It’s spring

Today I’ll step away from my typical wordiness to catch up on blooms that have slipped past in the last week. This is a splendid time to be in the garden, so enjoy.

Grape hyacinths (Muscari) spread locally to make nice, small clumps of blooms that last for several weeks.

I have slowly increased the number of Barrenworts (Epimedium) in dry shade areas of the garden. These spread slowly, with exceptional spring flowers and pleasant foliage.

Flowers of Paperbush (Edgeworthia chrysantha) are fading, but it is a glorious month in bloom.

New trilliums appear every day in late March into the first week of April. Several have already flowered.

The fragrant viburnums will soon be at their peak blooms. Burkwood is tall and gangly, but an ideal shrub at the forest’s edge.

The hybrid daphnes (Eternal Fragrance) are coming into peak bloom with a fragrance that is unmistakable. There will be varying degrees of flowering on the daphnes until November.

Robb’s spurge (Euphorbia robbiae) once spread densely through dry shade. In recent years it has become more scattered, but it is a tough perennial for a difficult area.

Lungwort (Pulmonaria0 is an ideal perennials for part sun and shade with early spring flowers and exceptional evergreen foliage

3 Comments Add yours

Bill Mcdonald says:

April 3, 2020 at 2:26 am

Dave…I just encountered a plant in the woods I need ID on…It sort of looks like lungwort but there are no flowers as yet…THe underside of the leaves are dark purple…I have a pic if you accept them.

Dave says:

April 3, 2020 at 9:02 am

You are welcome to send a photo to [email protected]. However, a woodland plant with a leaf with a purple underside is likely to be one of the native orchids, Putty Root or Cranefly. See photos here https://davermfarm.wordpress.com/2019/11/29/seven-putty-roots/ If that’s what it is, the leaf will soon disappear, and there will be a flower stalk in another month.

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