Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Spring woodland wildflowers
I was snowshoeing with friends in the Big Woods state park in Nerstrand, Minnesota. There are signs up to stay on the trail as there are endangered dwarf trout lilies in the area.
This is one of the very rare places they grow. The flowers are tiny! This from Minnesota Seasons: When not flowering, the Dwarf is not easily distinguished from other trout lilies, though the leaves are slightly smaller than those of the average White Trout Lily. When in bloom, the flower size difference is unmistakable, plus the Dwarf typically has only 4 tepals where White always has 6.
That got me thinking about other woodland spring flowers including the White Trout Lily whose tulip-like green leaves have silvery-maroon mottled markings. These are available for purchase!
Trout Lilies offer pollinators a much needed meal during a time when little else is available. What is even more impressive is the impact they have on their neighbors. Research shows that spring wildflowers like Trout Lily actually serve as nutrient pools for the entire forest.
Bluebells buds start out pink, turn purple and finish their flowering cycle a cobalt blue. A perennial growing to 2 ft tall they’ll bloom in shade to part shade April and May.
One of my favorites is native columbine. also called Red or American Columbine, is, again, one of the first plants to provide nectar in the spring for bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds.
Columbine is the larval host plant of the Columbine Duskywing. The colorful flowers are red flowing into yellow. Besides being an early bloomer, Columbine will tolerate a large range of soil and sun types, so you’ll have success with it in full sun as well as shade. It can grow in pine tree areas and is deer-resistant.
