Bloodroot Last weekend I decided to bite the bullet and tidy up a derelict corner of my backyard, hidden behind the garden shed. It was a tangle of lilac suckers, escaped ‘Robustissima’ Japanese anemones and — to my astonishment — a self-seeded patch of pristine white bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis, Zone 3) in full bloom. Apparently benign neglect can sometimes be a good … [Read more...] about Native Canadian flowers for early spring
hepatica
Hepaticas: harbingers of spring
What garden event signifies to you that spring has really, truly arrived in your part of the country? Here in Atlantic Canada, we have had what has felt like an interminable winter, with so many snowstorms that we began to joke that if it was Wednesday, we’d have a snowstorm. Finally, however, all but the most determined snowdrifts in woods, ditches and fields have relinquished … [Read more...] about Hepaticas: harbingers of spring
Sharp-leaf hepatica
What a week! The warm days have brought out flowering shrubs, and the garden is flooded with displays of yellow forsythia and Cornelian cherry (Cornus mas), pink arrowwood viburnums ‘Dawn’ and ‘Charles Lamont’ (Viburnum x bodnantense), and purple and white February daphne (Daphne mezereum). It’s too much happiness, all at once. Fortunately, temperatures are now more seasonal … [Read more...] about Sharp-leaf hepatica
