Woodland Wildflowers

Hello again! This week I have the honor to give a little glimpse of our native woodland wildflowers. A couple of weeks ago, the California Pack Trials were taking place, and I was about to start getting into annuals. I'm always looking to continue my passion for plants, and had been holding out on annuals until the end. But my interest was growing daily as I was being sent a blog from the Ball Seed Co. website. Then I walked into one of our growing areas and saw the Trilliums, Blue Cohosh, Jacob's Ladder, and Mayapple. The annuals are quickly forgotten. Never did I realize how much I was missing out on the greatness of Spring. If you have not gone to one of your local forest preserves to see the spring wildflowers, you are missing out. While delicate, they are some of the most impressive plants I've seen. As a fellow employee said, "It's like Disney where all the fairytales are made." It's true. Here are some of the woodland flowers currently blooming!

Hepatica acutiloba
Dainty flowers in the spring. This plant likes alkaline soils while it's brother or sister H. americana likes it more acidic. H. acutiloba has it's white to dark pink flowers first thing in the spring. Its' hairy stems hold the flowers upright. Once spent, the foliage then appears. The foliage is trilobed and pointy.

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Trillium
If you like variegation, why not go with a Trillium. Before the Hostas emerge, this is the foliage beauty of the shade garden. Trillium displays many variations on its' leaves. No woodland garden would be complete without it. It also looks good in natural plant combinations like below.

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Trillium recurvatum with Allium tricochum.

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In the Midwest Groundcovers Landscape:

Right now, so much is happening in the landscapes around us. A little bit of 70 degree weather and the plants are waking up. I was excited to see all the Geraniums and Astilbes with foliage emerging. Even the Baptisia is starting to show it's buds! Without question, spring has sprung! The most exciting time of the year for the plant geek in all of us! So, if you too, are a plant geek like me, than I suggest that you make a trip to the Morton Arboretum in the next week or two. The Daffodils are starting to bloom, and they have a remarkable display of them there in the Daffodil Glade. Check it out!

Until next week, have a great day!