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January 26, 2022

The Talbot Spy

The nonprofit e-newspaper for the Talbot County Community

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Adkins Mystery Monday: What Keeps Green Leaves in the Winter?

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Happy Mystery Monday! Do you know what herbaceous perennial has kept its green leaves despite the winter weather? Hint: this picture was taken in the floodplain, though this plant tolerates a variety of soil conditions.

Last week, we asked you about the pinxter azalea (Rhododendron periclymenoides)! Azaleas have characteristically long stamens that can be double the length of the petals. These native azaleas will bloom in April and May before they leaf out. If you are walking in the Adkins Arboretum woods in the spring, keep an eye out for pinxters blooming along Upland Walk and Blockston Overlook.

Adkins Mystery Monday is sponsored by the Spy and Adkins Arboretum. For more information go here.

Adkins Mystery Monday: What has Lovely Pods?

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Happy Mystery Monday! This week, we have these lovely seed pods. While they don’t contain seeds anymore, the pods can persist throughout winter. Do you know what native shrub they belong to?

Last week, we asked you about northern sea oats (Chasmanthium latifolium)! This native grass when growing in a mass gives a beautiful effect with its unique seed pods nodding in a breeze. This grass does well in full sun and part shade and likes medium to wet soils. It can self-seed and spread rather aggressively, so plant it somewhere where you are happy for it to spread its roots and thrive! It is the host plant for several types of skipper butterfly, is considered deer resistant, and provides ample seeds for small mammals and birds to snack on.
Adkins Mystery Monday is sponsored by the Spy and Adkins Arboretum. For more information go here.

Adkins Mystery Monday: What Grass has Unique Pods?

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Happy Mystery Monday! What grass has these unique seed pods that offer winter interest and a food source for animals?
Last week, we asked you about the American beech (Fagus grandifolia). American beech is not only a beautiful shade tree, but also an important tree for wildlife. It produces large quantities of beech nuts, which are eaten by many animals. It also provides cover and browse for animals and is the larval host for the early hairstreak. If you are interested in how to tell the nuts of American beech apart from European beech, look at the prickles on the husk. American beech will have curved prickles, while European beech will have straight.
Adkins Mystery Monday is sponsored by the Spy and Adkins Arboretum. For more information go here.

Journeys Imagined, Paintings by John Moran, on View at Adkins Arboretum

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John Moran’s paintings are like stories in the process of unfolding. On view at the Adkins Arboretum Visitor’s Center through Feb. 26, Journeys Imagined, his exhibit of watercolor, oil and acrylic paintings, brims with rich, glowing color and animated trees, hills, clouds and abstract forms. There will be a reception to meet the artist on Sat., Feb. 19 from 2 to 4 p.m.

Although his paintings almost always suggest landscapes, they hover strangely between representation and abstraction. Colorful, inviting and often playful, they are full of the dreamlike, half-formed shapes you might glimpse in your imagination.

There’s a curved, cream-colored shape in “Nearing the Distance” that seems like a boat afloat in a sea of purple and violet water with islands and dark hills beyond. But none of it is distinct. The “boat” might just be a reflection of a pale cloud in the upper left or a shimmer of moonlight across the water.

Moran’s paintings are evocative of many things, but you can never be quite sure of what, and it’s this uncertainty that makes them so appealing. With no idea how a painting will turn out, Moran begins with some washes of color, then he paints in more colors and shapes, alters them, scrapes some paint away and paints some more. It’s a process of continual change as he experiments with how colors and shapes react to one another.

“It’s never planned,” he said. “I’m working on a painting now that’s all blue, but yesterday or the day before it was all red.”

John Moran, “Nearing the Distance,” oil on canvas, 18” x 24”

Now living in Chester, Moran grew up in Washington, D.C., and began taking art classes in his late twenties at the American Academy of Art in Chicago. For 25 years, he lived in West Virginia and continued to paint, mostly creating plein air watercolor landscapes, while raising his family, farming and working at a government job. After his retirement in 1997, he chose to concentrate on art and in 2006 earned an MFA from the Hoffberger School of Painting at the Maryland Institute College of Art.

Over the years, Moran has developed his own very distinctive style, though occasionally there’s a nod to Arshile Gorky, Joan Miro, Salvador Dali or some other artist. Because he is so fascinated with the process of painting, he relishes the work of many different kinds of painters, listing Francis Bacon, David Hockney and Wayne Thiebaud as some of his favorites.

For Moran, the process of painting is almost more important than the finished work, and he enjoys the unexpected accidents that happen along the way. Dripping paint might turn into tree trunks or a coal-black mass might suggest a rocky seacoast, while a band of sooty red and luminous scarlet shapes below it call to mind molten lava churning deep in the earth.

There is much that is unpredictable and even slightly mystical in his paintings. Moran likes to think of them as visual poetry, never static and always open to new interpretations.

“I don’t know why these are what they are, and I can’t explain it,” he said. “I think it’s another language. Painting expresses something that can’t be said in words.”

Journeys Imagined is part of Adkins Arboretum’s ongoing exhibition series of work on natural themes by regional artists. It is on view through Feb. 26 at the Arboretum Visitor’s Center located at 12610 Eveland Road near Tuckahoe State Park in Ridgely. Contact the Arboretum at 410–634–2847, ext. 0 or info@adkinsarboretum.org for gallery hours.

Adkins Arboretum is a 400-acre native garden and preserve at the headwaters of the Tuckahoe Creek in Caroline County. For more information, visit adkinsarboretum.org or call 410-634-2847, ext. 0

Adkins Mystery Monday: What Tree Retains Its Tan Leaves?

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Happy First Mystery Monday of 2022! Do you know what tree retains its tan leaves in winter, has showy coppery buds, and smooth bark? It also happens to look beautiful in the snow 🙂
Last week we asked you about the membrane of a wood duck egg! Adkins Arboretum has several wood duck boxes throughout the property and each year our staff monitor their success. These membranes are left behind in the wood duck chick hatching process and are a good sign that a chick successfully hatched.
Adkins Mystery Monday is sponsored by the Spy and Adkins Arboretum. For more information go here.

Adkins Mystery Monday: A Final Creature for the Year

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Happy Mystery Monday and Happy Holidays! For our final mystery of the year, we have this! Do you know what this is? Bonus points if you know what creature it belongs to!
Last week, we asked you about the eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana)! Eastern red cedar is dioecious, meaning that the male and female are separate plants. Males have yellowish brown flowers, while the females have a lighter blue flower followed by the aromatic blue fruits. Eastern red cedars are excellent plants for wildlife, offering lots of shelter and food!
Adkins Mystery Monday is sponsored by the Spy and Adkins Arboretum. For more information go here.

Adkins Mystery Monday: What is this Dioecious Plant?

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Happy Mystery Monday! Do you know what plant this is? Hint: this plant is dioecious, which means that the male and female are separate plants.
Last week, we asked you about a mysterious pattern on a log, which was made by a beaver! We currently have a few beavers at the Arboretum wetland and they will nibble the exterior cambium of woody plants to get nutrients. The cambium is the part of the plant that grows and transports sugars, so it makes sense that that is the part the beavers want to eat first!
Adkins Mystery Monday is sponsored by the Spy and Adkins Arboretum. Please give them here.

Adkins Mystery Monday: What Caused the Pattern on this Log?

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Happy Mystery Monday! Do you know what caused this pattern on this log we found?

Last week, we asked you about the wild geranium, Geranium maculatum! Wild geranium does well in sun to part shade and works as a great ground cover. It has a pale rosy pink bloom in May with foliage that persists for most of the year. You can find it planted in our Parking Lot Alive! gardens.
Adkins Mystery Monday is sponsored by the Spy and Adkins Arboretum. Please give them here.

Adkins Mystery Monday: What Plant has Longlasting Fall Foliage?

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Happy Mystery Monday! As we enter December, some plants prove to be more hardy than we might expect. Do you know what plant has this longlasting fall foliage?

Last week, we asked about greenbrier (Smilax spp.)! This native brambly vine is green-stemmed and often has thorns. In the winter, it produces berries ranging in color from dark blue to black. At Adkins Arboretum, greenbrier is found along disturbed woodland edges, where they thrive in partial sun and dry to moist conditions. The flowers, while inconspicuous, are very attractive to a variety of bees and flies. Various birds including the brown thrasher and eastern bluebird, as well as other animals like opossums, raccoons, and squirrels, will feed on the berries.
Adkins Mystery Monday is sponsored by the Spy and Adkins Arboretum. Please give them here.

Adkins Arboretum Awarded Grant from PNC Foundation for Nature Preschool Programs

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Adkins Arboretum has been awarded a $5,000 grant from the PNC Foundation to continue making nature-based education more accessible to local preschoolers.

“We love being able to offer free nature preschool classes to children who live in Caroline County,” said Adkins Assistant Director Jenny Houghton. “With continued funding from PNC, we can now expand our offerings to engage local schools. Providing meaningful outdoor experiences at a young age is a great way to tap into children’s innate curiosity about the natural world.”

Adkins Arboretum Assistant Director Jenny Houghton reads to students in the Arboretum’s Acorn Academy Nature Preschool program.

This is the sixth year that the Arboretum’s Acorn Academy Nature Preschool has been awarded a grant from the PNC Foundation, which receives its principal funding from The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. During the first year, funding allowed the Arboretum to offer one session of nature preschool programs per season at no cost to residents of Caroline County. These popular programs for children ages 3 to 5 engage children with nature and serve as an introduction to the outdoors, wildlife and conservation while also providing school-readiness skills. Subsequent grants allowed the Arboretum to expand its preschool offerings to two sessions per season.

This year, funding will continue to support the nature preschool program and will also allow the Arboretum to develop and provide school field trips for preschoolers enrolled in Caroline County Public Schools. The Arboretum’s assistant director is collaborating with the Coordinator of Instruction for Early Childhood in Caroline County to ensure that field trips align with Maryland state curriculum.

Environmental education has been linked to improved academic achievement and encourages stewardship, pride and ownership. Adkins Arboretum’s nature preschool programs put students on the path toward cultivating a meaningful awareness of the human-environmental connection and instill basic tenets of critical thinking and investigation skills.

Adkins Arboretum is a 400-acre native garden and preserve at the headwaters of the Tuckahoe Creek in Caroline County. Open year round, the Arboretum offers educational programs for all ages. For more information, visit adkinsarboretum.org or call 410-634-2847, ext. 0.

The PNC Foundation actively supports organizations that provide services for the benefit of communities in which it has a significant presence. The foundation focuses its philanthropic mission on early childhood education and community and economic development, which includes arts and culture.