Blue flowers are something special, and blue Hepaticas are the most special of the little wildflowers. Their blooms can be pale pink, pale blue, purple or white. Shown above is Hepatica nobilis var. obtusa, the round-lobed hepatica, which in my garden blooms a lavender blue. According to Illinois Wildflowers, H. obtusa is confined to Northeastern Illinois.
This year, one of the other native species of hepatica, H. nobilis var acuta, bloomed the most heavenly deep blue, which is unusual for this species.
It's not a cultivar, this little plant is the progeny of the large clump with the lavender centered white blooms.
Nature's surprises can be quite the treat.
Hepaticas are evergreen, so I cut away the old foliage of H. acuta before they start to bloom. The flowers emerge before the fresh, new foliage. As the top photo shows, the flower stalks and new leaves emerge covered with hairs. I've left the old foliage on H. obtusa because that species is much less vigorous and needs all the help it can get. The sharp-lobed hepatica has spread its seeds with abandon, and I've had so many seedlings, I've been able to share them. By contrast, I still have only three round-lobed hepaticas, and one of them isn't doing so well. Once I found a seedling in the lawn, but it didn't survive the transplantation ordeal.
Both species like to grow under deciduous trees and shrubs, where they can get full sun while they bloom, and shade during the summer. As with most plants here at Squirrelhaven, they prefer well draining soil.
Finally, at long last, after teasing me for weeks with an ever-plumping bud, the double flowered Sanguinaria canadensismultiplex has bloomed. It is a sad, lonely thing. All its companions were destroyed by squirrels digging, but every year, this one plant manages to delight me. I am trying to be patient and wait for it to increase. It makes the perfect opening for Wildflower Week, hosted by that wildflower gardener extraordinaire, Gail of Clay and Limestone.
For those who think doubled flowers shouldn't qualify as wildflowers, here are a couple of good clumps of the straight species. Sanguinaria canadensis is very happy here at Squirrelhaven, maybe a little too happy. I planted the clump in the background, but the ants are responsible for the ones in the foreground. The common name "bloodroot" comes from the sap that is exuded when the root is cut.
April 24, 2011
If you look closely at the bottom, you can see one plant still in bud. Photographing bloodroot in bloom is difficult, as the flowers open only in the sun in the middle of the day. To get a good photo, one must wait for a partly cloudy day, or a day such as yesterday that started off sunny, then got cloudy late in the afternoon. Then the photographer must rush out to the garden and snap a few shots before the blooms start to close.
In other wildflower news, the wild ginger has begun blooming.
Asarum canadensis is grown for its foliage, not its blooms. It makes a great dry shade groundcover. Most of the time, one never notices the blooms, but the flower was easy to spot on this volunteer pioneer under the yellowwood tree (Cladrastis kentukea) out front. Soon, there will be a skirt of rounded leaves under the tree. Like I said, it makes a great groundcover.
With groundcover pretensions, the Virginia bluebells have formed a lovely colony. Too bad the foliage doesn't last long. It just started blooming.
Mertensia virginica
Turning to other news, the 'Easter Moon' tulips bloomed just in time, on Holy Saturday. This is a perennial Darwin tulip, so it comes back every year.
This year, for the first time, I've managed to protect all the foliage and the blooms from the deer.
Tulipa 'Easter Moon'
The variegated edge to the foliage makes this tulip really special, along with the subtle, almost Rembrandt-type coloring of the blooms.
At the foot of the tulips are the grape hyacinths, which bloomed at exactly the same time.
Muscari
These came with the property. I would never plant them because I hate how ratty the foliage looks at bloom time.
The forsythia still looks amazing, the magnolia is about to bloom, and spring is getting back on track.
sign along Old Sutton Road, Barrington Hills, Illinois
At Beautiful Wildlife Garden, I and the other co-contributors encourage readers to garden for wildlife. While it's wonderful to plant some things to attract pollinators, little suburban plots, such as mine, are insufficient to provide an ecosystem necessary for life, not just wildlife, to flourish. For too long, conservationists have stood by powerless as open space was gobbled up for development, but no longer. There's a brilliant idea for saving the land, without emptying our pockets.
I learned about it last fall, when filmmaker and photo artist Robert McGinley displayed his photos from Horizon Farm at the Barrington Area Library's gallery. I was privileged to attend his presentation about the conservation easement that was created on his family's property, Horizon Farm, in Barrington Hills, Illinois.
Horizon Farm October 2010
I managed not to completely gabble in my enthusiasm for this project when I introduced him at the gallery reception. It differs vastly from ordinary conservation easements, which are just small pieces of land which must be left in their natural state. The Horizon Farm conservation easement, by contrast, consists of 421 acres of contiguous land which comprise an ecosystem and habitat for wildlife which will be protected in perpetuity from development.
McGinley wanted to save the special ecosystems on his aging parents' land, but he feared that he would be unable to avoid selling the land because of the taxes that would devolve on their deaths. (Yes, even in Cook County, property taxes are going up.) Had the property been sold, it could have been carved up into 80 5-acre parcels, the minimum zoning in Barrington Hills. Together with the newly created Barrington Hills Conservation Trust (now the Barrington Area Conservation Trust [BACT]), the Conservation Foundation, and the Equine Land Conservation Resource, McGinley crafted an easement which limits the number of parcels which could be developed to only eight, with a vast open tract in the middle to be preserved as open space. This area is wooded and has a wetland and pond which is used by migratory birds.
Migratory birds coming in for a landing, October 2010.
There are also trails for riding horses.
The conservation easement eased the tax burden on the family, allowing them to retain the property, which does not become public land.
The BACT is dedicated to preserving open space, and the rural character and natural resources of the Barrington area, which "is one of the largest remaining connected ecosystems in Northeastern Illinois" (source), including the internationally recognized Grigsby Prairie (see Gardens Illustrated issue #145). The conservation easement is its most powerful weapon for protecting open space. (See Wikipedia for more information on conservation easements.)
Five thousand acres of open space are lost each day in the United States (source). Now is the time to put a stop to it. In honor of Earth Day, I charge everyone with setting up such conservation trust organizations, or if one already exists, joining with them to encourage the owners of large parcels to consider a conservation easement now, before the need to sell the land arises.
Snow was falling when I awoke this morning, which, while not welcome, will not be long lasting. I've been waiting for this other proverbial shoe to drop, as it is a statistical certainty that it will snow at some point in April in Chicagoland. It usually isn't this late. Last week, the grass greened up so it looked like spring, even if it hasn't felt like it. From too hot the week before to too cold last week (30ยบ below normal), April is acting like April.
I'm so excited; for the very first time the redbud (Cercis canadensis) is going to bloom. This is quite a feat, as the tiny sapling was completely uprooted by the squirrels shortly after I planted it.
The buds remind me of the fleshy fruits inside a pomegranate. Too bad the flowers won't be that color.
Had the high today not been in the 30sF/around 1C, the flowering quince (Chaenomeles species) would probably have bloomed.
The Magnolia stellata is also about to bloom. I can't ever remember it being this late, even in the awful spring of 1997. But that may be because it has only a handful of buds. The scale attacks of the last few years have severely weakened it.
Let's think about something more pleasant now, the blooming of the doubled flowered rue anemone, Thalictrum thalictroides 'Cameo'.
The flowers remind me of tiny waterlilies.
One of the neatest native wildflowers has sprouted.
mayapple sprout
When open, the foliage of Podophyllum peltatum looks like an umbrella. Mayapples truly aren't suited to the small garden, as they spread by vigorous stolons. Every year I have to take a shovel to the paths lining the bed to restrain them.
The stupid male cottonwood tree has started dropping its sticky flower casings and messy flowers all over the garden. That red thing in the above photo is one of the flowers. I spend literally hours every spring picking up the casings, as they stain clothes and get tracked into the house stuck to the bottom of shoes. Someday, that tree will be taken down.
Finally, a bit of fun. The downspout on the front of the house had been swinging loose and getting blown off, so I solved the problem by ditching the downspout and getting a rain chain. It's cheap ($25) faux-copper verdigris from Tuesday Morning.
Thanks goes to Mary Ann of Gardens of the Wild, Wild West for suggesting putting a pot under the rain chain. The pot is frost-proof ceramic, which will be turned upside down for winter. I think a larger pot would be even better in case of torrential downpours.
Next week is the last week of April, hard to believe as that may be with March level temperatures now, but really, it's got to change soon. Time to pull out the shorts.
On the 15th of every month, Carol, of May Dreams Gardens, asks us to show what's in bloom. April may just be my favorite month for Bloom Day. Everything is new and completely different from last month. While this year is running a bit behind last year, it's actually right about average and even a bit ahead of '08 and '09. The April garden is a great delight, with (mostly) comfortable temperatures, no mosquitoes, and scads of woodland wildflowers.
Caulophyllum thalictroides
Hepatica nobilis var. obtusa
Hepatica nobilis var. acuta with Mertensia virginica in bud in the background
Geum triflorum, prairie smoke
Sanguinaria canadensis opens its flower only in direct sunlight
In addition to the native trout lily, there are the non-native dog-tooth violets
Erythronium dens-canis 'Purple King'
and pulsatilla blooming.
Pulsatilla vulgaris
There are also the hellebores in full, glorious bloom.
'Kingston Cardinal'
Helleborus niger
'Pink Lady' strain
It wouldn't be April without daffodils.
'Ice Follies' with 'Tete-et-Tete' and 'Small Talk' in the near background and 'February Silver' way in the background in the woodland garden
'St. Keverne'
'Cassata'
Just in time, the little species tulips are blooming,
Tulipa puchella 'Violacea'
and this little self-sown viola decided to bloom.
That's normal, but the following is not.
That's a Colchicum, which normally blooms in the fall.
And finally, the grand finale, in full bloom and never looking better, the forsythia.
What's blooming in your garden?
Also blooming: Bergenia 'Bressingham White', Crocus tommasinianus 'Barr's Purple, Erythronium albidum, Helleborus 'Walhelivor' (Ivory Prince), H. 'Ballerina', H. 'Red Mountain', Narcissus 'Honeybird', Narcissus 'Pineapple Prince', Thalictrum thalictroides, Thalictrum thalictroides 'Cameo', Scilla siberica, Viola labradorica, and one volunteer Chionodoxa in the lawn.
the haul: Ranunculus, Osteospermum, pansies and violas
There's nothing quite like the smell of a garden center or nursery the first time one visits after a long winter. It's earthy and fresh and slightly sweet; it smells like spring. I usually make my first visit a bit earlier than the middle of April, but I made up for lost time. In addition to the plants for containers and for tucking in front of daffodils, I bought a ceramic container that is purportedly frost proof.
We shall see.
I almost forgot to mention that I went to the garden center looking for resin pots. It wasn't until after I got there that I realized it was a different garden center that had the ones I wanted. I'll be heading out to that one maybe today.
*This a quick post with photos taken from my phone.
Narcissus 'Small Talk' in front of the sole surviving 'Tete-et-Tete'
It's the most wonderful part of spring, and I'm having trouble not spending all day in the garden. Yesterday, I broke a sweat for the first time this year. The mercury soared to 84F/28.9C, which is 20 degrees above average. The heat moved the garden over the line from early spring to mid-spring. All the winter aconites (Eranthis), bulbous irises (Iris reticulata, I. histroides) and snowdrops (Galanthus elwesii) are done blooming, as are all the crocuses in the back garden. I wasn't thrilled with it, but the garden made the most of it, with growth surging so quickly changes could be seen every few hours.
Sanguinaria canadensis at dawn
mid-morning
afternoon
The Sanguinaria canadensis (single bloodroot) are in full bloom in the sunnier parts of the woodland garden. Joining them are my favorite wildflowers, the little rue anemones (Thalictrum thalictroides a/k/a Anemonella thalictroides).
Thalictrum thalictroides rosea
Another favorite native wildflower, Caulophyllum thalictroides sprouted last week.
The first bloom opened today (sorry, no picture yet).
Hepatica nobilis var. acuta, the sharp-leaved hepatica, is in full bloom.
The round-leaved hepatica, H. nobilis var. obtusa, is blooming too.
Nearly all the hellebores are in bloom now. Here's my current favorite,
Helleborus x hybridus 'Ballerina'.
I see the squirrels with peanuts nearly every day, but I've never seen the chipmunk with one.
The chipmunk tried to get the peanut into the hole in the patio, but after several tries, it realized the peanut wouldn't fit. The chipmunk ran off, presumably to try the back door of its home.
And now, more daffodils.
Narcissus 'February Silver', clearly not living up to its name
Narcissus 'Ice Follies'
Stay tuned; next week will feature the Forsythia, the Caulophyllum and maybe a first for Squirrelhaven.
