Late May Flowers
May 27, 2020 by New Hampshire Garden Solutions

If you’re tempted to pass by what you think are violets you might want to take a closer look, because our beautiful little fringed polygalas (Polygala paucifolia) have just started blossoming. Their color and the fact that they sometimes grow beside violets has fooled me in the past. The small 3 inch tall by inch and a half wide plants usually bloom in pairs as can be seen in the photo above. Fringed polygalas are in the milkwort family and are also sometimes called flowering wintergreen and / or gaywings. The slightly hairy leaves were once used medicinally by some Native American tribes to heal sores.

Each blossom is made up of five sepals and two petals. The two petals form a tube and two of the sepals form the little wings. The little fringe at the end of the tube is part of the third sepal, which is mostly hidden. When a heavy enough insect lands on the fringe the third sepal, called the keel, drops down to create an entrance to the tube. Once the insect crawls in it finds the flower’s reproductive parts and gets dusted with pollen to carry off to another blossom. Surprisingly this little insect landed on the flower I was taking a photo of it and let me actually see how it works. I think it was a sweat bee.

In this shot the reproductive structures are exposed. That little bump or nub just under the tube formed by the petals makes up the reproductive structures and this is the first time I’ve ever seen them. Though I’ve searched high and low in books and online apparently little is known about how they function. I did read that the seeds are coated with a fatty tissue that ants like, so ants disperse them. I usually find this plant in shady, mossy places and I think it prefers moist ground. Some mistake the flowers for orchids and it’s easy to see why. They’re a beautiful and unusual flower that I always look for in May.

Heartleaf foamflowers (Tiarella cordifolia) have just started blossoming near shaded streams and on damp hillsides. They’re easy to spot because of their hairy, maple-like leaves and foot high flower stalks, and a colony as big as this one is a beautiful sight. Native plants have leaves that are bright green at first and then turn a darker green, sometimes mottled with maroon or brown. Many hybrids have been created and foam flowers are now popular in garden centers and are grown in gardens as much for their striking foliage as the flowers. They are an excellent, maintenance free choice for shady gardens that get only morning sun.

The small, numerous flowers of foamflower have 5 white petals, 5 white sepals, and 10 stamens. It is said that the long stamens are what give foamflowers their frothy appearance, along with their common name. Native Americans used the leaves and roots of foamflower medicinally as a mouthwash for mouth sores. The plant is also called “coolwort” because the leaves were also used on scalds and burns to relieve the pain.

Dame’s rocket (Hesperis matronalis) has just come into bloom, right on schedule. This plant was introduced from Europe in the 1600s but it doesn’t seem very invasive; the colonies that I know of hardly seem to spread at all, and that’s possibly because they are biennials. This plant is in the mustard family, Brassicaceae but is sometimes mistaken for phlox, which has 5 petals rather than the 4 petals seen on dame’s rocket. Phlox also has opposite leaves and those on dame’s rocket are alternate. The young leaves of dame’s rocket are rich in vitamin C and oil pressed from its seed is used in perfumes.

Lily of the valley (Convallaria majalis.) has just started blooming and something has already chewed a hole through the side of one of them. I can remember bringing my grandmother, whose name was Lilly, wilting bouquets of lily of the valley along with dandelions, violets and anything else I saw when I was just a young boy, so it’s a flower that comes with a lifetime of memories for me. The plant, originally from Europe and Asia, is quite toxic. It is actually in the asparagus, not the lily family.

Starflowers (Trientalis borealis) are another spring flower that have just started blooming. These flowers don’t produce nectar so they are pollinated by pollen eating insects like halictid and andrenid bees. There can be one or several flowers on each plant and I always try to find the one with the most flowers. My record is 4 but I’m always watching out for 5.

Books will tell you that starflowers have 7 petals but as this one shows, they can have as many as 9. They can also have as few as 6.

When you see big umbrella like leaves like these you should look under them, because that’s where the flowers of Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) hide. Mayapple is also called American mandrake, which is legendary among herbalists for the root that supposedly resembles a man. Native Americans boiled the root and used the water to cure stomach aches but this plant is toxic and should not be eaten.

Mayapple flowers are hard to get a decent photo of because they nod toward the ground under the plant’s leaves, but it can be done. I’ve read that once a mayapple produces flowers and fruit it reduces its chances of doing so in following years, but this colony seems to bloom well each year.

One of most beautiful spring flowering shrubs is the rhodora (Rhododendron canadense.) Henry David Thoreau once wrote “The splendid Rhodora now sets the swamps on fire with its masses of rich color,” and that’s what this little two foot tall shrub does each spring. The flowers appear just when the irises start to bloom and I often have to search for them because they aren’t common. Rhodora is a small, native rhododendron (actually an azalea) that loves swampy places. It is native to the northeastern U.S. and Canada and both its western and southern limits are reached in Pennsylvania. The flowers appear before the leaves, but only for a short time in spring. By mid-June they will have all vanished.

Because of their habit of growing in or very close to the water it can be hard to get close enough to get a shot of a single flower, but if you’ve ever seen an azalea blossom then you know what they look like. It’s the color of this one that sets it apart from other azaleas, in my opinion. This plant was brought from Canada to Paris in March 1756 and was introduced to England in 1791. It is said to have been a big hit, but it must have been difficult to grow in English gardens since it likes to grow in standing water and needs very cold winters.

My mother died before I was old enough to retain any memory of her but she planted a white lilac before she died, so now the flowers and their scent have become my memory of her. Whenever I see a white lilac she is there too. I know that long time readers are probably tired of hearing all these flower stories but there are new readers coming along all the time who haven’t, so I hope you’ll bear with me. When I see certain flowers I often think more of the connection it has in my memory to a certain person than I do the flower.

White lilacs hold my mother’s memories and tradescantia flowers hold my father’s. When I was just a young boy living with my father I decided that our yard needed a facelift. We had a beautiful cabbage rose hedge and a white lilac, and a Lorelai bearded iris that my mother planted before she died but I wanted more. I used to walk the Boston and Maine railroad tracks to get to my grandmother’s house and I’d see these beautiful blue flowers growing along the tracks, so one day I dug one up and planted it in the yard. My father was quiet until I had planted 3 or 4 of them, and then he finally asked me why I was bringing home those “dammed old weeds.” He also walked the tracks to get to work and back, so he saw the tradescantia (Tradescantia virginiana) plants just as often as I did. Though I thought they were lost and needed to be rescued, he thought somebody threw them away and he wished they’d have thrown them just a little farther, because now they were all ending up in his yard. Today every time I see these flowers I think of him. I hope your flowers come with such pleasant memories.

Common yellow wood sorrel (Oxalis stricta) is often confused with clover but clover has oval leaflets rather than the heart shaped ones. Yellow wood sorrel’s three leaflets close up flat at night and in bright sunshine, and for that reason it is also called sleeping beauty or sleeping molly. The flowers also close at night. The stricta part of the scientific name means “upright” and refers to the way the plant’s seedpods bend upwards from their stalks. This small grouping had the largest flowers I’ve seen; twice the size as they usually bear. I’m not sure what would cause that.

We have several invasive honeysuckle species here in New Hampshire and I’ve given up trying to identify them all. Most or all are banned from being sold but birds love their bright red berries and that makes the shrubs impossible to ever eradicate. Though most of their flowers are white you do see an occasional pink example. They can be very pretty and also very fragrant.

Greater celandine (Chelidonium majus ) takes quite a long time to bloom after the melting snow reveals its cluster of basal leaves in early spring. This commonly seen plant originally comes from Europe and Asia and is considered invasive.

Greater celandine’s yellow / orange colored sap that we used to call mustard when I was a boy has been used medicinally for thousands of years, even though it is considered toxic and can irritate the skin and eyes. It is said that it can also cause liver damage if used incorrectly. We might have called it mustard but as far as I know, nobody ever ate it.

Little blue toadflax (Nuttallanthus canadensis) is one of my favorite spring flowers and it has just started blooming. Toadflax flowers have an upper lip that is divided into 2 rounded lobes, and a lower lip which is divided into 3 lobes that are rounded and spreading. They also have a long spur in back, which can’t be seen well in this photo. Toadflax likes sandy soil and waste areas to grow in. The cheery blue flowers are always a welcome sight.

Red clover (Trifolium pretense) is a plant that quite literally helped me see the light. There was a time when all this plant meant to me was more hard work. I didn’t like having to weed them out of lawns and garden beds but they were so unsightly with their long, weak flower stems and sprawling, weedy habit. And then one evening a single ray of sunshine came through the clouds and fell directly on a red clover plant at the edge of a meadow, and when I knelt in front of it to take its photo for the first time I saw how beautiful it really was. I saw that it had an inner light; what I think of as the light of creation, shining brightly out at me. I’ve loved it ever since, and since that day I don’t think I’ve ever truly thought of another flower, no matter how lowly, as a weed.
Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty, if only we have the eyes to see them. ~John Ruskin
Thanks for coming by.
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Posted in Nature, Wildflowers | Tagged Blue Toadflax, Blue Tradescantia, Canon SX40 HS, Dame's Rocket, Fringed Polygala, Gaywings, Greater Celandine, Hancock New Hampshire, Heartleaf Foamflower, Japanese Honeysuckle, Keene, Late Spring Plants, Lily of the Valley, Mayapple, Native Plants, Nature, New Hampshire, NH, Olympus Stylus TG-870, Red Clover, Rhodora, Spring, Starflower, Summer Wildflowers, Swanzey New Hampshire, White Lilac, Yellow Sorrel | 31 Comments
As I get older I lose more and more of any prejudices I had when I was younger. Seeing the light and beginning to appreciate *all* creation is life-changing, isn’t it? I discovered a patch of lesser stitchwort in our lawn and I know that no-one would look at it twice or even notice it in the first place. It is very small and looks like a ‘starry’ chickweed and I love it.
The polygala has such an intricate little flower; almost flamboyant , like a bird of paradise. The mayapple is another shy beauty and must go unnoticed by so many people.
Thank you Clare. Yes, it was life changing in certain ways. I certainly see weeds with a different perspective.
I like stitchworts too. I’m glad you found one! Maybe it will spread.
I think the polygalas get passed by a lot because people thing they’re violets. It’s too bad because they are beautiful and unusual.
Yes, most people walk right by Mayapples without even seeing the flowers. I’ve seen it happen numerous times in a local park where a few plants grow.
The flower stories are never tiring. Keep them coming! I am sorry you lost your mother so early in life. It is nice you have the white lilac to remember her by.
Red clover are so beautiful! I love a lawn full of “weeds”. Dame’s rocket does look like phlox, and I will remember the difference now. Thank you!
Thank you Lavinia. I was once a bit of a flower snob but I’m over that!
I view Goat Sass every morning, and often comment. I’ve viewed your site occasionally as I see your comments on his. Haven’t been by in a long time. I will more often now. Amazing photos, so beautiful, and like G.S. you are quite a writer. Really loved all the details about these beautiful flowers. They certainly have amazingly pretty colors and shapes. Loved the stories too. Especially about your Mom and Dad. I must ask, do you have any problem with me using your photos. I’d save them for me only. Except for using them for my FB profile pix sometimes. I’m odd in that I change my profile pix every other day. I love beautiful things and use great pix when I enjoy them myself. I’d like to maybe use some of your photos for one month, as I pick a theme in my head and have fun finding 15 pix ahead of time to use. I promise not to abuse the use of them. I really find these both beautiful and your writings educational as well as enjoyable to read. I’ve gotten far too long here, sorry. Thanks for posting.
You’re welcome Ellen, and thank you. Goat Sass Farm is an old favorite for me too.
I’m glad you enjoy this blog as well. Feel free to use any photo you like. As long as they aren’t being sold I don’t worry about it.
This is a belated comment, as I very much enjoyed your description of your grandmother’s love of apple blossom and your love for her as you picked the flowers. (Mid May Flower post)…and in this post, your memories of your mother. It was beautifully written and heartfelt. I had a strong and loving relationship with my mother, and plants and flowers were very much a part of that relationship. Best wishes and thanks for the lovely posts. (Gerrie Mackey)
Thanks very much Gerrie. The great thing about having memories associated with flowers is how the memories come back each year as the flowers bloom. I’m glad it works that way for you as well!
Have a good week.
Yes, so true about the memories coming back every year.
Just found your blog a couple days ago and am loving it very much! Your repeated stories are new to me so no complaints. It’s nice to hear people repeat stories because it means that something important happened or is important to them and anyone who cares about their fellow man should listen and take note to learn.
Thanks very much Staci, I agree.
I’m glad you found the blog and I’m glad you like it!
I always enjoy your stories, comments and valuable information. I tend to forget things so if I read about them again, maybe I’ll retain something.
My mother is 91 and has been an avid gardener all her life. I have many plants that she has given me, including plants she has received over the years from friends (Patrick’s verbena, Mrs. B’s day lilies, Marge’s hollyhocks). I greet them all each spring like old friends.
Thanks very much Jane. That’s the same thing I do in my own yard! It’s nice to have them come from family and friend rather than a store.
I had a chuckle when I reached the words “…one of my favorite spring flowers…” Admit it Allen, you love them all! They’re all your faves. I’m guilty of the same pleasure, for sure. Many charming blossoms in this post full of pretty pictures. Thank you!
Thank you Ginny. Somehow I missed your comment the other day but now I’m caught up. I think.
Yes, you’re right. I’d have a real hard time choosing a flower that I didn’t like!
Many memories are written in flowers. I love your stories as well as the rest of the blog.
Thanks very much. I’m sorry I missed yours and other comments the other day but it does happen occasionally. I always reply to comments so if I don’t I hope you’ll know it’s just a glitch of some sort.
I never tire of hearing all your flower stories, even when I’ve heard them before. Keep them coming.They’re a delight. It’s nice to get a sense of the blogger, you, as well as your subject.
Thank you Lee. Maybe it’s just me getting bored with them!
When I first saw your photo of the fringed polygaga I thought what wild orchid is this? Very beautiful! All the information you provide for each flower is appreciated. I love Dame’s Rocket. Always blooms here in Pa. around graduation time. It’s scent is heavenly. I have tried to grow it ( it grows wild in the fields around here), know it is a biennial, but I have had no luck. I would love to find some seeds. Have you had any success starting plants of your own? I have not looked for seed online, will try, but I would assume it would have to be very fresh. Any insight would be appreciated.
My mother was a gardener also. I owe to her my love of flowers and reading. Not a day goes by….
Thank you Lisa. No, I never have tried to grow dame’s rocket, but I would think if you collected some seeds from the plants you know and just scattered them around a few plants would grow. When you think about what happens in nature the seeds just fall to the ground with no fuss, so that’s what I’d try to replicate as well as the conditions, such as light and moisture.
I’m glad your mom was a flower and book lover. I am too!
I think that is the best idea. I am going to mark some areas where they are growing and try to harvest some seed later this summer. Thank you!
You’re welcome. I hope it works out!
Beautiful photos and many learning moments. Thank you. I picked some Lilys this week and besides being truly lovely, the fragrance is wonderful. I also have some Jack in the Pulpits that were gifted by a friend, and I smile every time I view them. Have a good week and stay well.
Thank you Judy, I hope you’ll do the same.
It’s such a great time of year with new flowers appearing daily!
Polygalas is not one I’ve seen in Ohio. Beautiful!!
It does grow there but if it’s anything like here only in certain wooded areas with lots of conifers. It doesn’t seem to mind quite a lot of shade but I’ve also seen it in full sun.
Beautiful post. Amazing the memories that the sight and scent of certain flowers evoke.
Thank you. Most of them seem to have memories attached for me.
Splendid quote and you chose beautiful flowers to underscore Ruskin’s remarks.
Thank you Susan. I think he knew nature well.