Wildflower Wednesday-Dodecatheon media

They say you never forget your first love. The first wildflower I knew and loved was Dodecatheon media album. Not that I knew it by that name, my siblings and I knew nothing about wildflowers or Latin, so we called them "the bee plants" because of their resemblance to a bee's stinger.

They grew around the house where I grew up, under the Burr Oak trees.

Dodecatheon media (commonly known as Shooting Star) is a forb of the Oak savanna, meaning that it likes open shade. It's also an ephemeral, disappearing rather quickly after flowering. Flower color is variable from pale pink to white. The base of the leaves gives a hint of the color of the flowers. This one will have pale pink flowers.

This one has white flowers and blooms a bit earlier.

I like the white because that's what was growing around my childhood home, and it will always hold a special place in my heart and my garden. From the foliage, it's clear that it belongs to the Primulaceae family.

Dodecatheon media blooms in April and May in the Chicago area, and the foliage is usually gone by July. It is best planted with Hostas, Brunnera or ferns to cover the fading leaves.

If you're looking for a big, flashy flower or a plant that has a long season of interest, Dodecatheons aren't for you. But if you have room for a graceful little charmer, you might want to include a few Dodecatheons.

Dodecatheon media

Zone 4 to 8

Height 1.5 feet

Spread 1 foot

Shade or part shade

Well drained to moist soils

From the DAISNAID* file: Designing with Daffodils

It sounded like a good idea at the time: 'Pineapple Prince' daffodils behind the Hosta 'Maui Buttercups.' There was space waiting to be filled with spring interest, and the Hosta foliage would obscure the fading daffodils.

So I planted them there, in front of the south fence.

I had a major D'oh! moment while sitting on the swing one evening recently. I realized I had forgotten the tendency of the daffodil to exhibit phototropism. In other words, the blasted things would be facing the fence.

I think I'll switch these with the big yellow tulips in the raised bed. Tulips, fortunately, aren't so phototropic.

*DAISNAID = Do As I Say, Not As I Do

(I've been MIA online lately because of parenting demands. School projects, school shows, feising, and working in the garden have been keeping me very busy.)

Picture This: Green World

Earth Day is tomorrow, making Green World the perfect subject for this month's Gardening Gone Wild Picture This photo contest. The entry above is tulip foliage with a Sedum 'Bertram Anderson' peeking out. Raindrops on green leaves gives the feeling of spring, when all is fresh.

This past winter was extraordinarily kind to the Colchicum foliage. Colchicum 'The Giant' starts sprouting leaves in the fall and usually it gets zapped at the tips by freeze over the winter, but the consistent snow cover protected it.

I almost like the foliage better than the blooms.

When the rain stops, the sunlight makes a stained glass effect on the Sanguinaria foliage.

All the Hostas are sending up shoots now.

But let's back up and admire the expanding baby Oak leaves. The old lore is to plant corn when Oak leaves are the size of a mouse's ear.

This Quercus bebbiana is barely a sapling, but planting it shows my faith in the future. I wonder if I'll live long enough to see it in its towering glory?

Green isn't limited to leaves. How about some green flowers?

Just kidding, but the leaves of the mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) do remind me of those 60's Flower Power flowers.

Let's end with a real green flower, Helleborus x hybridus.

Every day should be Earth Day on our little green planet.

Happy Earth Day!

The Squirrelhaven Springtime Blues

Laugh and the world laughs with you. Weep and you weep alone, unless you do it in a Blues song. Or, as Bleeding Gums Murphy said, "The blues isn't about making yourself feel better. It's about making other people feel worse."

I got the Blues. Oh, yes I do. Could it be that Chicago is the home of the Blues because of our weather? It sure has gotten me down. I managed to keep my chin up and a sunny smile on my face all winter despite the cold and snow, with the thought of all the springtime beauties to come. But this wicked hot, dry weather has screwed things up. Yes, it's been hot, and 82 degrees Fahrenheit with no rain is not good for ephemerals. While I'm not going to put up a video of me singing about it like Annie in Austin does, let me tell you about it anyway.

I was waiting and waiting

for Dicentra culcullaria to send up a flower.

In Madison, Wisconsin* they were blooming with power.

I was surprised. Got a question in my head.

A good look left me crying

Cause the buds had shriveled and were dead.

I got The Blues,

No Dutchman's Breeches for me.

Now the redbuds are blooming, all around about.

But my Cercis canadensis is only leafing out.

I got The Blues.

No redbuds for me.

In Indiana†, the double bloodroots are in bloom,

and in Upstate New York^, they're blooming there too.

Mine finally sprouted, with only a leaf.

There's no sign of buds, and I'm feeling such grief.

I got The Blues.

No double bloodroot for me.

The April rains won't come

the ground's full of cracks.

And my poor little primrose

ain't never coming back.

I got The Blues.

No primrose for me.

Now the cottonwood tree

is raining sticky stuff on down.

I got no time to weed

got to pick it up off the ground.

I got The Blues.

Sticky stuff for my shoes.

Oh, the bluebells,

lungworts

and Muscari are pretty,

the Brunneras too,

but somethings still missing,

and I still got them Blues.

The Squirrelhaven Springtime Blues.

Oh, yeah.

Anything in your springtime garden giving you the Blues?

*Each Little World

†May Dreams Gardens

^Cold Climate Gardening, Gardening While Intoxicated

Spring Full Throttle: April Bloom Day

Thalictrum/Anemonella thalictroides 'Cameo'

Warning: this post contains excessive amounts of garden porn, including the freakish and the hard to find. More sensitive readers are advised to turn back now.

The woodland garden with Labrador violets and 'Spellbinder' Daffodils in bloom.

This spring has been so unusual. The extremely warm weather (for April in Chicagoland) has brought plants into bloom several weeks earlier than normal (quite a contrast from last year, when spring bloomers were delayed). This has made the gardener scramble, trying to get everything done in the space of days what normally is done over the course of weeks. (I haven't fallen off the face of the Earth, I've just been very busy outside lately.) Many plants have bloomed and faded between last Bloom Day and today, including several Daffodils, the Erythronium dens canis, and the Pulsatilla vulgaris. The Violas that were just budding last Bloom Day are in full bloom.

All three of the Tulip varieties are in bloom. I can't recall the name of the one above; it has been a strong perennializer for years. Newer, but also a perennial Tulip is 'Easter Moon,' below left.

It's in full bloom. On the way out is the newest Tulip to the garden, the little species T. pulchella 'Violacea.'

It's odd to have early and late Daffodils blooming at the same time.

On the left, the last of the 'Ice Follies,' on the right, the first of 'Stainless'

I'll spare you all of the Daffodils, but here are two of the new ones I planted last fall:

On the left, 'St. Keverne,' on the right 'Pineapple Prince'

I've gone a little goofy for reverse bicolor yellow and white Daffodils. 'Pineapple Prince' is my third one of those. White Daffodils don't have enough presence in the garden, and the solid yellow just don't have quite enough zing for me. (A little garishness in spring never hurts.)

Hepatica nobilis var. obtusa has only one bloom left, and Hepatica nobilis var. acuta is nearly spent, with the remaining blossoms obscured by the new foliage.

on left: Hepatica nobilis var. obtusa (H. americana); on right: Hepatica nobilis var. acuta (H. acutiloba)

All the Hellebores are in bloom, although only two flowers of Helleborus niger are still white.

The rest have turned green and are forming seeds. I'm posting only one more photo of a Hellebore, but it's one that wasn't mature enough to bloom last year, 'Kingston Cardinal.'

It was worth the wait.

How about just one more? This Hellebore was a new addition last year.

I don't know if this is a rogue 'Ballerina Strain' or a mismarked 'Carousel.' Regardless, it's a most striking bloom.

The earliest of the bloodroots (Sanguinaria canadensis) have passed, but those in the most shade are still blooming.

It's looking like the double bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis 'Multiplex') will not be blooming this year. Somehow, its rhizome worked itself partly out of the ground, stunting it.

The Bergenia have never looked better.

Bergenia 'Bressingham White' flowers turning pink
Most years it barely manages to bloom and the foliage looks ratty. This year, the foliage is unblemished and the blooms are outstanding. The complete and constant snow covering of the long winter gets the credit for this.

Blooming several weeks early, the Magnolia also looks outstanding this year. (Help! I'm running out of superlatives.)

I don't know what it is exactly, some kind of Star Magnolia. It tends to bloom a little later than most of the Magnolia stellatas around here. Despite one morning of frost, the flowers have suffered no damage. Yesterday afternoon, the scent of its blooms filled the air. I might have to devote an entire post just to the Magnolia.

Radical pruning of the flowering quince (Chaenomeles) to train it to the wall has yielded excellent results.

It's in full bloom. As with the Magnolia, I don't know its identity, as it was here when I bought the house.

In the woodland garden, Pulmonaria 'Roy Davidson' is blooming.

Its flowers are similar to those of the native bluebells, Mertensia virginica, which is in full bloom. The Mertensia goes dormant after blooming, to be concealed by the expanding foliage of the wild ginger and the native Celadine poppy, Stylophorum diphyllum.

At the risk of sounding reptitive, it's also in full bloom.

And now, the most sublime of all, Thalictrum/Anemonella thalictroides 'Oscar Shoaf,' blooming with Corydalis 'Blackberry Wine.'

The flowers of 'Oscar Shoaf' are bigger and darker than those of 'Cameo' (at top). I love this plant. I love it so much, I've got a wire basket over it most of the time to protect it from the squirrels. The basket will remain until the plant is fully established.

And now, from the sublime to the freakish: Prairie Smoke (Geum triforum) in bloom;

the native wild ginger, Asarum canadensis looking particularly fine this year;

and the freakiest of all, blue cohosh, Caulophyllum thalictroides,

which is better known for its showy blue berries in summer.

Also in bloom:

Anemone nemorosa

Brunnera macrophylla 'Hadspen Cream'

Brunnera macrophylla 'Jack Frost'

Brunnera macrophylla 'Looking Glass'

Dicentra 'Bountiful'

Dicentra 'King of Hearts'

Erythronium albidum (just barely)

Forsythia

Fuschia

Helleborus x hybridus 'Pink Lady Strain'

Helleborus x hybridus 'Red Mountain'

Helleborus x nigersmithii 'Walhelivor' (Ivory Prince)

Muscari

Narcissus 'Bell Song'

Narcissus 'Honeybird'

Narcissus 'La Vie En Rose'

Narcissus 'Mount Hood'

Narcissus 'Small Talk'

Oxalis

Scilla sibirica

Thalictrum/Anemonella thalictroides and thalictroides rosea

Tiarella 'Oakleaf'

Viola sororia

In bud:

Bearded Iris

Dodecatheon media

Epimedium grandiflorum 'Lilafee' and 'Niveum'

Heucherella 'Burnished Bronze'

Malus 'Prairiefire'

Phlox divaricata 'Clouds of Perfume'

Polemium reptans 'Stairway to Heaven'

Tiarella 'Pink Brushes'

Trillium grandiflorum

What's blooming in your garden today? To see what's blooming around the country and around the world, visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens for all the Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day posts.

Don't Blink...

or you'll miss them.

While not as dire as The Doctor's admonition about the Weeping Angels, and slightly exaggerated, the warning is nonetheless valid. The spring bloomers have been remarkably ephemeral throughout the country this year owing to the unseasonable warm weather. See, for example, Digging (Texas), A Study in Contrasts (Ohio), Fairegarden (Tennessee), Blithewold (Rhode Island).

Here at Squirrelhaven, the 'Purple King' Dogtooth Violets are but a memory,

Erythronium dens canis on April 5, 2010

the Pulsatilla vulgaris is fading,

the Hepatica nobilis var. acuta are nearly done

and the blooms of Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) last barely more than a day.

I missed a small clump blooming under the Yew.

I wish I could stop time and revel in the glory that is April, my favorite month of the year.

Caulophyllum thalictroides, the native Blue Cohosh

the native trout lily, Erythronium albidum

Soon the Dicentras, Trilliums and shooting stars will make me forget about the blooms gone by. In the meantime, I intend to pay close attention.

What's making a brief appearance in your garden?