Spring is popping up everywhere

In the Southeastern U.S., we're in full swing now with spring flowers. 

Many of the Asian ornamentals are flowering (or have flowered):  camellias, Asian species of Magnolia, Prunus mume (Japanese apricot) and forsythia.  The Mediterranean bulbs- crocus, Leucojum, and daffodils are flowering, soon to be followed by tulips and later flowering species (Allium, etc.).

But in our part of the world, the kudos go to our native spring woodland wildflowers (spring ephemerals). They're wonderful in the rich cove forests of the mountains and in remnant patches in the piedmont.  Sanguinaria canadensis (bloodroot) has emerged and starting to flower in our home garden. This was last year at the end of March.  

I need to check in the woodland area along the Heusel Nature Trail in the South Carolina Botanical Garden (where I work) - bloodroot is abundant below the path, along the slope down to the creek.

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Spring is definitely here

We now have Oconee Bells (Shortia galacifolia), Trout Lily (Erythronium umbilicatum), and Hepatica flowering in the Woodland Wildflower Garden at the South Carolina Botanical Garden (where I work). Wow.

It's early for the Oconee Bells and Erythronium, but on time for the Hepatica americana, which is usually the first native spring emphemeral to flower in our rich cove forest communities.

At the Garden, these were transplanted as rescued plants many years ago.

They've struggled in the hot, exceptionally dry summers that we've had in the last decade, as we don't have an source of water there, except for proximity to the stream.

They're a wonderful reminder to get out and look for spring wildflowers in our natural areas, state parks, and reserves.

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Oconee Bells

Going up in elevation pushes back the spring time clock.

Oconee Bells (Shortia galacifolia) were flowering in mid-March in the Piedmont, but in the Botanical Gardens of Asheville, these plants were in full flower on Easter Sunday.

Lovely.

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Easter and spring

Easter, even for us secular folks, means that spring has arrived. Here in the Southeastern U.S., it was a lovely day: warm, sunny, and glorious with spring flowers (wild, ornamental, herbaceous, and otherwise).

My gardening companion filled up the new raised beds with the rich 'created' topsoil this morning, so we're ready to plant next weekend (and build two more new beds!)

Back home in the Piedmont, I tidied the satellite garden, and turned over all of the soil blocks in the main vegetable garden. It's beautiful soil there, but it will either be fallow or filled with marigolds this summer, as an control for the root-knot nematodes that have been a problem in recent seasons (for susceptible cole, pepper, and tomato varieties).

The garlic is looking great in the satellite garden, and the onions are coming along. And the asparagus plants (grown from seed last year) have popped up new foliage, wispy to be sure! The robust asparagus crowns that I planted last week may be better contenders for permanent space, but we'll see.

I've got 3 artichoke plants to put somewhere -- probably in a spot that shallots didn't come up. I can't imagine woodchucks liking artichokes.... do you think?

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Spring in the mountains

It's still early yet, in the Southern Appalachian mountains. But evidence of spring is everywhere, from the flowering daffodils to our native empheral wildflowers to the red maple fruits.

It was a long winter here in the mountains, too, and local (Asheville, NC) columnists have remarked on it.

Curiously, areas normally blasted by hard winters (the midwest) haven't been so bad this year. My friend Corrie says that it hasn't been so harsh this winter in Madison, WS -- I'm glad for them!

The northeastern states, however, had plenty of snow and late winter storms, not to mention the colder temperatures for the southeastern U.S.

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More goldfinches

Another flurry of goldfinches visited the feeders today, including some males that were a deep yellow.

It's nice to see them - I enjoy watching them all year, whether at the feeders or eating seeds from late summer and fall fruits. A literal bright spot in a glorious almost spring day!

The spring equinox tomorrow will be graced by perfect spring weather, a cool morning with afternoon highs in the 70°s (F). I'm grateful for the arrival of spring.

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First spring wildflowers (and photo considerations)

After Hepatica, trout lilies (Erythronium spp.), violets (Viola spp.), and in our region, a rare and endangered wildflower, Oconee bells (Shortia galacifolia) are often the next to flower.

Photos by Tim Spira (copyrights reserved)


Foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia) and trillium (Trillium spp.) and all the rest aren't far behind.

I've been spending a lot of time in the digital darkroom this week, making sure the printed photo proofs of my gardening companion's excellent wildflower photos match what we see on the screen.

It's not actually as easy as you'd hope. The translation from digital image to printed image requires more of a universal language than his iMac speaks (with its bright, glossy extra-large screen) and the RGB to CMYK conversion, I'm leaving to the publications folks.

I've been using Adobe Lightroom 2 to standardize what we see, translating the bright screen images to similar print versions. So far, it's been fabulous, and it looks like the printed version (even on a home inkjet printer) are excellent. Tomorrow, we'll test them on a professional photographic image-setter printer.

I'm crossing my fingers -- these photos reflect SO many, many hours of work, getting to the places at the right times to take them, taking multiple shots of many species, and now making sure they reflect what Tim (my gardening companion aka my husband) saw... we want them to look right.

These are (reduced in size) images of Oconee bell and trout lily that will appear in his book.

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A first spring wildflower

Many garden flowers bloom early in the Southeastern US (cued to different climatic conditions).

Most of them are native to the Mediterranean region. Daffodils come from Spain and Portugal. Crocus are native to the mountains of Southern Europe (Greece, Turkey, Crete and elsewhere). Tulips are native in the mountains of Central Asia (Eastern Turkey and the foothills of the Himalayas). Flowering apricots come from Asia, too.

But our native woodland wildflowers start blooming in late February and early March.

The earliest are Hepatica. Hepatica americana is blooming now in the Garden. In the last couple of years, we saw the first flowers on Feb. 22 and Feb. 29. So it's delayed this year. My gardening companion had looked for flowers of Hepatica last week in his plant ecology lab.

And the trout lilies (Erythronia americana) are well along.

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Early flowers

Leaving from home late this afternoon, I noticed that the old pink quince next to the driveway (moved from our house in Georgia and one of the first shrubs we planted as young homeowners) has open flowers. Definitely spring is on the way, in spite of the sleet and snowflakes on the road.

I always notice its buds in (what passes for) the dead of winter here, and has been particularly so this year.

The shoots on the coral honeysuckles (Lonicera sempervirens) are elongating quickly, the bare vines supporting young green leaves.

Daffodil shoots are well up, and the first flowers of weedy winter annuals are evident, too.

I saw some open speedwell flowers (Veronica arvensis) in the lawns near my office this morning.

This is a photo from Missouri plants.com.

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