Happy Birthday Patti (bbrookrd)!!

AYankeeCat, I have hundreds, but I don't know if they will transplant. These are native to the property and I have had little luck in the past in moving them. But I will try potting some up in the spring. They smell so divine and the white bark is so pretty. But they are best given large amount of space as they tend to colonize and they have a habit of just breaking when they get big without warning, but new ones are always coming up.

What I have been doing is clearing out all the bramble and broken old bayberry and pruning all the good ones as well as the viburnums , blueberries , cedars, scrub oaks, beach plums, clethera, choke cherries, and the unknowns, so as to clean up this nice area up from being just a ugly jumble. The virginia creeper had gone totally mad. Some of the vines were bigger than my arm. I have be selectively going in and pruning some of these shrubs for years, but it was time for the big unveiling. What I am hoping to add to this area is winter berry and a few more beach plums, which I have. I have some winter berry, but not were we want it and it seems to resents being moved so I will have to buy that. I am now in the prone position, being battered and bruised, but very happy. I do have more to do, but I think the thaw is about over. I also found 5 nice little cedars that I can move. Drat. Patti

amethystsm, before whaling oil was used in Nantucket, candles made from the bayberry were the best light source. Named Bay Berry from being found on Cape Cod Bay they give a good light and were smokeless when snuffed out and they did not get soft in the summer. They smell great when being burned , but it takes a huge amount of berries to make a candle The berries are just waxy tiny hard nubs (kind of like a small peppercorn) that have to be picked, then boiled until the wax comes to the surface, skimmed and boiled again to get it clear before being made into candles. I did it once years ago and it was a lot of work for just a few candles. The ones that most places sell are not made from bay berries, just scented. The real ones are very expensive. Come on down a pick a mess. I am too lazy. Patti

hahahha - wow - what a great story! thanks, i had no idea. i always thought it was an odd choice for such a common candle scent (i think i see it a lot around Xmas), but it is a fairly pleasant one, though doubtlessly fake. (i can't STAND most scented candles - and not very many strongly fragrant flowers. i can always tell if a store - like BB&B - sells Yankee Candles as soon as i walk in, it is such an overwhelming - and specific - fragrance.)
Do bayberries have other uses? Are the plants themselves fragrant?
o no ! i am taking over your b-day thread!!!
: )

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No it is now my unbirthday now and so why not a Bayberry thread. They smell Divine as a plant when you brush them. The real candles are a pale gray greenish color which is not nearly as green or stinky as most stores sell. I can't go into a store selling tons of scented candles either or soaps or any artificial fragrances. I think they have been used in cooking in very small amounts like you would use juniper berries and back in the hippy days I did hear reports of people using them a mouth wash, but I would check on both of those in an Herbal Handbook as my thinking is fuzzy on their other uses. Birds love them, tree swallows which are my DH favorite. Patti

i don't know if i have ever seen swallows here, but we saw some in NZ that were amazing - they'd fly right over you, and in amazing patterns on these ponds - diving and swooping through the air, and just skimming the water. We had no clue what they were, and described them to someone at a zoo later in the trip - they seemed to think they were rather common, but i thought they were really magical!

The two kinds that I know are barn and tree swallows. They do swoop and are magical. My Dh's arrived on April 8 last year and they began to muster to leave on Sept 20th but we saw huge flocks gathering for their aerial antics all fall which are fabulous. During the summer we have some nest on the property and as there is a pond on conservation land across the road we have a good spot for them. We put up houses for them which they have to battle for, but they seem to win. They are a very pretty bird and quite dear in their habits. Patti

And they aren't afraid of you either, if you get too close to their babies - they think nothing of swooping within inches of your face!

A few years ago, I made friends with a tree swallow (Tess) who was nesting in a box on the edge of my vegetable garden in NH. Whenever I was working in the garden - usually with my hands in the dirt - she would peak out of her box and twitter at me. I would talk to her softly, and eventually, I got to where I could stand within a few inches of her when we "conversed". She was very beautiful and very cool!

that is neat!

It really is.

Jack had one bird talking to him (and, yes, he was talking back) but it wasn't as close of a relationship as Louise had with her swallow.