Lilacs - Fragrance for Days!

I remember walking home from school through the alleyways in the springtime. Lilacs would be blooming everywhere, and I would take armfuls of them home to my momma, knowing they were her favorite flower. 

Their exquisite fragrance makes them my favorite, too! When their heavenly aroma wafts through my yard, I know that spring is finally here, and that summer is just around the corner!

A true delight in my garden is the Sensation Lilac. This lovely lilac has deep purple buds opening to a display showing each petal completely outlined in white. This two-tone coloration is so unexpected! And its lovely lilac scent is so delightful. This shrub is always a favorite of everyone who sees it!

Growing up in the upper Midwest, I remember lilacs being a staple of many home landscapes. Gracing farmhouses and urban homes alike, these shrubs are long-lived in the landscape and require very little maintenance. With many dwarf varieties available, lilacs can fit into any home landscape. Cascading over rock walls, or planted en masse to form a hedgerow, enjoying these fragrant blooms is a delight in the springtime. 

A visit to the Madison Arboretum and their expansive lilac plantings is all it takes to fall in love with these beauties. The Longenecker Horticultural Gardens offer a dazzling springtime display with so many varieties, and so many scents! I dive into the blossoms head first, absorbing their heavenly aroma. I really can't get enough of their heady perfume.

Swallowtail butterflies are so attracted to my Sensation lilacs. One year I had a visitor that stuck around for a little photo shoot. Constantly flitting around from blossom to blossom, I delighted with watching this beautiful butterfly on my bushes. 

Lilacs are pretty much care-free as far as plant maintenance. You will only need to remove the spent flower clusters once they're done blooming, and trim out any dead branches. These multi-stemmed, deciduous shrubs spread through shoots sent out from their root systems, expanding some plants into large clusters.

Botanical name: Syringa vulgaris

Common name: Common Lilac

Family: Oleaceae -- The Olive family

Interesting fact: The botanical name of lilac, Syringa (suh-RIN-gah), is from the Greek word syrinx, meaning tube. The flower clusters are made up of many little individuals flowers, each with a tubular center.

Lilacs grow best in full sun. Always consider the mature size of the plant when choosing a planting site. 

Pruning: Lilacs produce flowers on last year's wood. Pruning too late in the season will remove next year's flowers. Don't do it!

*Pro tip: For very large, overgrown clusters of lilacs that appear to be diminishing in the number of blossoms they produce, a good rule for pruning is to remove the oldest canes over a 3-year period, to gradually allow the plant to recover and grow new shoots. 

Share your love of lilacs in the comments. Any questions about growing lilacs? Let me know. 

Happy gardening, everyone! 💜

Bowman's Root - Delicate Beauty in the Shade Garden

Native to Missouri, Bowman's Root (Gallenia trifoliata) is a delightful perennial plant. Although it appears to grow as a woody shrub, its branches die back to the ground each winter, and new sprouts appear in spring. Growing to about 3' tall in my garden, with about an equal spread, these plants have a woody root system. They thrive in the edge of the woodland shade garden, requiring at least part-time shade. 

I love the delicate look of the Bowman's Root, and how it gently moves in the breeze. The tiny one-inch, five-petaled flowers arrive in early summer, and while they bloom for only a short time, they are enchanting, especially planted en masse. This ethereal quality is the reason I wanted to surround my angel statue with these blooms. Here she is, in a sea of flowers, with the late afternoon sun adding its soft light. The over-arching branch, with all the shades of pink, is a Carnival Weigela. This is another absolute favorite of mine, and I will tell you more about this lovely flowering shrub in another post.

Bowman's Root also pairs strikingly with my pink peonies. The dark bark of the Black Cherry tree is a lovely backdrop for these early summer bloomers in my garden.

Even after the blooms have faded, the foliage of the Bowman's Root adds wonderful texture to the garden. Its trifoliate leaves hug the stems, which develop a red coloration that is a lovely contrast to the bright green leaves. The arching branches move softly with the breezes through the shady garden all summer long.

Funny story about my Bowman's Root... One day I was at the garden center and fell in love with these delightful plants, and purchased 3 of them to add to my garden. I had to laugh at myself when I came home and approached the garden bed to lay out the new plants, because there, right in front of me, was a specimen plant of Bowman's Root that I had planted the year before. There it was, blooming happily in my garden!  Well, at least I know what I like! 

If you're looking to add a lovely "filler" shrub for the middle of the garden bed, check out these delightlful perennial plants. You will enjoy their beauty for years to come. Here are the basics:

Common Name: Bowman's Root; Indian physic

Botanical Name: Gallenia trifoliate (formerly Porteranthus trifoliatus)

Type: Herbaceous perennial

Family: Rosaceae

Native Range: Eastern North America

Zone: 4 to 8

Heght: 2 - 4'

Spread: 1.5 - 3' 

Bloom Time: Early summer

Bloom Description: White (can be pale pink)

Light: Part shade

Water: Medium

Happy Gardening, everyone! 🌱

Crocuses - Beautiful Harbingers of Spring!

Each spring I wait with anticipation for the unveiling. 

Our region had been experiencing sub-zero temperatures, and unfortunately there was no snowpack to insulate the ground from the extreme cold. 

I had covered my garden beds with evergreen boughs to provide some winter protection for the plants.

Now it was finally time to remove the boughs, and I was eagerly hoping to see something green and growing underneath.

Winter can seem interminable here in the upper Midwest, and it is so hard to wait for spring! But I know from experience that by early to mid-March, under those boughs new life would be emerging. Temperatures had been creeping upward, along with longer hours of sunlight and a gradually warming sun.

And as sure as spring follows winter, once again new life emereges from the recently frozen ground, bringing with it hope, along with its tiny green sprouts. They're here! Crocuses! And if you look closely, you can see a white stripe on every little leaf!

And then there's the flowers! 

The Flowers! They shine with such beauty in the warming sun! This little garden bed area outside of our back door is a "microclimate", with southerly exposure and protection from the northwesterly winds that usher in the bitter cold. 

This cluster of crocuses is the first to bloom in my yard every year! 

Although I currently have only purple spring blooming crocuses in my gardens, they also come in lovely golden yellow and pure white varieties -- as well as some tantilizing bicolor varieties that are also available.

Overall, there are about 100 vaieties of crocuses, most of which bloom in the springtime; however there are some varieties that bloom in the autumn of the year. Today we are focusing on early spring blooming varieties. Here are the basics:

Scientific name: Crocus vernus 

Common name: Spring crocus

Plant type: Corms

Bloom time: Early spring

Height: 4-6" tall

Spread: 3-6" spread

Hardiness zone: 3-8

Crocuses, like many spring blooming bulb plants, require a period of cold temperatures to 'force' them into coming out of their corm 'shell'. This pre-chilling requires about 10 weeks of being exposed to temps below 45 degrees Farenheit. 

How to Plant: Crocuses grow best in loose, well-drained soils. Plant crocuses in perennial beds or rock gardens where they can thrive without being disturbed. 

When to Plant: Plant crocus bulbs in the fall, once the weather has cooled, but before the ground freezes. Space them 3" apart (on center) and plant about 3” deep.

Tip: An easy to remember rule-of-thumb for bulb (and corm) planting depth, is to plant them 2-3 times their diameter deep into the ground. 

Truly crocuses are our harbingers of spring here in the upper Midwest! They bring such joy when thier bright colors light up the garden after the long months of cold winter. Why not plant some corms this fall? You will delight in the joy that these little crocuses bring to the very early spring garden!

Happy gardening, everyone! 🌱

Happy spring!