Bloodroot - A Native Spring Ephemeral Returns - April 2024

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Last Spring, my neighbor to the south shared a couple of native Spring Ephemerals that live in her garden - Virginia Bluebells and Bloodroot - or Sanguinaria canadensis.  They grow in a woodland part of her backyard garden and arrive in early Spring and depart before everything else comes alive.  She gave me a clump of each and I dug them into the bed that is right across the fence from where they came from - my thought was if they were happy on one side of the fence, they'll be happy on the other.  The conditions are virtually identical.

The Virginia Bluebells came back earlier this month.  That's nice to see.  But, the Bloodroot just arrived.  See below for a look at the current state of this native Spring ephemeral:

Native Bloodroot - White Flower Blooms - Shade Garden

Nice to see this one come back for another year - as the transplanting process last year was stressful.

These naturalize and spread out to create a little colony or drift (if conditions are right).  The idea of "Spring ephemerals" is something that I've learned about the past few seasons and is something that I'll keep thinking through.  Just like with tulips, having something that pops early in the season - before other perennials arrive...but works well with them - is appealing to me as a gardener who is trying to increase our four-season-garden-approach.  

Location: Downers Grove, IL, USA

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