Home of the Practically Perfect Pink Phlox and other native plants for pollinators

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

A Cold Wind Can't Stop Spring




It tried last night but didn't succeed....Today the sun came out and


Phlox pilosa opened April 7, 2009

Soon the garden will be a sea of fragrant pink that will last for almost two months.
until then...
Spring's ephemerals are still opening
and being joined daily by natives and a few native friendly exotics.


Dentaria diphylla/ Two Leaved Toothwort

Trillium sessile or T cuneateum~~similar and difficult to tell apart



Trillium luteum a lemon scented lovely

Phacelia bipinnatifida or Scorpion Weed, a biennial

Phlox divaricata

Erythronium 'Pagoda'/Trout Lily Pagoda


Lunaria annua/Honesty/Money Plant

A flower so long a member of the garden
we forget they aren't natives or wildflowers.
These cutie pie plants are members of the Brassicaceae family!


Collinsia verna/Blue Eyed Mary

Sown in the summer
this winter annual will hopefully establish itself in the gardens
and create a blanket of blue and white flowers each spring...

Hypoxis hirsuta/Yellow Star Grass

Blooms off and on all summer
No more than a foot tall at best;
this sweet yellow flower
is a native from the amaryllis family.

The winds can blow, and the temperatures can drop, but there is no holding back spring. It tried last night and failed.


Senecio aureus/Golden Ragwort has formed drifts of gold in the wildflower beds.

Thank you my friends for stopping by to see Practically Perfect Pink Phlox and friends...Those of you who know me are well aware that for the next many weeks PPPP will creep into as many posts as she can! She's such an assertive plant and practically perfect!

What plant captures your heart each spring?

Gail


The sun was warm but the wind was chill.
You know how it is with an April day.
~Robert Frost

51 comments:

  1. Hi Gail, you have a wonderful collection. I googled your PPP's and found they do grow here but require moist conditions (which I don't always have). Great pictures!
    Marnie

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  2. Marnie, I don't have moist conditions during the summer...It gets quite dry, you ought to give it a try! Glad you enjoyed the photos! gail

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  3. Gail, Phlox are a common garden plant here, especially in the old cottage gardens. But my garden is a Phlox free zone, I have never grown Phlox. There isn't a reason, I quite like phlox - I suppose they have never made it to my must have list. This year I will get a phlox or two or three! You inspire me! Thank you

    Best wishes Sylvia (England)

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  4. You have some great plants posted today. You are going to cause an increase in the PPPP sales!! It got down to 32 last night and the wind was howling like crazy. Waiting for the sun to come out so I can see if there was any damage....fingers crossed.

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  5. After your last post on PPPP, I searched and searched the web to find a plant source--yes, it not only will grow in MI but it's native here too. So you wouldn't have thought it would be that hard to find a plant, but it in fact was. I did find a place in Iowa that sold seeds, and also had several other plants (well, seeds) on my list. Yay!! The tiarella (right?) in the first photo are so sweet. They're my favorite fairy plant.

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  6. Hi Gail, You have so many beautiful things blooming. I love trillium and trout lily. You have wonderful taste and many unusual plants.

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  7. Exciting, Gail! Looking at your lovely photos is like seeing a preview of my gardens in a few weeks---much needed on this cold, snowy 37-degree day!

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  8. I love your wildflowers so much and learn so much from you! I do plan to visit GroWild's open house. I've got my list too. You asked a hard question on what plant captures my heart in spring. I must say it would have to be the peony. They are budded now and I can't wait to see them!

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  9. Good morning Gail, so glad to see your garden survived that attack of Jack Frost. The sun is rising here, the tulips are all bent over, the tree peonies are not looking good, they did not close their petals for some reason. We shall see what stands back up and be glad for it. Heart's delight at the moment? Primula veris.
    Frances

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  10. Tina,

    Yes peonies are exceptional! I love the ones with rose fragrance the best and I don't care what their flowers look like, it's that rose scent that gets me! I wish I could grow roses for their fragrance in this garden! Gail

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  11. I love the great variety you have. I can just imagine how wonderful it all looks together. My favorite at the moment is actually my anticipation of the roses. Some have started but there's more to come!

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  12. Sylvia...I am thrilled to have inspired you! I mean that, too! What's exciting about the native US phloxes are all the new varieties available...You would love the P divaricatas....I hope you can find them!

    Gail

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  13. Gail,

    I love your use of native plants! Your garden must look like an arboretum!

    Chilly and windy, but the wind kept the frost away last night.

    Cameron

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  14. Good news! I agree with Marnie, you have a beautiful collection.

    Blue-Eyed Mary... such a beautiful flower. When we lived in PA we used to drive over to Enlow Fork (very close to Wheeling, WV) to see all of the wildflowers. Literally acres of Blue-Eyed Mary.

    PPPP *is* going to bloom here this year!

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  15. Your photos are like a preview of spring for me. Your Tiarella is so nice. I wish I had more luck with Trilliums, but I fear my soil is just too dry for them. I'm surprised your Erythronium isn't already blooming, mine have buds & soon will be in bloom. I lost my Hypoxis last year. I can't decide whose fault is was, mine or the squirrels. I just love those ephemerals.

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  16. You have trillium! Are they in your garden? They are impossible to find in nurseries here. How amazing!

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  17. Town MOuse,

    I found a patch is the wayback backyard when I first moved here and moved them to my wildflower garden...It was beginner's luck that they survived. Since then I've added two others...the T luteum and T grandiflora. We have a wildflower fair each year I find pretties to add to the collection and a native plant nursery near by! Try Niche Gardens or Sunlight Nursery but they will have Trilliums from our areas. Does Digging Dog carry them? gail

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  18. What a glorious Easter parade of beauties, Gail, and many of my favorites in your stunning photos. I'm a few days behind catching up with chauffeuring/grandboy sitting,etc duties (Mr. Ho-Hum's torn rotator cuff issues, MRIs for back, daughter-in-law knee surgery this AM). Looking forward to melting snow so I can see what's happening to hearty friend in my garden. Happy Easter!

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  19. All those beautiful flowers made me a bit jealous. Urgh ... only if I have them in my garden, too! One particular plant that I can never have and yet madly in love with - hellebores. Oh ...

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  20. Yayyyyy, go Spring!!!! You have such beautiful flowers blooming now. I love Blue Eyed Betty. There is a place at the park we frequent that has a stand of them. I love to see them each spring.

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  21. You have a wonderful assortment of spring natives & wildflowers blooming in your garden right now Gail! By the way I love your PPPP, so keep posting as many photos of her lovely blooms as long as you can! ;)

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  22. beautiful plants. spring offers the most charming of flowers, i think. trilliums are one of my favorites. Jack in the pulpits too.

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  23. Gail....what a lovely collection of plants.
    I planted Trilliums two years ago and they have never bloomed. Any ideas please.....

    I am happy to see your PPP's as often as you like, she is just so beautiful.....

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  24. Hi Gail, so many beautiful blooms in your garden now. I love the phlox and the blooms of the Money plant.

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  25. Boy the wind was frigid on Monday! I'm glad it is gone. The phlox are beautiful.

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  26. Wow, what a beautiful array of spring blooms here. I love the two-leaved toothwort. The flower shape is delightful. Gorgeous, too, is the colour of the Phlox pilosa. Your photographs are stunning!

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  27. It must truly be spring, Gail, if the PPPP have started to bloom! You know how much I love this plant--I still want to get some--but first I had to stop and admire that tiarella. It's about as perfect as a tiarella can be. Your wildflowers are all so beautiful--I can't wait to see the Garden of Benign Neglect in full bloom! Hope the rest of the storms pass you by.

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  28. Hi Gail,
    You really have some very wonderful flowering plants giving you lots of spring color. They are all so pretty and interesting too.

    I had a look at your previous post as well and so glad I got another glimpse at your tulips before that bad, bad weather came along.

    Your PPPP is poised to make quite a beautiful layer of pink very soon. Without that bush honeysuckle it ought to cover more territory this year.

    Glad you're aren't being stopped by the weather... so many good gardening days ahead for you.
    Meems @ Hoe and Shovel

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  29. It was freezing this morning and 70 this afternoon. Go figure, see how it is living in the South ;)

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  30. Winter is putting up quite a fight, but there is no holding back Spring! I thought the Scorpion Weed looked beautiful.

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  31. Cheryl,

    I've been thinking about this...and I may have to work hard on making sure the two I planted today live to flower! They fell off the car seat on the way home from the wildflower fair! I usually make sure the rhizomes aren't disturbed too much and they are greatly disturbed now! If they are very young plants they may need to just grow a bit more or they are too damp during the summers. Here they get to dry out a bit each summer when they go into dormancy. Maybe you can lift them and move them to another spot? I am going to think on this a bit more and see what research reveals, too! We must get your trillium blooming. gail

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  32. So glad for the affirmation that nothing can stop spring! Sometimes I've wondered... You are right tho and have lots of beauties to prove it. I am lovin' your trout lily & toothwort & tiarella. Let's see, right now what am I liking in my garden?? I guess it would have to be the sweet little grape hyacinths since they are about the only thing in bloom at the moment. Maybe I will wait a month and answer again?!!!

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  33. Looking at your garden brightens up my spring!

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  34. Gail what a lovely post showing all your pretty little blossoms so brave and bright showing you that Spring is there to stay!

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  35. The trilliums are really special. I hope to catch some pictures of them this weekend at my in-laws. The phlox you gave us still appears several days away from blooming but bloom it will!

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  36. Gail, so many little treasures - how to choose? I think my special spring flower is the Dicentra cucullaria I rescued from a house being raised down the street. Think of that lovely old couple who lived there happily and how they're still with us in a very special way when I see the pretty white blossoms.

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  37. Well, I'm crazy about those daisies unfurling their sweet petals. Like someone relaxing and spreading their arms into the sunshine.
    Brenda

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  38. Dave, Have you tried to transplant the trillium from their woods to your wildflower garden? That's what I did from my wayback to front garden~~gail

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  39. Gail--
    You have such a lovely collection of our spring wildflowers!

    We're still waiting on developing enough humus and shade to plant many more spring ephemerals.

    Cheers,
    Lisa

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  40. The Robert Frost quote perfectly describes our weather today. It was so nice to see sunshine after several days of rain, frigid wind and snow flurries! But the wind was chill.
    Your beautiful spring show is wonderful, Gail. I see the camera is working well again. No more tripping through the tulips in bedroom slippers, eh? :)
    I have 3 daffs struggling to open! Spring is marching forward...although I must say it's felt more like creeping this week.

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  41. Hi Gail,
    What a beautiful collection of flowers you have. Spring certainly has sprung in your garden!
    Shirley

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  42. Spring waxes and wanes first with winter and later,with summer temps...hopefully! Spring flowers are all glorious and to pick a favorite is difficult. I think when I see the wild violets and the lily of the valley blooming my heart remembers the many bouquets picked for Mom.

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  43. Those spring flowers are wonderful. My heart is captured by tulips. Pillarbox red or something more sophisticated, I don't care. Thay are such fun flowers.

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  44. I have to say the flowers on the wild side make are the most enduring to me. No 'work' involved.

    I was thrilled to see my transplanted Bloodroot emerging yesterday. The excitement came from seeing how much the plot had spread. It's been a couple of years since the move and it looks like last year the planting hit the 'critical mass' mark and exploded.

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  45. I am clapping my hands in delight at all your spring has to offer. Beautiful.~~Dee

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  46. wonderful photos. this spring the Siberian irises caught my heart. I guess I was still surprised by them.

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  47. Wow and wow and wow - PPPP and the columbine and the other flowers are so lovely!

    I worried about you when that tornado blew through Murfreesboro yesterday but I guess you and your garden survived okay.

    My favorite spring flowers...the harbingers of spring - in Missouri the redbuds are running riot right now. In Texas the bluebonnets were amazing when I left a few days ago to come here and visit my mom and Sarah. Once upon a time when I had a garden I loved the columbine, the daffodils on our hillside, the little biennial foxgloves....watching for the lilac bush to bloom because that meant spring was giving way to summer...I wonder when I will settle down enough somewhere to have a garden again?

    xxoo Lynn

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  48. I am sure nurseries around the country have noticed an upswing in phlox sales since you began rhapsodizing about yours! I too have begun the hunt locally, with no luck. I now have phlox David waiting to go in, along with some bareroot dark pink variety, but none as you mentioned. Yet! The hunt continues...

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  49. Simply beautiful Gail! Those spring blooms are so very welcome.

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  50. Your tiarella remind me of the "Pink Skyrocket" I purchased a couple of years ago due to Kylee's recommendation. :-) Beautiful photos, Gail.

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