Beautiful Berry Time!

Posted on September 11, 2026 by Tina

The American Beautyberry, Callicarpa americana, is in its berrying-up mode once again, on track for autumn bird migration and general purple peckishness by birds and mammals.

The gardener won’t dine on the berries, but is infatuated with the bodacious beautyberries!

Some years the berries disappear just after the purpeling, but at other times–and this year is one of those times–the berries linger, wildlife apparently having other dining choices and so aren’t snarfing the berries the second they turn purple. There have been nibblers on the berries; I’ve witness one or more Mockingbirds dashing away as I approach, berry in beak. In this shot, notice the empty pedicels alongside those still offering berries. As well, more evidence of bird visitation are the splotches of white in the background which are splashes of bird poop. Birds eat, birds poop!

Most of the berries on my shrub are purple, but some are stubbornly slow to segue from the unripe creamy white to the luscious metallic purple. That’s okay, those will turn eventually, thus providing nourishment and beauty for a later time when ripe and ready.

The American Beautyberry is a lovely, deciduous shrub. With an airy growth pattern, its wide, rich green foliage is arrayed along graceful, arching branches. The purple berries are preceded in June and early July by dainty clusters of sweet pink blooms. My limited photographic skills have never quite captured just how attractive this shrub is, berrying or not.

I recently took these two photos at about 6pm and at 100F. Yes, it’s been that hot in sunny Austin, Texas! This shot is from the side of the shrub,

…and this one is facing the front of the shrub.

You’ll notice that the leaves are a tad droopy. You would be a tad droopy too if you were sitting out, day after day, in 100F+ temperatures!

Even though the plant looks droopy, on this particular day, the plant really didn’t need extra water. One job of roots is to take in water from the soil and deliver moisture through plants’ vascular systems to keep foliage and blooms fresh. When soil is moist, plants’ roots are effective in delivering water and plants are vibrant and healthy. During daylight hours plants release water vapor through stomata and when it’s hot and dry, that release increases. This process is called transpiration and it often causes leaves look droopy toward the end of a day. But during overnight hours when temperatures cool, plants recover the water in their leaves because the process of transpiration significantly slows and roots are able to deliver moisture to the plant. When soil is extremely dry and the roots have no water to extract and deliver, plants wilt–and remain wilted. And if wilting continues for for a long enough period of time, plants die.

I don’t fuss when I see wilted plants at the end of a day, especially during our long, hot growing season. But when a plant is wilted in the morning? It gets a nice, deep drink! The Beautyberry is a thirstier plant than most of the others I grow and requires a drink about once every five days or so. I love the plant, so I’m committed to that watering schedule and is why I placed it on this spot near an outdoor water spigot.

This Beautyberry berrying season I haven’t successfully captured any wild thing eating, but last year at about this same time I observed a young female House Finch, Haemorhous mexicanus, who enjoyed the berries.

Bon Appétit to all who partake!

Bums Up, Tails Down

Posted on September 2, 2026 by Tina

This male Blue Dasher, Pachydiplax longipennis, rested in the obelisk posture, on a sun-crinkled lily leaf, pointing upward to the sky. While it may look like a tail to the dragonfly uninitiated, this blue-striped section of the insect is the abdomen. Dragonflies use this posture on hot days to keep cool, but apparently, Blue Dashers will also use this to signify territorial supremacy. Later in the day, this guy and another dasher spent time chasing one another around the pond. I hope they managed to nibble on some mosquitoes in order to keep up their energy!

Garden drama!

Conversely, this Great Spreadwing, Archilestes grandis, points its abdomen (“tail”) downward toward the water as it hangs from a piece of pond vegetation. This fella perched for hours above the cool pond. I originally saw him in the morning, but he was there at various points in the afternoon, just hangin’. The Great Spreadwing is a damselfly and one of the largest of the spreadwings in North America.

You’ll notice on the right side of the photo that one of the wings has some damage, perhaps from a bird or another damsel or dragon? And look at those beautiful, buggy-blue eyes!

Late summer brings the dragons and damsels out in full force, with plenty of zipping and zooming around the pond. Gorgeous predators, they’re fascinating to observe and sparkly jewels in the garden.

When a Tree Falls on a Pathway

Posted on July 31, 2026 by Tina

If a tree falls on a pathway and no on is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

Well, I can’t answer that great philosophical query, as the tree trunk fell when I wasn’t on the pathway to my SIL’ s house. I was caring for her cat and plants while she traveled and I’d walked the pathway at about 3pm, then once again just after 7pm. The pathway between our homes was clear during my mid-afternoon jaunt, but blocked (or mostly so) by early evening. The fall and presumed BOOM occurred sometime late afternoon.

So why was this dead tree, or snag, allowed to stand, as it was so obviously no longer producing leaves? Dead trees are important part of a healthy and vital ecosystem, beyond the obvious foliage-producing life of a tree. According to forest ecologist Dr. Jerry Franklin, of the University of Washington, a living tree “has only partially fulfilled its potential ecological function” and trees’ death and decay are the second important act. Wildlife of all kinds use snags for protection, nesting, and food and for many years and generations. As fallen wood decays over time, it nourishes and enriches soil.

Once a snag falls, it is called a log.

The photo doesn’t clearly show just how deeply the log sank into the soil as it hit the ground, but it’ll require a bit of smoothing out and possibly some additional soil.

The rust color of the trunk is where the large limb/trunk vacated the remains of the old and dead Arizona Ash. There’s plenty of rot in the state of that tree!

A wider view demonstrates where the tree sits, with SIL’s property to the left, ours to the right.

From my garden, the Poverty Weed, Baccharis neglecta, acts as a screen to the remaining two snags.

The Weed planted itself a couple of years ago and I’ve become quite fond of it. This view is from the center of my front garden, looking toward my SIL’s garden.

The downed log is a sizeable chunk of wood!

SIL will hire the arborist that we’ve both worked with to chain saw this log into pieces. Depending upon how big and heavy those slices are, I hope to “snag” a few of them to place in my gardens, though whether I can lift and move them is a whole other issue! I utilize downed limbs and decaying wood in my own gardens to serve as homes for critters and to enrich the soil. I’m certain that SIL will also want to do the same in her garden with the remains of her tree. Our beetles, native bees, birds and other critters will appreciate their new digs and food sources, and the soil where the log pieces will sit will improve as the wood decays.

My SIL and I clearly don’t live in a forested area where trees fall regularly and because we live in an urban environment, we are cognizant of the dangers of falling limbs and trunks to ourselves, our visitors, and our properties. The tree has been monitored by an arborist for several years and all of the upper canopy limbs pruned away as they became potential problems. Only the substantial trunk and remaining three (now two) large partial limbs remain. Resident owls and hawks have used the snag to perch, wood peckers have built nests, and many other birds regularly perch for safety and hunt insects in this snag. An even greater variety of insects, beetles, native bees, and who know what other critters have found safe havens in this mass of wood.

A completed woodpecker hole (and one that was started, but not finished), now lie near the ground, but once provided for Red-bellied Woodpeckers and their chicks.

Other holes were created by insects for their progeny.

I suspect that our wet spring and summer may have hastened internal rot and caused this one side of the trunk with limb to break away. For safety, it may very well be time to remove the entirety of the tree; that will be a decision for my SIL and her arborist. If so, I’ll miss this hulking thing.

For most of my years in this house (since 1985), this tree has been a monument in the neighborhood. It was one of the largest trees and cast its huge umbrella of limbs-n-leaves over most of my front garden for decades. After it succumbed to winter storm Uri five years ago, the bulk of the tree died and limbs were removed. The dead and dying tree–the snag–added structural interest to the gardens. I will miss the busy activity of birds, squirrels, and other critters in and around the snag. When it’s gone, a defining focal point of each of our gardens will be forever altered.