A BLUE AND WHITE GARDEN FOR SPRING Many years ago, when my children were young, we drove up to Door County to spend Memorial Day weekend. The weather was quite cool–the tourist season had not yet started. The peninsula was, however, exquisite; a beautiful time of year to visit. The cherry trees, for which the [...]
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Spring Quartette Plus
Spring Quartette Plus Many years ago, I saw clumps of Wild Hyacinth (Camassia scilloides) in bloom in May at Bluff Spring Fen. Enchanted, that fall I bought some bulbs–maybe 7–and planted them. Alas, not a one came up–I attributed it to squirrels digging them up. Several years later–May 2007, one came [...]
Spring-flowering Native Trees
Spring-flowering Native Trees The Chinese magnolias and crabapples are lovely in blossom in the spring, but I prefer our native ornamental trees, usually in bloom in late April or early May, that are blossoming now. Four ducks on a pond A grass bank beyond A blue sky of spring White clouds on the wing. William [...]
Underplanting Trees
Underplanting Trees in the Yard and on the Parkway True or false: Mulching a tree circle with wood chips is the best thing for a tree, ecologically. Actually, a wood chip mulch is the 2nd best thing for a tree. It keeps lawn mowers and string trimmers from damaging the tree bark, it keeps down weeds, [...]
One of My Favorite Flowers
One of My Favorite Flowers People ask me what my favorite flower is, and my answer is always “It depends on what’s in bloom.” But Cream Wild Indigo (Baptisia leucophaea) would definitely be in my top ten. Its exquisite, long, lush, drooping, butter yellow racemes bloom from early-to mid-May through early June on a [...]
Early Spring Prairie Garden
Early Spring Prairie Garden After the slowest-starting spring in memory, we were suddenly fast-forwarded to summer; then back to March! Only in the Midwest does the temperature go from 50 to the high 80’s in a day to the 40’s within a week! The prairie is slow to wake up–the first to bloom [...]
Native Flowering Trees
Native Flowering Trees While imported Chinese and Japanese Crabapples and Callery Pears dominate the May landscape, native ornamental trees are not only equally showy, but contribute to the environment. The first to bloom is Wild Plum (Prunus americanus). Seen in roadside thickets, along fencelines, or sometimes growing in the open, its snowy blossoms are [...]
More Spring Woodland Wildflowers
More Spring Woodland Wildflowers The emerging purple stems of the Blue Cohosh (Cauliphyllum thalictroides) are notable, while the early yellow flowers are rather insignificant. It follows closely on the heels of the woodland anemones mentioned in my last post. It grows in similar circumstances, in rich woodlands, frequently on north-facing slopes. [...]
Spring is Here
The sun was warm but the wind was chill. You know how it is with an April day When the sun is out and the wind is still, You’re one month on in the middle of May. But if you so much as dare to speak, A cloud comes over the sunlit arch, A wind [...]
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Wild Ones: Northern Kane County Chapter
First Day of Spring
March 21, 2013 • Categories: Pat's Comments, Spring Garden, Spring is Coming • by PatHill
First Day oI Spring I wonder if the sap is stirring yet, If wintry birds are dreaming of a mate, If frozen snowdrops feel as yet the sun And crocus fires are kindling one by one: sing robin, sing; I am sore in doubt concerning Spring. Christina Rossetti I know–I already used this poem [...]
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