Wildflower Trail Blooms

March winds and April showers bring forth May flowers,” is a familiar adage. Now that May is here, we’re certainly enjoying nature’s bounty. In Boonton Township, an excellent place to gaze upon the blooming landscape is at the Emilie K. Hammond Wildflower Trail at Tourne Park.

Enter through the gate, and it’s as if you stepped into a secret garden. The 2.2 acres boast over 200 wildflowers and shrubs. This month, look for rue anemone, Virginia bluebell, Eastern red columbine, Jack-in-the-pulpit, yellow marsh marigolds, violets, wild geranium, trillium, shinleaf pyrola, flowering wintergreen, mayapple, Solomon’s seal, False Solomon’s seal, wild ginger, pinxter azalea, and Mapleleaf viburnum.

Truth be told, the trail is beautiful throughout the year. It is lovingly tended to by volunteers from the Rockaway Valley Garden Club, RVGC, who maintain it in conjunction with the Morris County Park Commission. Lee Gaitskill, RVGC member and co-chair of its Wildflower Trail Committee, rhapsodized the joys of the trail in every season.

“When you walk in the forest in the summer, you may think you are in a tropical rainforest with the lush green growth of ferns, skunk cabbage, fully leafed out trees and shrubs,” she notes. “On beastly hot days, the woods are always a few degrees cooler. If you are very observant, you may see wood frogs, toads, box turtles, or snakes. They are helping to maintain the forest, too.”

Gaitskill continues, “Autumn is the time of warm colors and masses of Aster and Goldenrod flowers filled with nectar and pollen. They provide food for those overwintering insects that ensure next year’s pollinators and food for bird nestlings. Falling leaves provide protection for insects, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians, and as the leaves break down, they provide the forest with nutrients. Winter is a living Ansel Adams image of blacks, greys, and whites, interrupted occasionally by the greens of Christmas ferns and Rhododendrons.”

The RVGC volunteers are always busy recording species and blooming times, removing non-native invasive plant species, removing hazards from the paths, such as leaves and fallen branches, ensuring the deer fence hasn’t been breached by fallen trees or limbs, maintaining signage, and educating the public through tours and lectures.

The Joys of Volunteering

Becoming a volunteer doesn’t require formal botany education. General knowledge suffices.

“Involvement requires first and foremost the love of nature and with that a willingness to learn the secrets of our state forests’ flora and fauna,” Gaitskill says. “As a group, we meet weekly, weather permitting.”

A volunteer for over 30 years, Gaitskill enjoys maintaining the trail because, as she notes, “Each week the forest gifts us a new experience, a flower that was never there before, a large hole in a dead snag dug out by a resident pileated woodpecker, a weird mushroom that we need to identify. But the best part is experiencing and sharing these wonderful gifts with friends.”

Her co-chair, Sue Salsberg, also a volunteer since the early 1990s, says, “I especially enjoy being with the RVGC members, maintaining the trail together. I love seeing the spring flowers emerging and enjoy giving tours so others can see the beautiful flowers.”

Additional thoughts were provided by David Landry. “Many casual visitors to the Wildflower Trail enjoy a brisk walk, not really noticing all the action at their feet,” he says. “I love the trail because tending it has taught me to slow down and really observe the week-to-week changes in the forest. It is most magical in spring, when ephemeral wildflowers, some as small as your fingernail, suddenly emerge with intricate and colorful displays. The fragile petals may last only a few days, but then a different wildflower often blossoms just a few feet away. The tree leafing out signals the end of the too-brief ephemeral display, but then the hardier summer wildflowers begin to emerge.”

Andrea Zugale, another volunteer, shares, “Protecting the trail and helping the public learn about it through signs, tours, and the kiosk remains at the heart of what we do. But it’s the sense of place we share, observing the trail together through the seasons that stays with me.”

65 Happy Years

This year marks a milestone: The trail is 65 years old. Hammond was a naturist who asked the park commission for some property to use as a preserve for local species. She selected the area in the Tourne because of its geographical diversity. There are wetlands, dry areas, severe slopes, and gentle slopes, allowing for many varieties of native plants.

The trail is a living classroom that teaches visitors the importance of native species and warns of the threat from invasive species. Take bird migration, for example. Migrating birds coordinate their migration with the blooming schedule of native plants, but if those plants are not available, the birds’ success is reduced.

Hemlock trees offer another example of how flora and fauna interact. Providing the correct environment for the growth of these trees along the streams improves trout fishing. Why? Because the Hemlocks shade the water, keeping it colder and allowing for more oxygen, which impacts the trout.

Gaitskill explains, “There are few places in New Jersey that are not choked out by a multitude of invasive non-native plant species. One of our major goals is to identify and remove all these invasive species, giving the native species unfettered space to proliferate.”

RVGC added extra protection by installing a deer fence in 1998, which encloses the entire Wildflower Trail.

“Although deer are native to New Jersey,” says Gaitskill, “their population has increased tenfold. Since the fence went up and the hungry deer were excluded, numerous tree and shrub seedlings have filled in the understory, and new species of forest floor plants have sprouted up.”

Planting Your Own Native Garden

For those who want to install their own native plant garden, Gaitskill says, “Remember, through millions of years of evolution, plants and animals have co-evolved. So, for all the different shapes, colors, and scents of flowers, there are pollinators that have coevolved to accommodate these variations. Plant a variety of native trees, shrubs, vines, and grasses, preferably straight species. Try to plant for successive blooming times throughout the growing season.

The New Jersey Native Plant Society is an excellent resource: npsnj.org. Another resource is from Doug Tallamy: homegrownnationalpark.org. On the sites, you will find native plants for our area, their growing requirements, local native plant nurseries, and garden designs. New Jersey has its own helpful website: jerseyyards.org.

Once established, our native plants require less care, less water, no fertilizer; after all, this is where they have evolved to live. Do not use pesticides or herbicides, remember, besides providing us with their beauty, we want our plants to do their jobs, providing food, shelter, and nesting opportunities for other organisms,” Gaitskill says.

For more information, visit rockawayvalleygardenclub.org.