Wild America Nature Festival July 29th & 30th
The Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History (RTPI) and Panama Rocks Scenic Park will co-host the first annual Wild America Nature Festival at Panama Rocks on July 29th & 30th. The festival will feature nationally-renowned speakers; a juried fine nature art and craft show and competition; a local food cook-off competition and farmer’s market; live music; live animals, and classes, workshops, and fun activities for all ages! Art lovers will not want to miss the festival’s Wild America Fine Nature Art and Craft Show & Competition, which will feature 40 local,...
Read MoreCelebrations Set In Stone
If you pay a visit to RTPI this spring, you will find that our flower beds are bedecked with new garden stones. The garden in the circular drive received a stone in honor of, and donated by, the Green Thumb Garden Club, who has tended this garden for many years. A Ralph Waldo Emerson quote, “The earth laughs in flowers” adorns this stone, along with the iconic Snowy Owl image as painted by Roger Tory Peterson. The garden at the side of the building boasts a stone honoring the Jamestown Garden Club. This group tends the garden which is called “Eleanor’s Sanctuary” in memory of Mrs. Eleanor...
Read MoreSpring Blooms in Wild America
In the spring of 1953, Roger Tory Peterson and his British friend James Fisher embarked on a thrilling 100 day, trip to explore and document the Wilds of North America. Their excursion took them from Newfoundland to Florida, the heart of Mexico to the dry Southwest, the Pacific Northwest to the Pribilof Islands of Alaska, and the numerous memories of the splendors they encountered were later documented in a book titled Wild America, first published in 1955. Among the many things that Peterson and Fisher recorded along their journey were blossoming spring flowers, and this pen and ink drawing...
Read MoreSpring Ephemerals
Trilliums like the one shown here – and other ‘spring ephemeral’ wildflowers – only bloom for a short period of time in early spring; they then die back to their underground root system. But what a welcome show they put on each year, after we’ve been seeing nothing but snow for months! Before the tree canopy in our forests fully leaf out, the forest floor is briefly carpeted with flowers. Please enjoy them where they are found – in their native woodland habitat. Tempting as it may be to transplant some to your garden, most of these plants don’t survive and they are becoming...
Read MoreGhost Plant
Now that our outdoors are covered in white I thought it would be nice to post a splash of color to liven up the winter months. However, when looking through my plant images I noticed this picture of a clump of Indian Pipe (Monotropa uniflora) in the mix. Somehow their lack of color seemed appropriate for the time of year – and fascinating too. Lack of color in plants translates into a lack of chlorophyl, the pigments and associated cellular complexes that allow green plants to photosynthesize & turn solar energy into living matter, thus fueling all other life on our planet. Indian...
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