Page 16 THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – FriDAy, SEpTEmbEr 6, 2024 Saugus Gardens in the Summer Here’s what’s blooming in town this week to make your walks more enjoyable By Laura Eisener A walk in Vitale Park beside the river will provide views of some lovely native fruiting shrubs, the beach plum (Prunus maritima). In spring, they produce showy white flowers, and around Labor Day the small plums ripen. Most beach plums are a purplish color that people often refer to as “plum color” – similar to the larger and more familiar plums that grow on trees like many varieties of European plum (Prunus domestica) and some varieties of Japanese plum (Prunus salicina) and some American hybrids (Prunus americana). However, some beach plum shrubs produce fruits that are red or even orange or yellow when ripe, and both kinds can be seen in early September here in this park. As you enter the green space and walk down the brick path, the shrub on the left is laden with yellow fruit while the one on the right has darker purple-black fruit. Along with blueberries (Vaccinium corymbosum and Vaccinium angustifolium), cranberries (Vaccinium macrocarpon), serviceberries (Amelanchier spp.) and a few others, beach plums are a native North American fruit that still grows wild in some places in New England. Walkers, gardeners and anyone else spending time outdoors should remember to use mosquito repellant since Saugus and several other nearby towns have been elevated to Unusual yellow-toned beach plums hang from a shrub at Vitale Park. (Photo courtesy of Laura Eisener) high risk for West Nile virus and EEE, especially at hours near dusk and dawn. It is still likely to be many weeks before we have a hard frost that will end the mosquito season. Now that the barn swallows have begun migrating south, there may be more mosquitoes in some areas than we have seen most of the summer. We are being bombarded by acorns, especially on windy days like Sunday was. The sounds of cicadas and crickets can still be heard, especially in the evening. (Hopefully, you are loaded up with mosquito repellant if you are out near dusk or dawn to guard against EEE and West Nile virus.) Despite a bit of color appearing in the leaves of some trees around town, we are far from finished with the flowers of summer. Chrysanthemums may be in the markets but most are not yet in full bloom, and while some eveDee LeMay’s sunflower stretches up toward the sky and attracts many bees. (Photo courtesy of Dee LeMay) This sunflower grows on Joanie Allbee’s balcony. (Photo courtesy of Joanie Allbee) nings have been cool, the days continue to be warm. Common sunflowers (HeliChinese lanterns from Julia Aston’s garden look lovely in a vase in Dee LeMay’s house. (Photo courtesy of Dee LeMay) anthus annuus) are enjoying a moment of popularity for many reasons. This week’s column includes a picture of one blooming in the home garden of community garden volunteer Dee LeMay and another growing in a container on the balcony of Saugus Garden Club member Joanie Allbee. They are the national flower of Ukraine. On Labor Day I saw a beautiful crocheted sunflower pin made by a Ukrainian woman who gave it to one of my friends. Among Vincent Van Gogh’s most popular paintings is one of a bouquet of varied sunflower varieties. Many farms, including a few in Essex County, grow fields of sunflowers as part of their agritourism business, and visitors enjoy walking among the towering blossoms. However, in the Victorian Language of Flowers they symbolize “False Riches” and no one would want a bouquet of those. They may sometimes have been seen as a rustic farm flower, and of course they are grown for such practical purposes as sunflower oil and birdseed as well as for the beauty of their blossoms. To The most frequently seen color for ripe beach plums is purplish, as on this shrub at Vitale Park. (Photo courtesy of Laura Eisener) a lot of us, they represent the abundant joy of late summer, and perhaps personify sunshine itself, with the golden ray flowers radiating out from the face. Chinese lantern (Alkekengi officinarum, formerly known as Physalis alkekengi) is an ornamental plant grown for the papery coverings on its fruits, rather than for its flowers. The flower calyxes grow much larger than the fruit developing within. These resemble hanging paper lanterns and turn from green to bright orange in fall, so they have become popular natural decorations for the Halloween season. Interestingly, they are also popular decorations for the Japanese Obon Festival that occurs earlier in summer, which is a festival honoring the dead. The fruit of this plant is toxic to people and animals and must not be confused with the tomatillo (two species: Physalis philadelphica and Physalis ixocarpa), which are South American natives with similar inflated calyxes. Tomatillos are annuals with an edible fruit. While they belong to different genera, they are members of the same plant family, the nightshade family (Solanaceae) along with tomatoes, potatoes and eggplants. Saugus Garden Club member Julia Aston grows the Chinese Lanterns in her garden and recently gave the bouquet above to Dee LeMay. This bouquet can last for years once it dries. 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 offered 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.
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