Native Plant & Seed Share When: Saturday, May 9, 2026, 1-3pmWhere: 7719 Chicago Ave, Takoma Park, MD (new location as of last fall!)RSVP: Optional, at this RSVP Link or on Facebook Let’s support each other in growing our ga…

This is true. If you’re reading this, *i* will give you a baby redbud.

Or come to the native plant share on May 9 sstpmutualaid.wordpress.com/native-plant...

Native plant photo, please :)

Closeup of a cluster of blossoms

Several vertical branches all covered in blossoms

Aronia arbutifolia, red chokeberry, is so pretty in spring! And that’s not even getting into the bright red berries in fall/winter!

#maryland #nativeplants #bloomscrolling

A cluster of red chokeberry buds with two open blossoms. Three leaves make a triangle behind them, with grass/fallen leaves in the background

Aronia arbutifolia, red chokeberry, giving me its first blossom ever in my garden since I planted it last fall. I’ve heard the berries are too bitter to enjoy raw but make a tasty jam.

#maryland #nativeplants #bloomscrolling

One month later, the elderberry propagation is still going well! they’re in sand now, so it won’t be too tough of a shock to their roots when they’re transplanted. I’m planning on bringing them to the native plant share on May 9 (1-3pm, 7719 Chicago Ave, Takoma Park).

Native Plant & Seed Share When: Saturday, May 9, 2026, 1-3pmWhere: 7719 Chicago Ave, Takoma Park, MD (new location as of last fall!)RSVP: Optional, at this RSVP Link or on Facebook Let’s support each other in growing our ga…

Native Plant & Seed Share on May 9, from 1-3pm, at 7719 Chicago Ave, Takoma Park MD

sstpmutualaid.wordpress.com/native-plant...

#Maryland #Montgomerycounty #moco #Takomapark #silverspring #pgcounty #nativeplants

Here is the Facebook event page:
www.facebook.com/events/24929...

Native Plant & Seed Share When: Saturday, May 9, 2026, 1-3pmWhere: 7719 Chicago Ave, Takoma Park, MD (new location as of last fall!)RSVP: Optional, at this RSVP Link Let’s support each other in growing our gardens and sprea…

Julie, we would love to have you there! Please spread the word to your neighbors too! sstpmutualaid.wordpress.com/native-plant...

Native Plant & Seed Share When: Saturday, May 9, 2026, 1-3pmWhere: 7719 Chicago Ave, Takoma Park, MD (new location as of last fall!)RSVP: Optional, at this RSVP Link Let’s support each other in growing our gardens and sprea…

I am behind in advertising it! sstpmutualaid.wordpress.com/native-plant...

I help organize a native plant &seed share twice yearly, with one upcoming on May 9 from 1-3pm at 7719 Chicago Ave, Takoma Park. If you’re available that day and can make the trek, I’d love for you to join (and bring your baby native trees)

It’s redbud season in Maryland! I love these native trees‘ spring flowers for their color, taste, and for their weird habit of growing right out of the trunk.

Have you eaten a cercis canadensis blossom yet this spring? Grab and go? On your salad?

We will continue our journey even further into space before Mother Earth succeeds in pulling us back to everything we hold dear. But we, most importantly, choose this moment to challenge this generation and the next, to make sure this record is not long lived.” - Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen

“From the cabin of Integrity here, as we surpass the furthest distance humans have ever travelled from planet Earth, we do so in honouring the extraordinary efforts and feats of our predecessors in human space exploration...

Dark red blossoms droop bell-like from a paw paw sapling; yellow golden ragwort flowers and lots of last year’s stems are in the background.

I finally acquired a paw paw (rappahanock varietal) at last fall‘s Locust Grove plant sale, so I’m newly indoctrinated into Goth Spring! I have to get a second sapling this spring so they can cross-pollinate.

Asimina triloba 'Rappahannock'
#maryland #nativeplants #foodforest

Wild geranium with a tiny shiny insect on it

Wild geranium (Geranium maculatum) is a plant I’m considering for my own (Maryland) garden, and seeing them blossoming in the wild in the Smoky Mountains National Park certainly helped their case

#nativeplants #bloomscrolling

A patch of about 25 yellow trilliums stretching back into the woods

But yellow trillium (Trillium luteum) is the most common trillium here. This past week it wasn’t yet in full bloom, but clearly headed there soon.

A large white trillium

And of course spring in the Smokies means trilliums everywhere- this Large White Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum) was in full bloom

Two silver-speed slippers on a most rock. Seen with wings closed, showing the underside.

These silver-spotted skippers (Epargyreus clarus) also helpfully paused for me to photograph them.

A toad mostly under water with just her head sticking up

Eggs! Swirl white-clear casings with black spots in them, under water in a shallow pool to the side of a river.

We also saw …American toads? and their eggs.

A Juvenal’s duskywing butterfly with wings spread- the top of the wings are visible.

There were So Many butterflies in the Smoky Mountains! I mostly didn’t capture photos of them this Juvenal’s duskywing, Erynnis juvenalis (if my iNat search is correct) stayed nice and still on a sunny stone at the riverside.

Two motels in focus in the foreground. Out-of-focus background includes rocks, river, and a blond toddler wearing pink.

We found morels in two different places in the Smoky Mountains! We did not forage them. And yes, I know I said this would be plants but I’m expanding it to all of nature.

Packera aurea in yellow bloom and with some purple buds, with an insect on it

My old friend Packera aurea, golden ragwort, was all over the place and in full bloom this week in the Smokies. Back in my Maryland yard they’re still just budding (but soon!).

One iris crestata in bloom, one with colorful petals not showing yet, and many green iris leaves poking up from the brown leaves of the forest floor.

Tennessee native plants I saw in the Smoky Mountains this past week! Here’s the first dwarf crested iris (Iris crestata) in a forest floor about to erupt in dwarf crested irises.

Closeup of bluebell cluster of blossoms

View of the whole bluebell plant with six clusters of blossoms

I’m in Tennessee right now with lots of other beautiful mountain native plants, but back at home my Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica) are blooming!
#Maryland #nativeplants #bloomscrolling

…for the next generation. It’s heartbreaking that this world is worse than I’d hoped to give them, but there are many ways in which it’s better than it was for us, thanks in part to you -with immense gratitude.

…and that ofc is why fascists don’t want children to see them. You understand how important your books are, I assume; I hope you know that we feel it too- bookstore customers, library patrons, readers. You’ve gifted us freedom (joy, confidence, self-knowledge, understanding from peers)…

Congrats to @gingerhaze.bsky.social, @rickriordan.bsky.social, @ashleyhblake.bsky.social, @kylelukoff.bsky.social, @sarahandianhoffman.bsky.social, @elisegravel.bsky.social, @harrywoodgate.bsky.social, @leeknoxostertag.bsky.social, & the others on this list. Your books create a more free world…

Extremely grateful to Luanne James, and all the other librarians out there putting their jobs on the line to stand up for what’s right. Reading the tags of why these books were banned is scary.

Image features 2 graphics of folded clothing in blue, orange, and yellow. Our Community Closet has reopened! Sign up for free CLOTHING APPOINTMENTS Saturdays & Sundays all ages, all genders Silver Spring / Takoma Park Mutual Aid sstpmutualaid.wordpress.com [QR code] calendly.com/sstpmutualaid/clothing

SSTP Mutual Aid Community Closet is reopening Sat, March 28! You're now welcome to browse our free collection of clothing & accessories - please sign up for time to shop using this link, & our volunteers will be there to welcome you. calendly.com/sstpmutualai...

#mutualaid #takomapark #silverspring

A close photo of little golden Alexander leaves mixed in among a couple weeds, brown leaves, and a red brick serving as the garden edge.

Tomorrow is the vernal equinox, and my coming spring will have zizia aura, golden alexanders, in it. #maryland #nativeplants