Virginia Bluebells and Bloodroot - Native Ephemerals - April 2025

At the end of March, I posted a photo of a clump of closed-up buds that were emerging from the soil and talked about how we've 'inherited' these Virginia Bluebells from our neighbor - both by division/sharing and by naturalization and spreading under the fence.  Now, three-plus weeks later, the Virginia Bluebells have leaf'd out and showing their green-and-light-purple foliage while we wait for the little blue and pink flowers to arrive.  

Below is a look at the same clump of native Virginia Bluebell - ahead of its flower arriving - that I showed in March.  

And, in the photo below, you can see this same clump on the bottom right of the photo.  But, you can also see the other, smaller plants that have naturalized from under the fence.  There's that one random tulip bulb back there, but otherwise, just these Spring Ephemerals.  

The other Spring Ephemeral that is naturlizing via our neighbor's garden is Bloodroot.  She was nice enough to dig up some and give us our first clump, but even more has arrived via spreading under the fence.   In the photo below, you can see the Bloodroot foliage emerging all curled-up with some white flowers peeking out (amongst the soaker hose)

I've learned a bunch about these over the years and went from discouraging them to really embracing them.  Spring Ephemerals have a place in the garden and fill the gap ahead of some of our slower-to-emerge perennials.