blooming in my garden: april 25, 2011
AS IF THEY SIMPLY CANNOT WAIT ANY LONGER, the list of things starting to color up and open this cold, wet spring is accelerating–no matter whether the weather lifts its pall. From spike winterhazel (above) to the first of the Corydalis and Primula, here comes the start of full-on spring. A slideshow of today’s bright spots.
Simply click the first thumbnail to start the slides, then toggle from image to image using the arrows on your keyboard, or the ones beside the captions. Don’t forget to check the list of full stories about some of these plants just below the slides, to learn more about favorites. Enjoy.
Oh, and P.S.–Yes, I know the blue cohosh, or Caulophyllum thalictorides, above and in the show isn’t blooming yet, but you have to give it credit for those amazing stems and leaves. Talk about amazing anthocyanins!
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- I often think, because of many big old early shrubs here like Corylopsis spicata (spike winterhazel), that spring is mostly a golden moment. (The potted creature in front is Yucca filamentosa ‘Color Guard,’ simply plunged in that pot for a burst of dreariness-fighting color.)
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- But spring has lots of purple and blue, too, like the pigment of the shoots of blue cohosh, Caulophyllum thalictroides, that astonish me each year at this time.
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- In the same color scheme, what about these so-called “slate” colored hybrids of Helleborus orientalis? Crazy.
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- Across the yard, the full-swing blooms of my oldest massed hellebore plants, thousands of flowers in all.
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- In one shrubbery, the stinking hellebore, Helleborus foetidus, with its green flowers, is having a good season. I think it likes the consistent snow cover we had this winter.
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- A tough groundcover, Trachystemon orientalis, pushes up stalks of blue flowers as its big, weed-smothering leaves begin to arise, too.
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- Sweet little Virginia bluebells, Mertensia virginica, has spread itself around here the last 25 years.
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- In the last decade, Corydalis solida had found its own nooks and crannies, too, probably thanks to naughty animals who want to help with the gardening. This young plant is tucked beneath the Corylopsis.
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- Jeffersonia diphylla, or twinleaf, is up and at it, too.
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- The red-flowered lungwort, Pulmonaria rubra, has been blooming here since late March.
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- The first primrose, Primula vulgaris, opened yesterday despite nonstop cool, wet weather.
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- A detail of the spike winterhazel flowers (Corylopsis spicata).
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- On an axis from my kitchen window, spicebush (Lindera benzoin) is the first or second shrub to start flowering here, and the last to go yellow with blazing fall color.
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- The Cornelian cherry, Cornus mas, sometimes beats the spicebush to the starting line with extra-early blooms. It’s actually a dogwood, not a cherry.
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- Next up? The crabapples on the hillside and the apples and pears look like they want to get going soon, and so do the magnolias, like this yellow-flowered one out front. More to come…
Plant Profiles
Corylopsis spicata
Lindera benzoin
Cornus mas
Corydalis solida
Pulmonaria rubra
Trachystemon orientalis
Hellebores
Yucca filamentosa ‘Color Guard’
I have to agree with Sue. Here in Michigan it’s been cold, wet, dreary weather and your slide show has given me hope. Thanks for the inspiration! I’m going to try new things this year!
Your photos give me hope that some day it will warm up and stop raining. Your tulips make me envious. How do you keep the underground critters from eating the bulbs? Allium and daffodils are the only spring bulbs that survive in my garden.
So enjoyed your spring plants; I have a lot of the same ones as you and want the ones I don’t have. So inspiring…
I want to go outside right now but it is pouring rain here in Massachusetts. I agree on the fresh new green spring colors….
Hi Margaret,
I don’t feel so bad. I thought i was neglecting my plants by not ferlizing all the time. Your place and the health of your trees and plants as I have been there, is amazing . I have always thought good soil is the key. I also use compost as mulch and always have. Muchroom. I have yet to start a composting sight in my yard. One question I always had and have asked many gardeners is how does one compost tons of rose debris and cut stalks. i don’t want to because of the black spot so I have it hauled away but maybe there is a way of doing it so that it can be used? I also keep seperate any peony debris as well and put that with the roses.
I am now this year making seperate piles of the rose branches. I find the composting a chore but should do it. My finding a spot out of sight is the problem and also not too far since I have to wheel barrow tons of debris and dead heading cuts and it is too far to push the huge amounts. I have only cleared out a third of my beds so far and I have a pile of leave and clean up material that is 25 feet long and five feet high. This is only the beginning. By the end of the season would have been five of those. Tell me how do those small composters work for anyone? I figured i would need bins of about six to have enough turning areas. three of mine would be filled already and then I’m only thrd done for this month.
This after removal of much of the leaves in the fall. The point is I shoudl be using this and kitchen scraps as compost since I truck loads of compost and as you know is not cheap but the work involved has been the deterent for one person.
I love your sight keep it coming!
I live in coastal Maine, and every year my hellebores bloom on Good Friday, no matter when that day falls. I find this amazing. Somehow they know that it is time for them to do their “Lenten rose” act.
My daffs and hyacinths are also out, with scilla everywhere. (I’d love to hear more about scilla, which I understand is a legacy from colonial New Englanders. It is a tiny bluebell-like bulb that spreads like mad.)
Huge buds on the lilacs, and everything is that fluorescent green you only see at this time of year.
I can cope with the rain because spring is HERE.
Welcome, Tricia. Yes, it is here, at last. A relief, mixed with total panic, as usual. :) Love how your hellebores observe Good Friday!
@Linda: My original Corydalis solida was big and wonderful…and then it vanished…and little plants started appearing everywhere around the yard. I suspect varmints are at work, tee hee. As for fertilizing trees and shrubs, not much here. I don’t use any chemical fertilizers at all, and sometimes topdress the shrubs beds with all-natural organic fertilizer but not every year by any means. I use a very good composted stable bedding as mulch, so I think my soil and plants have it pretty good.
I’m so happy to see your corydalis solida in bloom. I just purchased one last week and will be planting it this week end. I see it has taken quite a while to fill out and get to it’s size. Mine is 4x 5′ now. Do you fertilize it as you would anything else? I have been low in my duties with tree and shrub fertilizing actually. And do it every few years. Do you actively have a fertilizing routine in place for all your trees and shrubs?
I am also intrigued by the blue cohosh. I have seen it fully grown but like these bluish gray shoots. Very beautiful! My tulips are just out yesterday also in zone 5B
thanks for the lovely photos
I love the Pulmonaria rubra, especially since it has been blooming since March. And your Primula vulgaris are fantastic too. I have to get some of these. Do you have your Primula growing in a damp spot? I thought they all needed that to be happy.
Hi, Terryk. No, not damp where mine are (not dry, either, but just good garden soil and shade).
I get so many ideas for shrubs and plants from this blog, Margaret! Here in northern Virginia zone 7 (a/b) the dogwoods are full out with just a little while to go, the redbuds have gone, and the azaleas are shouting for attention — I have a red one planted next to an enormous rose-coloured one and they shriek at one another for a week or so–of course I wouldn’t have put them together but when I planted them they were very small and without flowers, so can I be forgiven?
Lilacs don’t do really well here — something about not cold enough in winter, but I have lived in a place where they were almost the first flowers of spring and their scent is enough to bring me to tears of nostalgia for spring in that difficult place.
So soothing on a gray and rainy day…thank you!
Welcome, Meredith, you lucky person! It would be wonderful to see stands of it in the woodland here…mines is just in the garden. Jealous!!!
Welcome, Tracey. It finally stopped being cold and rainy today and went up to about 80 and summery. I was getting tired of the drizzle, but wasn’t done with spring quite yet… :)
It is so rainy and cold here in Missouri – your pictures really make me want to come sit in your gardens – how peaceful it must be in your yard.
Finally a name for one another of the plants growing here in my Wisconsin woods – Caulophyllum thalictorides, Blue Cohosh. Until now I hadn’t known what they were. Thank you so much for the pictures.
Lovely slideshow! My forsythia, tulips, and daffodils are in full bloom and the lilacs are covered with fat purple buds! I love spring!
Thanks for all the pictures! It is so refreshing to see signs of spring. I’m enjoying the budding of the trees here in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. The Forsythia have bloomed, the Dogwoods are out, the Redbuds are making a statement. And so many spring flowers like mayapple and trillium make this a very special time of year.
Your garden is still about a week or two ahead of mine – but it is so inspiring to see yours starting up!
The only plants coming up right now are my bulbs and have just started opening this weekend … if only the rain would let up so I can go out an photograph them!
Thanks for sharing some of your spring garden – and all the information in your plant profiles. I loved it!
~Kelly
Thank you, Margaret! I reeeeally needed to see this. I don’t know when I have ever been so antsy. If the rain would just let up for one day…