Springing to Life

April 10th, 2012

   April is such a nice time in the garden.

New growth of foamflower 'Sugar and Spice' piggybacking on top of last year's dark foliage.

   Each day a different plant comes back to life or pushes out flower buds or takes one step more toward peak beauty.

   I’d have to rank it as my favorite time of year.

   I thought I’d share some pictures and observations of what caught my eye this week. No advice, no studies, no hard-core plant info… just some neat goings-on.

   One of my favorite shade plants is foamflower ‘Sugar and Spice,’ and this little bicolor beauty started putting out flower stems and fresh green and burgundy leaves this week above last year’s darker leaves.

   Winter didn’t do much damage at all to the old foliage, so I didn’t cut it. The color just turned a rich burgundy.

   The new leaves are emerging from this rosette of burgundy, almost like a fountain. The effect is that it seems like a new plant is piggy-backing on the shoulders of another.

   I’ll eventually cut the older leaves as they fade into the sunset, but for now, this is one interesting foamflower.

Creeping sedum 'Angelina' and dark-leafed coralbells.

   I’ve got a patch of golden creeping sedum ‘Angelina’ edging a group of dark-leafed coralbells, and both of these also came through winter fine. They’re already making a bright and solid contrast under a ‘Beni Otake’ Japanese maple tree at my back left house corner.

   Not everyone likes lamium, but I think there are some beautiful varieties of this creeping perennial, especially the pink-flowering, white-variegated ‘Pink Chablis’ and the white-flowering, white-variegated ‘White Nancy.’

   My patch of ‘Pink Chablis’ colored up nicely and is already blooming pink on a shady side of my back patio (protected by a dogwood and three ‘Double Pink Knock Out’ roses).

   Don’t confuse lamium with the overly aggressive, yellow-flowering lamiastrum, also known as yellow archangel. That one is fine all by itself on a shady, rocky bank. But it makes a terrible neighbor in a garden.

   And another of my favorites is barrenwort (Epimedium). I’ve got a patch of barrenwort ‘Rubrum’ under a dogwood that’s now in full bloom with dainty, pink flowers hanging below the newly emerged yellow-green heart-shaped leaves of this under-used shade plant.

   We’re still running about 3 weeks ahead of schedule, from what I can tell by what’s blooming when.

Barrenwort 'Rubrum' in flower.

   Like a lot of people, I’ve already got lilacs starting to flower. My blueberries have been in full bloom for more than a week.

   Early-March-planted lettuce is ready to start clipping.

   A lot of my tulips already have come and gone.

   My ‘Prairifire’ crabapple tree out front is opening its rosy-magenta flower buds – way earlier than I’ve ever seen it bloom.

   And buds are already starting to pop out from some of the latest spring waker-uppers, such as American fringetree and crape myrtles.

   I’ve heard reports from record-keepers at public gardens saying some plants are beating their earliest-ever bloom times by a full 2 weeks.

   Who knows what kind of weather we’ll get from here on out, but for now, I’m enjoying the hand we’ve been dealt.