A BOTANICAL GOLD RUSH

 WHITE PINE POLLEN CONES...

...LAST YEAR'S WHITE PINE SEED CONES

THE INFORMAL PERENNIAL GARDEN

Friday,  55 degrees F at the ferry dock, 50 on the back porch.Wind SSW, very light.  The humidity is 84%, the barometer falling, now at 30.16."
   The perennial garden is blooming with Iris, peonies, columbine, lilies and other late-spring flowers.  It is all a colorful jumble of  blooms and green leaves, an appearance we love but which may be too naturalistic and informal for many tastes.
   The white pines, Pinus strobus, in the Pine Family, are ready to shed their pollen, the male cones looking like shinny golden buttons on a green overcoat.  The male cones are on the lower and mid-branches of the trees, while the seed-bearing female cones hang pendulously from the upper branches.  When the pollen is shed, the wind blows it up into the upper branches to fertilize the female cones (the seed cones are still green and difficult to see, but last year's cones are quite evident),
   Conifer pollen release is a major ecological event, and locations near large white pines, such as our back yard, will be laden with dusty golden pollen for days.  I will be sneezing, that's for sure, and porch railings and furniture will be covered with the golden dust.  It will take a good rain to wash the pollen from streets and other surfaces. Meanwhile, we are having a botanical gold rush.