Spring Is Here

By Ms Sherry

Solomon Seal

Pieris Japonica

Trillium

Hosta

The calendar states it as fact, and the garden verifies it. Spring is definitely here. The days are beginning to warm and, thanks to daylight savings time, are much longer. Gardeners are finding more and more reasons to wander around the yard – cleaning flower beds, admiring their first spring flowers, and just dawdling as they greet another season. I walked around yesterday to see what surprises would greet me. The trillium were up and in flower. This precious wildflower is one of the first spring bloomers. Happily at home in a woodland setting, trillium will gradually reproduce over time.

The hostas are beginning to sprout ever-so-slowly with their lush green leaves unwinding as the temperatures rise. The first of the Solomon Seal (Polygonatum) has come up. Like hosta, Solomon Seal also prefer the shade. It spreads by rhizomes and is welcome anywhere it decides to come up in my garden; it makes a beautiful combination with hosta, ferns, lenten roses, and others who also prefer shade.

One of my very favorite shrubs is Pieris Japonica. Pieris prefer to grow in the same conditions as azaleas and should be planted in the same manner – high in acid, well- drained but moist soil under the shade of pines or other high trees. They can take a little sun, but that would be morning only. My husband always says the glorious dangling clusters of little white flowers remind him of chandeliers.

It is time to pull out our serious gardening shoes and clothes; the time has come. We have survived another winter and the world and our gardens are our oysters.

I used THE SOUTHERN LIVING GARDENING BOOK as a resource for this blog.