Coming to you from Studio A here at proven Winter's Color Choice Shrubs. It's time for the Gardening Simplified podcast, YouTube and radio show with Stacey Hervella, me, Rick Weist, and our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson. Well, Stacy, we get to talk today about a subject that's near and dear to my heart. Spring ephemerals merge, bloom and produce seeds during a narrow window between the snow melt and when the trees leaf out and then die back. By
early to midsummer they're gone. They just kind of hang out the rest of the year, out of sight, and there are so many wonderful We can loosely term them wildflowers, but we're gonna call them spring ephemerals. Here today, gone tomorrow. But it's something I look forward to every year.
Honestly, it is one of the most amazing experiences I think that people can have. It's like you go into the woods one day and everything is brown, and then you go in the next and everything is green, and it's just one of those blink and you'll miss it kind of moments, and it can be so spectacular, and I think it can be so inspiring for gardeners as well. It's not just about, you know, going out now. For me, it is actually going out and see how many species
I can see, because I do love that. But it's also just about the inspiration and the magic of spring. I just love it.
Perfect description magic.
It is magic.
And I also like the way you say everything's brown and then they emerge because you have oak leaves and beech tree leaves that are on the forest floor. All of a sudden things like trout lilies and trilliums appear and it lifts your spirits. And this is a real personal thing for me. Let me share something personally with you, and that is number one. You know me, I do not like winter. I know people have winter festivals, they love skiing, they make snowmen, they have hot chocolate, they
love the season. Great, more power to you. I don't like it. I'm always thankful when the month of April comes along. Another personal point, Stacey is there was a point in my life where I went through a real rough patch. And when we go through a rough patch, we do things to try and cope with that period of time. For me, it was running, and so after work every night I would run ten miles, five miles out,
five miles back on the trail. This trail was lined with marsh marigolds, trilliums, trout lilies, all kinds of these spring ephemerals. And I'll never forget it. As a matter of fact, we have a picture to share on our YouTube video. It just was, like you said, magical for me. It lifted my spirits.
It really does. It's so inspiring. And I think you know a lot of people here in Michigan. I know we have listeners from all over the country and in Canada and actually around the world. But you know, here in Southeaster, in Michigan in general, you're gonna see spring of them roles. If you drive on the highway, whether you like it or not, you will see them. You know, you're driving even on ninety six around here, and you just see these massive patches of trilliums. But that's not enough.
You really do need to get in there. There's so much diversity and there's so many interesting things to see. And you know, if you look, if you drive and you see the trilliums growing by the side of the highway, and you think, oh, that's nice. The trilliums are in bloom. You really owe it to yourself to get out there.
And it doesn't take a lot. You can go to almost any park around here and see an amazing display and it's I mean, if you haven't done this before, I would say mark your calendars in the coming weeks to just make sure you get out to a park and see this, because I don't know. It's just I don't know. It's very meaningful.
Yeah it is. It's very meaningful, and it's very very meaningful for me. So I share that with you. And you're right. They see a lot of us think about trilliums, and that, of course is an amazing plant. I was reading from the US Forest Service. They were saying there are forty three species of trillium known worldwide, with a startling thirty eight represented in North America as natives.
That's pretty that I had no idea was that. That's absolutely incredible. And the rest this is actually very interesting and you see this especially when it comes to our spring ephemerals. I'm not going to go deep into this, so don't panic, but there's a phenomenon called the Eastern Asian Eastern North America floristic disjunction. Where you get into this.
It's like deja vu. It's incredible. Yes, I have read about it. Oh Arnold Arboretum, Yeah, does a lot.
They have an excellent article on that. So basically what it is is that the eastern half of North America and Eastern Asia share a very similar number of plant species and genera because at one point they were connected. And so the other trillium species i'm guessing are all Asian trilliums, and there are just some spectacular Asian trilliums. Of course they're not our native trilliums, but they're still special.
And you'll see that with a lot of spring ephemerals, the erythronium or trout lily as well, just to name a few. And it's just such an interesting thing to see. And I can't believe we are that many trilliums. Yeah, so many in Michigan.
Yeah right, And I have some pictures to share of trout lily also a favorite of mine, as I would run the trail. And as far as the trilliums are concerned, again, the diversity is amazing and correct me if I'm wrong. But is it the pedestal? Is it a pedestal that the flower sits on. Is that the pronunciation, okay, so a pedesol. And then there are others that seem to just sit right on.
Top of the bracts, beestile trilliums. So yeah, sometimes you see the ones that are nodding, the Trillium grand fluorum, which is by far the most widespread one around here in southwestern Michigan. But the cecil ones, Yeah, they nestle right down into the foliage with no extra stem. Yeah,
those are really cool. If you are lucky enough to live in the southeast, or maybe you're taking on the Appalachian Trail or you're going on vacation, you will see the most incredible diversity of trilliums down through the Blue Ridge Mountains and Smokies.
I mean absolutely really.
You mean know another interesting thing about trilliums, So they do grow by seed. Obviously they spread by you know, their their roots as well, but their seeds, their seed pods have these what's known as an eliosome on that and it's a little dot of nutritious oil and it is like ants just go crazy for it.
Wow.
And they I mean like it's not just like, oh, here's a nice little liasm. Guess I'll eat it. It's like they go bananas. And that is how trillium is. That is how trillium spread it. Trillium seed is dispersed. Is these ants going after that alion and then carrying it to who knows where, and that is why trilliums are able to spread as widely as they do.
Wow, that is fantastic. Yeah. And if you're keeping score at home and you enjoy the trilliums of spring, as Stacey mentioned, then so it's pedestal and cecil, yes, and the cecil are seated right on those bracts or that foliage. Yeah, pretty cool. Trout lilies, I love them, the solitary nodding yellow flower. Their colony forming and they the foliage looks like trout, a brown trumk. Yeah, I guess that's where it gets and its name.
They look so pretty with the trilliums and they're so often together, and that to me is where you know, we were talking about mother nature and being inspired. I mean, that is a combination that I just find so inspiring. And it's the kind of thing that if you are a gardener and you're out in the woods looking at these things, you know, take a moment's not just go oh that's pretty or oh that's interesting, but to really think about what is it? Is it the colors, is
it the shape of the leaves? Is it the gestures of those two plants together? And think about what that means for you? Combining plants agree very much.
So, so I have a question for you based on that, Stacey, And that is, as far as ephemerals are concerned, I also consider non native minor bulbs like galanthus to be a spring ephemeral based on definition. Would you agree with that or yeah?
I think that's a fair you know, but it's yeah. I think usually when most people say spring epemerals, they are referring to our native wildflowers, but that they behave the same way, you know, and most of our spring
ephemerals that are native to North America are similar. They have some sort of bulb like storage organ underground, and that's what they need because they have such a short life cycle that they really need to take all the energy that they're able to manufacture before the trees come out making hay well the sun shines, and they need to store that for another whole year before they come out. Again. So they all have that kind of bulb like nature. So yeah, I think that's a fair connection.
So we'll talk about them in segment four and continue our talk on ephemerals before we move to Plants on Trial. I wrote an ephemeral lyric just.
For use to ooh, I'm excited.
Yeah, here we go. We await with much anticipation. They arrive with great adulation, a few moments on stage. Our needs to a sage, then exit with short duration. Ephemerals are plants that are temporary. Here's an inside joke in my commentary. They put on a show, they come and go, not a thorn in your side like Barbary. I wrote that.
I like it. I appreciate that. Thank you, Yes, because you know, as I was saying in our plants are show on plants that we don't like. I was saying, one of the reasons I dislike Barbary so much is because when I do go to the woods to see the spring ephemerals and I see a Barbary, Yeah, that makes me real mad.
That's why I wrote it just for you. Plants on Trial is coming up next, and in segment four we'll get in to more of these ephemeral plants. List them out for you and why we love them. As a matter of fact, if we were to apply minor bulbs, I know a favorite of yours, Stacey and mine are the reticulated or Iris reticulata. Indeed, yeah, so an early spring bloomer plants on trial is next here on the Gardening Simplified Show.
Beautify your home and community with proven Winner's Color Choice Shrubs. With over three hundred and twenty five unique varieties to choose from, there's a flowering shrubber evergreen for every taste and every space. Just look for the distinctive white container your local garden center or learn more at proven Winner's Color Choice dot com. Greetings gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show, where the order of the
day is our beloved spring ephemerals. And if you don't know what we're talking about, in a nutshell, it is the spring wildflowers that pop up in forests all around Michigan and in fact around most of the eastern half of the entire country. And again, if you've only ever seen these driving by, seen a beautiful patche trolleum going by it seventy miles an hour. You really owe it to yourself to get out into a park. You don't need to take a long hike, pack a lunch or
anything like that. Just find a local park with a good wooded area and you will almost certainly see them. But I did want to mention since it's Plants on Trial, and Plants on Trial is really all about introducing you to one of the three hundred and twenty plus proven Winter's color choice shrubs and you decide if you're going
to add it to your garden. Well, when it comes to spring ephemerals, I do want to say, especially early in the show, that when it comes to adding them to your garden, please, please, please be sure you are getting them from a reputable source. There is a lot of poaching that goes on among spring wildflowers that are dug up. Not so much in Michigan, but definitely there's a huge trade from the Smoky Mountains and the Blue
Ridge Mountains where they grow really, really abundantly. So these are the kind of plants and I encourage you to add them to your garden. You know, if you have the right conditions, shade, reasonably moist soil, you'll do great with them, but do make sure that you're getting them from a reputable source that hasn't dug them up from the wild without permission. You know, usually they do need
to be seed grown. They tend to be expensive because a trillium takes about seven to ten years to flower from a seed, and so usually if someone is real, you know, responsibly propagating these plants, it does take quite a while, so they cost a little bit more, and if they're cheap, you should probably be very suspicious about that.
So there's some tissue culture out there which does help to defray costs a bit, but please be sure if you want to add these to your garden, you're sticking mostly with native plant nurseries that are sourcing these in a responsible manner. So I want to get that out there. I didn't believe it at first, and I was like, yeah, whatever, but every year you see reports of this and people being arrested, and so there's a huge trade for it, and we don't want to be a part of supporting that.
A lot of talk about ramps also.
Oh yeah, especially ramps. Yeah, So anyway, let's get today's plan on trial, which, as we were saying on the break, is one of Rick's favorites.
If you go to Gardening Simplified, honor Or dot com look at our top ten lists favorite shrubs, you'll see it there on my list, Stacey, So.
It was already there before I picked it as today's plant on Trial. So you know, in this theme of spring ephemerals, you know in the woods, it's they're understory plants, so they grow sort of through that leaf litter as we were talking about. And we do have some native shrubs here in Michigan, but mostly it's kind of like
you have the understory and then you have the trees. Well, if you go down to the southeast, you will find many more sort of shrubs in the understory, and they make an outstanding companion to a spring ephemeral planting, and especially today's plant on Trial, which is legend of the small father Gilla. So Fathergilla is also as bottle brush or witch alder, and it is such a great choice for matching a spring epemerals because it blooms at pretty
much the same time. Has these lovely white bottle brush as you might have guessed by that common name flowers fragrant. They come out in early spring and the great thing about the specific variety that we're talking about today, Legend of the Small father gilla, is that it is well small, so it's blooming and growing sort of in with the spring ephemerals rather than towering above them. So it's a companion sort of rather than a guardian. Does that make sense?
It makes perfect sense. And Stacey here in Michigan, unfortunately we often get april snow. Ah, yes we do, and so I have pictures to share of snow coating those flowers when early spring. But I love that because you're right, blooms about the same time as the other.
Right, And it's nice that this one so regular conventional father gilla are going to reach anywhere between four and six feet tall and wide, which is still a very useful size for most residential landscaping. But it's really nice to have a variety like Legend of the Small which reaches just two to two and a half feet tall, so that you have some different options for how to use it in your garden and again kind of letting it accompany this spring ephemerals that are in your garden. Now,
this isn't quite native to Michigan. This is really going to be more of a southeastern United States again Blue Ridge Mountains, Smoky Mountains. That is sort of the epicenter for all of this, and that is actually where legend of the small was developed at the North Carolina State University Research Center in Asheville by doctor Tom Rainey, who has developed a huge diversity of plants in the proven Winner's Color Choice brand, including one of my favorites, El
Nino Chetalpa. He's been all over the place developing a lot of interesting natives as well as interesting exotics like that. But this comes from him, and his breeding goal really was to have this smaller size so more of us can use it in new ways in our gardens, which makes sense.
It's great in a perennial guard.
It is great in a perennial garden, especially this one. So a couple things about growing this wonderful plant. Rick does have it in his garden. I do not, and the reason for that is because it needs moist soil and I don't water, and I have very very dry sandy soil. I have tried to grow it. I'm very sorry to that father gilla that I attempted to grow. It did not last long, But like my mom over on the east side of the state in Detroit grows it beautifully where that soil is more clay like, so
it needs some moisture. This is not going to be one of those drought tolerant plants that we tell you about. You can kind of just you know, grow it, but it is a low maintenance plant because if you are growing it in the areas in the kind of environment where it will thrive because it is so small, doesn't
need pruning, doesn't really need much of anything. And that actually reminds me before I forget of another reason why it makes such a great companion to spring ephemerals, because not only does it have these wonderful, fragrant flowers in early spring, it has amazing fall color.
That's what I was going to say. As a matter of fact, arguably I grow the plant for the fall color, not the bottle brush blooms in spring, even though the blooms are so unique and they're early and they're fabulous and I love them. The plant saves the best.
For last, It definitely does, and all of those spring epemerals are long gone by that point. So if you have a garden bed where you have these plants that disappear. This makes such a great choice because you'll get that prolonged season of interest. And then, of course because it's a shrub, it's got those nice persistent branches over winter. But let's get back to growing it. So moist, acidic
soil is very important. You're going to want to mulchhit doesn't really need any pruning or other maintenance, and it's quite deer resistant. Actually, even when I did attempt to grow it, the deer never did actually eat it.
Well, the foliage tends to be kind of rough, firy type of foliage, and again, any plant that has that toem and toast type of foliage that's kind of hairy. Yeah, the deer tend to pick something else in the buffet.
And it gets no other pests or diseases, no leaf spots, no nothing like that. So it is actually an extremely easy plant to grow and to use. And you know, again, even though it's not native to Michigan, I think it's very much at home here with native ephemerals like this and Stacey.
For people who are listening to the show on radio or if you're listening to the podcast version, you're asking to us to say, again, what is that plant, And how do we spell that plant? Because I say father Gia, you say father Gilla.
I was gonna, I was gonna mention that you're not the only person I have heard say father Gia. Yeah, but it is father Gilla. So f O T H E R g I L l A. And the reason that it is father Gilla and not father Gia is because it is named after one doctor, Fathergil from England. We go so now, so usually what I try to do what I'm pronouncing a plant is to take that
root word and use that in the pronunciation. So it's father Gill, named after doctor Fathergill, with a at the end to make it you know, wow, it.
All makes sense to me. That's why I asked the question. Then I brought it up.
But you know, speaking of spring flowering shrubs, I am breaking my own rule because, as we've said on the show before, for Scythia is named after one doctor forsythe But if I go around telling everybody that I love there for Scythia, They're just gonna think I'm some kind of maniac. So it is important to be understood. And as long as you're walking out of the store with
a plant that you want. It's all good, and you can always go for bottlebrush because most people will probably know or witch alder, which is it gets that name not because it's witchy or used in any kind of magical ceremonies, but because it is from the ancient or the Old English word wyh which means bent or pliable. And it's also to which hazel, so it might also be part of that. So it's in the Hammi melodecy or which hazel family?
I love which hazel and which hazel has very similar fall color to a I'm going to say, father.
Yeah, I know, fall habits are hard to break. And I did want to talk about sun. So it does grow in sun to part shade. It will grow in deeper shade, but you're going to see the flowering is very diminished, as is the fall color. So if you can, especially if you live in a hotter climate, part shade is going to be kind of your sweet spot here in the north, you could easily grow it in full sun as long as it has sufficient water because again, this is not one of those very drought tolerant plants.
One last word I have to say, if you're thinking, hey, this plant sounds great and I definitely want to add it to my garden. It is slow growing and it's small, and those two things combine to make it a lot slower to produce than a lot of other plants like hydrangeas and that kind of stuff that you'll see on the market. So this plant has been out for a
little while. We are always trying to increase numbers on it to meet the demand because so many people like Rick do love this plant, but it is in fairly short supply. So if you're interested in it, don't sleep on it. Make sure that you pick it up and add it to your garden because it will probably go because there's not quite enough to go around, but we are working on it and.
To make sure to drive the point home, Stacey, So you are talking about Legend of the Small Yes, there is also a Legend of the Fall.
Right, which was selected for superior fall color, even better than the standard from Father Gilla, And that one is kind of a more standard size, so more like the three to five or four to six foot range, So two great choices. Legend of the Fall is much easier to find, but if you do want this smaller size in Legend of the small you might have to look for it just for a couple more years so you can get a little bit more out there on the
market for you. If you'd like to add it to your garden, please visit proven Winter's Color Choice dot Com to find a retailer. We're going to take a little break when we come meck, we're opening up the so stay tuned at Proven Winner's Color Choice Shrubs. We know that a better landscape starts with a better shrub. Our team of experts tests and evaluates all of our flowering shrubs and evergreens for eight to ten years to ensure
they outperform what's already on the market. For easycare, reliable, beautiful shrubs to accentuate your home and express your personal style, look for Proven Winner's Shrubs in the distinctive white container at your local garden center, or learn more at proven Winner's Color Choice dot com. Greetings, gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show, where it is our pleasure to help you with your gardening questions, quandaries and conundrums.
And boy, I tell you, our inbox is filling in fast. We only have time for a few questions every week, But we don't want to leave you hanging. So if you find yourself out there struggling with something you don't know what to do, you can always reach out to proven winner's color choice. Do we have a contact form there? You can even attach a photo and that will get you an answer in your inbox a lot sooner and you don't have to wonder if we've actually you know,
are going to answer it or anything like that. So we want to offer that service to you. Can't answer everything on air, or we wouldn't talk about anything else. We'd just be answering gardening questions all the time. So but we do care about your success and want you to make sure that you have a good and stress free spring. So please to take advantage of that if you would like. And in the meantime, we got some questions this week.
Yeah, hell Goo writes to us, I planted a new lawn last fall at my cabin west of Baldwin. This spring, I want to put down more seed, apply fertilizer, crab grass preventor what orders should I do this first? More grass than apply the fertilizer or fertilizer than plant grass. The property is north about ninety miles from Grand Rapids. What is the general timeline, So that's the point timeline.
It's based on soil temper so that's when annual weeds like crabgrass will germinate in the soil, usually when soil temperatures get to about fifty five to sixty degrees. Stacy, A lot of people like to use a visual reminder and that being the forsythios when they're in bloom, But really technically you should learn about growing degree days GDD as well as soil temperature and universities like Michigan State University.
It's a resource that I use. It's available to all has a GDD tracker, and as a matter of fact, I took a look at it yesterday and it's interesting, Stacey. Every year is different. Oh, for sure, last year we were in optimum application time for crabgrass pre emergent the end of March because of the temperatures had warmed up. We did not have as much snow in winter and ice, whereas this year we haven't even hit the optimum point yet and we're going to be more normal this year.
Where usually the crab grass controls are applied somewhere around between the first and third week of April tax.
Day, tax day tax good to note. Well, I think, Helga, that's all great information about timing. But the real key here to answering your question is you're asking whether you put down the fertilizer crab grass preventer first and then the seed or vice versa. And the thing that everybody needs to know about this question that makes such a good question is that crab grass preventer. The majority of
crabgrass preventers are simply pre emergence. They prevent seed from germinating. Correct, So if you put down your grass seed and then put down the crabgrass pre emergent or even vice versa, your grass seed will not germinate. So it's not like it's specific to crabgrass. There are certain ones that might be, but overall, the majority of crabgrass preventors prevent grass from germinating, not crabgrass specifically.
That's exactly so if I.
Would recommend so you kind of have a real issue here, a real quandary, because you're going to have this optimum time to put down your crab grass pre emergent, but you need to get that grass germinated and growing first, and you will see if you look at some packages, and actually you don't even need to go to the
garden center. If you just look at some brands websites, you can find all of the package instructions right there on your computer or your phone and read what they say, because it might say, for example, you know, don't apply this within fifteen days of having put down grass seed, so it will have some sort of you know, window of time where that is safe to do, and you're going to want to make sure you follow that exactly.
So we haven't hit the window yet. You might be able to put down grass seed and get it germinating. If not, then I would say go ahead and put down your crab grass pre emergent. Read that carefully to find out how long that's going to last. Then try to get your grass seed growing. But these two things are going to be difficult to time properly to make sure that that it works.
The time to seed alawn is in fall. That's the time to do it. So in spring you're gonna find with most pre emergent controls, they're going to put down a barrier that lasts twelve weeks, so you can forget about seeding. Unless you buy a product specifically made for seeding, they're generally difficult to find and very expressed.
I would guess. I would guess, so, Hellga, I think you're going to need to make a decision. Is it going to be grass seed or is it going to be fertilizer and pre emergence? Save the grass seed for fall? Maybe I would do, especially since you're not going to be, you know, there all the time of it's your cabin, so timing, as in most cases, is everything is everything.
Joyce wrote to us about native plants for Michigan an official list of Native plans. Yeah.
So I thought this was such a great question because you know, I know that so many people out there are so interested in learning about native plants, growing more native plants. But you're kind of just like, where do I start? And the first thing I would say is decide how native you want to be? Like, are you going to be native to your county? Are you going to be native to your region of Michigan. Are you
going to be native to the state the peninsula. There's lots of different ways that can go, and that is a decision that each of us can make for ourselves. And then we are going to put a nice long list from Michigan State University of native plants in Michigan.
But bear in mind that there are roughly estimated, because no one really knows for sure, but well over six hundred different species of native plants to Michigan, and lists like the one that we're going to share in the show notes and in the YouTube caption there tend to
focus on the species that are more commercially available. You know, there's certainly a lot of plants out there that are native but just don't necessarily have the appeal at garden centers where people are going to be, you know, grabbing them up and wanting to plant them. So know that it's not going to be a comprehensive list, but it's going to be a good reference for you to know what to look for in garden centers. Now, a couple
of other resources I have for you. We are lucky at Michigan we have a couple of outstanding native plant nurseries. I personally have shopped at Wild Type out near Williamston multiple times. They're only open to the public a couple weekends a year. They have a great selection, but there's lots and lots of other ones. There's a wonderful one near Anne Arbor. The name escapes me at the moment, but you don't just search Michigan native plant nurseries and
see what you can find. Those would also be an excellent choice because you can trust that everything that they have there is going to be native since that is their specialty.
And many garden centers and greenhouses have added a native plant section, and so yes, I would do that research. I think you pointed out a really important thing Stacy as it relates to the state of Michigan, and that is you have to take regional approach because you're going to find there's Southern lower, there's Northern lower, and then there's up and different climates, different soils, it's gonna vary.
Yeah, you can split them mint up into many different sections. And then finally, I just wanted to mention there is a wonderful nationwide organization called wild Ones and they are dedicated to educating people about native plants, and the Grand Rapids chapter out here is very active. They do a ton of great work, so definitely take a look at them. They would be a great resource for joining together to
learn about native plants and learning from each other. So take a look for your local wild Ones chapter as well.
Gonna hit this one real quick. Shelley Wondering, absolutely love your show, learn so much. Thank you Gardening in West Michigan. Wondering what are the best annuals for full sun window boxes? And Stacey, I'll just throw a few out the Star Divas Scavola's fabulous for how Weather, meteor shower, diamond frost, lemon, coral sea. I mean, there are so many that that you can pick from, and I love the mojave portolaca. I just think it's a great plant for it.
It is a great plant if you're retired and can see it open during the day, But that's one of those ones that close up and the closes up in the afternoon. Shelley, I think this is a great question because you said that you know some of your window boxes in part son have done better than your ones in full sun, and you know window boxes, most of them are a relatively small volume of soil, so you
definitely need to consider as you are. You know that plants can withstand not just the sun, but drying out more quickly and not having a really you know, big volume of soil around those routes, so you're looking for stuff that is very heat and drought tolerant. Now, I think that it's interesting, Shelley that you and your own message mentioned the start eve A blue scaffola, because that is the plant that actually started the proven Winters brand.
They had found it in US Australia, where of course they need everything to be super side and drought tolerant, and it was they were growing it in window boxes and hanging baskets and is a groundcover and they were just like, hey, this plant can take it all. So that would be a great choice I think as well. Now I will put some links in the show notes as well as in the caption on YouTube for some great sun tolerant annuals. But a couple that I would
add to that, I would say yes geraniums. I would even say ivy geraniums, even though Rick does not like them as we discovered. Sorry, Rick, but I would say yes to geraniums. Classic choice lantana. Now that is a very heat and drought tolerant plant. And the cool thing about lantana is you can pick one that grows up
or one that spreads or makes them both together. So you just want to look at the plant tags to find one depending on the look that you want, sweet potato wine another super sun and drought tolerant.
Plant, pink gum free love that one. Oh that thing and it'll stand up to the heat. And what about many vistas.
Yeah, all the supertunias should do really great. I mean they're not going to tolerate heat like in the South, but certainly the summers that we have in the Midwest and north, you won't have any trouble growing those all summer long. So we'll put some resources for you on the website at Gardeningsimplified on air dot com. Right now, we're going to take a break and then we're going to talk a little bit more about our beloved spring ephemerals.
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Welcome back to the Gardening Simplify Show as we continue our talk on spring ephemeral flowers and Stacey, I have to say that bloodroot is one of my favorites. I have numerous pictures to share on the YouTube version of our show. But when that green scalloped foliage on furrows and then that white flower emerges, and of course the history of that plant a native plant, blood roots one of my favorites.
It is so special, and you know it is one of those ones it does form large colonies. I haven't seen very many large colonies around here, but that's what I was talking about when I'm saying, if you just see the trilliums from the highway and you never get in there to see, you'll miss things like bloodroot. And you know, the flower of blood root is pretty, but that foliage is just glorious. It's so so pretty.
Yeah, I have a picture of it just emerging through the leaf litter. I'm with you on that. I think another thing you and I agree on, Stacey, and that is marsh marigold in the buttercup family, those bright yellow flowers. When I'd be running on the trail and you get some of these low areas where it's wet, marsh marigolds.
All right, So you're telling me that this is a marigold you can stand because it's not a true maragold.
Yes, it's not a true it's so fund.
An exception from your plants that people keltha. So yeah, marshmare gold is such a cheerful plant. It does grow in pretty much standing water, and so you'll often find it where you found skunk cabbage, which is one of my favorites. Skunk cabbage is so special, such a unique plant. I know when I traveled to Australia, I was with my father in law and he had a colleague that lived there and he was taking us around and he said to me, oh, does skunk cabbage grow where you live?
And I was like yeah, And he was studying it as a material scientist because it actually heats up the ground around it and melts the.
Snow generates its own heat, so.
They don't bloom at the same time. But any place that you find skunk cabbage really really wet, muddy, standing water kind of soils, you will also find keltha or marshmaregold.
A few weeks later, and think about groggy emerging pollinators and how important skunk cabbage would be there.
Oh, yeah, for sure, especially flies.
Yeah, So there you go, as I mentioned in the first segment, I view some of the minor bulbs as a spring ephemeral in my yard. I love anemone Blanda, just such a beautiful tuberus rooted perennial. I have a picture to share with you that I took at Corkanhoff Gardens in the Netherlands. This one's a tough one to pronounce. Kon a doxa. Some people call it kayan odoxa. But glory of the.
Snow yep, wow, very plastic socks off.
As a matter of fact, I saw a great quote on the plant from an individual who lives in Minneapolis. It gets very cold in Minneapolis, folks, and this person said this plant will continue to grow come hell or high water or hard freeze.
Yeah, it's It's a tough one.
Galanth of snowdrops. They're bell shaped, ok, white flowers offset by bright green markings. Love it. We've talked on this show before. I think we got a question on it. Winter aconite and one of the earliest bulbs to bloom and spring.
Definitely love that one. Also a very cheery yellow kind of rounded flower.
Yes, like yeah, And then I know Adriana I believe likes Muscari grape pious.
Yeah, she planted a bunch last year, so she's going to have a good display coming up into this year. I love them too, and there's such a diversity, you know. That's if you are just sticking to like the grocery store varieties of muscary every fall, you know, and you love it, you owe it to yourself to get a catalog and order some of the specialty muscaris, like Valerie Finnis, which is just the most glorious sky blue color. Oh
my gosh, that is such a beautiful plant. There's so many cool ones out there.
Yeah. I go back to again Cookinhoff Gardens in the Netherlands and they create a blue river Muscary grape hyacinths. But you're so right, Stacey. That the some of the new varieties, and we have some pictures to share with you on YouTube, including the pure white ones. Not only the color is vivid, but just the shape of the flower.
They're just unused and they smell so good. Now usually you don't get down there and smell them because they're so close to the ground, but they make good cut flowers for a little vase, and they do smell absolutely. They kind of smell like grapes. They kind of have like that grape goool aid smell. I don't know it's apartmental or but yeah, that's that's kind of the vibe that I get from them.
What about Dutchman's breechers, Oh, Rick.
Thank you for mentioning my Well, is it my all time?
I mean, is it really?
I don't know if I can pick a favorite spring ephemeral, but Dutchman's breeches dicentric cuculaurea is easily one of my favorites. And there's a park out here in West Michigan that used to have the most breath taking display of them. I mean there was tens of thousands of them off this dune. It was amazing. It was something I look forward to every year. And I have not seen it the last three years, and I believe that unfortunately, what has happened is that the deer are eating the flowers.
The plants are still there, but I've started hiking up there with my binoculars, and when I look with my binoculars, I see a lot of cut off stems, and so I think unfortunately, my favorite display of them I have not seen. But a lot of people might think that it's called Dutchman's britches and it's here in West Michigan and that's where it got its name. But no, these really do look like funny little pairs of pants flying
off the stem. And it's just one of those plants that if you were to see a picture of it, like online or in a book or something like that, you'd go, WHOA, that plant is so cool. I wonder if I could ever see it in real life. And it's like, No, you walk out your door and it's like growing a mile down the road.
Yeah, it's beautiful with the feathery.
It's just so pretty.
Love it. And for folks keeping score at home, if you're watching or listening to our program in California or outside of the United States in Canada, West Michigan is notorious for Dutch people.
That's true. Sorry, a lot of US.
Dutch people here in West.
I guess I was assuming people would know that because of the Holland Michigan movie that's getting so much publicity these days.
That's right, that's right. Squirrel corn or Dycentra canadensis. Some people would Stacey referred to it as bleeding hearts, but it is Dycentra canadensis. So you'll find this plant in Canada all the way down the East coast in the United States. And of course the blooms are unique and beautiful.
Yeah, and so the foliage really looks very similar to the Dutchman's breaches. Yes, and you often find them growing in and around each other, which would make perhaps the uninitiated thing like, whoa, is this some sort of mutation of the other. But they're two totally distinct species. And I love this. Do not dig one up, but so
take my word for it or google it. But the reason it's called squirrel corn is because the root does indeed look like a tiny little ear of corn with like little like the bulblitz on it look like little pieces of corn. It's a pretty amazing thing to see.
Very cool plant. How about Jack and the Pulpit.
I love I'm sorry, I'm people are just gonna be like, is there there is? There is no spring of Emerald that I hate. There's not a single one. I love them all, But Jack in the Pulpit is so special.
This one pops right out of a fairy tale. Yeah, you know, when I'd run on the trail. Take pictures of it. Yeah, it's it's just this unmistakable hooded champagne fluted shaped cup, the pulpit and then the slender stall.
Yeah, what a cool And now that is a plant. When we were talking, I mentioned briefly about the you know, Asian and North American floristic disjunction, the commonalities between them. Now, Asia got the lion's share of the jack in the pulpits the arisima species that are native to Asia will knock your socks off. They are stunning, amazing. I mean ours is pretty great, but theirs are like who over the top.
So you've got a good location or source for Hepatica Hepatica americana. Other people referred to it as liver wort or liver leaf, so over really dark leaf to it, bluish flower I think it has.
So they can be blue, purple or white. Yeah, And that's another plant that I feel like when I moved here fourteen years ago, I saw everywhere in the woods, and I feel like the populations have kind of disappeared, and I don't know if that's difficult. I don't know if that's an issue of the deer or you know, I think one thing that I've seen, like around the Muskegon State Parks is that I feel like the leaf litter is staying so much and suffocating them, like it's
not blowing away to kind of expose them. So I don't see nearly as many as I used to. But that is a gorgeous plant that is also a very very cool plant.
The trail that I would one had all kinds of wood anemone on it, so single flowers. Would you know? They're white flowers is what they are. The edges of the leaflets are kind of toothed, but very unique plant. And you this is one that you would just see in drifts. Yeah, love that wild wildflower and spring ephemeral wild columbine right, love.
It, absolutely, love it. Definitely on the verge of like is it ephemeral? Is it not?
Right?
Because the foliage does persist on that and that kind of I think brings up the tail end of the ephemeral season because it starts to bloom sort of as everything else is going out. But that's another plant that if you were to just see a picture of this red and yellow flower that's just so intricate and so different, you'd be like, where can I see that? And it's like, oh yeah, in the woods, and once it's happy and it starts self sewing, it's everywhere in a really kind and gentle way.
And drifts just beautiful. Yeah, just beautiful. I got to hit on this one because I think I'm pretty sure it's a favorite of yours. While people in spring are killing these in droves in their lawn. You love violas in.
Violet, I do, and the lawn violets is one thing, but there are amazing native violets that they have, the bird's foot violet, the yellow violet. I do get very excited about those. You're absolutely right, I love them so much.
But I think it's a good thing to point out, Stacey, is that not all violets or violas or wild violets are created the same. There are oval shaped leaves, toothed leaves, heart shaped leaves. So there are If you're interested in violets or interested in the spring ephemerals, get to know them and do a little bit of research because they're not all created the same, no, and.
There's so much to see, so that's the main thing. Get to know them. Get out there and see them while you can because they don't last long.
So anything I can add to your list, Stacy, or did we hit them all?
The only one that I would add would be a very strange little creature that it did not encounter previously, but it grows pretty abundantly around here, and that is pendicularis also known as laoswort. It is a hemi or semi parasitic plant, and it comes out with this really cool kind of like rosette of feathery foliage, and then the flowers come out and they're red and yellow, and they're curved, and it's just such a unique plant. And it gets its nutrition partially from the tree roots that
it grows on. So it's a very cool thing that you can see around here, especially on the lake shore.
Interesting and when you think about it, in early spring trees pull a lot of water out of the ground, and so in early spring again, these plants are taking the opportunity to do their thing and we all benefit from it.
We sure do, and you should do. You bet, get out there.
Fun show, Stacy. Thank you so much, Thank you, Adrianna, and thanks most of all to you for watching or listening to our show. Have yourself a great week,