Early Spring Bloomers

Posted on Tuesday, April 18, 2023 · Leave a Comment 

I like to have blossoms in the garden and in vases everywhere. I try to have something blooming all the time – or as often as possible. Right now, in mid-April, I count more than ten species of plants in bloom, along with seven species of bulb plants which are blooming by the hundred for me.

 

Leatherwood

Let’s start with trees and shrubs – what I call woodies. The most unusual woody is leatherwood (Dirca palustris). This is a native woodland plant that does well in part shade. Although the literature says it prefers moist, rich soil, I have it in dry soil and it does well there.

 

Leatherwood has small greenish-yellow flowers that appear about the same time as forsythia –mid April for me. Mine is slow growing with lovely gray bark that reminds me of beeches. This is a well-mannered, slow growing plant that stays 3- to 6-feet tall and wide.

 

February Daphne (Daphne mezereum) is in bloom now with highly fragrant pinky-purple flowers. It is originally from Europe, Turkey and Iran. I love it so much I named a corgi after it (she is now gone, alas). It stays 3-5-feet tall and wide. In the fall it has produces small red berries.

 

I named a dog after this shrub, Daphne mezereum or February daphne

Magnolias are in bloom now, too. My favorite is the Merrill magnolia, a hybrid which produces double white, lightly fragrant flowers. I planted mine as a small tree in 2004, and now, 19 years later, it is about 40 feet tall with a spread of 25 feet. It blooms reliably (nine years out of ten) on my birthday, April 23. It is a good specimen tree to put in a lawn, and will do well even if the soil is consistently moist to soggy.

 

These magnolias come as both single-stem and multi-stem trees, but most are multi-stemmed, as mine is. However, when the stems get big they grow together at their base. Sometimes the included bark rots and weakens the stems, making them susceptible to splitting. I removed one big stem on mine two years ago and the tree has recovered.

 

Forsythias are in bloom everywhere with bright yellow flowers. If yours only blooms down low, in the area covered by snow, the buds which were formed last summer were killed by the winter cold. So get rid of it and buy a new variety such as New Hampshire Gold, Vermont Gold or Meadowlark. All are hardy throughout New England.

 

Drumstick primroses

My favorite early spring perennial is called the drumstick primrose (Primula denticulata). It comes with flowers in purple, blue, pink, magenta and white. The florets are small and arranged in 2-to 3-inch globes on 6-inch stems. They do best in moist to wet soil in sun or partial shade.

 

Hellebores or Lenten Roses (Helleborus orientalis) are also wonderful spring flowers. Mine have been blooming for a couple of weeks already and will continue on for another month or so. The blossoms are 5-petaled and 2- to 3- inches wide with yellow stamens in the center. Colors range from white and cream to pink, purple and nearly black. They are evergreen, but last year’s leaves should be cut off now as they are all bedraggled.

 

A dainty flower with beautiful finely-cut foliage is a spring ephemeral called corydalis or fumewort (Corydalis solida). It pops up in my garden where it wishes, and I am always glad to welcome it. It seems to do best in moist, part shade with rich soil. The flowers on mine are small, long-spurred light blue, but other colors are also possible. There is a yellow variety of a related species (C. lutea).

 

Corydalis solida

Lungwort or pulmonaria (Pulmonaria spp.) is a good ground cover that is blooming for me now, too. It is interesting that a single stem might support blue, pink or apricot flowers all at once. All do well in shade or partial shade and better in moist soils than dry soils. It spreads by root.

 

There are at least a dozen different species of pulmonaria including P. longifolia with spotted leaves and multicolored blossoms. The one I like best is P. angustifolia which has very intense blue flowers and solid green leaves. I’ve read that varieties or species with more white spots grow better in full sun than those with fewer or no spots.

 

Wildflowers are starting to bloom, including one of my favorites, bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis). These white multi-petaled flowers come up from the soil wrapped in the leaves that look like a green cigar. In cold days, or at night, the blossoms close up but open on sunny days when the bumblebees are working.

 

Double bloodroot is rare and not usually found in the wild but is sold in specialty nurseries

The bloom season of bloodroot is short, but there is double bloodroot which is sterile and blooms for a longer time. Like all bloodroots, the clumps get bigger every year, so you can dig them up and divide them to start doubles in new places.  The sap from the roots is poisonous, so wear gloves when dividing any bloodroots. Do that in now, or in the fall.

 

We certainly deserve spring blossoms for having survived winter and mudseason. But you do have to plan and plant for those early bloomers.

 

Henry is the author of 4 gardening books and is a 25-year veteran of the Master Gardener program. Reach him by email at henry.homeyer@comcast.net.

Filed under Article · Tagged with corydalis, double blood root, drumstick primula, leatherwood

Planning for Spring Flowers

Spring puts a spring in my step, quite literally. I bounce out of the house in the morning to see what is blooming, and since early March I have never been disappointed. You know the regular cast of characters in early spring: first snowdrops with their tiny white blossoms, then glory-of the snow in blue, white or pink, and winter aconite in brilliant yellow – all blossoming near ground level. But there are lots of other plants to consider, especially now, in May.

Double blood root is rare and not usually found in the wild but is sold in specialty nurseries

One of my favorites is a wildflower called bloodroot (named for its irritating red sap when the roots are disturbed). It has white blossoms that stay closed at night, or on cold, wet mornings. It has broad light green leaves that can curl around the blossoms like cigars when they first come up. The leaves can serve as a nice groundcover most of the summer.

I also have a double bloodroot. This was given to me by a friend, and it is quite rare. I found it for sale on line when writing this, but it is quite expensive. It does not produce viable seed because it is a tetraploid, meaning it has double the number of chromosomes that the ordinary one does. But mine has spread by root over the years, allowing me to dig plants to move to new spots. The blossoms look like miniature double peonies, and it stays in bloom longer than the common one.

Pagoda trout lily

I grew up in Connecticut where we had masses of trout lilies (Erythronium americanum) blooming in our hardwood forest. The small yellow lily-like blossoms nod and look down. Here I see plenty of them, but few blossoming. I have learned that only once they have two leaves will they blossom, and mostly I see those with just one leaf.

A few years ago I ordered bulbs from K. Von Bourgondien bulb company for a hybrid Western trout lily that is much bigger than the wild ones. The hybrid Erythronium ‘Pagoda’ has been an amazing success! The leaves are large and each plant produces two to four flowers on each tall stalk. The blossoms are yellow, but much larger than the wild form I grew up with. They are blooming now, but bulbs are shipped in fall.  

Lungwort (Pulmonaria spp.) is a perennial flowers that starts blooming very early in the season, and persists for many weeks. Not only that, the leaves are interesting all summer long: they are a nice green and most varieties are decorated with white spots. The flowers on any given plant may be blue, pink or peach. Often a patch will have flowers of all three colors – even appearing on a single plant. It spreads by root, and some gardeners avoid it, thinking it will take over the garden, but I love it.

Corydalis

Corydalis or fumewort is a delicate flower that blooms for me in lavender or yellow, spreading by seed to serve as a groundcover. I have never heard anyone call it fumewort so I invite you to use its scientific name. It does well in shade or part shade, and tolerates moist soils well. The leaves are finely cut, almost fern-like, and each blossoms is small and downward looking. Some varieties will re-bloom later in the summer.

Celandine poppy

Our celandine poppies (Stylophorum diphyllum) are starting to bloom in shady areas now. These are not true poppies, but are in the poppy family. These are native to North America, and do well in shade or part shade, exhibiting bright yellow one- to two-inch wide 4-petaled flowers. The leaves stand up about 20 inches, and are handsome all summer. Celandine poppies do best in moist, humus-rich soil, but will perform even in dry shade, once established. There is a weedy relative that pops up all over in my garden. Celandine poppies will re-bloom if you cut off the stems after flowering.

One of my favorite early summer flowers is the Forget-Me-Not (Myosotis sylvatica). It is a rambunctious spreader, but pulls easily if it gets where you don’t want it. It stands 6 to 12-inches tall, and has lovely bright blue, upward-looking flowers less than half an inch across, with yellow and white eyes. It does best in rich, moist soil in either sun or shade, but will bloom in dry shade if it has to.

Forget-Me-Not

It is not clear to me if Forget-Me-Nots are annuals, biennials or perennials. They self-seed readily, and I generally treat them as annuals. They transplant easily and can serve as a ground cover. But I pull them often to plant other things, and more will show up in the general area the next summer. They even appear along the banks of my brook, where they bloom much of the summer.

I love primroses of all sorts, and my dramatic candelabra primroses (Primula japonica) have their own bed under old apple trees. But they will not bloom until June, so right now I make do with early yellow primroses (Primula eliator) that have been blooming for weeks and show no signs of finishing up their bloom cycle. They stay in tidy clumps.

Primula kisoana

Now starting to bloom are my Primula kisoana, with lovely pink  or magenta- colored flowers. They have no common name, unless you call them, as my wife does, “I wanna kiss-ya”, which is not found in books. The spread vigorously by root in shade, either moist or dry. Probably most vigorous in moist, rich soil, they are polite, going around other plants as they spread, not pushing them out of the way.

Visit your local nursery to see what is in bloom now, or ask your friends for divisions. There are lots of great flowers out there blooming now!

Henry is a UNH Master Gardener and the author of 4 gardening books. He can be reached at henry.homeyer@comcast.net.

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