Windows on history

Written by Mike Linderman, sectional archaeology manager at Angel Mounds State Historic Site
Angel Mounds staff is heading to Old Camp Breckenridge in Kentucky to retrieve windows from three army barracks that date back to World War I. The buildings are scheduled for demolition and our goal is to salvage these pieces to one day use in potential reconstructions [...]

Fresh from the Lab

Written by Michele Greenan, Natural History and Archaeology Collections Manager at the Indiana State Museum
Archaeology requires a lot of patience, sometimes tedious fieldwork and perhaps a little guesswork. So finds like this one are especially exciting and fun to work on.
We recovered a ceramic vessel in southern Indiana last year during excavations at what is often [...]

Nature’s Palette, Always in Style

Written by Davie Kean, master gardener at the T.C. Steele State Historic Site
Somewhere, there are people who are paid to predict (or create) which colors will be ‘hot’ for the coming year. Apparently there are people who are color blind in the fashion sense — unable to decide for themselves what color to wear or [...]

Call me Plume Poppy

My name is Macleaya cordata, Bocconia cordata, or Bocconia japonica —
but you can call me Plume Poppy.
The most-asked garden question recently has been, “What’s that tall plant over there?” Usually when visitors ask for flower identification,  I need to look at the plant to be certain, since descriptions can be vague or ambiguous. Not so [...]

A Blinking Black-eyed Susan

I’m a big sports fan, but only in the biological sense. In biology, a ‘sport’ is a mutation. Red Delicious apples may be the most famous sport — they all originated from one tree with a tasty (and profitable) mutation.
A lone Black-eyed Susan planted itself amidst a row of Peonies at T.C. Steele State Historic [...]

There was a little chigger …

There was a little chigger, that wasn’t any bigger…*
So begins this summertime song, sung by children scratching along in time to the melody. Sad to say, chigger season has returned — and the timing wasn’t so great for our first Sunday afternoon ‘Get-together in Selma’s Garden.’
Our new series of garden programs is a thinly-disguised attempt [...]

Inventorying the Loblolly Marsh

How do you take an inventory of a swamp? Well, it involves a lot of nets. And bug spray. Oh, and sunscreen.
On Friday, I took a road trip to the Limberlost State Historic Site in Geneva, Indiana (Adams County). My mission? To “assist” 24 scientists in taking an inventory of the flora and fauna of [...]

The Ever Popular Tulip Poplar

I first knew Indiana’s state tree by the name Tulip Poplar. Years later, I learned that it ‘should’ be referred to as the Tulip Tree or Yellow Poplar. All these are just common names for Liriodendron tulipifera, a member of the Magnolia family — and anyway, how can a ‘common’ name be incorrect?
Our state tree [...]

Giant hanging coccolithophore runs amok in museum!

Coccolithophores are marine planktonic organisms that secrete calcareous plates, called coccoliths, around a single cell. They are so tiny they are best viewed with a scanning electron microscope (an SEM). That’s one of the reasons that a large red version hanging from the ceiling in the Great Hall of the Indiana State Museum was so [...]

Shrub-a-dub-dub

What’s one of the best ways to improve your outdoor environment? Plant some shrubs! They provide variety, shape, form and balance—all elements of good landscape design. If you stick to annuals and perennials alone, you’ll be missing out, and so will your garden.
A recommendation I’ve read is to buy one shrub for every five perennials. [...]