Photo-a-Day Week 44

Welcome back to another summary of the week's photos. More photos of autumn are included in the collection. 

Day 300-

I have three Drift roses bushes near the front door, and they are really reliable bloomers. They are black spot resistant. The variety I have is 'Popcorn'. They will bloom until late November/ December. 

Roses

Day 301-

For most of October, we didn't have any rain, then we had four days of rain. There is riprap along the roadway to mitigate erosion, and this day, there was a lot of rainwater rushing downhill along the road. A rapid rushing of water cascading down, into the riprap and through the culverts, into the lake. 

Water

Day 302-

Many of my hostas are on the deck, away from the deer and their nibbling. I have some hostas in the garden and before the cold weather came, those hostas looked like celery stalks stuck in the ground. 

End of a Season

Day 303- 

Our Kmart in town closed several years ago, and a U-Haul storage place and rental facility moved in. The parking lot is sloped, and  I was surprised that the storage units were placed so that the front of the unit was not even with the ground.

Storage on an incline

Day 304- 

Remember the beautiful roses from a few days ago (see above)? The deer are very hungry. They nibbled almost every rose and rosebud off the shrubs. My poor rose bushes look like Morticia Addams pruned every single stem. 

Morticia Addams did my pruning

Day 305-

In the fall we get a lot of spider webs but I think these Funnel weaver spider webs are so interesting. They are a very tight funnels, though I rarely see the spider that makes these. 

Funnel weaver spider web

Day 306-

I have a variety of Camellias in the garden. Most of the ones I have are Camellia sasanquas, blooming anytime from September through December. This beauty is Camellia sasanqua 'Ashley Eden'.  In the coming weeks, I will be sharing more Camellias. There are lots of pollinators who like these beauties. 

Camellia sasanqua 'Ashley Eden'

And now for a few of the not chosen photos-

Possumhaw holly, or Ilex decidua. It is in berry at the corner of my septic drain field. 

This is the dogwood that grows along my driveway. The colors of the leaves almost make it look like candy corn. The colors of our fall foliage always makes me happy. 

Raindrops on Edgeworthia leaves. The leaves are a little fuzzy and the raindrops sit on the top of the leaf.

Afternoon light shines through the trees along the driveway. 

That's all for this week, hope you liked the chosen and not chosen photos. Come back again next week. 

©Copyright 2025 Janet. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet for The Queen of Seaford. words and photos by Janet, The Queen of Seaford.

Tuesday's Trees- Ilex opaca, American Holly

 


The American Holly is a wonderful evergreen tree to have in the landscape.  A native tree the Eastern United States, its range is zones 5-9.
A mature tree seldom exceeds 50 feet tall with a 15 to 25 foot spread.  This pyramidal shaped tree is a slow grower.  It can handle some shade though the female tree has a better berry production if planted in full sun.  It can be seen as a single or multiple trunk.
As others in the Ilex family, this tree is dioecious, having male (staminate) and female (pistillate) flowers on separate trees.  The flowers are small and inconspicuous emerging in the spring.   For berries to be produced it is recommended for a male tree to be planted within 200 feet of the female.  A male tree can pollinate more than one female. (no comment!)  The berries are actually drupes.  Each drupe contains four seeds encased in a hard shell.  The berries are produced during the summer, starting green and turning red as they mature.  

 The berries are a food source for approximately 20 varieties of songbirds, mourning doves, and turkeys.  Migratory birds are credited (blamed) for the wide range of hollies. Cattle have been known to eat the foliage. The tree is a shelter for birds and small animals as well as a food source for  the larva of the Elfin butterfly.

  

 

The name opaca means dull, not glossy.  The leaves on the American Holly are a dull dark green with spiny tips on most leaves.  There are some leaves that have only the spine on the tip of the leaf.  It is alternate, ovate, and evergreen.  The holly is used in the United States as Christmas decorations in wreaths, garlands and other arrangements.  This can be traced back to the early settlers finding the American Holly similar to the English Holly (Ilex aquifolium) which has been used in Europe for centuries as a symbol of Christmas. 

The problems (disease and insect) are minimal.  There are fungal diseases (remove diseased fallen leaves), chlorosis can occur when the Ph levels are high and Tar spot which appears as yellow spots on the leaves in early summer.  Spider mites, leaf miners, and scale can be found infesting hollies.



 
The light grayish brown bark on the trunk is always smooth, no matter the age of the tree. 
 
The wood is hard and is used in a wide range of items – piano keys, handles for tools, scroll work, small furniture, inlay work, violin pegs and many other items.  More scientific information can be found on the Silvics manual, a resource put out by the  Department of Agriculture.  If you are interested in a long list of cultivars the University of Florida site has a great list in addition to far more information than I have shared here.

MOBOT, Floridata, Virginia Tech, NCState, and Auburn  were additional websites used.  

Next week’s tree- Dwarf Albert Spruce

I read about using Windows Live Writer for blog postings.  Jean at Jean’s Garden recently had a post about this. I thought I would give it a whirl and see how I liked it. Windows Live Writer is a free download (I am all for free!!). With Blogger the editing page has such a small window it makes it difficult to see the arrangement of photos with text.  I sometimes use MSWord 2007 to publish my posts, you get all the auto correct aides within Word.  For some reason I can’t load my photos in Word and have them show up on the blog.  With Windows Live I can add my photos directly from my hard drive into the post.  Additionally, if I forget to tag my picture I can add a watermark with my name. The photos can be clicked on to see in a larger screen.  I still need to do a spell check but it is easy within WL.  I will continue to use my hidden blog to see how the posting looks on the web.  I use the same template on my trial blog and I can make additional adjustments if needed.   One nice thing about using either WL or Word is I can publish directly and all my hyperlinks are intact.  If you copy and paste from a document to your blog editor, the links don’t come along.  Have you used Windows Live?  Do you like it?  What features do you especially find useful?  Not sure about using it for every post, but it does have lots to offer.  I have only explored a few of the functions.  After trying to get the photos lined up within the post I have a bit of a learning curve to conquer.

words and photos by Janet,The Queen of Seaford.