Portsmouth Caterpillar Club

Last year I bought four chokeberry plants at the Fedco tree sale:  two native Red Chokeberry (Aronia arbutifolia) and two european ones identified as Viking Chokecherry.  I planted them inside my chicken pen so they might benefit from the shade, insect visitors and any falling fruits in the fall.  Shown on the left here are the viking chokecherries that I understand may be used for culinary purposes.  These plants were larger from the start but they have adapted very well to their new home. click to see the cool bug! Only one of the two plants actually flowered and I am not sure why that is the case.  However, notice how beautiful the leaves are.... they are almost completely untouched by insects.  Fortunately, however, the flowers are gorgeous and are already providing some benefit, at least for this one visitor on the left side of this photo!  I don't have any idea what it might be.  If you have any possible leads please post them in the comments. You can see in this

On May 4, 2019, I went to the Native Plant Trust's Garden in the Woods in Framingham Massachusetts to buy plants and check our their native plant sanctuary. I was impressed on both counts, although they were absolutely swamped with customers and had limited people available to answer questions.  Even so, I highly recommend visiting this location, especially at this time of year when the trilliums are in bloom before the tree canopy closes and changes the forest.  It is really impressive.  Check these photos out.  I hope they do justice to this truly special place.   There are about 2-3 miles of trails at the Garden in the Woods.  A smaller loop is completely handicapped accessible and many of the plants are labelled like those shown here.  All of the plants are native but it is very much managed for display in this part of the sanctuary. The ecology is interesting because it is a mix of eskers and deltas going into a glacial outwash plain, so there are unique species and hab