Spring wildflowers!

[rainbowgardener]

My hillside woodland shade garden is at its best this time of year, with all the spring ephemeral wildflowers.

Trout lily is finished blooming already, but will keep the lovely little speckled leaves for which it is named, for some time. The virginia bluebells, which have spread themselves beautifully, have pretty lavender pink buds that will soon open to blue. The wood poppies have started to bloom and the first of the cut leaf toothwort. A few of the trilliums have buds.

I spent hours yesterday just climbing around on the hillside, sitting on the bench and admiring what I have created from what was a trash dump! It is so beautiful. Lots of the trees I planted (oak, maple, buckeye) are at least 15 feet tall now and quite acceptably tree like. Then there's lots in all stages from seedlings to small trees. The American hornbeam I planted a few years ago is doing well and the redbud is starting to bloom.

[rainbowgardener]

I just posted that five minutes ago, but it isn't letting me edit. Unfortunately, I'm not doing photos right now (soon, I promise!), but in case you haven't seen it,
here's a link to a slide show I did of my garden, a couple years ago:



http://animoto.com/play/QlRaXvKzF3Jy6ek ... start=true

I hope it still works!

[rainbowgardener]

Sigh .... still no editing. I don't think that link worked but maybe this one:

http://animoto.com/play/QlRaXvKzF3Jy6ek ... start=true

[Weedyseedy]

[We are a little behind you in upstate New York, but Bloodroot is starting to bloom along my woods path. If the deer or rabbits don't eat my Stylphorum it will be blooming in a few weeks but the deer have been awful this winter even chewing up English Ivy as well as an azalea and holly I planted last fall. Later on a nearby hill, I will find Spring Beauty, Trout Lilies, Triliums, Dutchmans Breeches and I don't know what all. I get anxious to see something blooming at this time because my Snowdrops and Iris reticulata are finished-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Weedy

[rainbowgardener]

Someone else that likes woodland wildflowers! My bloodroot is done as is the winter aconite and snowdrops. Dutchman's breeches has formed nice colonies, but isn't blooming yet. Spring beauty didn't come back very well this year. I lost some of the wildflowers to the drought.

Nothing much bothers the celandine poppy for me, so it thrives, despite the woodchuck that lives on the hillside. She seems to adore the appendaged waterleaf though, so it has a hard time getting established. And she ate all the alyssum I planted in the flower gardens .

If I could hire a deer to just eat English ivy, that would be great, but I know they eat everything else as well.

[shadylane]

Nice seasonal slide rainbow...the star magnolia is just coming into bud here and a few daffodils. This has been the longest spring coming that I can remember here.

[tomf]

I am on my iPad and the slide show will not play, I did go and get the app for it, when I get on the computer I will take a look, can't pass up looking.
We have a number of native wild flowers that grow here, I have not planted any yet. I have been looking into native flowers and where to get seeds.

years ago I was passing through Ohio and saw a mattress in a meadow. The funny thing was the meadow was filled with poison ivy.

[Weedyseedy]

The Trout Lilies are blooming here now; I don't understand why one hummock in a swamp will have a cloud of yellow with all of them blooming while ten feet away they are all leaves---but I'll take the blooming ones. Years ago I moved Bloodroot into my yard---now there are hundreds of them and for a change the vinca bloomed with them this year. I don't have too many daffodils but they are perfect this year,so far no snow has fallen to flatten them. Found Hepatica and Spring Beauty blooming out above the swamp. The beaver dam washed out so now the swamp looks like a meadow with dead trees all over it-----eerie but the birds seem to love it. Hawks on the trees and woodpeckers demolishing the rotten wood. I should have been more observant over the years and watched the woods go from live trees to a large beaver dam that killed them to a washed out meadow with dead stumps--kind of a succession and I wonder what will grow there now? Tree seeds? Wild flowers? Garbage from the new housing development??-------------------Weedy

[tomf]

I got to see your slide show, nice, I like the flowers out front and the hill side.

Weedyseedy, it is to bad about the dame and the housing development. You could clean the meadow up.