Chrysalis Garden Native Plants

07/28/2026

07/23/2026

Gardeners and Native Plant Enthusiasts--

Be on the lookout for Mulberry W**d, which is common on Monte Sano and elsewhere, producing flowers and seed as I write. It is not related to Mulberry trees, but is an annual that has a high rate of reproduction by seed, and will invade any garden bed and even lawns. It flowers in the leaf axils under the leaves--nothing showy--you would not notice them until you start pulling them. Pull gently to get the root and dispose of them in a black plastic trash bag and set in the sun to let the seeds cook. That should kill them. Composting may not.

Below are a couple of photos from my yard, where I have been fighting them for 7-8 years--and they usually come to your home via plants from nurseries, so make sure you don't bring home hitchhikers. I will try to add another photo soon that more clearly shows the seed pods. Please pull these and do not use herbicides.
Happy Hunting! 🧐 Soos

07/21/2026

I am hooked on Plumes--like all the other creatures he charms with his soft voice.

07/19/2026

With all the rain we have had this spring and summer, it is hard to imagine that the fireflies are in a decline. If you keep track as I have at Chrysalis Garden, I worry about the annual pursuit of children to catch the most fireflies to make a lantern.

Some of you may have been on my FireFly Hikes at the State Park, when I was young enough to do them. A walk down and up Bankhead Parkway was so much fun for families with kids. I would explain that the larvae of the firefly spent a year after hatching out from the egg, in the leaf duff under the trees, eating grubs, earthworms and other insects. But in late spring, they would crawl up onto a plant and change into the Beetle we know as the Firefly. Now it it time for males to seek out the females to produce next year's generation of soft blinking lights.

But here is where it gets tough on them. So many humans with so many lights everywhere!! These confuse the mating process, and so fewer males and females find each other. It is really only possible to see them doing well in bottomlands, such as the Hays Nature Preserve, and the closed Bankhead Parkway. It was so much fun leading ecohikes--without flashlights--in those habitats.

We all could do so much to protect these and other insects--which have their places in the food web, by minimizing our outdoor lights, and by saving as much forest land as we can for the future. We need the large open areas not peppered by homes and businesses. Go for that evening walk about dusk and admire the dedication of the firefly mates trying to find each other. Then go home and turn off your lights.

05/29/2026

This is an incredible short reel by Paul Stamets on mushrooms and how their growth is stimulated. Please watch, you will learn a tremendous amount about lightning and mycelium in his observations.

05/16/2026

These ferns are epiphytes-- they grow on trees in the tropics, so they like dappled sun
It will grow about 30" wide. Really a stunning fern. Grown at Chrysalis Garden Native Plants.