Blue Bloomers

Double Daff Surprise!

Creeping Jacobs Ladder is a good companion for hostas and pollinators love them, but gotta warn you they reseed like crazy

We are finally getting the rain we need so badly!  This Spring has started off pretty dry so even though I'm stuck inside today, I'm super happy that it's because of several good downpours.

 "Sound" daffodils are back from the brink

Found a couple of surprises in my yard the last couple of weeks.  First, there's a maple growing in the back yard that I didn't plant and never noticed before. I was just looking out my window and noticed a tree with reddish leaves I had never seen.  I was so surprised!  It's not small (probably about 10' tall now) so its been several years of me not noticing it.  (That's how you know you've got a crap ton of trees in your yard...when a 10' tree just shows up out of the blue.)

Second, I found two types of daffs blooming this spring that I thought had disappeared from the yard years ago. A very pleasant surprise indeed!

It wasn't all happy surprises though.  One unpleasant discovery I made is that the garlic mustard situation in my backyard has seriously deteriorated. I really need to kick butt this season and regularly patrol and remove those horrible, horrible plants.

So, on to the subject of today's post. Despite the stingy amount of rain we've gotten the last couple of months, some of my spring bloomers are looking fabulous...Virginia Bluebells and Creeping Jacobs Ladder, both Wisconsin natives, have blue blooms and don't seem to be struggling as much as some others.  Throw in some pulmonaria and there's just a lot of blue happening right now in my garden.

There's a lot of pollinator action happening too.  It turns out that I'm not the only one who likes blue.

Although I only see hummingbirds and the big kind of bumblebee visiting my pulmonaria, EVERYONE loves creeping Jacob's Ladder!  Big bees, little bees, big and small flying insects that I don't recognize, and even ants.  I sat down for a bit to watch the show and the bumblebees were so covered in pollen you could hardly see their legs. There was just a swarm of flying critters working over the plants.  I don't see that kind of pollinator activity except in the late fall when the sedums and native goldenrods are blooming.

Deer leave these ephemeral Wisconsin natives alone (at least in my yard)

Unknown Lungwort (maybe a cross between "Diane Claire" and "Mrs. Moon") just decided to show up one day with its moody dark blue flowers.  Bumblebees seem to like Pulmonaria (aka Lungwort) even though its not native to Wisconsin. Maybe because the flower stems are stiff enough to hold them?

It's March, April and May All At Once!

Mrs. Moon-March 2012

Roy Davidson-March 2012

Our crazy spring weather has got my garden all confuzzled.  May and April bloomers flowering alongside the March bloomers.  Only my oaks, hickories and japanese maples seem to be on their regular schedule.  One of the currently confused is Pulmonaria (Lungwort).

Pulmonaria isn't a plant I'd call pretty but it is distinctive.  I grow three cultivars: Mrs. Moon, Roy Davidson and Diane Claire.  Mrs. Moon has white-spotted foliage, pink buds and blue flowers.  Roy Davidson also has white-spotted foliage, pink buds and blue flowers but the flowers are paler in color.  Diane Claire has mottled silver foliage with bigger, brighter-colored flowers than the first two.  The flowers are magenta and purple. 

Diane Claire-March 2012

Diane Claire-June 2011

For spring, I like Roy Davidson the best of my pulmonarias; its small, pale blooms look at home in a naturalized setting.  Diane Claire is my least favorite in spring; I find its intense colors jarring next to more delicate natives.  However, once summer rolls around, Diane Claire really shines in the shade garden and looks wonderful with blue hostas.  I just need to find something to pair it with in the spring that looks good so I can enjoy this plant completely.

I find it strange but our native Virginia Bluebells bloom in similar colors as most Pulmonarias: pink buds and blue flowers. Quite unexpected since most other native Winsconsin spring ephemerals bloom white.

The nice thing about Pulmonarias is that they aren't ephemerals; they stick around throughout the growing season.  Once they are done blooming, their beautiful leaves elongate and the plants get a bit of size to them. They usually look pretty good through late fall.

Virginia Bluebells-a native ephemeral

Another nice thing about Pulmonarias is that they are supposed to be deer/rabbit resistant.  That was true for me until last fall when something seriously chowed on them, multiple times.  I'm probably the only gardener in the state who gets their Lungworts eaten by critters.