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Showing posts with the label natives

Wild Geranium In Bloom - May 2023

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A couple of years back, I submitted some photos of a volunteer plant to the Morton Arboretum Plant Clinic and they came back and said that it was 'likely Wild Geranium'.  I left the plant to just 'be' and it has come back the past few seasons ever since.  This year, however, it is blooming pretty prolifically.  See below for the light-purple blooms that are standing up on tall stalks with green foliage: This small colony of Wild Geranium seems to be thriving along the fence.  The tree trunk in the middle of the photo is a tall/lanky Kentucky Coffee Tree .  And you can see some of the spreading Ostrich Ferns mixed-in there.  

Bloodroot - Woodland Native - Shared By Neighbor - April 2023

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A few days ago, I posted a couple of photos showing off some new (to me) Spring Ephemerals that my neighbor dug up and shared over the fence:  Virginia Bluebells .  But, she also shared another small clump of other Spring Ephemeral native flowers:  Bloodroot.   Bloodroot - or Sanguinaria canadensis - is new to me, but has a pretty unique habit:  It emerges in Spring, opens up during the day and then curls up at night.  This post by the Wisconsin Extension details them .  They say : The flowers open up in sun but close at night or on very cloudy days (when their bee and fly pollinators are not active). The flowers are ephemeral, with the petals falling within a day or two of pollination. The phot at the top and the one below - are from early in the morning when these have NOT opened yet.  Both the petals of the flower AND the foliage curl up.  That's kinda neat, isn't it? I planted the two little flowers (and their rhizomes) next to the Virigina Bluebells - thinking that they

Shared Virginia Bluebells - Transplanted - April 2023

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What's that you see?  It is a native, ephemeral named Virginia Bluebells.  Two clumps of them to be specific.  Where did they come from?  Our generous neighbor who has them in her garden.  I was talking with her over the fence - admiring them - and she said:  why don't you take some??  How nice, right?    I've posted about these a few times over the years - first...with a post in Fall 2021 from Erin the Impatient Gardener who talks about how great these natives are in her garden.  And then...I spotted them showing up 'under the fence' from our neighbor's garden last Spring .   Our neighbor has these growing just beyond the fence in a bed that includes a groundcover of Vinca and a bunch of natives - including these Bluebells.  This piece from U of Wisconsin Extension Office of Horticulture is a good overview including a note that these are increasingly 'rare' and that they don't transplant well.   I decided to plant them close to where they have bee