One finds all sorts of crazy trash in scenic Island spots. “Carry in, carry out” is a good precept for a place like the Vineyard, with heavy visitor pressure.
Unfortunately, our guests, and some residents, are often heedless, and are poorly educated in visitor etiquette and trash disposal.
Vineyard Conservation Society has stepped up, with Take Back the Tap water refill stations (vineyardconservation.org/tap-map) to minimize single-use polycarbonate bottles, and, with Laurisa Rich, the Beach Befrienders, to remove the yuck from Island beaches.
However, more is needed, including better recycling, to tend other areas with heavy visitor pressure, such as town streetscapes. Can we ask the refuse district, the Chamber, and those who profit from visitors to step up here?
Lilies of July
It could be that a July garden consisting of nothing but daylilies would still be stunning. With more than 80,000 registered cultivars, according to Wikipedia, there is a color, height, and flower type for every taste. This display garden in New York State has a multitude: qbdaylilygardens.com.
These are easy perennials for either beginner or experienced gardeners. A sunny location and decent soil are the requirements; the means for expanding the collection are digging and dividing. Years ago I bought ‘Chicago Apache,’ an expensive daylily I lusted for. Over time I have been able to divide the original plant; the garden now has all the clumps of intense, cherry red ‘Chicago Apache’ it can tolerate.
Summer gardens benefit from the impact that lilies, both bulb lilies (Lilium) and daylilies (Hemerocallis) deliver. Hemerocallis are herbaceous, tuberous, rooted perennials that form clumps that slowly increase; they send up stalks topped by clusters of buds, which open one at a time and last only a day. Lilium are fall-planted bulbs, consisting of scales, that increase and persist in gardens over years, often very fragrant.
The Island is rich in stands of tawny daylilies (H. fulva) lining roadsides and surrounding older Island houses. This and the lemon lily, H. liloasphodelus (formerly H. flava) are the original Asian species first introduced to North America in the 1800s.
Tawny daylilies rarely, if ever, form seed capsules; increase is by clumps’ expansion. They are sometimes called Fourth of July lily, so closely does bloom time coincide with the holiday. Emerging foliage is often nibbled, and also, sometimes, the flower buds. Spraying with repellent provides uncertain protection.
July-blooming Lilium are mostly in the Asiatic category, scentless, and predominantly in the yellow to orange to oxblood color range. Their flowers usually face upward. However, the Martagon, the delicious L. regale, and the ‘Tiger Babies’ series are exceptions. August-blooming lilies, with downward-facing, often fragrant flowers, are mostly in the Oriental category. All are monocots, vulnerable to deer and rabbits: If that happens, then you have lost that year’s bloom.
Daylilies formerly showed the same color range, yellow to orange to tawny ginger, but now comprise a rainbow, from nearly white to pastel lavender, to startlingly wild combos. Rebloomers are increasingly available, many with something indicating this in the cultivar name, such as ‘Happy Returns.’
Final act: Rhododendron
The vast rhododendron family’s Island show is about to close for the year. It has seen a grand run in 2024, and winds up with a showy act, and with a more demure one.
- prunifolium, the plumleaf azalea, is in bloom by the entrance of Polly Hill Arboretum. These scarlet specimens are gorgeous, and a sure hummingbird magnet. Hardy here and suitable for moist, semi-shaded sites, the eye-catching plumleaf azalea is one of the latest members of this family to bloom. The narrow zone where the Southern plant naturally occurs is fast being lost due to habitat destruction.
Rhododendron maximum, the rosebay or great laurel, is the massive native rhododendron of the Appalachians, where it forms “laurel slicks”: almost impenetrable tangles that afford shelter for the region’s wildlife. It is a good plant for natural, woodland areas with filtered shade and well-drained, acidic soil.
On the Vineyard, R. maximum blooms in late June and early July; you might miss it if occupied with other summer gardening. Flower color ranges from white to pink, to rose-purple. Although the flower clusters are large, grapefruit-size, individual florets are small compared with those of many modern rhododendron hybrids.
Big beauty
I snapped the photo of this large beetle, just under 2 inches long, near my house. It was a few days after a neighbor had shared an image of a similar specimen, and had asked what I knew. Which is “nothing” — only the coincidence of the two sightings.
Luckily however, the Island is home to people who are knowledgeable about these sorts of minutiae. I contacted MVT and Vineyard Gazette colleagues Matt Pelikan and Suzan Bellancampi, who both answered my queries promptly.
It is Prionus laticollis, or broad-necked root borer. Its larvae feed on rotting wood and roots. The adults are nocturnal, and are attracted to light. Insects this large can startle — but please remember, as Gus would say, they are just a part of nature.
Hurricane preparedness
The National Weather Service (NWS) Boston, declared July 8t through 12t as Hurricane Preparedness Week. This link is to information that might be useful for out-of-area visitors: bit.ly/NWS_HurricanePrepared.
Memorial trees
Ron, Gus, Prudy, Janice. The fabric of Island life is thinning, losing individuals known solely by forename. Planting trees in memory of someone you love is one way to keep memories alive. Take care to choose and plant a suitable one. For advice, ask the staff at Polly Hill Arboretum, a town tree warden, or a local garden center.
In the garden
Oakleaf and climbing hydrangeas bloom on buds formed the previous year; plan pruning now to avoid shorting next year’s bloom.
A small hatch of Asiatic beetles is emerging; control by knocking into soapy water in cool hours of the morning.
“All need doing” list: weekly application of Bt for caterpillar control; staking and deadheading for continuing bloom; grooming of lilacs; liquid feed for window boxes and containers; deadheading and side-dressing roses; seek and destroy crabgrass; and eat (yes!) sow thistle from beds.
