Plant Sightings

Well, the early Spring ephemerals are gone from the woods now. New blooms are taking their place while other plants are just starting out. It’s interesting that a plant will be blooming in the lower ground but not so in the woodlands higher up the ridge. I’m a little surprised to see such a difference in blooming times for a change of only about 30 feet in elevation. The Sessile-leaved Bellwort, also known as Wild Oats, was blooming on the lower ground near the spring, but those on the higher flat land have not yet developed their flowers. The higher bellworts have about 3 sets of leaves now.

Soloman’s Seal is developing its flowers, but none were found blooming yet.

The dogwood trees certainly are blooming, and will continue for another week or so.

Dogwood blooms in the forest.

The mustards are blooming in full. There are over 130 species in the NorthEast, so identifications can be difficult. As members of the Cruciferae family, each mustard has four regular petals in the shape of a cross. Familiar vegetables, like broccoli and cauliflower, belong to this group. Garlic mustard is easily identified, however, by its stalked, somewhat triangular or heart-shaped leaves that have the odor of garlic when crushed. Garlic mustard is an alien plant that has become established nearly everywhere, to the demise of some native plants. Feel free to pull it out!

Garlic mustard showing its triangular or heart-shaped leaves.

Garlic mustard showing the typical four-petal flowers.

I spotted a couple of the Wild Geraniums blooming near the pond runoff. Those adjacent to the lane and those higher up the land are still developing their greenery.

Wild geranium blooming is just beginning.

In contrast to the single blooms of a few different plants, there are violets blooming everywhere. It is so pleasing to see so many violets bloom at once! The Common Blue Violet, Viola sp., with its heart-shaped leaves seems to be in its glory near the pond. The two lower side petals are bearded and the central lower petal is not.

The Common Blue Violet has heart-shaped leaves.

The Common Blue Violet is rather plentiful!

Grape hyacinth and tulips are the only garden flowers that are blooming right now. I have always liked looking inside tulips to see their patterns. This purple tulip is showing a white and blue design on the inside of the petals. The bright yellow stamens have shed some pollen probably with the help of a bee or other pollinator.

The inside of this tulip has a design you can’t see from the outside.

We also planted some wild ginger (Asarum canadense), a native plant, and I was happy to see it breaking out of the ground. The flowers will come a little later in the spring. One of our two peach trees is blooming. The second peach tree is putting up suckers and most of the woody parts from last year appear dead. It is planted a little too close to the septic drain field and I will try moving it to a different location.

Ferns that volunteered next to the house are showing their little fiddle heads. Each year this batch of fern looks lovelier than the previous year’s growth. It is thriving in the shade on the north side of the house. Several pieces of the root have been transplanted to different areas in hopes of propagating it.

Cinquefoil with its five bright yellow petals and five-part leaves is running all over part of the backyard. It seems to thrive in areas nearest the large oak trees where grass has a hard time growing, most likely due to a lack of sufficient water. Most would call it a weed but I enjoy seeing the bright yellow flowers dotting the landscape.

Dandelions are taking over part of the front yard. This shot of the leaves is simply here to compare with goatsbeard when I see it blooming.

Another native flower that we have growing in the same area as the cinquefoil is the northern violet. Northern violet has downy, oblong-shaped leaves instead of the typical heart-shaped leaves of the common violet.

I was pleasantly surprised to see another patch of hepatica in the woods yesterday. White hepatica was found blooming in the northeast corner of the property on a north-west facing slope. It was adjacent to a large patch of purple, round-leaved hepatica.

For the past week or so I have been watching the maple trees awake from their winter slumber. For a long time I never considered trees very much or even thought about how they propagate themselves. Who knew that trees flower? Of course the beautiful ornamental trees like crabapples or the fruit trees like apples and peaches flower — how else would they provide their fruits? And the regular old trees of the forest? They blossom, too, as many allergy sufferers can tell you. The tree pollen is in the air here and the earliest culprit seems to be the maples.

We should have planted this beautiful star magnolia nearer to the house so we could smell the sweet blossoms through an open window.

On Friday I walked around the property and finally spotted my favorite flower in bloom — the round-leaved hepatica. A member of the buttercup family, hepatica appears in Pennsylvanian woodlands before the trees produce their leaves. For a couple weeks I have spotted the waxy leaves that over-winter under the cover of oak leaves. After a rain on Thursday the blossoms appeared the next day. It has been very dry this winter and spring. Only four blossoms have been seen. So far, I have only seen hepatica on the upper part of a west-facing slope near the big stand of hemlock trees. Last year there were at least 11 individual plants in this area and they produced many more blossoms that what I have seen this year.

A single grape hyacinth plant returned from last year’s planting. Since there are so many squirrels and chipmunks in the area, I guess we should be glad to see any bulbs make it from one year to the next.

I certainly did not think I would be sharing any winter-like photos in April! This morning we were surprised by about a half-inch of the stickiest snow I’ve ever seen. Every blade of grass was covered to the full extent by the wet snow that seemed on the verge of melting.

I do have to wonder about the health of the garden plants that are just sprouting out of the ground. Will they all survive the night’s cold snap? Surely, the little amount of snow won’t kill them — or will it? I was struck by the way the snow adhered to every surface this morning. Check out this little spruce tree with every square inch covered in white.

Perennials coming up in the gardens include spiderwort, clematis, hostas, french geranium, tiger lilies, hardy mum, butterfly bush, lamb’s ear, moss peony, purple coneflower, and blue false indigo. The maple trees are flowering and the buds of the top-most blooms of the star magnolia are opening up. The sassafras trees are not yet flowering, but their buds are getting bigger. The azalea bushes were greening up nicely and now are put on hold.

The nights have still had lows in the mid-30 degree range, but the last two days have been warmer than usual for this time of the year. Today’s high temperature is pushing up to 65 degrees and the sun feels wonderful!

The peppermint and spearmint growing right next to the house have been active for about a week. The first sprouts are already vining up the stone and reaching for the sunlight. They are already eight or ten inches tall.

Peppermint vining up the stone of our house in a southern exposure.

The spearmint seems a little bit behind the rapid growth of the peppermint as it is at most two inches tall.

Spearmint getting started on its Spring growth.

Last year both plants grew well in this location on the south side of the house, but the peppermint was much more aggressive. We had to keep trimming the peppermint back so that it would not overtake other herbs in this bed. It is worth keeping around though — mint tea is really enjoyable, hot or cold!

A weed that I see everywhere is blooming and will continue to bloom throughout the summer and fall. Since the ground ivy blossoms are so low to the ground and very small, I used a scanner with the lid open to get this picture. The blossoms open towards the ground and it’s practically impossible to obtain an image without breaking apart the plant. Here you can see the growth habit where one layer of leaves and blossoms grow up and over the previous set.

The ground ivy has irregular flowers that remind one of a miniature orchid.

Many of the perennials are starting to wake up. Today I saw the sprouting of false indigo, purple cone flower, hard mums, and even the star magnolia tree looks like it will blossom in the next day or so.