Botanical Bar-bee's Backyards LLC

Botanical Bar-bee's Backyards LLC Fine Gardener & Horticulturist // Grand Rapids, MI

09/20/2026

🌺 THE CO**SE FLOWER: A BLOOM YEARS IN THE MAKING 🌺

One of the most incredible things about plants is that sometimes the most spectacular moments take years to prepare for.

This is Amorphophallus titanum, commonly known as the co**se flower or titan arum. This particular plant, affectionately known as “The Beast,” belongs to the Biology Department at Grand Valley State University and was brought to Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park when it began its rare blooming process. 🌱

What looks like one enormous flower is actually a massive inflorescence—a structure made up of hundreds of tiny flowers packed around a central spike called the spadix, surrounded by a large modified leaf called the spathe.

And watching it happen is WILD. 👀

🌱 First, the flowering structure emerges from the underground tuber.
🌱 The bud rapidly elongates as the spathe begins to unfurl.
🌱 As it opens, the deep burgundy interior is revealed.
🌱 At peak bloom, the spadix heats up and releases its infamous odor - similar to rotting flesh - to attract carrion-loving pollinators like flies and beetles. 🪰
🌱 Then, almost as quickly as it opened, the bloom begins to collapse.

The truly incredible part? The bloom itself only lasts about 24–36 hours. 🤯

Normally, a co**se flower may take 7–10 years to gather enough energy in its enormous underground tuber to flower again. And yet, “The Beast” surprised everyone by blooming again only two years after its first recorded bloom in 2022. Plants definitely have a way of keeping us humble. 😂🌿

So this reel captures something that is incredibly fleeting: years of stored energy condensed into one spectacular, smelly, 24-hour botanical event.

This is exactly why I love horticulture. There is always something extraordinary happening if you slow down enough to watch. 🌱✨

08/27/2026

🌿 PROJECT SPOTLIGHT | A Garden for Every Season 🌿

This project had a few important goals: year-round color, 100% deer-resistant plantings, and enough open space for the family dog and neighborhood kids to run and play. Creating a garden that could check all three boxes took a lot of thoughtful planning, plant selection, and installation work - and I’m so excited to watch it continue to evolve. 🌱

The planting palette was designed to create a succession of color, texture, fragrance, and wildlife value throughout the growing season.

✨ Spring: Forsythia ‘Show Off’ (Forsythia × intermedia ‘Show Off’) brings an explosion of early-season yellow, while Dwarf Forsythia (Forsythia spp.) adds another layer of spring interest.

🌿 Year-round foliage: A gradient of Barberries - including Gold Pillar (Berberis thunbergii ‘Gold Pillar’), Orange Rocket (Berberis thunbergii ‘Orange Rocket’), and Dwarf Red Barberry (Berberis thunbergii cultivar) - creates structure and foliage color that carries through the seasons.

🌸 Early summer: Scarlet Quince (Chaenomeles spp.) provides an eye-catching burst of color just as the garden moves into summer. Dwarf Deutzia (Deutzia gracilis) was planted generously throughout the garden to create masses of blossoms and provide valuable forage for pollinators.

🌺 Summer fragrance & drama: Clethra ‘Ruby Spice’ (Clethra alnifolia ‘Ruby Spice’) adds beautiful summer blooms and an incredible fragrance, while Calycanthus ‘Aphrodite’ (Calycanthus × raulstonii ‘Aphrodite’) helps fill out the landscape with bold, unique blooms.

And then there’s one part of this garden that means a little more. ❤️

A small memorial garden was created around the burial place of the family’s beloved dog, Poppy, planted with Poppies (Papaver spp.) and Forget-Me-Nots (Myosotis spp.). Being trusted to create something worthy of such a special family member was an incredible honor, and it’s a detail of this project I’ll always remember.

From the Lonicera ‘Major Wheeler’ (Lonicera sempervirens ‘Major Wheeler) to the layered shrubs, flowering plants, and existing landscape elements, every part of this garden was considered with both beauty and function in mind.

There was a LOT of work that went into this one, but seeing the vision come together made it all worth it. I can’t wait to watch these plants mature, fill in, and transform this space over the years. 🌿✨

This one is a BIG before & after, and one of the projects I’m most proud of. 🥰🌿What started as an overgrown, crowded lan...
08/20/2026

This one is a BIG before & after, and one of the projects I’m most proud of. 🥰🌿

What started as an overgrown, crowded landscape became a true labor of love. We removed enormous buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica) that had grown taller than the garage, selectively pruned competing branches from the existing trees, and brought in a professional stump grinding crew to remove the stumps and major roots - helping prevent future decay and potential issues around the home’s foundation.

Once we had a clean slate, it was time to bring the garden back to life. I planted ‘Endless Summer’ hydrangeas (Hydrangea macrophylla), cinnamon ferns (Osmundastrum cinnamomeum), and sweet woodruff (Galium odoratum) as a lush groundcover beneath the existing trees. 🌿🤍

I love projects like this because sometimes creating a beautiful landscape starts with taking a step back and doing the hard work first. Removing what’s competing, making thoughtful cuts, and giving the garden room to breathe completely transformed this space.

So proud of how this one turned out - and even more excited to watch it continue to grow and mature! 🌱✨

Have you ever discovered the Secret Garden on Mackinac Island? 🌿✨ One of those hidden little gems that makes you stop an...
08/20/2026

Have you ever discovered the Secret Garden on Mackinac Island? 🌿✨ One of those hidden little gems that makes you stop and take it all in.

And I was absolutely living for the color combinations at the Grand Hotel’s gardens this summer! 😍🤩 The alliums were definitely one of my favorites - those pops of purple woven through the planting were so good.

A little garden inspiration from one of my favorite places to wander. 🌱💜

It’s All in the Details ✂️🌿A landscape can have beautiful plants, healthy growth, and a thoughtful design - but sometime...
08/19/2026

It’s All in the Details ✂️🌿

A landscape can have beautiful plants, healthy growth, and a thoughtful design - but sometimes the difference between good and finished comes down to one small detail: the edge.

Crisp, defined edges create visual boundaries between lawn and planting beds, making the entire landscape feel cleaner, more intentional, and well cared for. They frame the planting, highlight its shape, and give the eye a clear line to follow.

Swipe to see the before → after. The plants didn’t change - the attention to detail did.

This is one of my favorite reminders that great garden care isn’t always about adding something new. Sometimes it’s about refining what’s already there.

The little details are what make a landscape feel finished. 🌱

08/19/2026

Project Spotlight 🌿

From concept to installation, this project was a full landscape transformation for the entrance of Sophie’s Ridge Condominium.

The goal was to create a welcoming, low-maintenance landscape that complemented the existing architecture and natural surroundings while providing seasonal interest, texture, and pollinator value.

The planting design incorporates Karl Foerster Reed Grass, Japanese Quince, Russian Sage, Creeping Thyme, Liatris, Creeping Jenny, and Myrtle, layered throughout the entrance to create movement, color, and visual interest from multiple angles.

I designed the planting plan, selected the plant palette, coordinated materials, and completed the installation to bring the concept from paper into the landscape.

There’s something especially rewarding about watching a hand-drawn design become a living, evolving garden. 🌱

Thank you to the Sophie’s Ridge Condominium HOA for trusting Botanical Bar-Bee’s Backyards with this project!

Designed • Installed • Grown with intention

it was a busy summer 🛻🌱🪏
08/19/2026

it was a busy summer 🛻🌱🪏

🍄 The Forest’s Hidden Workforce 🌿Fungi are some of the most important - and most overlooked - organisms in our landscape...
06/30/2026

🍄 The Forest’s Hidden Workforce 🌿

Fungi are some of the most important - and most overlooked - organisms in our landscapes. While plants often steal the spotlight, these incredible species are quietly recycling nutrients, decomposing wood, and supporting healthy ecosystems beneath our feet.

✨ Yellow Spindle Fungi (Clavulinopsis fusiformis)
These vibrant golden clubs emerge from nutrient-poor grasslands and forest floors, helping break down organic matter and return valuable nutrients to the soil. Their presence can be a sign of relatively undisturbed habitat.

💄 Devil’s Dipstick (Mutinus elegans)
Despite its unusual appearance, this stinkhorn serves an important purpose. Its foul-smelling, olive-colored slime attracts flies, which unknowingly carry its spores to new locations - nature’s own compost courier system. It’s commonly found growing from mulch, wood chips, and decaying organic material.

🪵 Crowded Parchment (Stereum complicatum)
This paper-thin shelf fungus colonizes dead hardwood branches, gradually decomposing tough lignin and cellulose. By breaking down fallen wood, it recycles nutrients that future plants and trees depend on.

🦌 Deer Mushroom (Pluteus cervinus)
Often appearing on rotting logs and stumps, Deer Mushrooms are saprotrophs that specialize in decomposing dead wood. Their work accelerates nutrient cycling and helps forests regenerate naturally.

🤍 Milk-White Toothed Polypore (Irpex lacteus)
This delicate white fungus is a powerhouse decomposer. It causes white rot by breaking down lignin - the compound that gives wood its strength - leaving behind nutrient-rich material that enriches forest soils and creates habitat for countless other organisms.

🌎 Every mushroom plays a role. Together, fungi are the recyclers of our ecosystems, transforming fallen trees, leaves, and organic debris into the building blocks of new life. Healthy landscapes don’t just depend on plants. they depend on the fungi working quietly behind the scenes.

🐝 Meet the pollinators that keep our landscapes thriving. Not all bees fill the same ecological role, and each species c...
06/30/2026

🐝 Meet the pollinators that keep our landscapes thriving.

Not all bees fill the same ecological role, and each species contributes something unique to our gardens, forests, and flowering landscapes.

🌸 Western Honey Bee (Apis mellifera)
An introduced species that has become one of our most recognizable pollinators. Honey bees are highly social, living in colonies of tens of thousands, and are exceptional generalist foragers. They pollinate countless ornamental plants, fruit trees, and agricultural crops, making them invaluable to both horticulture and food production.

🌼 Common Eastern Bumble Bee (Bombus impatiens)
One of North America’s most important native pollinators. Their fuzzy bodies collect pollen efficiently, and they’re capable of “buzz pollination” - a technique that vibrates pollen loose from flowers like tomatoes, peppers, blueberries, and native wildflowers. They’re also active in cooler temperatures when many other bees stay in the hive.

🪵 Eastern Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa virginica)
Often mistaken for bumble bees, carpenter bees have a shiny, hairless abdomen. While they nest by tunneling into untreated wood, they’re excellent native pollinators, especially of large, tubular flowers such as wisteria, passionflower, and redbud. Despite their intimidating size, females rarely sting unless handled.

🌳 Swarming Honey Bees
That dense cluster in the ginkgo tree isn’t an attack - it’s one of nature’s most fascinating survival strategies. Swarming occurs when a healthy colony divides. The original queen leaves with thousands of workers to establish a new colony while scout bees search for a permanent home. During this temporary stage, swarming bees are generally focused on protecting the queen rather than foraging.

Every bloom tells a story, and every bee plays a different part in keeping our landscapes healthy, resilient, and full of life. The more diverse our pollinators, the more resilient our ecosystems become. 🌿💛

03/08/2026

🚨 MICHIGAN GARDENERS — Watch out for these! 🚨

Have you ever seen a worm in your yard with a head shaped like a hammerhead shark? 🦈🪱

They’re called Hammerhead Worms (Bipalium) and they’re bad news for your garden. These invasive flatworms prey on earthworms—the ones that help keep your soil healthy.

⚠️ If you see one, do NOT cut it in half. Each piece can regenerate into a new worm.

⚠️ Don’t touch them with bare hands. They produce a neurotoxin called tetrodotoxin (also found in blue-ringed octopuses and pufferfish).

🧤 The safest way to dispose of them:
• Wear gloves
• Place the worm in a sealed bag with salt or vinegar
• Throw the sealed bag in the trash or freeze it

Very few animals eat them because of this toxin, which allows them to spread easily and become invasive.

Have you seen one in your yard yet? 👀

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Grand Rapids, MI
49508

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