The Eagerly Anticipated (by Me at Least) May Bloom Day 2008*

Warning: the following post contains material which may be unsuitable for those who can't handle an excessive amount of shade garden perennials and wildflowers. The poster is solely responsible for this overflow of photos. Some plants have been manually manipulated as noted.


Here it is, the one I've been waiting for since last Autumn, a Bloom Day post with more than three flowers! (I'm metaphorically jumping up and down right now.) The Scilla, Sanguinaria and Hepaticas are all done blooming, and the last of the Daffodils, 'La Vie En Rose' (shown above with Malus 'Prairiefire') has faded to white and is nearly done as well.

Although there's not much happening in the front garden, only the seedheads of Pulsatilla vulgaris

and the about-to-open seedheads of Prairie Smoke (Geum triflorum), the Woodland Garden is at its peak. Something will be blooming in it for the rest of the season, but now is when it is an explosion of color and bloom.

Leaving the front garden, the small shaded border on the north side of the house is at its best with the Pulmonaria 'Roy Davidson' adding to the Hellebore blooms.All the Hellebores are still blooming except for Helleborus niger.

Through the gate is the woodland garden.
First, a photographic overview:Normally, the Crabapple is not blooming this late, but it decided to burst into full bloom just in time for Bloom Day.
Turning left past gate are the Podophyllum petatum. I confess that I flipped up a leaf and the hood in these photos.I returned both to their normal condition afterward. (Hey, they're my plants, I can play with them if I want.)

Next to the Arisamea triphyllum is this little grouping.This is Dicentra 'Candy Hearts' and the aptly named Phlox divaricata 'Clouds of Perfume,' both of which were new to the garden and that spot respectively.
By the arbor is the ubiquitous Labrador Violet with the native Geranium maculatum.This particular plant is a seedling that I selected for its more intense flower color.This grouping is on the other side of the Heuchera 'Lime Rickey.'Shown from left are Polemium reptans 'Stairway to Heaven' with Epimedium 'Lilafee.' Behind this group are the Little Merrybells, Uvularia perfoliata.It has wandered across the path and now blooms under this group.Dicentra 'Zestful,' the mother ship of Phlox divaricata 'Clouds of Perfume,' and Smilacina racemosa in bud.
Another fragrant plant is Corydalis 'Blackberry Wine.'There used to be three plants, but one died.

It's Tiarella and Heucherella time at Squirrelhaven. This is the first of them to bloom, Tiarella 'Oakleaf.'That is followed by my favorite-named plant in the garden, Tiarella 'Iron Butterfly' (seen here with the double Anemonella and, yes, the Labrador Violet). I can't see this plant without hearing in my head Harry Shearer's stentorian voice intoning "'In the Garden of Eden' by I. Ron Butterfly'" (from an episode of The Simpsons). The foliage of Heucherella 'Burnished Bronze' plays off the color of the neighboring Hellebores.This is Heucherella 'Sunspot,' which I prefer to its sibling 'Stoplight.' I just can't resist neon pink flowers with yellow foliage, it's so subtle.

For everyone who has ever accused me of impatience, here's the evidence to refute that charge:I have waited over 10 years for this Trillium grandiflorum to bloom. I moved it from its original spot over half a dozen years ago. It is magnificent and it even has a scent. (That's Dodecatheon media 'Alba' and, yes, Labrador Violet blooming with it.) So many things in the garden this May have a wonderful scent that all I have to do is step out back to be surrounded by a heavenly perfume.
It's the start of Iris season here at Squirrelhaven. The first to bloom are these mystery Bearded Irises that were here when I bought the property.Opening just in time is the much smaller Iris cristata 'Eco Little Bluebird.'Here it is growing with, once again, Labrador Violet.
Not all native woodland wildflowers are small and dainty.

Case in point, the Celadine Poppy, Stylophorum diphyllum. This is such a great plant, as it is not ephemeral and blooms sporadically throughout summer.I have planted it in several places throughout the garden. Here it provides a contrast to the blooms of Brunnera 'Hadspen Cream' and the last of the Mertensia.
There is no way I could possibly post photos of everything blooming right now, so here is a list of those plants blooming but not pictured:
Dicentra 'King of Hearts,' Geranium macrorhizum, Geranium sylvaticum 'Mayflower,' Viola sororia, a just-beginning to bloom Aquilegia vulgaris, Thalictrum thalictroides and T. thalictroides 'Rosea' (Anemonella),Bergenia 'Bressingham White,' Lamium 'White Nancy' and a mystery pink Lamium, Forsythia (just a few flowers left), Anemone nemorosa (also nearly done), Phlox divaricata 'Plum Perfect,' and a white Flowering Quince.

*Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day is the sole creation of Carol at May Dreams Gardens. Anyone else claiming credit does so at the risk of being throttled by a hoe.

Re-inventing the Lost Garden

My woodland garden is not neat and tidy. There are no trimmed Box hedges, no orderly line of plants or symmetrical groupings. Plants are allowed to express themselves, to spill out of beds onto the paths, to party with their neighbors in wild exuberance.

One theory of gardening is that the gardener seeks to recreate the special garden of childhood. I freely espouse that theory, and my woodland garden is evidence in support of it.

I was lucky to spend my formative years on property that had been part of a hunting lodge estate on the Fox River. I'm dating myself here in noting that this was in the late 1960s and early 1970s, before the area was completed developed and all trace of the garden destroyed. As most mothers at the time, my mom ordered us to "go out and play" when the weather was good. My siblings and I played elaborate games in the woods, by the pond, by the creek, by the river. Many of those games involved the plants we found growing in our "playground."

Before the property was first developed in the 1920s, it had been a Burr Oak savanna. Between the hunting lodge by the river and the big house with the ballroom someone had planted a wildflower garden. In addition to the exotics, both purple and white flowered Lilacs, Foxgloves, and Lily of the Valley, native wildflowers grew in abundance.the next-door neighbors' Lilac

We didn't know their botanical or common names, so my siblings and I called them Umbrella plants and Bee plants. Somehow, we knew the name of Jack in the Pulpit, Columbine and Dutchman's Breeches, but we never had a name for Caulophyllum thalictroides. And, of course, everyone knows what a Violet and a Fern are.

I am inescapably drawn to these plants and find I have to grow them. I've even planted a couple of Oaks. There were probably other wildflowers, but these are the ones that fill my memory. These are the ones special to me.

So my garden begins to resemble an overgrown, abandoned garden returning to a state of nature, to the chaos of the natural world. I can never completely recreate that lost idyll, nor would I want to. It is enough that fragments of memory are woven into the fabric of the garden. And then the wild child runs free again through the woods.

Helping Mom

I got my love of gardening from my mom. She always had a garden. Although the one where I spent most of my childhood was more shady than she would have liked, she worked with what she had. She also put me to work with her. When I was 8 or 9 years old, she showed me how to plant a scale from a potted Easter Lily. I still remember how thrilled I was when it bloomed.


When I was 12 or 13, mom rented a garden plot on a farm, as she was tired of fighting the shade. She recruited me to help in her vegetable garden fantasy. We were both ignorant of the benefits of mulch, so my memories of that summer revolve around pulling weeds. In spite of that shortcoming, the garden flourished. One of the best soils in the world yielded tons of Tomatoes, more Eggplant than any family of 7 could ever eat, enough Zucchini to keep a small bakery in Zucchini bread, and, as my personal achievement, a few ears of corn. It was, quite simply, too much. Mom scaled back her vegetable garden efforts after that.


I think that summer put me off growing a major vegetable garden for life, but my ornamental garden dreams merely lay dormant during my sojourn as an urban apartment dweller. My passion for gardening matured when I got my own bit of earth and has eclipsed my mom's. She now frequently asks me to identify a plant in her garden, the result of her pulling an Aster I gave her by mistaking it for a common weed.


As Mom has gotten older and busier, she has needed help with her garden. I think my efforts go only a small way toward repaying the debt I owe her for teaching me about plants and gardens. This year when I went to do Spring garden cleanup for her, she asked me to pick up a new trellis for her Clematis 'Jackmanii' to replace the ratty looking wooden thing she had been using.This was the perfect time to replace the trellis, as the Clematis needed to be cut back. The new trellis is a vast improvement.
I also cleaned up the garden. Here's the "before" shot of the border on the east side of the house.I took this photo last week: much better.Mom, thanks for making me help you, even for dragging me out to the farm in the blazing heat of summer. You've given me a lasting gift which I hope I can pass on to my children. Happy Mother's Day, I love you!