National Native Plant Month
This lovely quote is about Sanguinaria canadensis, or bloodroot. I am using this example as one of the plants that is native to my area here in eastern Pennsylvania. I love the way that the author, whose first name is Frances, describes the fragile nature of the flowers. It is so true, but to me in a perverse sort of way it adds to their charm. There is more about bloodroots and how to grow them below.
April is National Native Plant Month, so wherever you live I would like to invite you to join me in celebrating this wonderful initiative. Each area of the world has its own unique set of native plants that support a collection of insects, birds, and soil organisms that interrelate with them. If you are interested in encouraging pollinators to use your garden or want to invite birds to your backyard, it is a great idea to include some of these beauties.
Luckily for you there are many wonderful places that are now promoting and propagating wild flowers so that you can include them in your garden. Look at the websites for your local public gardens, master gardener groups, and nature preserves to see if they have plant sales that sell locally sourced plants.
I will be heading to my local haunt at the Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve. I will be there in the afternoon of Sunday April 14th. I hope to see you there. They will be selling plants all weekend, so check out their website for details. If you join as a member you get to shop on Thursday. In full disclosure I am on the Board there, so I really believe that they are an organization worth supporting.
There are a couple of others that I support, but I encourage you to find somewhere local and get involved as a volunteer or a donor. If you are nowhere near any of these, you might love to look at their inspirational websites. But please work out how to support your native plants and animals in your own garden.
If you live near me in southeast Pennsylvania I would like to invite you to one or more of my Northview Garden Open Days this spring. I do pre-arranged group tours but sometimes you might want to come by yourself or with a couple of friends.
The Northview Open Garden Days are all from 10am – 12 noon.
Tuesday April 23rd
Monday June 3rd
$20 per person – cash.
Please carpool – parking is limited.
Plant of the Month:
Helleborus x hybridus
Hellebores are one of the easiest flowers to grow for early spring. Who wouldn’t love a shade-tolerant and deer-resistant plant that is extremely drought tolerant once established? Add to those positive attributes the fact that they have attractive single or double flowers, and you have a winner in the garden.
The foliage is evergreen and has sharp serrated edges. Always wear gloves when you handle hellebores. The flowers are borne on stems that are held above the leaves. We cut off the leaves in winter so that when the flowers emerge from the ground you can see the blooms. We send the cut off leaves to the municipal composting because there is a fungal disease of hellebores that we do not want but that is destroyed by the high temperatures in their composting facility.
I have grown hellebores for years. I bought most of mine as small plug plants because the little root balls are easy to find room for in a very fully shaded area. Now my hellebores are seeding themselves into the gravel paths in my shade garden. I have plenty to share.
Interestingly, I have heard gardeners get upset about the fact that the flowers of hellebores are nodding. Remember, this is an adaptation that is found in many winter flowers so that the stamens and stigma are protected from rain, snow, and ice. There are breeders who are producing upward-facing hellebore flowers that will be fine as long as we don’t get those late winter storms that March can still bring.
Book of the Month: Variations on a Garden, Robin Lane Fox, 1986
Robin Lane Fox is the longtime gardening columnist for the Financial Times of London. He writes about and teaches Greek and Roman history at Oxford University but still manages to garden.
What I like about his garden writing is that there are so many layers. Robin’s historical background coupled with garden travel is a wonderful combination. He is a contemplative author who writes from decades of thinking, examining, and doing.
To carry on with the March theme, Robin says, “By the time I have ordered my seeds, I feel that spring ought to be in the air: it never is, but on one or two days I am tempted to explore the debris of winter, checking for weeds beneath the dead top-growth of borders I never clear until March….” I find this remark written for the first edition of Variations on a Garden in 1974 to be forward thinking for the time. There are still gardeners that disregard the needs of insects that hide in your garden stems in winter and take away the stalks in early autumn.
Robin is not afraid to show his journey of discovery as a gardener in passages such as: “I blush to admit my ignorance: for the first time I discovered how sweetly so many crocuses smell.” He goes on to remark that, “The season of these crocuses is a time of false starts.” I certainly know what he means by this. How many times are the crocuses beginning to open and then there is snow or a really heavy spring rain.?
You may already read his pieces in the Financial Times; if not, you might like to read this book, which, though old, is still packed with fascinating anecdotes.
Note: I am not sponsored to promote books found in these newsletters. They are featured because I truly love them.
In Case You Were Gardening…
Inspirational Women in Horticulture – March 31, 2020
From Seeds to Flowers – February 7, 2024
Snowdrops and Galanthomoania – January 28, 2023
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If you would like to see photos of my garden at Northview and images of my garden travels, please follow me on Instagram at @NorthviewGarden and @JennyRoseCarey
Bye for now,
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