THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – FRIDAY, JUNE 30, 2023 Page 15 Saugus Gardens in the Summer Here’s what’s blooming in town this week to make your walks more enjoyable By Laura Eisener T he full moon of July will occur in just a few days, on July 3. The Fourth of July will be Tuesday, and for several weeks now some gardeners have been getting ready with patriotic displays in the garden. At the Chadwick home near the Ironworks, fl ags, patriotic pinwheels and bunting surround a radio fl yer wagon blooming with marigolds (Tagetes patula), dusty miller (Jacobaea maritima, often labeled Senecio cineraria) and coleus (Plectranthus scutellarioides). It is even lit up at night! Several other patriotic gardens around town feature petunias. Petunias (Petunia spp.) have been very popular annuals because of the range of colors they off er and their continuous bloom through the warm months. In tropical climates, they are often shortlived perennials, surviving for a few years if they are protected from frost. One reason they have often been grown in hanging baskets is that being elevated above the colder air temperatures near the ground protects them from frost longer than if they are at ground level when temperatures begin to cool. Most kinds of petunias do best with regular deadheading, or removal of spent fl owers to encourage production of new blooms. Like pansies, petunias are good choices for gardeners who don’t mind fi dgeting with their fl owers on a regular basis — the maintenance they need is not strenuous or complicated, but they do prefer regular attention. Wave petunias are one category of petunias that don’t need deadheading, and this line of petunias is most valued for low maintenance. Petunias have five fused petals so the fl ower forms a trumpet shape. Some petunia varieties have markings along the veins, like the red and white bicolor petunias in the picture above. This type of marking has become very popular, with the resulting five-pointed star shape in each fl ower, and the small heart shapes in the leftover color area at the petal edges. In addition to the red and white of the petunia above, blue, pink and purple varieties with white stars have become available in recent years. Other bicolor patterns in petunias include white edged, or picotee patterns, and some with random looking spots that look a bit like bleach spots. Petunias are in the Solanaceae family, along with potatoes, tomatoes and tobacco. Photographer Charles Zapolski often walks around Saugus and often enjoys viewing the osprey nest on the Saugus bike trail. Recently he spotted another bird, the eastern kingbird (Tyrannus tyrannus) right next to the osprey nest. Smaller birds may build their nests near those of ospreys, somehow knowing that the osprey will not eat them or their eggs, and the larger bird may serve as some deterrent for hawks, raccoons and other predators that might otherwise be a threat to the small birds. Eastern kingbirds are migrating birds that spend their winters in the tropics and come north for the breeding season. They are fairly common in most of the United States except far western states. Kingbirds eat berries Take a close look at these petunias — can you see white stars and red hearts? (Courtesy photo to The Saugus Advocate by Laura Eisener) and insects, depending on what is available. These kingbirds are members of a very large family (Tyrannidae) whose members are often called tyrant flycatchers. There are Eurasian birds also known as fl ycatchers that are not members of this family nor even very closely related. Some tyrant fl ycatchers will attack birds larger than themselves, and they are known to be aggressive toward other birds and animals, which is how their name tyrant originated. Other birds in this family that we may see include eastern wood-pewee (Contopus virens), eastern phoebe (Sayornis phoebe) and great crested fl ycatcher (Myiarchus crinitus). Editor’s Note: Laura Eisener is a landscape design consultant who helps homeowners with landscape design, plant selection and placement of trees and shrubs, as well as perennials. She is a member of the Saugus Garden Club and off ered to write a series of articles about “what’s blooming in town” shortly after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. She was inspired after seeing so many people taking up walking. Red and white petunias, a blue pot, a starry pinwheel and even a fi reworks doormat celebrate the 4th in this Lynnhurst garden. (Courtesy photo to The Saugus Advocate by Laura Eisener) This eastern kingbird is right at home near the osprey nest. (Courtesy photo to The Saugus Advocate by Charles Zapolski) This patriotic display at the Chadwick home near the Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site features a garden in a red wagon. (Courtesy photo to The Saugus Advocate by Laura Eisener) A patriotic pansy display greets us on the south side of the Saugus Center Rotary. (Courtesy photo to The Saugus Advocate by Laura Eisener)
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