Woodland Garden: Mid May brings lots of little surprises

Native wild geranium (cranesbill) front, join Mayapple and Forget-Me-Nots for an early spring show in the woodland garden.

Native plants sparkle in spring

It’s the middle of May but it’s cold, really cold. In fact, earlier this week, if you can believe it, there were overnight frost warnings here.

Frost warnings and cold days, however, are not slowing down our hardy native plantings from moving forward and actually performing very well, thank you.

Leading the way are the Mayapples that are fully stretched out and creating a lovely green carpet in the main area of our garden that they are slowly taking over. They are also blooming in a distant corner of the woodland where I can see them, but rarely wander over to that “wilder” part of the yard.

But don’t count out the lovely arching stems of Solomon’s Seal that are reaching out for the sun with their delicate little green flowers hanging down below the leaves.

Solomon’s Seal, whether it’s the straight native or the variegated variety, is a good addition to any woodland garden adding a needed sense of verticality in the spring garden and lasting throughout the summer well into fall. Not unlike Mayapple, its tattered, beigey fall look is almost as nice as it is dressed in its spring greens.

The Forget-Me-Nots are also putting on their subtle spring show with their soft, mist-like haze of blue forming a perfect backdrop to the Mayapple and geranium ground covers. These lovely, dainty little flowers are an important early source of nectar for early emerging insects and butterflies.

In the woodlands surrounding our home, massive waves of Forget-Me-Nots fill sunny spots on the woodland floor spilling over the deer paths that zig zag through the forest.

Delicate native columbines and foamflower prepare to put on their spring display. The vibrant spring greens of the foamflower are hard to miss.

And, while spring greens are always a joy in the woodland garden, let’s not overlook the hints of colour that are already poking through the greens.

Just in time for our hummingbirds’ arrival, our native columbine are about to explode in red-and-yellow flower. A favourite early source of nectar for migrating hummingbirds, Columbine are another early spring favourite that needs to be in everyone’s woodland garden.

In the image above, Foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia) grows happily alongside a Columbine as part of one of our many newly created little woodland vignettes from last year. These were created from cut branches pruned from our larger trees and, rather than disposing of them, we “planted” them in the ground and planted woodland plants around them. Over time they will break down and add nutrients – various fungi – to the soil. For more on our woodland vignettes (log planter), check out my post previous here.

Joining our Columbine, of course, are the always popular bleeding hearts. Our clumps are already blooming in the back garden where they get maybe six hours of sun while the leaf cover is still sparse.

The leaves of native bloodroot form a nice clump alongside a grape hyacinth. It’s all part of our front garden’s ground cover along with non-native pachysandra and epimediums along with black-eyed Susans and other summer-blooming plants.

Both the Columbine and bleeding hearts are a photographer’s delight so make sure to get out and document them before they past their prime.

Right beside the Columbine, our foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia) is preparing to put on a show. It’s the first year with foamflower, so I’m looking forward to experiencing it in the garden and photographing it at its prime.

A bigger look of the spring garden shows the mini birch grove forming a canopy over the bubbling rock and dry-river bed that leads to the stepping stones of the pathway. Japanese maples and low-growing ground covers with larger ornamental grasses fill out the area as spring turns to summer.

Throughout the garden, ferns are unfurling, the eastern redbuds are beginning to put on their magnificent show and the Flowering dogwoods are hinting at what’s still to come.

I’ll let the following pictures tell the rest of the story.

A multi-stem Eastern Redbud blooms alongside a Cornus Mas Dogwood in the fern garden.

The front woodland garden showing the creeping phlox, Japanese Maples and serviceberry tree.

Bleeding heart is always a fan favourite in any garden.