THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 12, 1995 TAG: 9503100181
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Coastal Journal
SOURCE: Mary Reid Barrow
LENGTH: Medium: 95 lines
Native plant lovers have an unusual opportunity today to buy native flowers and shrubs for their gardens and, at the same time, to learn about them from the real local experts, members of the South Hampton Roads Chapter of the Virginia Native Plant Society.
The society is holding a native plant sale as a fund-raiser at its meeting at 3 p.m. today at the Francis Land House. Members will speak about how to grow the plants and how well they will do in Virginia Beach gardens.
``Native plants are more adapted to local soils, climates and rainfalls,'' said Brian O'Neil, a member of the society's board of directors and owner of Southern Meadows Landscapes Inc.
``I like to use them wherever I can,'' he added.
Most of the plants at the sale have a good head start because they are nursery grown in one and three-gallon containers. O'Neil has gathered the perennials and shrubs from various nurseries for the Native Plant Society to sell on consignment. Society members also are being encouraged to bring plants potted from their own gardens to sell.
Prices will range around $4 for one-gallon containers up to around $12 for three-gallon containers. O'Neil hopes to have perennials such as butterfly weed, Virginia bluebells and cardinal flower and shrubs like sweet pepperbush, Virginia sweetspire and mountain laurel.
Some of the plants will be Virginia Beach species while some may not grow naturally here, but are native to the Southeast Coastal Plain, O'Neil said. ``Not all are native to Virginia Beach but all have done well in members' gardens,'' he went on.
For example, O'Neil is high on the red buckeye, a small tree that grows to 15 feet tall. It is native to the Southeast Coastal Plain, but not to this area. He grows a red buckeye in his Kempsville yard and grew the 3-year-old plants that will be for sale at the Native Plant Society meeting.
``All they need is a good home.'' he said. ``It has brilliant red tubular flowers in clusters in spring. You don't see many wild things with that pretty a flower.
``Most native plants have a quiet beauty instead of a flashy show,'' he added.
On the other hand, sweet pepperbush, a Virginia beach native, also will be for sale at the society's meeting. O'Neil hopes to have both the white and pink varieties of sweet pepperbush on hand. Butterflies are attracted to the 6-inch spires which bloom in summer.
``It's a very fragrant flower and the leaves turn a beautiful yellow in fall,'' O'Neil said.
Sweet pepperbush grows up to 5 or 6 feet tall and does well in sun or shade in ordinary garden soil and in the wild, it grows in wet areas.
``I've seen it growing along the ditches on Sandbridge Road,'' he said.
EAGLE UPDATE: A pair of nesting bald eagles at Stumpy Lake has been confirmed by Mitchell Byrd of the College of William and Mary who is chairman of the Chesapeake Bay Bald Eagle Recovery Program. He did an aerial survey of the area at the end of February and confirmed the suspicions of local eagle expert Reese Lukei. Although Lukei could not find a nest, he was sure there was one because of the behavior of a pair of eagles he had seen at Stumpy Lake in February.
Lukei thinks the eggs should hatch sometime around March 20. If all goes well this will be the second successful eagle nest in Virginia Beach in two years. Last year the first pair of eagles to nest here in 30 years successfully raised two young at Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge.
The refuge eagles are back on their nest this year and Lukei suspects at least one eaglet hatched Tuesday or Wednesday. This time he bases his reasoning on the female's behavior. Instead of sitting on the nest and staring vacantly into space as she does when she's incubating eggs, she appears to be occupied with something in the nest, Lukei said.
It will be a month or more before Lukei will be able to tell whether there are one or more babies. That's when the little birds will be big enough that their heads can be seen above the edge of the huge eagle nest.
P.S. YOU CAN LEARN all about hot peppers and native plants in one day. The Herb Society of America is meeting at 1 p.m. today at Norfolk Botanical Gardens. The topic is Chile Peppers: The Hot Members of Genus Capsicum.
RED MAPLES are a sure sign of spring this time of year. Notice the red tinge of many of the trees along Shore Drive, the expressway and other tree-lined roads. It's the red maple getting ready to bud.
A PAINTED BUNTING has been sighted in the Kings Neck Woods neighborhood by Brian Abbott. He saw the beautiful painted bunting and a brilliant Baltimore oriole, both at his feeder. MEMO: What unusual nature have you seen this week? And what do you know about
Tidewater traditions and lore? Call me on INFOLINE, 640-5555. Enter
category 2290. Or, send a computer message to my Internet address:
mbarrow(AT)infi.net.
ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MARY REID BARROW
Sweet pepperbush, a Virginia beach native, grows up to 5 or 6 feet
tall and does well in sun or shade in ordinary garden soil, and in
the wild, it grows in wet areas.
by CNB