New Plant Threat Signs in the Gardens
Next time you’re walking through our gardens, take a look at our new educational signs on plant diseases and pests and learn how you can help control their spread. In June 2018, the Edison and Ford Winter Estates joined the Sentinel Plant Network (SPN), a partnership between the American Public Gardens Association and the National Plant Diagnostic Network. The group contributes to plant conservation by engaging public garden professionals, volunteers, and visitors in the early detection of serious plant pests and diseases. The SPN was launched in 2011 with financial support from the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and includes more than 225 public gardens. Because Edison Ford is part of the network, the SPN provided the six signs at no cost.
To remain in the SPN, Edison Ford garden staff receive training on pest detection and disease outbreaks and are encouraged to share their knowledge with the local community. The new SPN signs on our property will help us spread the word about some of the more serious plant pests, like the Asian long-horned beetle, that have the potential to devastate local and national plant populations. We also plan to hold a training session for community members who wish to learn more about the threats that may appear in their gardens and yards. The training class will probably be held in the fall or early 2020. Watch our website and social media for the official date when we schedule it. In the meantime, check out our other garden-related classes here.
Happy Birthday, Clara Ford!
April 11 marks the birthday of Clara Ford, nicknamed “The Believer.” As the wife of Henry Ford and mother of Edsel Ford, she certainly lived up to that title, offering support at critical junctures and in trying times. But Clara’s individual passions and contributions helped to create her own lasting legacy.
Clara Bryant’s childhood shared many of the qualities of her future husband: both grew up on farmland north of Detroit in the mid-nineteenth century. Clara, born three years after Henry on April 11, 1866, was the third of 10 children and attended school until age 17.
Clara and Henry met at a New Year’s dance at a local inn in 1885. The couple appreciated each other’s serious and ambitious natures, and they married in 1888 in the front parlor of the Bryant family home. Ford’s father, William Ford, gave the couple 40 acres of farmland where they initially settled. Shortly after, they moved to Detroit and Henry worked a variety of trades and even helped found three automobile manufacturing companies. In 1908, Ford released the Model T which would change the way the world traveled and give him great personal wealth.
Henry Ford always appreciated her unfailing support of his ideas and ambition. As Ford found success and became internationally known, Clara traveled with him. When at home, the couple entertained at Fair Lane, their estate on the Rouge River in Dearborn, Michigan.
Throughout her life, Clara supported wide-ranging philanthropic causes generously, particularly those related to health care and education. She offered trusted advice to her husband and son on matters related to business. Clara was also passionate about gardens and horticulture– her famed passion for roses led to the creation of a rose garden of more than 10,000 plants at Fair Lane! Her interest in horticulture led her to serve as president of the National Women’s Farm and Garden association, and to develop a model roadside farmstand which women in rural areas could build and use to earn extra income.
Henry and Clara had one son, Edsel, who helped manage the Ford Motor Company until his death from cancer in 1943, at age 49. Clara died three years after her husband, in 1950. Remember Clara Ford next time you visit the rose garden created in her honor here at the Ford winter estate!
Calling All Butterfly Counters
Join one of our butterfly spotting teams for Edison Ford’s third annual butterfly count as part of the North American Butterfly Associations’s (NABA) 4th of July Count. Beginning at 10 am on June 10, 2019, our teams will look for and record all butterflies they see for two hours. The data will be sent to NABA as part of their decades-long effort to track butterfly numbers throughout North America. Last year, our five teams at four locations in Lee County counted 485 butterflies consisting of 29 species.
No experience is necessary, but you must be able to walk for two hours in the heat and humidity of our usually-sunny June mornings. If you’re interested in volunteering as one of the counters, please email Britta at bsoderq@edisonford.org and include the name, email address and phone number of all participants in your party by June 7, 2019. If you own a camera with a long lens and can help take photos during the count to help with tricky identifications, please let Britta know in your email. Check out the News-Press coverage of the 2018 count here and a video by Hello SWFL here.
Black Swallowtails Emerge from Our Garden
Right on schedule, the first of many black swallowtail butterflies, Papilio polyxenes, emerged from their chrysalises on March 20, 2019 near the Caretaker’s House. We removed the “cages” from the fennel so that the adults could fly off when their wings dried. If you missed our previous posts, you can read the first part of the story from egg here to chrysalis here. The adult butterflies only live for about two weeks, so visit our gardens today and maybe you’ll spot one of the butterflies from our Caretaker’s House garden!
The female black swallowtail will lay her eggs on a variety of herbs in the carrot family. Native host plants include mock bishopweed, Ptilimnium capillaceum, and roughfruit scaleseed, Spermolepis divaricata. In Florida’s residential areas, we often see the eggs on dill, fennel and parsley. In fact, our swallowtails emerged from their eggs laid on the dill plants, ate all the dill and then moved on to the fennel in the same raised garden bed. The caterpillars feasted on the fennel for several days and then formed their chrysalises within the fennel.
If you’d like to host your own black swallowtails, visit our Garden Shoppe and pick up some herbs to plant in your yard or container. We sell a variety of other butterfly host and nectar plants and have a beautiful butterfly garden on display so you can see what some of the bigger pollinator-friendly plants look like when full grown.
