Spring Natives In My Woodland Gardens

Native plants are blooming at every turn in my gardens. One of my newest natives is Senecio aureaus (below), commonly known as Golden Groundsel or Squaw Weed. I purchased this plant least weekend while visiting Carolyn's Shade Gardens in PA. It is my intent to write a post about that lovely visit in the future, but in the meantime you can read about it from the perspectives of my cohorts, Jean (Jean's Garden) and Carolyn (Carolyn's Shade Garden). The three of us met up and had a wonderful day as we toured Carolyn's gardens, and subsequently visited Chanticleer.

North American native Golden Groundsel, Squaw Weed (Senecio aureaus)

Meanwhile, I want to post just a few of my native plants to add to Gail's Wildflower Wednesday at Clay and Limestone. Thank goodness she has deemed it 'Wildflower Week' - otherwise I would be late to the party! Below is beautiful Sweet William, with two bumblebees drinking nectar on the bottom right photo in the collage.

North American native Woodland Phlox, Sweet William (Phlox divaricata) *see the bees on the bottom right?!

Last year I added a few varieties of native Columbine (below), including Rocky Mountain Blue, Wild Red, a dwarf variety--'Little Lanterns'--and a cream colored variety, 'Corbett'.  When visiting Carolyn's Shade Gardens I purchased another 'Little Lanterns' and 'Corbett' to add to my growing collection!

North American native Columbine varieties - Top/Bottom Left:  Rocky Mountain Blue Columbine (Aquilegia caerulea);
Top Right: Wild Red Columbine (Aquilegia canadense); Bottom Right: Aquilegia canadense 'Corbett';
Bottom Middle: 'Corbett' with Aquilegia canadense 'Little Lanterns'.

I've been admiring my lone Celandine Poppy and watching as it has put out bloom after bloom this spring. I added this native last year, as well.

North American native Celandine Poppy (Stylophorum diphyllum)

Wild Ginger was planted both last year and I added another plant this year. The blooms are hidden underneath the leaves. The one on the upper right of the collage is just about ready to open.

North American native Wild Ginger (Asarum canadense)

Epimediums were added to my garden two years ago but didn't bloom much last year, so this is actually their first year with decent-looking blooms. I have several E. rubrums, sometimes called Red Barronwort, while the E.niveum's (white) have not yet bloomed. While at Carolyn's Shade Gardens I purchased two more, E. x. warleyense (below) and E. Pinnatum colchicum (yellow) (not pictured).

North American native Epimediums:  Top - E. rubrum "Red Barronwort";
Bottom -  x. warleyense "Orange Queen"
2012 NOTE: I've recently learned that Barronwort (Epimedium) is not native to North America. It makes a great woodland plant, however!

My Wild Geranium plant was given to me last year when I visited Janet, The Queen of Seaford, one of several plants she shared from her garden. I love seeing it this year as it not only reminds me of her (along with the Spiderwort that is beginning to bud), but also because it's beautiful in bloom! (We'll see about the Spiderwort...there's an inside joke going on about this one! Perhaps I will share it with you later!

North American native Wild Geranium (Geranium maculatum)

The Variegated Solomon's Seal was planted two springs ago. I don't recall that it did anything much last year, but this year there are some cute little white bells and it looks pretty good and is a nice addition to my shade garden.  The Jacob's Ladder was planted last year, as well...but I couldn't help myself, and added a second plant to the garden after visiting Carolyn's last week.

North American natives - Top:  Variegated Solomon's Seal (Polygonatum odoratum 'Variegatum')
Bottom: Jacob's Ladder (Polymonium reptans)
*2012 NOTE: P. Odoratum is NOT a north american native either. I'm always learning! It is P. biflorum that is native.

...And there are more natives, but those will need to wait for another post! If you are a blogger, you have some idea of the time involved in creating blog posts. It can be extremely time-consuming and for some reason, I seem to be getting slower at it when I would think my speed should have improved since I've been doing this for a couple of years now!  Oh well...!

In other news, our pondless waterfall/stream is a wonderful addition to our backyard and we really love having it. We had just the right spot for it and are happy with the results. I've spent a few minutes on a couple of different days, sitting in various locations around it, trying to determine where I would like to place a bench to get the best view and/or to hear the waterfall most clearly.  I may need two benches. (Or three!).

Our new pondless, re-circulating waterfall/stream

This is a busy time in the garden, as things are blooming continuously and it's hard to keep up with posting photos! I really would like to keep a record and post things as they bloom but I often have to lump them all together in one larger post. My eventual 'goal' is to try to write individual posts about each of my plants, particularly the native plants, and list pertinent information along with photos. I would consider my blogging a success if I could get that detailed about each plant...but it's hard for me to find the time to do that. The good thing about blogging, for me, is that it isn't a job and I can do it as I find the time, with no pressure.  (Truth be told, though, I still do feel a great deal of self-imposed pressure to do these posts in a somewhat 'decent' manner and it sometimes feels like a little more 'work' than I'd started out thinking it would be). But, I do hope you enjoyed this one:-)  I will try to get around and visit more of your blogs soon.

Happy Wildflower Week (as deemed by Gail!) to everyone out there in garden-blog land;-) I hope you're all surviving the wild weather that's been popping up across the country and are safe.

Words and photos ©Thanks for today.™, by Jan Huston Doble @ http://www.thanksfor2day.blogspot.com/

Not to be reproduced or re-blogged without express permission of the author.