Late March Blooms
It's amazing how quickly plants grow - there's something new to see every day.
Here at my farm, the trees are budding and various flowers are bursting with color and energy - Chionodoxa, Puschkinia, Anemone, corydalis, primrose, Cornus mas the cornelian cherry tree, and of course the daffodils. All the beds are coming alive just days before Easter.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
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- Chionodoxa, known as glory-of-the-snow, is a small genus of bulbous perennial flowering plants in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Scilloideae, often included in Scilla. Planted beneath trees or directly in the lawn, they multiply quickly and appear in early spring.
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- Chionodoxa spread in two different ways. Over time, “daughter” bulbs form alongside the original bulbs, but the blossoms also produce seeds.
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- They also come in dainty pink. The flowers have six-petaled clustered pale flowers with white centers atop dark stems and sparse, narrow foliage.
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- These darker blue flowers are Siberian squill. Native to southwestern Russia, the Caucasus, and Turkey, these plants grow to about four to eight inches tall and spread out and bloom profusely this time of year.
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- Also known as scilla, it is a perennial with two to four strap-shaped leaves that appear at the same time as the nodding, bell-shaped flowers.
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- Puschkinia is a genus of four known species of bulbous perennials in the family Asparagaceae. It is native to the Caucasus and the Middle East. Puschkinia grows so beautifully in clumps – I have several areas filled with these delicate small flowers.
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- Each Puschkinia plant produces a single flower stalk covered in a cluster of small bluish white flowers. The flowers feature delicate blue stripes down each petal and a pleasant light fragrance.
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- This is Puschkinia scilloides var. libanotica alba. All Puschkinia varieties take time to mature, but if it’s happy where it’s planted and left undisturbed, it naturalizes by bulb offsets called bulbils or baby bulbs.
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- Corydalis has bright, colorful flowers above mounds of delicate foliage. Of the 400 or so species of corydalis with differing colors, these are dark pink flowers growing outside my studio.
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- Corydalis also comes in this pink-purple color. It is native to the woodland areas of North America, so it grows best in sun-dappled shade and moist, well-drained soil.
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- Many of the crocuses are also still blooming beautifully. This crocus flower produces several upright, cup-like, purple and white striped blooms on stems rising to four to six inches above basal, grass-like leaves.
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- These dark purple croci are growing outside my Basket House. They look great planted in bunches. Choose a planting site where there is well-draining soil.
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- Here are a few of the many peonies just waking up from their winter slumber. These are tree peony buds growing in a bed under dappled shade outside my Summer House. Tree peonies are deciduous sub-shrubs that bloom for a week to 10 days in mid to late spring with big, fragrant peony flowers.
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- This is a hyacinth. Hyacinths are native to Turkey, Syria and Lebanon and come in shades of blue, purple, white, pink, or apricot. Do not confuse them with grape hyacinth, Muscari, which are smaller, hardier, and native to Europe and Asia. While they’re not directly related, the plants have similar features and care needs.
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- The “wildflower” Anemone produces pretty low-growing periwinkle blooms in early- to mid-spring. I have these daisy-like flowers growing behind my Winter House courtyard under a tall hornbeam hedge.
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- These Anemones are darker purple in color. Anemones are easy to grow and unappealing to most animals, including deer, rabbits, and rodents.
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- Outside my Summer House is this Cornus mas, commonly known as cornelian cherry – a deciduous shrub or small tree that is native to central and southern Europe into western Asia. It typically grows over time to 15 to 25 feet tall with a spread to 12 to 20 feet wide. Yellow flowers on short stalks bloom in early spring before the leaves emerge in dense, showy, rounded clusters.
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- Here is a primrose, with its dark green leaves and umbrels of colorful bright yellow flowers. Primroses thrive in partial shade.
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- Sedum does really well growing between the crevices in stone walls. We planted this sedum several years ago. Sedum has fleshy, water-storing leaves and is drought tolerant. I am so happy with how well they do here in the stone wall along my Winter House terrace parterre. Patches of bold red show through in early spring every year. These plants are also known as stonecrops.
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- More and more daffodils are opening every day. I plant early, mid and late-season blooming varieties so that sections of beautiful flowers can be seen throughout the season. Here are three perfect daffodil blooms…
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- … And just wait, there are so many more to come. Look at the foliage – so green and plentiful. I cannot wait to share photos of the swaths of daffodil flowers blooming along the border that stretches down one side of my farm.
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