eBotanical Prints – April 2026

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Twenty more books were added to my botanical print eBook collection in April – all are available for browsing on Internet Archive.   16 of the books are a continuation of the Carnivorous Plant Newsletters; there are 4 volumes per year so this month includes 2004 to 2008; I’ll continue browsing this periodical in May.

My list of eBotanical Prints books now totals 3,343 eBooks I’ve browsed over the years. The whole list can be accessed here.

Click on any sample image from April’s 20 books below to get an enlarged version…and the title hyperlink in the list below the image mosaic to view the entire volume where there are a lot more botanical illustrations to browse.

Enjoy the April 2026 eBotanical Prints!

Alpen-Flora für Touristen und Pflanzenfreunde * Hoffman, Julius; Friese, Hermann * sample image * 1904

Ocean flowers and their teachings * Howard, Mary Matilda * sample image * 1846

Algae and corallines of the bay & harbor of New York * Durant Charles Ferson * sample image * 1850

A popular history of British seaweeds : comprising their structure, fructification, specific characters, arrangement, and general distribution, with notices of some of the fresh-water algæ * Landsborough, David * sample image * 1857

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.33:no.2 (2004)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2004

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.33:no.3 (2004)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2004

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.33:no.4 (2004)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2004

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.34:no.1 (2005)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2005

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.34:no.2 (2005)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2005

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.34:no.3 (2005)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2005

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.34:no.4 (2005)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2005

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.35:no.1 (2006)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2006

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.35:no.2 (2006)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2006

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.35:no.3 (2006)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2006

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.35:no.4 (2006)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2006

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.36:no.1 (2007)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2007

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.36:no.2 (2007)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2007

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.36:no.3 (2007)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2007

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.36:no.4 (2007)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2007

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.37:no.1 (2008)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2008

Rhododendron Blooms

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The big rhododendron bush just outside my office window is in full bloom. I love to take pictures when there are still some buds….and other flowers fully open. I like the luminescence of the flowers, and the pollen sometimes looks like gold. It is probably a cultivar of the rhododendron native to North America….but not to Missouri.

I am wondering if the bloom time this year will be prolonged by the recent cold days when the flowers probably simply slow or stop opening. The beautiful flowers seem to fade quickly.

I cut some stems near the bottom of the plant to bring inside since the bush is encroaching on the stone path in front of it. The blooms fit nicely in a largish wine glass on my windowsill.

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 25, 2026

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The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

4/9/2026 Yale 360 A More Troubling Picture of Sea Level Rise Is Coming into View - Sea levels are much higher than we thought. Real-world oceans are making a mockery of flood-risk forecasts based on crude global modeling. And to make matters worse, coastal lands almost everywhere are subsiding faster than anyone realized — often many times faster than the seas are rising. 

4/10/2026 BBC The air throughout our homes is infused with microplastics. But there are things you can do to breathe less of them - Scientists believe the majority of our exposure to microplastics happens when we're indoors. To solve the microplastic pollution crisis will take a lot more than changes within the home – there are plenty of broader sustainability concerns too. If moving to replace synthetic fibers in your home with natural fibers, for instance, there's also the greater water and land use from organic cotton use to think about. Or if choosing to ventilate your home more to usher away microplastics, that pollution is only being pushed outdoors. Short of systemic change and a global reduction from the 460 million tons of plastic made each year, there's only so much individuals can do. 

4/9/2026 National Parks Traveler Deer Test Positive for Chronic Wasting Disease at Catoctin Mountain Park – We enjoyed Catoctin when we lived in Maryland….I’m sad that the deer there and in nearby parks have tested positive for CWD.

4/08/2026 Smithsonian Magazine See the 2,000-Year-Old Ancient Roman Cargo from an Accidental Shipwreck Discovered at the Bottom of a Lake in Switzerland - Roughly 2,000 years ago, an ancient Roman ship sailed across a large lake in what is now Switzerland, transporting supplies ranging from olive oil to chariot wheels. For some unknown reason, the vessel scattered its cargo across the lakebed. The cargo is in good condition, but researchers are concerned it may become damaged or destroyed by erosion, boat anchors, vandals and looters. As a precautionary measure, they decided to bring the most vulnerable pieces up from the depths.

4/10 2026 Artnet How a Hopi Potter Named Nampeyo Became a 19th-Century Art Star - Born in 1859 in the village of Hano, a Tewa village on First Mesa, in modern-day Arizona, Nampeyo (1859–1942) is believed to have learned the art of pottery making from her paternal grandmother. By the 1870s, Nampeyo was selling her works at trading posts throughout the region. Nampeyo’s legacy is a complex one, shaped by ancestry, archaeology, and the shifting trade systems of the still-expanding United States as it entered the 20th century.

4/11/2026 Science Daily Unusual airborne toxin detected in the U.S. for the first time - Scientists searching for air pollution clues stumbled onto something unexpected: toxic MCCPs drifting through the air for the first time in the Western Hemisphere. Although these pollutants have previously been detected in places like Antarctica and Asia, scientists had struggled to measure them in the air over the Western Hemisphere until this study. These chemicals are commonly used in industrial processes, including metalworking fluids and the production of PVC and textiles. They frequently appear in wastewater and can end up in biosolid fertilizer, also called sewage sludge, which is produced during wastewater treatment. The researchers believe the MCCPs they detected in Oklahoma likely originated from nearby fields where this type of fertilizer had been applied.

4/8/2026 My Modert Met Winners of the Scottish Nature Photography Awards 2025 Celebrate Scotland’s Wild Beauty - The winning photos span 10 primary categories, including Environmental, Natural Abstract, Scottish Botanical, and Scottish Wildlife Portrait, among others. I appreciated the beauty among so many other blog posts that were somber….depressing.

4/3/2026 NWF Blog How to Grow More - Conservation outreach professionals are tasked with the challenge of not only clearly explaining conservation programs but also personally connecting with farmers. This combination of technical skills and personal communication skills is rare, since the skills are seldom taught in school and professional development opportunities are uncommon or unsupported.

4/3/2026 The Conversation Toxic dust from California’s shrinking Salton Sea is harming children’s lung growth - As the lake shrinks, wind blowing across the exposed lake bed kicks up toxic dust left by years of agriculture chemicals and metals washing into the lake. That dust makes its way into the lungs of the children of the Imperial Valley. The study began to show that higher levels of dust exposure, especially among those children living closer to the sea, are linked to poorer lung function, as well as reductions in children’s lung growth over time. Reduced lung function increases the risk for chronic respiratory disease, such as COPD, or more frequent respiratory infections, such as pneumonia, as adults.

3/19/2026 Mongabay Should potentially harmful chemicals be appraised by class, not one at a time? - Some scientists and health advocates are pushing for a “Six Classes” framework that evaluates entire groups of chemicals, or chemically related subgroups, together, flagging them for scrutiny before harm is documented rather than after. The framework targets six broad categories of chemicals that share many common traits: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), flame retardants, phthalates and bisphenols, antimicrobials, certain solvents, and certain metals.

Life Magazine in 1947

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Internet Archive has digitized versions of many Life Magazines. I have been browsing through them – slowly since there was an issue for each week. As I looked at the issues from 1947, I noticed the aftereffects of World War II – helping veterans, technology transitioning to civilian use (DDT, lipstick, atomic energy), hunger/wreckage/suffering in Europe and Japan, Farmers and factory worker were better off than they were before the war.

 (Click on any of the sample images below to see a larger version and the links to see the whole magazine online.)

Life Magazine 1947-01-06, Niblets Mexicorn advertisement

Life Magazine 1947-01-13, Paraplegic’s home made to order

Life Magazine 1947-01-20, Farm lottery for veterans

Life Magazine 1947-01-27, 44 seat airliner takes off with 13 passengers

Life Magazine 1947-02-03, New factory a model for civilian production

Life Magazine 1947-02-10, Mexican’s carrying loads to market

Life Magazine 1947-02-17, Ice fog at Ladd Field near Fairbanks

Life Magazine 1947-02-24, Bridge in Washington collapses in gasoline fire

Life Magazine 1947-03-03, Trying to save Whooping cranes

Life Magazine 1947-03-10, Cathedral of Caen and surrounding rubble

Life Magazine 1947-03-17, Cars stranded at crossroads by Canadian snowstorm

Life Magazine 1947-03-24, Beyond the arctic circle

Life Magazine 1947-03-31, Moon over Manhattan

Life Magazine 1947-04-07, Harvest art

Life Magazine 1947-04-14, Triple eruption in Iceland

Life Magazine 1947-04-21, Henry Ford dies

Life Magazine 1947-04-28, Texas City blows up and burns (town on Galveston Bay)

Life Magazine 1947-05-05, Normandie scrapped

Life Magazine 1947-05-12, Dorothy Shaver, President of Lord & Tayler

Life Magazine 1947-05-19, Diesel locomotives

Life Magazine 1947-05-26, Patched pants

Life Magazine 1947-06-02, Truman Capote at 22

Life Magazine 1947-06-09, Mount Athabasca

Life Magazine 1947-06-16, Santa Fe System Lines in the west

Life Magazine 1947-06-23, Adams House

Life Magazine 1947-06-30, The Maya

Life Magazine 1947-07-07, Nebraska’s soil and sons

Life Magazine 1947-07-14, Painter’s summer in New England

Life Magazine 1947-07-21, German worker making tires….gaunt from lack of food

Life Magazine 1947-07-28, Elizabet and Philip growing up

Life Magazine 1947-08-04, Penicillin (Rexall drugs advertisement)

Life Magazine 1947-08-11, Bikini atomic bomb test

Life Magazine 1947-08-18, Harvesting machine patterns in Washington wheat fields

Life Magazine 1947-08-25, German widow grows food in rubble of her house

Life Magazine 1947-09-01, Keloids of a Hiroshima survivor

Life Magazine 1947-09-08, Havasu Falls of the Grand Canyon

Life Magazine 1947-09-15, Hybrid corn

Life Magazine 1947-09-22, Thoreau’s Walden

Life Magazine 1947-09-29, Hurricane that impact Florida, Mississippi and Louisiana

Life Magazine 1947-10-06, Moscow celebrates 800th birthday

Life Magazine 1947-10-13, Bongo the Bear from Disney

Life Magazine 1947-10-20, Lipstick – a big US industry

Life Magazine 1947-10-27, DDT used to fight cholera outbreak in Cairo

Life Magazine 1947-11-03, Bar Harbor burns

Life Magazine 1947-11-10, In spite of inflation, more Americans are better off than in ’39 (particularly farmers and factory workers)

Life Magazine 1947-11-17, Hughes’ flying boat (Spruce Goose)

Life Magazine 1947-11-24, Chinese flood land to stop Communist advance

Life Magazine 1947-12-01, Princess Elizabeth and Philip wedding

Life Magazine 1947-12-08, Biggest telescope (at the time) atop Palomar Mountain

Life Magazine 1947-12-15, Gadgets – post war inventions

Life Magazine 1947-12-22, Christmas Art

Life Magazine 1947-12-29, Eistein and Oppenheimer

Slime Mold in the Oak Mulch

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I started my native plant garden last fall with a thick layer of wood chips – primarily oak from my daughter’s tree trimmers. I’ve only recently planted into it. When planting, I observed that while the surface looked dry, it was moist just below the surface. There were some areas of crust on the surface that I wondered about. Then the yellow splotches of slime mold appeared after a rain…..and a few days later dried out and became crusts like I had seen earlier.

It’s good to have natural cycles playing out in my yard…and molds are part that often go unnoticed. My goal now is to observe frequently….enjoy the garden’s evolution.

Sustaining Elder Care/Road Trip to Texas – April 2026

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I made my monthly trip to see my dad in Lewisville TX a week ago. It was a pleasant sunny day for the drive down. I bought a salad at my last stop in Oklahoma and ate it at the Texas Welcome Center on US 75. The temperature was perfect to park in the shade, roll down the window and eat my salad. There were still bluebonnet blooming and other flowers had appeared as well – I took pictures as I walked around a little after lunch.

My dad was sleeping when I arrived…but he woke up after about 20 minutes, and I was able to convince in to take a walk around the courtyard. He can’t see very well so I keep a hand on the walker to set the direction but let him set the pace. He seems to move slower than he did prior to last month’s hospitalization, but he still enjoys being outside. We sat in the shade on the patio for a while afterward.

Once I got him back to his room, he seemed exhausted, so I left to meet one of sisters. She is cleaning out her mother-in-law’s house (she moved into an assisted living apartment). I got there a little before my sister and enjoyed seeing the large trees in the front yard; one was an oak (progeny in the flowerbed) but its trunk was not nearly as large as the ones in Maryland and Missouri; the heat stress in Texas probably causes them to grow differently. I got some botanical artwork my sister’s mother-in-law had done years ago; I got several different sunflowers that will look good in my office.

Some of my plastic reduction strategies worked better than usual this trip. My tin with stainless forks worked well for my lunch salad the first day and my breakfast the next morning. I put the used forks in the ice chest so that I could easily put them in the dishwasher when I got home. Coffee filters (left over from when I switched from a coffee maker to an electric kettle (glass and stainless) work well to hold microwave popcorn for my evening snack. A Pyrex bowl that had carrots and celery in the ice chest on the way down was emptied the first evening and then used to hold my breakfast the next morning – avoiding a Styrofoam plate.

The season is warm enough now that I am realizing that I need to put my cosmetics in the ice chest since the suitcase stays in the care when I am visiting my father. It avoids melted or separated products. It takes as much room as food stuff.

I saw my dad just after he finished breakfast in the morning and he was keen to go for a walk. It was a little cooler, so we did a walk that was part inside and part outside…and he was a little tired by the time we were back in his room. It wasn’t long before an aide came to give him a shower…so I headed toward home about 30 minutes earlier than I had planned.

I got to the diner I wanted to try in McAlester OK about noon. It probably will be the place I will stop on my way home from now on. I was glad I had a good lunch since the middle of the drive was full of rain which made it a bit more challenging; the road in the small towns often has curbs but no drains so water accumulates quickly. I had expected rain closer to home but it cleared off for the last couple of hours. Still – I just wanted to relax when I got home.

Macro Photography – Springtime

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There are so many plants making moves in the springtime….which makes for a lot of macro photography subjects. These are all from my yard!

The short-leaf pine has dropped some cones and the cycle is beginning again in the tree.

The Ozark Witch Hazel is leafing out and its stems are growing rapidly.

Dandelions and henbits are blooming. I was surprised that I didn’t see any insects around the plants; perhaps the wind was too strong for them? Neither plant is native but they have deep roots that hold the soil and I usually see a lot of insects visiting the dandelion flowers.

There is a Chinese mantis case from last year on a plant in my yard. I’ll keep an eye on it – hoping to see some tiny mantises emerge.

A spiderweb caught a seed!

The Japanese Barberry is blooming. I am going to cut down my two bushes again since I really do not want the plant in my yard. There is a small one in the flower bed that has come up from seed. They are invasive and have thorns – nothing to like about them.

There were some insects on the last daffodil flower.

The lambs ear is coming up from everywhere it was last year. I like the tint of green…and velvety texture.

Finally – the violets are blooming. The plants started out as small clumps of leaves; then the leaves get bigger and the flowers open. I am harvesting some for greens (think salad and stir-fry), but the plants recover quickly. They are a great native plant for the shady parts of my yard.

Planting Native Plants in the Front Yard

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I waited a day or so to plant the young plants – when the nighttime temperatures would not be dipping into the 30s again. I planted into the oak mulch that I had put down last fall. As I made the hole for the first plant, I noticed that the surface was dry but underneath for very moist. There were worms and small grubs and white fungus hyphae. The new plants are going to love it. Of course, this also means that plants I don’t want there were going to love it too….I will need to recognize and pull as they appear!

I planted 8 plants on the first day:

Wild Blue Indigo Baptisia australis and Cream wild indigo Baptista bracteate

Rattlesnake master Eryngium yuccifolium and Golden ragwort Packera aurea

Missouri Evening Primrose Oenothera macrocarpa and Nodding Onion Allium cernuum

Yarrow Achillea millefolium and Little Bluestem Schizachyrium scoparium

The Soapweed yucca Yucca glauca was planted the following day in a bed where I had to remove rocks and landscaping cloth. The bed is not covered by our sprinkler system and some of the plants previously there had not done well with the dry conditions.

Now that this first round of plants is in the ground, I am in monitoring mode….to water if it doesn’t rain enough and to pull weeds. I am expecting some elderberry seedlings that I will add to the front garden….and some pawpaw seedlings that will join one I planted last year in my back yard (completing the pawpaw patch).

Luna Moths

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I’m not sure why I decided to check the luna moth cocoons I had put in my John Deere room last fall. I was surprised and excited to see 6 moths in the cage! They hadn’t been out long since there were males and females…none mating.

I knew that there were some moths that hadn’t emerged last fall, but I wasn’t sure how many would make it through the winter months. I released the first 6 at dusk on the evening they emerged last week. They seemed reluctant to leave my finger although when I tried to release them on my red maple they crawled onto the branches; red maple is a food plant for the caterpillars. Two more emerged the next day and I waited until the frost warning was over before releasing them.

The red maple is barely leafing out. I hope that if the moths lay eggs there we be sufficient leaves by the time the caterpillars emerge.

Neighborhood Turtles

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As I walked across my backyard to the gate I noticed a late blooming daffodil – all the rest of them are spent except for this one!

I was doing my quick walk to look at the phenology of plants in my neighborhood and decided to continue around the storm water retention ponds. There were no geese or ducks on the pond….but the turtles looked bigger and more numerous than ever! There were at least 17 of then sunning themselves on the bank…even the smallest one considerably larger than my hand. No duckling or gosling would survive our pond for very long….and maybe the small fish are not faring well either.

I am wondering how many turtles the pond can reasonably support. At some point it will reach its carrying capacity and the turtle population will stabilize.

Powell Gardens – Part II

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The Orchid Delirium exhibit was the motivation for our visit to Powell Gardens last week. I always enjoy taking macro pictures of orchids with my phone (iPhone 15 Pro Max); it is easier with a Bluetooth shutter remote which I had remembered to clip onto my purse handle. The pathways through the exhibit were wide and it was not crowded…everyone was taking their own time looking at the orchids. Usually, the slipper orchids are my favorites but I found myself drawn to the orange ones (orange was my mother’s favorite color and the color reminds me of her). I noticed the different textures and patterns of the flowers – lightly creased, curls, lines, dots, fizzy hairs, shiny/matte, veins. I realized that orchids sometimes remind me of carnivorous plants.

Enjoy the carousel of images!

Powell Gardens – Part I

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Last week, I made my first trip to Powell Gardens to see their orchid display. It is a day trip from my home in Nixa MO so I will probably go again later this spring….and/or next fall. It was a cold day, and we weren’t planning on walking around outdoors, so we weren’t disappointed that the trees were mostly still bare. Our membership at Springfield Botanical Garden got us into Powell Gardens too!

The horse sculptures on the way into the visitor center were a plus. I was surprised that they were not listed in the Wander Walk Art in the Gardens brochure.

We knew in advance that the main reason for our trip was the Orchid Delirium event. It was in the visitor center….beginning as soon as we walked in. There is a large area of the building that has a glass roof – and lots of windows in the walls.

It was a great place to wander around and get close looks at orchids; more of my orchid pictures in the blog post for day after tomorrow.

There was a side exhibit about First Ladies and Orchids that I enjoyed.

One aspect of the exhibit that was unique was manikins in formal wear among the orchids. My favorite was one where the skirt of the gown was plants!

On the way back to the car, I saw a redbud in bloom. The flowers along the larger branches were OK but the ones on the small branches appeared to be damaged (killed?) by recent frosts.

More orchid photos day after tomorrow….

Ten Little Celebrations – March 2026

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Some different types of celebrations in March…

 

Dad surviving a hospital admission. My sisters and I celebrated that my dad survived an awful hospital experience (bad reaction to drugs he received there, lack of attention to his response to medications and delaying administration of his regular medications). He is back in his memory care residence now and much happier. We have transitioned him to palliative care based on his experience.

Springfield Botanical Gardens. Many of the plants were still in winter form…but there were enough early spring flowers to celebrate the season.

Red-bellied woodpecker. We celebrated when one of the birds came to our feeders. It doesn’t happen often!

Big buds on the red buckeye. The buds on the red buckeye were an early celebration of spring. They were large and they were open with the leaves beginning to expand when there was a hard frost and the celebration turned to sorrow; I am monitoring the plant to see how it recovers.

Earthworm parade. I celebrated that it rained…and the earthworms made a parade across a sidewalk to find new homes.

George Washington Carver National Monument. My husband and I celebrated an early spring day with a day trip to the monument.

Garage door fix. The spring on my garage door opener broke and I was worried that I’d be parking in the driveway for a few days...but a company was able to make the repair the same day we called. I celebrated the quick response!

The Plastic Detox. I viewed the documentary available on Netflix…celebrated that there were indeed babies at the end!

Sunrises. I was in Texas for 5 days….and 4 of those days had wonderful sunrises. I celebrated with my dad in the hospital on 3 days and the last one I was in a hotel! Noticing the beauty at the beginning of the day always lifts my mood.

Baked chicken salad. Days are getting warmer and I find myself wanting salads more than I do in the wintertime. I celebrated combining veggies from the crisper…an apple…diced slices of lemon (including the skin) and green salsa --- with chicken baked in balsamic vinaigrette. Yummy!

Zooming – March 2026

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We had some warm days….and then some cold days. At the end of the month, I am hoping that my red buckeye is not permanently damaged; its leaves were beginning to enlarge when a hard frost came. It was an interesting month for travel (to Texas and a day trip to the George Washington Carver National Monument…and the yard was beginning to show signs of spring (bulbs and the boxwood bloomed). I enjoyed all my forays outdoors.

George Washington Carver National Monument

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Last week my husband and I made our first visit to George Washington Carver National Monument. It is south of Carthage, MO and a bit over an hour from our house near Springfield….a good choice for a day trip.

It was a sunny and cool spring day. I took a few pictures of plants in my yard while I was waiting for my husband to be ready to go. The dandelions are blooming and there was one seed puff already! My Missouri Evening Primrose is coming up from last year’s roots and the maple is already forming seeds.

On the way, I noticed that the redbuds along I-44 were beginning to bloom. The flowers were probably not fully open, but there was enough color to identify the trees as we drove. The redbuds at our house were not quite so far along.

I enjoyed the walk through the woods at the monument. There were some wildflowers – and clumps of daffodils (not wild, obviously) in the woods.  A few insects were out as well so the flowers will be pollinated!

There is a statue of a young George Carver in an area of stream/forest. He was born to a slave family on the farm…almost died when he was young (illness and kidnapping)…managed to survive and was able to become educated…he became head of the Tuskegee Agriculture Department in 1896; he taught there until his death in 1943. He is buried at Tuskegee University.

The woods were greening with the wildflowers, but the trees were mostly dormant. Some of them were probably ashes and would not be leafing out again. It is a common occurrence in Missouri right now; the emerald ash borer that killed the ashes in Maryland before we moved to Missouri is now killing the ash trees in Missouri. There is water in many places along the Carver Trail (loop) – Williams Pond/Branch and Carver Branch.

There were lots of birds, but I only managed to photograph a Dark-eyed Junco. We heard several woodpeckers.

We were at the monument on a Saturday, and I was pleased that there were other people that were there – many with children. The place is closer to Joplin so I assume the ‘regulars’ are mostly from Carthage or Joplin. It is a good place to visit in the spring….and maybe even better in the fall. In the summer, it would be very humid.

We opted to drive to Carthage for lunch at Iggy’s Diner. I am trying to find places other than fast food that my husband likes…and the diner seemed to be a hit with him. The quality of food is better than a fast food chain!

Ozark Spring in 1948

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A story in Life Magazine for April 5, 1948 was an pictorial record of what it was like in spring during that time. The trees were leafing out or blooming and wildflowers were blooming in an area that had burned. There were already signs of loss – a farmer plowing before planting oats and sweet clover in an area that has once been bluestem prairie and cows making ruts down to the spring. The dogwoods are not as numerous today as in these pictures. Still – spring comes and we all appreciate the beauty that has survived in the Ozarks.

(Use the arrows on the left and right of the image to move through the slideshow.)

Springfield Botanical Gardens (2) – March 2026

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Continuing the images from my walk around the Springfield Botanical Gardens recently….

This post is about the trees.

The deciduous magnolias were blooming. I enjoyed zooming in on the buds and flowers.  There was a little breeze, so the petals were in motion…and the shadows were changing too. Fortunately, it was sunny and the camera was fast enough to stop the motion.

One pine had many cones. Perhaps I should have picked some up that were on the ground to add to my collection of materials to use for tree talks/tabling.

There were other trees too that I photographed – showing how different trees were at different stages of development.

My final stop was near the Botanical Center Building – the deck area still under renovation evidently. I wanted to look at the succulents in the beds near the building. They do well through winter and, if anything, look more colorful having survived the cold!

It occurred to me that this is the time of year to visit the garden frequently to keep up with spring development.

Phenology in my Neighborhood

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Spring is a great time to start participating in citizen science phenology (study of periodic events in biological life cycles and how these are influenced by seasonal and interannual variations in climate, as well as habitat factors) via the Nature’s Notebook app. I selected an area that included my backyard and part of the common neighborhood area that included 5 plants I would begin monitoring: 2 Eastern Redbuds, a Red Buckeye, an American Beautyberry, and a Common Hackberry. The monitoring consists of looking at each plant every 3 days and marking the phenophases as yes or no. The list of phenophases for plants is:

  • Breaking leaf buds

  • Leaves

  • Increasing leaf size

  • Colored leaves

  • Falling leaves

  • Flowers or flower buds

  • Open flowers

  • Fruits

  • Ripe fruits

  • Recent fruit or seed drop

So far, the plants are in winter mode – so all the phenophases are marked ‘no.’ I am observing some changes in some of the plants and I’ve done a little photography to document their late winter look.

The 2 Eastern Redbuds are very different: one is very young and the other is old and lost some larger branches last year. All the buds are still very small on both trees. I took some pictures of lichen growing on the older tree…nothing to do with phenology of the redbud…but something to photograph while I was looking closely at the tree.

The Red Buckeye is a very young tree and probably won’t bloom this year, but the leaf buds are very large. It will be interesting to see how they develop. The ‘breaking leaf buds’ phase is when a green leaf tip becomes visible at the end of the bud. There is one that appears to be closer to that point than the others!

Update: The leaf buds had broken when I went to look on March 6th – just 2 days after I wrote this blog!!! All the other plants were still in winter mode. It was exciting to see the Red Buckeye leaves begin to emerge.

The American Beautyberry has tight buds that I keep thinking might be getting a little larger. The plant also has some dried berries from last season which don’t count for this year.

The Common Hackberry is also an older tree and might noy been entirely health; it lost a large limb last year and the woodpeckers seem to be working on the scar (maybe finding insects there). The tree has some dried leaves and fruit from last year. The buds are still very tight.

This is my first experience with a project like this. I will get to know these 5 plants very well!

Our Missouri Yard – March 2026

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The dry days of March are great for working off my ‘to do’ list for the back yard. It does not include doing anything with leaves. I’m pleased that the wind has blown the leaves into two corners of the backyard where they can stay! I will leave them alone and allow whatever insect cocoons are there to empty. Most of the leaves are oak. My goal is start mowing parts of the backyard in May…but I will be mowing less this year than last because of the way the yard is developing.

The Fragrant Sumac I planted a few years ago now has shoots in the yard and is taking more space in the flowerbed as well. The ‘to do’ in that bed is to pull/cut Japanese honeysuckle frequently.

Getting the forsythia and Japanese barberry cut down are high on the ‘to do’ list. The pruning chainsaw will make it a bit easier.

I’ll buy 1 or 2 more paw paws to plant near the one I bought last year since I don’t think the seeds I have in pots are going to sprout.

The more significant list is for the front yard where I will be planting into the large mulch bed I created last fall. I have done one round cutting back the existing crape myrtles that had gotten too tall (I enjoy photographing their empty seed pods). There is some clean up there but the big ‘to do’ before the planting in April is to take dead cedars out of the corner flower bed and clear more rock from around the hens/chicks so that the plant can continue to expand. Trimming the boxwood is not high on the list but I might do the top to keep it from getting too high to reach comfortably.

There is plenty to keep me busy in March….on the dry days!

Spring Bulbs

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The early spots of color from spring bulbs are always welcome after the drabness of the winter palette. The area outside my office windows includes crocus and daffodils as the early bloomers with the green spears of iris leaves as a backdrop (the irises bloom later).

The daffodils are in the debris of last year’s violets and pine needles. I planted the bulbs a few years ago and they are increasing a little every year. I used a piece of black cardstock as background for one of the pictures.

The pine needle area has a mix of crocus and daffodils…more crocus at this point. The leaves of the crocus are thin enough that I often miss their presence until the flower appears!

This year the daffodils and crocus seemed to start their bloom together…with a lot of flowers opening on March 3rd!