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June 18, 2025

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Food and Garden Food and Garden Notes

Adkins Arboretum’s Mystery Monday: Guess the Photo!

June 16, 2025 by Adkins Arboretum Leave a Comment

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Happy Mystery Monday!  Can you guess what is pictured in photo below:
The answer to last week’s mystery is arrowwood viburnum, Viburnum dentatum, pictured in the photo below:
Arrowwood viburnum is a native deciduous shrub that can be found from Maine to Florida, and westward toward Iowa and east Texas. It thrives in open woods and streambanks and most commonly occurs in partial shade but can tolerate full sun.
Arrowwood flowers from May–June and fruits from August–November. The shrub’s non-fragrant white flowers form flat-topped corymbs. The showy flower clusters give way to blue-black, berry-like drupes which are attractive to birds and other wildlife.
Thanks to vigorous and sturdy growth, arrowwood can be used as a hedge, screen, specimen, or in mass plantings. While the shrub’s growth habit is an upright oval, the older branches arch with age. Suckers also develop with age and are easy to transplant. Next season’s blossoms appear on old growth
Native Americans reportedly used the straight stems of this species for arrow shafts, hence the common name.
Arrowwood viburnum is the host plant for various species of moths and butterflies, including two specialist moth species: the brown scoopwing moth and the marveled wave moth. It’s also a host plant for Spring azure butterflies. Arrowwood provides nectar for pollinators, including native bees, and food and shelter for birds. Arrowwood is deer resistant.
Mystery Monday is sponsored by the Spy Newspapers and Adkins Arboretum.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: Food and Garden, Food and Garden Notes

Adkins Arboretum Mystery Tuesday: Guess the Photo!

June 10, 2025 by Adkins Arboretum 1 Comment

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Happy Mystery Monday!  Can you guess what is pictured in the photo below?
The answer to last week’s mystery is deerberry, Vaccinium stamineum, pictured in the photo below:
Deerberry is a very common, native deciduous shrub that grows in sandy, well-drained soil and xeric communities such as dry oak woods, pine barrens, savannas, dry pine ridges, sparsely wooded bluffs, sand hills, thickets, and clearings. It often grows in conjunction with rhododendrons and azaleas, which share similar acidic soil requirements.
Deerberry’s nodding, bell-shaped flowers produce from April–June. They’re greenish-white and pink tinged. The stamens are prominent, as indicated by the Latin name stamineum. The fruit of deerberry dangles in loose clusters. The berries are sour and largely inedible for humans, unless they’re sweetened. The berries ripen from late–Summer to early–Fall and are enjoyed by birds and mammals.
Deerberry and blueberry are both members of the same plant family, ericaceae, and share similar characteristics, but also have key differences. For instance, deerberry fruit is typically larger and has a more tart flavor than blueberries.
Deerberry’s foliage turns a variety of colors through the seasons.
Mystery Monday is sponsored by the Spy Newspapers and Adkins Arboretum.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: Archives, Food and Garden, Food and Garden Notes

Forest Music Returns to Adkins Arboretum

June 7, 2025 by Adkins Arboretum Leave a Comment

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Once a year, something extraordinary happens in the forest at Adkins Arboretum. The sound of music weaves between tree trunks, rustles new leaves, and flows under bridges, beckoning curious ears closer. Forest Music is a unique live music experience featuring young musicians and their mentors who are participating in the two-week National Music Festival in Chestertown, MD. The musicians are situated at intervals on the Arboretum’s wooded trails and play for event attendees who meander the trails at their own pace. 

Over the years, Forest Music has featured the sounds of violins, clarinets, horns, bassoons, double basses, and even steel drums. The repertoire is equally diverse,

ranging from classical masterpieces by Bach to timeless hits by the Beatles and even original compositions explicitly crafted for the Arboretum’s forest. The event draws a vibrant mix of more than 300 visitors from the Festival, the local community, and beyond. 

While the National Music Festival provides numerous performance opportunities, Forest Music is its most unique. It offers the musicians an opportunity to participate in a performance art event, experience the acoustics beneath a woodland canopy, and interact one-on-one with the visitors who pause on the trails to hear them play. 

This year’s event sponsors include the Caroline County Council of Art, the Maryland State Arts Council, Unity Landscape, and Morgan Stanley Financial Advisor Catherine Joyce. 

Forest Music takes place on Thursday, June 12 from 2–4 pm. Light refreshments will be served, and wine will be available for purchase. Golf carts with drivers will be available for less mobile individuals. Advance registration is requested. Tickets are $10 per person. 

To register, visit adksinarboretum.org or call 410-634-2847. 

A 400-acre native garden and preserve, Adkins Arboretum provides exceptional experiences in nature to promote environmental stewardship. 

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: 6 Arts Notes

Adkins Arboretum’s Mystery Monday: Guess the Photo!

June 2, 2025 by Adkins Arboretum Leave a Comment

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Happy Mystery Monday!  Can you guess what is pictured in photo below?
The answer to last week’s mystery is Copes gray treefrog, Hyla chrysoscelis, pictured below.
Cope’s gray tree frogs are native to North America, and are especially abundant in the southeast. They are adapted to woodland habitats but will sometimes travel into more open areas to reach a breeding pond. These frogs inhabit all elevations of wooded areas near temporary and permanent waters, such as swamps, ponds, lakes, old fields, thickly wooded suburban neighborhoods, farm woodlots, and mixed or deciduous forests.
Variable in color from mottled gray to gray green, the skin of Cope’s gray tree frogs resembles bark. They typically measure 3.2–5.1 cm long. As a member of the genus Hyla, they possess advanced toe pads, allowing them to adhere more strongly to vertical surfaces, like glass, metal, and primarily tree bark.
Cope’s grays rest in damp, rotten logs, or hollow trees, emerging to feed. Tree frogs tend to be “sit-and-wait” predators, consuming caterpillars, beetles, flies that wander by. Tree frogs produce mucus secretions that are foul tasting and cause burning sensation and inflammation. While these secretions are thought to be anti-predator functions, it is possible that they also function as antimicrobial agents.
In Winter, Cope’s gray tree frogs hibernate on land, and may be found under woody debris logs, roots and leaf litter. When gray tree frogs hibernate, they appear rigid. They have a high freezing tolerance due to glycerol in the blood. During hibernation, 80% of the body freezes and the eye becomes opaque as breathing and heartbeat are temporarily suspended. Their high tolerance for freezing temperatures has enabled gray tree frogs to expand their territory northward towards higher elevations. Cope’s gray tree frog can survive temperatures as low as 18°F.
Mystery Monday is sponsored by the Spy Newspapers and Adkins Arboretum.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: Archives, Food and Garden, Food and Garden, Food and Garden Notes

Adkins Arboretum Mystery Monday: Guess the photo!

May 26, 2025 by Adkins Arboretum Leave a Comment

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Happy Mystery Monday!  Can you guess what is pictured in the photo below?
The answer to last week’s mystery is pinxter flower azalea, Rhododendron periclymenoides, pictured below:
Pinxter flower azalea is native to the Eastern United States, from Massachusetts to Alabama. It is one of several azaleas native to Maryland. An understory shrub, pinxter azalea is dense and bushy, typically growing 2–6′ tall. Pinxter azalea grows naturally in mixed deciduous forests, along streams, swamp edges and ravines, where they can form dense thickets.
Pinxter flowers open in mid to late Spring, and are often mistaken for honeysuckle blooms. The flower colors vary among species populations from white to dark pink. The open petals curve back to show off the long extended stamens and styles. Pinxter flowers begin to open before leaf expansion, drawing many pollinators, including hummingbirds, bees, and butterflies. The flowers are fragrant, and have a light spicy scent.
Maryland’s native azaleas host at least 50 species of native caterpillars, including hairstreaks and brown elfins.
The common name “pinxter” means Pentecost (the seventh Sunday after Easter) in Dutch, in reference to the bloom time for this shrub.
Warning: Rhododendrons contain poisonous substances and should not be ingested by humans or animals. All parts of the plant are highly toxic, even honey made from the flowers may be dangerous.
Mystery Monday is sponsored by the Spy Newspapers and Adkins Arboretum.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: Food and Garden

Adkins Arboretum Mystery Monday: Guess the picture!

May 19, 2025 by Adkins Arboretum 2 Comments

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Happy Mystery Monday!  Can you guess what is pictured below?
The answer to last week’s mystery is bluets, Houstonia caerulea, pictured below.
Bluets are native to eastern North America. They are a small, delicate, perennial plant that grows in tufts with tiny, pale blue flowers with yellow centers. Some bluet flowers are almost white, while others are a rich, dark blue.
Bluets mature in mid-Spring and continue into mid-Summer. At just 6″ tall, common bluets are very light and airy. They are found in moist, partially shaded areas like deciduous woods, meadows, and clearings. The vegetation consists of a basal roseate that stays on the ground, and a few small leaves along the thin, green stems that emerge from the basal roseate.
The flowers are very small and appear to almost float above the ground because their stems are so thin. Bluets produce both nectar and pollen. Their short flower tubes make their nectar accessible to short-tongued native bees. Several smaller species of early butterflies visit common bluets, and bluets serve as a host plant for the larvae of the spotted thyris moth, Thyris maculata.
An alternate name for bluets is Quaker ladies, because their shape is similar to the hats and dresses once worn by women of the Quaker faith.
Mystery Monday is sponsored by the Spy Newspapers and Adkins Arboretum.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: Food and Garden

From Grief to Repair: Mixed Media Fiber Art and Watercolors by Heather Kerley on View at Adkins Arboretum

May 15, 2025 by Adkins Arboretum Leave a Comment

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Pale green and white stitching curls around a trio of beech nuts in a tiny hand-embroidered quilt in Heather Kerley’s exhibit, From Grief to Repair, on view in the Adkins Arboretum Visitor’s Center through June 27. Playful and gently colorful, it’s just one of the many intricate textile artworks and energetic watercolors that she has created as meditations on loss and healing in the natural world. There will be a reception to meet the artist and learn more about her work on Saturday, May 10, from 2 to 4 pm.

Kerley moves easily from painting to embroidery to quilting as she experiments with color, texture and patterning. Her lively series of watercolors, “Re-Kinning,” explores the cycles of birth and death. With spreading washes and casually brushed shapes that suggest bundles of frog’s eggs, seeds, lichens or tiny blossoms, these small paintings are fresh, improvisational studies of the continual changes that characterize life on earth. 

For the past several years, Kerley has twinned her work as an artist with the creation of a wildlife-friendly, native plant garden in her own yard in Bowie, MD. Most of the seeds and nuts stitched into her small “Seed Bank Quilts” were gathered there just as, for thousands of years, farmers and gardeners have saved seeds for the next year’s crop. Lovingly incorporated into the patchwork layers of patterned cloth and embroidery in her tiny quilts, they speak of regeneration and the continuity of natural cycles. 

Kerley’s deep love of nature grew from childhood summers spent camping, canoeing and hiking with her family. Her parents’ involvement in conservation efforts sparked her interest in environmental issues, but although she had an early interest in art, she became a full-time artist focusing on nature just 15 years ago. 

“It was only in the past few years that I became very involved in climate activism and combining my art with my passion for preserving a livable planet,” she said. “This rebounds on my work by inviting the use of found and upcycled materials and overlapping my art practice with my native gardening.” 

The centerpiece of the show is her large quilt, “Mourning Our Kin (23 Extinct)” featuring 23 extinct species including a pair of perky Bachman’s warblers and a Little Marianas fruit bat hanging upside-down from a leafy twig. Taking her impetus from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife’s 2021 proposed delisting of 23 species from the Endangered Species Act due to extinction, she “drew” these animals and plants in stitches of red thread in the tradition of “redwork” quilts. A form of decorative needlework popular in the late 19th century that often featured nature-related imagery stitched with red thread on white or off-white cloth, redwork was an especially appropriate choice because the color red, a symbol of warning and danger, as well as of life’s blood, directly conveys her alarm at the accelerating decline in biodiversity worldwide.

As a child, Kerley learned to sew and embroider from her grandmother and mother. Her skills are evident throughout the show, including in her outdoor installation of a string of quilted and embroidered “Prayer Flags” with their crisp leaf prints and fragments of paintings on paper or fabric and in several small embroidery hoops filled with multi-colored clusters of embroidery very like the animated forms in her watercolors. In all these works, she evokes a tender attention to the inborn wonder and fragility of the natural world. 

“For me, choosing to use stitching to explore our relationship with nature brings in ideas about mending, repair, connection, and healing,” she explained. “Quilts, especially, can be important and sometimes subversive holders of meaning that disarm rather than harden viewers due to their comforting associations.” 

This show is part of Adkins Arboretum’s ongoing exhibition series of work on natural themes by regional artists. It is on view April 29 through June 27 at the Arboretum Visitor’s Center located at 12610 Eveland Road near Tuckahoe State Park in Ridgely. 

For gallery hours or more information, contact Adkins Arboretum at 410-634-2847, or visit adkinsarboretum.org. 

A 400-acre native garden and preserve, Adkins Arboretum provides exceptional experiences in nature to promote environmental stewardship. 

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: 6 Arts Notes

Adkins Arboretum Mystery Monday: Guess the photo!

May 12, 2025 by Adkins Arboretum 1 Comment

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Happy Mystery Monday!  Can you guess what is pictured in the photo below?
The answer to last week’s mystery is white oak, Quercus alba, pictured in the photo below.
White oak is a very commonly found throughout Maryland. In fact, in 1941, white oak was designated the Maryland State Tree.
The white oak is found in a variety of different habitats, although it is localized to the eastern regions of the United States. It’s a wonderful shade tree, reaching 80-100′ tall and 60′ wide. The tree leafs out in April, offering cool comfort in the Summer.
Sometime around its 50th year, a white oak will begin to produce acorns, up to 10,000 annually. The acorns are quick to sprout soon after they fall to the ground. White oak acorns are sweet, and are important to the diet of over 80 species of birds and mammals. University of Delaware Professor and author Doug Tallamy states that the white oak tree is the most powerful plant as it supports 534 different species of butterfly and moth caterpillars.
Male and female flowers grow on the same white oak tree. The male flowers are yellow-green drooping clusters, while the female flowers are small, red, and without petals. Male flowers become elongated catkins containing pollen grains that are released into the wind. After the pollen is released, the whole catkin is promptly shed. Oak trees are wind pollinated, but birds and animals can also help the pollen disperse by moving the reproductive products around.
Mystery Monday is sponsored by the Spy Newspapers and Adkins Arboretum.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: Food and Garden

Adkins Arboretum Mystery Monday: Guess the photo

May 5, 2025 by Adkins Arboretum Leave a Comment

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Happy Mystery Monday!  Can you guess what is pictured in photo below?
The answer to last week’s mystery is the eastern red columbine, Aquilegia canadensis, pictured in the photo below:
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The eastern red columbine is in the buttercup family. It is the only species of columbine native to eastern North America, and is easy to grow from seeds or from divisions of rootstocks. Columbine can be found growing in less than ideal conditions, like in a pocket of soil surrounded by giant boulders.
Eastern red combines hybridize freely in the wild as well as in the garden. It is a delicate but hardy herb with thin, woody rhizomes and slender, much-branched stems that typically grow 1-2′ tall.
The red columbine flower consists of five tubular, red petals with yellow lips, and numerous yellow stamens projecting downward like a golden tassel. The flower is perfectly adapted to long-tongued nectar feeders, like hawk moths and hummingbirds. Flowers bloom from Spring through early Summer. Columbine is deer-resistant and pollinator-friendly.
Mystery Monday is sponsored by the Spy Newspapers and Adkins Arboretum.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: Food and Garden Notes

Adkins Arboretum Mystery Monday: Guess the photo

April 28, 2025 by Adkins Arboretum Leave a Comment

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Happy Mystery Monday!  Can you guess what is pictured in the photo below?
The answer to last week’s mystery is shagbark hickory, Carya ovata, pictured in the photo below:
Shagbark hickory is a tall, straight trunked tree reaching over 120”. It is prized for its aromatic wood, which burns long and with little to no smoke. Hickory is used to produce high-quality charcoal that is excellent for barbecuing.
The bark of young hickory trees is smooth, while mature hickory trees have distinctly shaggy bark. When the shagbark hickory’s leaves emerge in Spring, the leaves point in different directions. This display turns into clusters of small, prominently veined, yellow leaves that seem to glow in the sun.
Shagbark hickory fruits from September-October. The nuts form singly or in clusters of up to three. Hickory is cultivated for its sweet, edible nuts, which have been prized as long as humans have lived on this continent.
Shagbark hickory is monoecious – it has both male and female flowers on the same tree. The male flowers are 2-3″ long yellow-green catkins. The female flowers are much shorter. Both flowers appear in Spring.
Mystery Monday is sponsored by the Spy Newspapers and Adkins Arboretum.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: Archives, Food and Garden Notes

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