Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - The Wildflowers

Never in my five years of gardening have I experienced such an explosion of growth and blooming as we're having this spring.  A month ago, I said that I thought we would have an early spring, due to indicators in my garden.  The birds were giving signs, too. And besides, we were DUE.

While we have a month yet before we pass the date of our average last frost - May 15th - I think the warm weather has lasted long enough now to safely say spring came early this year. That doesn't mean we won't have a frost or two yet, but it wouldn't surprise me if we didn't either.

It's Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, and I literally can't keep up with everything that's blooming or has bloomed up to this point.  How did we go from squealing with delight over seeing the first crocus blooming to deadheading daffodils and hyacinths so quickly?  A part of spring is already over.

The wildflowers are blooming all over Our Little Acre.  Certainly on Wildflower Way, but also in the shade garden below the serviceberry on the north side of the pool house. Today, I'm featuring those wildflowers that I love so much. Tomorrow, I'll show the rest of my blooms.

I've had Trout Lilies for several years, but only the white variety.

White Trout Lily (Erythronium albidum)

This year, a yellow one appeared! There are no others around for more than half a mile, so I'm not sure how this happened, but there it is. Another unusual thing is the foliage isn't mottled, and that is a characteristic of Trout Lilies, which is how they got that common name.

Yellow Trout Lily (Erythronium americanum)

Bloodroot is one of my favorites. I love the white daisy-like blooms and the uniquely shaped foliage makes it even more appealing. It gets its common name from the fact that its roots appear to "bleed" when broken.

 Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis)

 Wild Blue Phlox (Phlox divaricata)

Giant White Trillium is Ohio's state wildflower. In my immediate area, Toadshade Trillium is much more common, but we do have the white.  "Giant" is a great adjective for this trillium!

 Giant White Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum)

Toadshade Trillium (Trillium sessile)

Spring Beauty is normally more of a pale pinkish color, and has pink veining in its petals, but this one is showing more of a plain white color. I'm pretty sure it is Spring Beauty, but if anyone knows it to be something else, please share that information!

Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica)

Another of my favorites among the spring wildflowers is Jack-in-the-Pulpit. I've only seen one in the wild in my life and that was in the woods behind the new Holiday Inn in Ft. Wayne (across from Memorial Coliseum).  I was geocaching there and came across one.  

Not knowing a thing about them, since this was in my pre-gardening days, I wanted to dig it up and take it home. I hadn't a clue that it was a bulb, or that native plants normally have very deep origins, so of course, all I got when I dug it was the flower on its stem and some foliage.  I took it home and planted it. It died.  That Jack-in-the-Pulpit is probably still growing in its original location unless it got dug up in the hotel construction process.

I purchased one online, which has not yet appeared, but a couple of years ago, I wintersowed some seeds that Mom had given me from her Jack-in-the-Pulpit. They germinated well and I had lots of seedlings last spring, but no blooms. This year, they're up and blooming!

Jack-in-the-Pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum)

One of the first wildflowers I learned to identify was Dutchman's Breeches.  You can tell they're in the same family as Bleeding Heart (Dicentra spectrabilis) by looking at both the foliage and the bloom.

Dutchman's Breeches (Dicentra cucullaria)

This Lesser Celandine magically appeared a few years ago out in Max's Garden. I moved it to Wildflower Way last year. These can be invasive, but it doesn't appear to be behaving that way for me.

Lesser Celandine (Ranunculus ficaria)

Wild ginger grows everywhere here. I love the heart-shaped leaves, but their best-kept secret is their flowers! You have to go looking for them, because they're under the leaves, very close to the ground.

Wild Ginger (Asarum canadense)

Virginia Bluebells can be stunning when you see them in a drift. That's how I first saw them while out geocaching with my friend Marsha one spring.  They were growing on a shaded river bank and we oohed and ahhed over them. A year later,  Romie and I went back and dug a few to plant here. Those have now naturalized quite nicely in just a few years! I've even shared some of mine.

Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia mertensia)

I've had trouble getting the hybrid Jacob's Ladders through the winter here, but the native one, which I think is just as pretty, does just fine.

Jacob's Ladder (Polemonium reptans)

The Sharp-lobed Hepatica has already bloomed and there are some blooms yet to come, such as Mayapples and Star of Bethlehem. But April is certainly the best month to see these in the woods and in my garden.