple is native to Japan, North Korea, South Korea, China, Mongolia, and southeast Russia. Since it was discovered, it has adapted to survive in just about every climate.
There are probably over 100 cultivars that have different shapes, sizes, and growth habits!

Japanese Maple as a bonsai tree

Have a great weekend! Thanks for stopping by! :)

Some information and pictures from: www.hort.uconn.edu and Yahoo images

I gots a new job

It just recently dawned on me that I have been talking about and referencing to my new job, but I haven’t really explained what it is! Would you like to know? Hope so, because that is today’s post. :)

As mentioned a few times before, I realized that my position at ISU was not for me. I loved working with the student workers, organizing the desks, and being busy… but it took a toll on me. In addition to the 8-4:30pm hours, also had to work many nights where I was on-call. That means I was the professional staff member that RAs would call if there was a situation. There was an average of 8 nights a month. Some nights were a piece of cake. Other nights, I would be up all night with emergencies or unsure RAs. In spring semester, I had EIGHT marijuana confrontations and arrests! I’m sure you can imagine that these normally happen in the middle of the night.

Currently, no matter how the night went, we were expected at work the next day. That wore me out! In addition, while loving my student workers, there were a handful of them that were extremely needy. I would get calls and text messages all day, all night, all weekend long about questions, comments, and problems. If I ever left my apartment, it was a guaranteed sign that someone was going to be late for their shift and I was going to have to work. I shouldn’t have, but I felt chained to my apartment and to my job at all hours. (Yes, yes, that is more a personal issue than a hazard of the job.)

Those demands were rough, but that’s in addition to the administrative side. I always felt like I was behind and that my desk had a pile of paper a mile high. When I wasn’t doing rounds at the service areas, I was shuffling paperwork back and forth, answering emails, trying to finish projects and committee work, and of course billing students for damaging the halls. Oh, let’s not even get into that! Meanwhile, the sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and trees were flowering… and I was missing it all. My employees were hilarious and would basically watch me stare out the window when spring hit. They were super sweet and even got me plants for holidays, my birthday, etc.

In addition to missing my family like CRAZY, I decided that I would not return to my position. Even with what I just made it sound like above, it ended up being a little harder than I thought. Again, even with how demanding 55 employees were, they were my number one reason for staying all year. Once they found out, many expressed their sadness, which almost made me stay! But, today, I am very glad I chose to follow my true passion. (Thank goodness for facebook so I can keep in touch with them all!)

That brings me to today… where I am working? Luckily for me, I received 2 interviews and 2 job offers before leaving ISU. It was a hard decision (hmm, a pattern here?), but I decided on accepting a position with the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County as the native plant nursery assistant. Before I go any further, I will just say… I LOVE IT!

What do I do every day? Well, there is a native plant nursery that is fairly new to the District. My direct boss is in charge of it, but she has WAY too much on her plate, so I directly care for it. There are about 40 planting beds in the outdoor nursery. The beds are about 30 feet long. Each bed has a mixture of plants in it, the District practices companion planting. A big part of my job is weeding, watering, collecting seeds, planting new plants, and organizing volunteer work days in the nursery. Besides working in the nursery, I also help my boss with a variety of other things, including pesticide application, pesticide distribution, inventory, visits to other sites, and administrative tasks. I’m glad it didn’t take her long to realize that I am super organized. :) One rainy week, I redid the Grounds and Resources herbarium and made it easy to find specimens. Now, my boss will give me something and let me have at it. It makes me feel so good that she trusts me!

The nursery on my first day

Every day is something new and different. I have learned something about a native plant every day! I love seeing the plants from seedlings to mature flowering plants. My plant identification skills skyrocketed, as did my passion for plants outside of trees. :) But don’t worry, I still am crazy about trees. In the nursery, there are hundreds of small trees that are also taken care of for the District. So once and awhile you can find me wandering in the rows!

Rain overalls. Gotta love my look.

Taking my 2pm break on the gator in the woodland.

Do you have a question about what I do? Did this clear it up? I hope so! If you still have any questions, please let me know, and I can definitely answer them. :)

Foliage Friday - Yucca

Happy Friday*! Are you ready for another installment of Foliage Friday? I hope so since I didn't get another post in here this week to break it up! Hehe. :)

It's your friendly plant post; where I talk about a plant I love and hopefully convince you to plant it or be more knowledgeable about it.

Plant: Soapweeed, Yucca glauca

A full shot of the yucca plant

Why: Well, this sure seems like a random plant, doesn’t it? That’s good, because I want to cover a ton of different plants on Foliage Fridays. Actually, I was inspired to pick this plant because of my mom. We have recently been giving my parents’ yards a facelift. Currently, the backyard has a few holes in it. One day, she was driving to work and saw these beautiful, tall, white flowers spiking up from the ground. She immediately asked me what they were. I had seen them before, but could not remember their name! Later that week, while gardening at Stephanie’s house, she pointed out how much she loved this one plant…. And it was the same one my mom was interested in! Well, that just seemed like fate, I had to write about it! Luckily, Stephanie knew the name… the yucca.

Landscape info: Plants I am currently trying to learn more about are perennials. I haven’t given them enough attention! Usually, annuals offer a great deal of color, and bloom for a majority of the summer. And let’s face it, I love color. But as I learn more about perennials, I learn what they can offer besides consecutive years of life. The yucca starts out as a 3-4 foot clump of spiky, green, succulent leaves. In summer (June through August), it grows a 4-5 foot flowering stalk. The flower stalk contains many white, bell-shaped flowers. It is a great plant to give your garden a completely different look mid-way through the season. It offers a wonderful texture and height difference to any shorter annuals or perennials planted in the area, yet works wonderfully in a rock garden because of its spiky leaves. It is believed that the yuccas, being in the agave family, can withstand hot, arid temperatures, along with drought like temperatures. Easy maintenance! It also attracts butterflies to its white flowers.

White, bell-shaped flowers of the yucca, with its spiky leaves

Other uses: If the roots of the yucca are harvested and pulverized, you can mix them with warm water and drink it, which apparently helps with stomachaches. The juice from the succulent leaves can be used as poison for arrows and fishing. That’s not it! You can also mix the roots to make a shampoo which can help with dandruff, hair loss, and lice. A lotion can be made out of the roots, as well, for the treatment of poison ivy! Want to know why it’s called soapweed? That’s because the roots can be used to make soap, as well as the shampoo as mentioned above.

Fun facts: Sooo, if you’re a plant person, you probably have figured this one out… but the soapweed is actually not native to our area. In fact, it is not native to Illinois at all. Do you know what that means? It’s technically a weed! This plant is native to just about every state west of Illinois. It can turn invasive if not monitored while it flowers. But since our area is not known for its extreme arid temperatures, it does not get out of control. This plant has many different common names, other than soapweed. Here are a few: Great Plains yucca, Spanish bayonet, beargrass, small soapweed, and yucca. Finally, the yucca will not produce seeds every year because seed fertilization is highly dependent on the Pronuba moth. Note to self: learn about this moth!

Inside of the flowers

Thank you for tuning in this week! Hope you have a great weekend :)

*Post was written on Friday but unfortunately not posted due to lack of internet. Apologies for the 2 day delay.

Additional information found at: usda.gov

Foliage Friday - Purple Coneflower

Happy Friday! Are you ready for another installment of Foliage Friday? I hope so! It's your friendly plant post; where I talk about a plant I love and hopefully convince you to plant it or be more knowledgeable about it.

Plant: Purple Coneflower, Echinacea purpurea



Why: I dont remember when I fell in love with this plant, but it was a long time ago. It always stuck out in my head as a pretty flower and it was usually the first plant I would think of when I would talk about the prairie. Even today, at my new job, I am surrounded by it and it makes me so very happy. It comes in many cultivars, including a pale purple color. I also grow that one at work. But with technology today, there are red, yellow, and orange cultivars of this plant! My heart will always belong to the purple. :)

Picture: Center of flower


The center of the flower holds its pollen and the bright hues of its petals attract pollinators.

Landscape info: Technically the plant is a prairie flower, and thus can handle a lot of sunlight, heat, and drought without any problem. It is great to plant as a garden border, as it can get 3-4 feet tall. I personally think they would look great against a fence or shed. They do get a little droopy, but that is at full maturity. They are also found in meadows commonly, and quickly make a massive open space appealing. Sadly, they do have a slight problem with Japanese Beetles.

Other uses: For a long time, it was believed that the roots of the coneflower were a good treatment against the common cold. I believe it helps the immune system. However, I did read that not many scientific studies support this anymore. Also, in addition to making an excellent garden border plant, the flowers can be cut and used as a cut vase flower for your kitchen. The blooms last quite awhile!

Fun facts: Looking for a plant that will attract butterflies? This will definitely do that for you. Well, it also attracts bees, but mostly innocent bumble bees. :) The purple coneflower cannot pollinate itself (it is a single sex plant), so it needs bees and other pollinators to exchange pollen in order for its seeds to be fertile. So we like the bees in this case! If you recall, the scientific name starts with "Echinacea." In Greek, that is the word for hedgehog. Take a look at the center of the coneflower to see what I mean!




Some information and pictures from: http://blogs.scottarboretum.org and http://www.mobot.org