Picking flowers from your own garden is the best way to get to know your plants. Often I make discoveries. A few weeks ago, I found a rabbit’s nest among the chamomile in the vegetable garden. The mother had dug a shallow bowl in the soft earth, delivered her young and then covered them up with dried grass and sticks. When I inadvertently uncovered the nest, they were shivering. Didn’t even have their eyes open and they had very little fur. I covered them back up to keep them warm. The mother was crouched under a rose bush near-by, keeping an eye on me. Whenever I spy her in the yard she freezes, as if I won’t notice her if she doesn’t move.

Over the next few weeks, I found the babies running around the garden. I don’t really like that they have robbed me of my beans, cutting the vines off near the ground, but I won’t be the one that stops them. They have enough natural enemies, fox and dogs among them, that I know they can’t all survive.

When we first bought our house 32 years ago, rabbits were a regular sight and I used chicken wire to keep them out of the vegetable garden. Now that our dog is old and the fox population is down, they are making a comeback. It is cute for the moment.

The nest of baby rabbits hidden in the chamomile.

The mother rabbit standing still so I won't notice her.

A baby rabbit peaks out of the nest.

During the day, the mother rabbit keeps an eye on her young from under this rose bush.

Picking flowers and foliage from my garden for indoor arrangements lets me examine plants closer than I normally would. For example the gold-leaved dogwood along the driveway looks beautiful to all who drive by, but once I cut some of its foliage to use in a floral foam wreath, I discovered the back of the leaves were covered with scale. Scale are insects that look like white or brown bumps on the back side of leaves. They suck sap from leaves and can weaken the plant. In the garden it is difficult to dislodge the insects from large trees. The bugs are a feast for the birds. On smaller plants and indoors the scale can be washed off with insecticidal soaps.  On foliage I cut for flower arrangements I wipe the scale off with a soapy rag and dispose of the insects in the garbage.