The weather is still vacillating between cold and sunny and warmer and snowing and I am still thinking about my new sun garden in the front of my house. I think I have settled on a hydrangea and some asters, which will provide mid-summer and fall blooms, but since I want to provide flowers across the growing season I have been considering plants that bloom in the spring and early summer. My other criteria include plants that are native and/or pollinator friendly whenever possible.
I already have some Anemone in my garden. There are many native varieties in the genus Anemone including the Caroline and Wood Anemone. Both are sun-loving plants with daisy-like flowers that bloom in the spring, often in late April. Caroline has a 1”to 1 ½” flower that ranges in color from white to pink, blue and deep purple. The plant itself is 3” to 6” tall making it a great flower for the front border of a garden. Wood Anemone has a single 1” flower which is white or very occasionally pink and grows 4” to 8” tall. Both Anemone have hairy stalks, and produce thick mats spreading by rhizomes. I have Wood Anemone in my garden and I find it very aggressive. Every year I am pulling back plants that are growing in areas where I don’t want them, so I will have to think very carefully about introducing it into my new garden.
Another member of the genus Anemone that I have in my garden and is far less aggressive is Pasque Flower. I planted one several years ago and I still have one plant with a few plantlets which stay close to the mother plant. The Pasque Flower is one of the first flowers to bloom in spring. It can bloom as early as March, but the common name is derived from the fact that it generally blooms around Easter. (Of course we all know that can range from late March to early May.) Each plant produces a single 1”to 2” flower that ranges in color from blue-violet to white. There are three stalkless leaves below the flower and the stems are also covered with long silky hairs. They do best when planted in scattered clumps in a south facing site, so I am definitely considering Pasque Flower in the boarder of my garden.
Prairie Smoke is another early blooming native plant. It is a very interesting prairie plant. Prairie Smoke grows between 6” to 16” and the blooms sit on hairy stems. The flowers are ¾” to 1” and are red or reddish shades of pink, purple or even brown. The flowers nod down and are very bud-like when they are young but they stand erect and open up after pollination. The plumes resemble smoke blowing in the wind hence the name.
Also in early spring we can see some early ephemerals blooming. The word ‘ephemeral’ means lasting a very short time, and in the plant world they are plants that grow, bloom and die in just a few days or weeks. Some early spring blooming ephemerals are native wildflowers that you will see in the woods (or the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden) and some you can plant in your garden.
- Virginia Bluebells (Mertensa virginica) looks like a cultivated plant but you can see it blooming in the woods or you can plant it in your garden. The pink buds open to hanging bell shaped flowers in two or three shades of blue. It makes a lovely groundcover but in six week’s time the plant will die back to the ground. Then you can over plant with annuals.
- Bloodroot (Sanguinara canadensus) is a native wildflower and one of the first to bloom in the woods in the spring. Bloodroot is so called because if you break off a piece of the root a bright red sap will ooze out. The white flowers bloom before the leaves open up but after the flowers die the foliage will spread open and last for a couple of weeks before dying .
- Marsh Marigold (Coltha palustris) is another wildflower that blooms in early April. It is in the buttercup family and produces bright yellow flowers. It likes moisture and could do well in a moist spot in your garden.
- Bleeding Heart (Dicentra spectibilis) “Golden Heart” is unlike other bleeding hearts because it has yellow foliage rather than the normal green. It still has the traditional pink heart shaped flowers. After the blooms have faded the foliage will stay another few weeks before dying back to the ground.
Of course in order to enjoy any of these spring flowers in my garden this spring I would have had to plant them last fall. I hope to plant a few of them this spring or summer and enjoy them next year. Now I have to look for some late spring/early summer bloomers.