ABOUT THE OWNER
My name is Stephen Lynch. A former certified arborist, I am a graduate of Bristol County Agricultural High School and the Stockbridge School of Agriculture at the University of Massachusetts. Having always promoted native plants, in 1993 I started my company, Mirage Water Gardens to explore the propagation and use of our native aquatic and wetland species. For the past thirty years I have created native wetland habitats and have also planted and observed terrestrial native plants in various locations.
In addition to collecting plants, I am also a birder. When I purchased my one acre property in South Sandwich, it was a mostly wooded site and had a very small bird population. As a result of my intervention of selective tree removal and habitat diversification by replanting a wide range of native and non native plants, I have recorded, as of February 2023, eighty-five different species of birds in my yard.
This replanting includes a large number of plants from the genus Hamamelis, commonly known as Witch Hazel. These are small trees or large shrubs in a typical range of 10 to 20 feet tall. They bloom in cold weather with narrow, strap-like petals in the yellow to red spectrum. Starting in late September, our native species begins to bloom. Following them are a wide selection of mostly Asian cultivars that pass the flowering torch all the way to early April. With over twenty blooming age specimens in my collection, I have achieved a personal goal of continuous year round bloom. These flowers provide food for our native flower flies. Beginning on Christmas Day 2015, I have not experienced a single day without something in bloom in my yard. To have a collection as large as this is very cool indeed, but the goal of flowers from fall to spring can be achieved with as few as five or six different Witch Hazels.
Another interest of mine is rearing butterflies from caterpillars. The iconic monarch is relatively easy to accommodate in the adult stage. However, as most know, the caterpillars only eat species of milkweed. To have a complete generational life cycle take place in your yard, you need to grow local milkweed which is also a valuable pollen and nectar source. The adults will find and lay eggs on your plants, and with a little luck they hatch and grow to adults, completing the generation. Monarchs have predators at every stage of their life. I have read of survival rates as low as 1% to 2%, so I collect the eggs. In 2022, I reared and released 162 Monarchs from multiple generations. Fourteen of those were what I call the Mex/Gen Monarchs. These lucky ones get to fly all the way back to Mexico. In collaboration with Monarch Watch at the University of Kansas, I tagged these Mex/Gen miracles and sent them on their way. On Cape Cod, the adults of this critical generation emerge in mid October. At this time, food sources for butterflies are becoming scarce. With this in mind, some of the asters and goldenrods I am offering are among the latest blooming plants on the Cape. These plants combined with a nice selection of milkweed, will help your yard become a stepping stone in the precarious life cycle of the monarch.
Searching for a name more descriptive of my goal of supporting native plants and pollinators, I am moving forward as Solidago Native Plants. Solidago is the genus for goldenrod and in Latin means to make whole.
Imagine if butterflies could feed yard to yard instead of searching for food or a place to lay eggs. Every yard has room for a few natives.