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Walk on the Wild Side


By: Ilene Dube , TimeOFF 04/01/2004

Nature puts on a different show for every visit to Bowman's Hill Wildflower
Preserve in Bucks County, Pa.




Earthworms are good guys, right? They aerate the soil and their castings
provide beneficial nutrients.
Not true. Earthworms are now the bad guys in the natural woodlands of
Pennsylvania. They are not native north of Maryland and are changing the soil
chemistry, rendering it more conducive to invasive species, according to Bill
Lamack, nursery and grounds manager at Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve in
Bucks County, Pa.
But don't cancel that order for earthworm plugs just yet — they are still
good for the vegetable garden, and they do make robins healthy.



We are visiting the 100-acre preserve off River Road in Bucks County,
searching for signs of spring, which seems late to arrive on this cold,
drizzly, monochromatic day in late March. Our first attempt had been
forestalled by snow. The only signs of color are the green and yellow frogs
hopping all over Communications Director Nancy Beaubaire's umbrella. The
optimistic Warminster, Pa., resident points out this time of year is good for
seeing into the woods, with no leaves on the trees to block the view.
The tour begins just outside the visitor center, where a display garden
includes shooting star and Jacob's ladder. The preserve is home to 1,000
species of native plants (the Keystone State has 2,000 species), 80 of which
are rare, threatened or endangered. There are two-and-one-half miles of trails,
and visitors can take self-guided tours or docent-led tours daily at 2 p.m. As
the seasons change, every tour offers something new to see. The visitor center
provides a list of plants in bloom.
Mr. Lamack is busy putting the plants used at the Bucks Beautiful exhibit on
woodland gardens back into the nursery. Many of these will be sold at the
wildflower sale in May, and some will be returned to the native setting. Mr.
Lamack propagates more than 10,000 plants from seed every year, gathering them
when they ripen — anywhere from May to October.


Sometimes he will supplement the stock from nurseries as far away as
Nebraska that can supply the same genus and species. He is getting ready to set
Virginia bluebells on the trail known as "Bluebell Heaven." It is reported that
visitors come from as far as Ohio to see the bluebells in bloom.
Mr. Lamack has recently uncovered the hoop houses, where 200 species for the
plant sale, including a "seersucker sedge," are incubating.
It is a hectic time of the year at the preserve; seedlings have to be set
out along more than two dozen trails.
"An important part of our mission is education," says Ms. Beaubaire, holding
her frog umbrella — a recent gift from her husband — to protect us from the
rain, now falling heavily. "We want people to see the beauty of native plants
and then take them home so the plants get out into the community and more
people can enjoy them."



Ms. Beaubaire, one of the founding editors of Fine Gardening magazine, ran a
native-plant landscaping business in California for 14 years before earning her
master's in horticulture from Purdue University. She has worked as a
horticultural therapist, was an editor at Country Living Gardener magazine
after her tenure at Fine Gardening, went on to redesign Organic Gardening
(taking the magazine from its focus on vegetables to the entire realm of the
garden) and has guest edited books in the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens series.
She has found her true home at the preserve, where none of the plants for
May's sale are collected in the wild. "The trillium is hard to get started and
can become extinct if collected in the wild," she says, warning the buyer to
beware inexpensive trilliums, the price tag a sign they were probably collected
from the wild.



Trillium grown from seed can take seven years to establish and are costly.
They will be sold on members' day, a private sale to preserve members held one
day before the official sale. Details on membership and the sale can be found
on the preserve's Web site (see URL below).
Another endangered wildflower is the lady's slipper orchid. "It has a
special relationship with beneficial soil fungi. If someone digs it up and it
is separated from the fungi, it will die."
The preserve was established in 1934. We pass a stone bridge over Pidcock
Creek and a log cabin, both constructed through the Works Progress
Administration. The cabin was built from chestnut logs before the trees were
decimated by chestnut blight. There is a sugar maple tree that is tapped in
February, and tastings are offered in early March.



Ms. Beaubaire has promised we would see spring flowers in bloom. True to her
word, she takes us to a bog of skunk cabbage. The mottled purple-green hood is
the first flower of spring. It is 20 degrees warmer inside the flower than out,
and when there is snow on the ground it melts in a circle surrounding the
flower. Carrion beetles and ants are attracted to the rotting, musty skunk-like
smell, the purple color and the heat, and go inside to pollinate the plant.
"The flower is a spath (a leaflike bract that encloses a flower cluster),
like Jack-in-the-pulpit; it has a hood arrangement over the seed producing
element," says Ms. Beaubaire.
Duckweed in the manmade pond also is in bloom. It is the smallest flowering
plant and is not, Ms. Beaubaire is quick to point out, pond scum. A royal fern
hummock forms an island in the pond.
"We do not clean up the fallen logs, because it is part of the ecosystem,"
says Ms. Beaubaire. "The logs provide a place for mushrooms and moss to
propagate and habitat for birds, and the decaying leaves add organic matter
back, a part of the natural cycle."
Habitats in the preserve range from woodland and meadow to streamside. "The
lesson is, don't fight nature, work with it," she continues. "The plants and
you will be happier if they are suited to the site."
We are well rewarded when we reach the limestone habitat — there is a
single snow trillium in bloom. This rare and endangered plant sends up a bright
white three-petaled flower that is strong enough to withstand the cold air —
and occasional snowfall — of March.
On the way back we pass cucumber magnolia and sweetbay magnolia, both native
to Pennsylvania; rhododendrons larger than the abominable snowman; and azaleas
whose remarkable fragrance Ms. Beaubaire invites us to come back and enjoy when
in bloom.
Alongside the road we see prickly pear cactus in its winter-shutdown mode.
Ms. Beaubaire tells us it has bright, red-orange oblong fruit in the summer,
just like those in the market. "It likes sand and sun and wouldn't ordinarily
grow in a woodland, but we have a few things we grow for fun."
Back at the visitor center, nature lovers sit quietly alongside the long
bird observatory window, watching avian guests chow down on the generous
offerings of the feeders. The view overlooks the forest canopy, Pidcock Creek
ravine and Bowman's Hill. A downy woodpecker comes into view as we look.
Depending on the time of year, visitors can see hummingbirds, chickadees,
titmice, nuthatches, house finches, goldfinches, grosbeaks, cardinals, juncos,
sparrows, doves, thrushes or woodpeckers. There have been hawk, turkey and
pileated woodpecker sightings.
An 800-title library of books about native plants, horticulture, ecology,
plant folklore, birds and related subjects is catalogued and available to the
public for on-site use. There is a book and gift shop, and in the basement the
Platt collection of mounted birds, nests and eggs. Donated in 1972 by local
ornithologist Charles Platt, the exhibit serves as a reminder of the importance
of native plants to birds.
Pamphlets and flyers offer useful information for naturalists and gardeners
on such topics as invasive plants, including garlic mustard, and how to
eradicate them.
Not only are deer a major threat to natives because of their browsing, but
they create beneficial situations for invasives. The preserve protects native
plants from deer with a 10-foot fence surrounding the entire property.
Invasives are controlled by hand-pulling (volunteers are welcome) and
occasional chemicals.
"People are drawn to Bucks County by its beauty," says Ms. Beaubaire. "But
if developers don't integrate the natural environment, the thing people came
here for is destroyed."

Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve, 1635 River Road (2½ miles south of New
Hope, Pa.), is open year-round every day except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New
Year's day, 8:30 a.m.-sunset. Admission costs $5, $3 seniors and students, $2
children; free for members and children under 4. Guided tours
mid-March-October, 2 p.m. daily. Natural egg-dyeing workshop, April 3; Earth
Day observance and volunteer day, April 17; Knowing Native Plants class, April
17; Wildflower Weekend, April 24-25; Wild about Flowers Spring Gala, May 1;
bird walks every Saturday May 1-June 19. The visitor center, parking lot and
some trails are wheelchair accessible. For information, call (215) 862-2924. On
the Web: www.bhwp.org