I’ve heard all the arguments against forsythia and I agree with most of them, but you have to admit that spring would be very different without their cheery blooms.
Forsythias shout that spring has arrived and it’s hard to ignore them because they are everywhere. I think you’d have a hard time finding a street in this town that doesn’t have at least one.
It’s great to stop for the daily paper and see this beautiful pink magnolia on my way into the store. Every time I do I feel like I should thank the owner for planting it.
Someone at the local college must like reticulated iris (Iris reticulata) because hundreds of them grow there. They’re a very early spring flower that does well in rock gardens and goes well with miniature daffodils like tete-a-tete.
I’m interested in both botany and history and they come together in the Cornelian cherry (Cornus mas). This under used shrub is in the dogwood family and is our earliest blooming member of that family, often blooming at just about the same time as forsythias do. The small yellow flowers will produce fruit that resembles a red olive and which will mature in the fall. It is very sour but high in vitamin C and has been used for at least 7000 years for both food and medicine. In northern Greece early Neolithic people left behind remains of meals that included cornelian cherry, and the Persians and early Romans also knew it well. As you look at its flowers it’s amazing to think that Homer, Rumi, and Marcus Aurelius most likely did the same.
The shoots of false hellebore (Veratrum viride) rise straight out of the damp ground and look like a rocket for a short time before opening into a sheaf of deeply pleated leaves.
I can’t think of another plant that false hellebore really resembles but people occasionally poison themselves by eating it. When it comes to poisonous plants false hellebore is the real deal and can kill, and it’s not a good way to go. In 2010 five people who had been hiking the Chilkoot Trail in Alaska had to be evacuated by helicopter for emergency medical treatment after they ate false hellebore roots. Luckily they all survived, with quite a tale to tell.
Native American used the plant medicinally but they knew it well and dug the roots in the winter when their toxicity was at its lowest level. There is a legend that says the plant was used in the selection of new chiefs, and by the sounds of it anyone who lived through the experience was thought of as chief material.
Wild leeks (Allium tricoccum) come up at the same time as false hellebore and in fact I found these growing very near the false hellebore plants shown previously. But how anyone could confuse the two is beyond me, because they look nothing like each other. Even the leaf color is different. Wild leeks, also called ramps, are edible and considered a great delicacy, and each year there are ramp festivals all over the world. These plants lose their leaves before they flower in midsummer and that makes the flowers very hard to find, so this year I’m telling myself that I’m going to put marking tape on the trees near where these plants grow so I can finally get photos of the flowers later on.
Some friends of mine have this beautiful hellebore growing in their garden and I wanted to get a shot of the flower to see if it looked anything like the flowers of false hellebore. False hellebore flowers bear a slight superficial resemblance, but they are much smaller and are green, and the leaves look nothing like a true hellebore. Nobody seems to know how the name false hellebore came about. If it wasn’t because of the flowers or leaves, what could it have been? Maybe because true hellebores are also poisonous?
Pliny said that if an eagle saw you digging up a hellebore he (the eagle) would cause your death. He also said that you should draw a circle around the plant, face east and offer a prayer before digging it up. Apparently doing so would appease the eagle.
There are plants that can take me out of myself and cause a shift in my perception of time so that I often have no idea how long I’ve been kneeling before them, and spring beauty (Claytonia virginica) is one of them. How could you not lose yourself in something so beautiful?
I’ve read that spring beauties that grow in the shade are the most colorful and for the most part I’ve found that to be true, but this year I noticed that the newly opened flowers were also more colorful than those that were fully opened. Just look at this example’s deep color and near perfect form. To me it’s everything a flower should be and though I can think of many flowers that are as beautiful, I’d have a hard time naming one that was more beautiful.
I know a place where hundreds of thousands of trout lilies (Erythronium americanum) grow but each year I find a single one that buds before all of the others. Though I didn’t mark it I think this is the same one that budded first last year. I think that because of its being located to the right of a path near a small pond, and this year I want to mark the location. This plant gets its common name from its leaves, which are said to resemble the side of a trout. A brook trout maybe, but not a rainbow.
Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) is another of our beautiful native wildflowers that I wanted to show you but it was cloudy, cold and windy on the day that I went to take their photo and they don’t like that kind of weather any more than we do, so they all closed up and wrapped themselves in their leaves. Earlier in the week they weren’t even showing yet, so they’ll be around long enough to give me another chance. Bloodroot’s common name comes from the poisonous blood red juice found in its roots. Native Americans once used this juice for war paint.
The bud scales of red elderberry (Sambucus racemosa) have opened to reveal lilac like flower buds. They are handsome at this stage but the whitish, cone shaped flowers are less than spectacular. Though this plant’s bright red berries are edible when cooked I’ve heard that they don’t taste very good. The leaves bark and roots are toxic enough to make you sick, so this shrub shouldn’t be confused with common elderberry (Sambucus nigra) which is the shrub that elderberry wine comes from.
You might think this was just an old weed not worth more than a passing glance but if you did you’d be wrong, and you’d miss one of the high points of early spring in New England.
Most people never see the beautiful flowers of Pennsylvania sedge (Carex pensylvanica) that appear on the weedy looking plant in the previous photo in mid-April. Creamy yellow male staminate flowers release their pollen above wispy, feather like, white female pistillate flowers but the female flowers always open first to receive pollen from a different plant. As the plant ages the male flowers will turn light brown and the female flowers, if pollinated by the wind, will bear seed. It’s a plant that is well worth a second look.
The spring came suddenly, bursting upon the world as a child bursts into a room, with a laugh and a shout and hands full of flowers. ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Thanks for stopping in.
The Longfellow quote says it all really. Glad to see your spring flowers.
That’s my favorite spring quote of all. We’re pretty happy to see some flowers too!
all those flowers are beautiful
Yes!
Fascinating to see spring on another continent!
Thanks Phillip. I agree, that’s why I read so many U.K. blogs!
A wonderful review of early spring blooms and buds.The Claytonia is especially lovely. Maybe I should plant some …
I didn’t know you could buy them, but if you can I would.
You have some gorgeous flowers in bloom now. It happened so quickly!
I have a rather special attachment to the false hellebore because it love the places in which it grows here; along some of my favorite trails. Her now though they would still be under 4 feet of snow.
Spring did come on quickly, but then winter said “not so fast” and it’s been cloudy and cool for over a week. It’s holding back the trilliums and trout lilies.
False hellebore grows in the same kinds of places here and they are some of my favorite places too!
I learned alot from this one, and photos are beautiful.
Thank you Darlene. I’m glad that you enjoyed it!
What a beautifully ‘green’ post after all your ‘white’ ones! I was introduced to a Cornelian Cherry a few weeks ago by Julie from Gardeningjules having never seen one before or even heard of one. I then saw one on one of my walks and then someone else posted a shot of one on their blog. They are very beautiful – as are your Spring Beauties. Heavenly little flowers!
Thank you Clare. I’m all too happy to leave the white behind for a while. A long while I hope!
Cornelian cherry blossoms are tiny but the bushes I see here have so many flowers on them that size doesn’t really matter much.
I love spring beauties but sometimes I wonder if it is them or what they represent that gets me so excited. Either way I’m always very glad to see them!
I’ve been sick on my couch all week and unable to check in on my own favorite wildflower patches, so thank you for the vicarious glimpse.
You’re welcome. What a terrible time of year to be sick. I hope you can recover soon enough to get out and see some of these blossoms for yourself. The trilliums will be a while yet.
blooming and nice
Thank you. I’d guess that you’re probably seeing plenty of flowers in Malaysia!
I am glad that you are back in full colour and am in awe of your abilty to photograph plants so clearly.
Thanks very much, but it’s the camera’s abilities more than anything special that I do. That little Panasonic Lumix I use is unbeatable for macros because it has great image stabilization and a Leica lens.
As I always say though, if you love your subject it will come through in your photos, and I do love flowers.
I must look into one of these.
It’s also relatively inexpensive at under $200.00
That dies sound good. What is the model number?
DMC-SZ7. I think it was $179.00. It’s small enough to fit in a shirt pocket and I like that. I carry it just about everywhere. It’ll do a fair landscape shot in a pinch but I think it was really meant for macros. I keep it macro mode all the time.
Here’s a good link to it: https://shop.panasonic.com/support-only/DMC-SZ7K.html
Thank you for the link. I will explore it.
Great post. I read it this morning and then when out in the woods this afternoon I spotted both wild leeks and false hellebore, neither of which I had seen before. I keep seeing sedge like the Pennsylvania one but had someone tell me there are a lot of look alikes. Do you know how to tell Pennsylvania from others? or do you know what sedges like that are common to the south of you? For that matter, do you have a good sedge ID source?
Thank you Sara. I’m glad to know that you’re finding the plants that you see on this blog. I wish everyone could!
Pennsylvania sedge is the easiest of all sedges to identify in my opinion, because as far as I know it’s the only sedge that blooms before the leaves come out on the trees. It also grows in colonies of many plants and has a reddish tint to the bases of its leaves. Black sedge (Carex nigra) has one or two similar characteristics but blooms a full month later.
I use the book Grasses: An Identification Guide, by Lauren Brown to identify grasses, sedges, and rushes.
I hope this helps.
Wonderful post, Allen. I used to see the Forsythia in Salt Lake quite a bit, and now I get to admire the various Palo Verde trees that bloom with the Forsythia-like yellow leaves all over the nearby desert.
Thanks Scott. The Palo Verde trees sound interesting. I have heard of them but I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen one, so I hope you’ll post some shots of them one day.
Beautiful picture of the red elderberry flowers! Amelia
Thank you Amelia. Red elderberry is an interesting and photogenic shrub.
Wow, tons of interesting facts and beautiful plants. You seem to be well out of the snow now.
Thank you. Yes, the snow is gone except for in the deepest woods. Now if only the cold would follow!
As always, thanks for the photos and education. The cold weather this week, including the snow Thursday, has dampened my motivation for getting outside. Hopefully this weekend will feel more spring-like. After all, it is almost May!
You’re welcome Wendy and thank you. I know, it has been cold! I’ve had a hard time getting out there too but that’s another good thing about having a blog. Rain or shine, day after day, you have to be out there to keep it going!
A gardening friend of mine introduced me to your blog back in the winter and I’ve been enjoying it ever since. I’ve also passed it on to other gardening/nature lover friends. I, too, have a love of nature and gardening and I can’t tell you how much I’ve learned reading your posts. Love the history you give with the plants. So I felt I needed to stop this morning and thank you. Your photographs are beautiful too. I also love your quotes! Thank you!
Thanks very much Maude, and welcome. I’m glad that you enjoy this blog enough to pass it on to friends. That’s important to me because it’s mission is to get more people interested in nature, with the thought that people are less likely to destroy something they’re interested in. I’m very happy to hear that it might be working and I hope to hear from you again.
I’ve passed it on to many friends and I just shared this post on my FB page in hopes of you gaining even more readership. I post a lot about the importance of nature/gardening/farming. I will continue to do this because I am aware of how much time and effort you put into each post and appreciate all of what you give back. Your mission is honorable and one I share. Thank you again!
You’re welcome, and thank you for putting this post on Facebook. Keeping up with the blog is so time consuming that I’ve never dared to try putting it on Facebook too. I didn’t think I’d have time to maintain it, so I thank you for your efforts.
I believe that it’s just everyday people and not politicians who will rescue nature one day from those too greedy to care. I’ve seen greater numbers become interested in just my lifetime, so I’m a great believer in spreading the word.
A wonderful visit, once again. Thank you for sharing the fleeting beauty of this elusive season.
You’re welcome Rich. I can’t wait to see what you find growing over across the river!
I awoke to the chill this morning and was feeling grumpy about our lack of Spring. Then I read this post and was lost in the colors and beauty you find. Thank you for reminding me that nature moves ahead regardless of the struggle of winter to hang on!
Thank you Martha. Yes, spring is happening in spite of winter refusing to let go. I hope you’ll have a chance to get into the woods to see some of these beauties for yourself!
Glad to see that the spring wild flowers have arrived in NH. Beautiful shots!
Thanks! It was touch and go for a while there, but I think spring has finally made it!
Spring has come suddenly, and you’re doing a great job of giving us hints as to what to look for, for you seem to find the beauty that so many people miss. I may have said that before, but it is so true.
I was about to head to Aman Park to see what I could find in bloom there, but you reminded me that many flowers don’t open unless there’s enough sunshine, and we’re not going to get any sun today, so you saved me a trip. I think that I’ll go birding instead, they like grey days.
It was like somebody flipped a switch again this year Jerry, but it has been more like fall this year so we’re still on the roller coaster.
Yes, if it’s cloudy there your chances of seeing flowers will diminish, although I’m not sure that trillium close up once they open, and I know you’ve got some beautiful ones in Aman Park. I hope you’ll get to see and take photos of them this year, and I hope you see a lifer or two today!
Every time you post a flower edition, I look and think, wow, I wish that grew in my yard! I could never pick an overall favorite. Heck, I couldn’t even pick a favorite from your post. Ah, the beauty and rebirth of spring.
I know what you mean Laura. I often wish all of these flowers grew in my yard but when I think about it, if they did I wouldn’t have the great joy and surprise that comes with finding them in the woods.
Great way of looking at it.
Loved the quote and all your wonderful photographs of Spring. I particularly enjoyed the history, and the flowers, of the Cornelian cherry. Thank you for introducing it to me.
You’re welcome and thank you Susan. I think that is my favorite spring quote of all, especially since that’s just the way it happens here sometimes.
The Cornellian cherry is a very interesting shrub and very easy to care for as well. Just a single trimming for shape is all it takes, but it doesn’t really even need that. It’s a slow grower and will stay quite small for a long time.
What a marvelous variety of pretty spring flowers. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a false hellebore and probably just as well! We had a single trout lily growing down near our stream, ad I kept hoping it would multiply, but it didn’t.
Thank you Cynthia. I’m guessing that you do have false hellebore in Canada but as long as you aren’t out foraging for food you don’t have anything to worry about.
That’s odd about the trout lily. I don’t think I’ve ever seen just one. They usually grow in the many thousands. Maybe you could plant a few to get them off to a better start. I think you can buy them in garden centers now.