Sunday, March 30, 2014

Celebrating Sun Breaks

While it rained on and off on Saturday, we did have a few sun breaks much to the delight of the cats.

The weather allowed me to go outside and take a look at my front flowerbed.

Here's my patch of native Bleeding Heart (Dicentra formosa). The plant is two years old now and has spread to a square three feet wide.  It makes a great ground cover for a shaded area.  

I am finding it to be a bit aggressive!  It is eating up a columbine.

And is spreading toward my Pink Fawn Lilies (Erythronium revolutum).

I am floored by the numbers of bloom stocks the plant sent up this year.

Watching this plant the last couple of weeks, I thought it was a Columbia Lily though it was far too early for one to be growing.  As it turns out it is a Rice Lily (Fritillaria camschatcensis). I just bought two more so I'll have a little colony!  

This is a Red Osier Dogwood (Cornus sericea). It now lives in a cage as you can see the deer munched on it pretty hard and it is still recovering.  The red stems are pretty all year. The leaves turn red and orange in fall.  The flowers are small and very different than other native dogwoods. It is often found growing along stream banks, but I now think that my Mystery Plant of a few days ago is a large Osier Dogwood. They can grow to be 6'-18' tall.   

Near the base of the dogwood is my Columbia Lily - maybe.  I'll have to watch and see.  It needs to keep growing so the Bleeding Heart doesn't eat it up! 

As I mentioned I bought a couple more Shooting Stars (Dodecatheon hendersonii) and I already had one plant.  So once again, I'll have a small colony.

Here's what I'm striving for!  This lovely scene is repeated each spring in a neighbor's naturalized front yard.

And while this plant is not a native, Dicentra 'Gold Heart' has a huge wow-factor right now! 

The blooms are profuse, but it is the foliage that really give the plant a kick - especially in the dark shade.

My Small Flowered Trilliums (Trillium parviflorum) will not bloom this year. Plants need to be about 3 years old before the do.

But that's okay because my Trillium 'Volcano' is knocking my socks off!

I hope you enjoyed my early spring garden tour!

9 comments:

cucki said...

Truly lots of fun :)

linda said...

Very nice garden tour. Again I learned about some varieties unknown to me. Thank you

Margaret said...

You have such a nice garden! Naturalized gardens are so pretty. I never understand how one achieves such things.

Barb said...

Beth , you have so many wonderful flowers. I have never seen the lovely little Rice Lily. The DH and I are taking our trillium walk today(got home very late last night). Volcano is beautiful,again, I have never seen one with that deep color.

Vickie said...

Beautiful! Did you know shooting stars are also called rooster heads?

Pam in IL said...

Thanks for a lovely spring garden tour! Do your Bleeding Heart plants remain all summer or do they disappear in June like ours do?

~ Toni ~ said...

Loved the garden tour and what a lovely one it is. Bleeding hearts are one of my favorites. One day I will have some again. Way too much heat and sun in current flowerbeds. Glad there was a little sun for the cats to bask in. Thank you :)

LaNelle said...

Wow! Feels so good ....can't wait for Spring to arrive in our area we are expecting another 3-7 inches of snow tonight! Thanks for sharing...

Andrea said...

Wonderful blooms. Had sunshine all weekend and we are now having a downpour. looks like a river running down the road!