Early Flowers Get the Sun

Spring usually surprises us with an uncontained vigor and natural beauty that we tend to forget during the quiet of winter. This brilliance is not merely an illusion created by cabin fever, however. Early blooming woodland wildflowers, commonly called spring ephemerals, celebrate spring in style. These plants know how to start the growing season off right and possess some of the most unique blooms around. 

Most spring ephemerals take up residence on the floor of established forest environments, where the sunlight is hogged by trees during late spring, summer, and fall. Ephemerals have developed a strategy to get past this difficulty by cramming their flowering cycle into the early spring, when the soil is beginning to warm but deciduous trees and shrubs have not yet generated leaves. In the early spring, forest floors are bustling centers of floral activity for a few weeks until the summer guard begins to take over. As trees and other plants begin to gear up for the season, spring ephemerals tend to quickly die off and fade away, biding their time until the next winter thaw. While they are short-lived in their above ground state, most ephemerals have robust and modified root systems designed to last a long time. The commonly seen trillium can live to the ripe age of 25 years. Many of these plants are well suited to the garden, especially plots near a woodland edge. As impressive as these blooms are to us, spring ephemerals are an even more welcome sight for sore pollinator eyes. Early rising butterflies, bees, and other beneficial insects rely on early blooms for sustenance at a time when it is still too cold for most other plants to grow. Luckily for gardeners and pollinators, there are a wide variety of early blooming ephemerals that can help feed the spring wildlife in your area while also adding an early spring pop to your displays.

For gardens, spring ephemerals are best placed in the nooks between slower growing and larger plants. As the other plants in your garden grow, they will hide declining ephemeral remains in late spring and summer. Bloodroot, which gets its name from the deep red liquid it exudes when wounded, forms attractive collections of leaves punctuated by white and yellow blooms. It is believed their primary form of pollination is through extremely cold tolerant bees like bumble and solitary mining bees. Bloodroot relies on ants to move and even plant their seeds. These plants actually make seeds with tiny sweet and nutritious growths attached, which ants grab and take back to their nest. After stripping the seeds of their snacks, the ants then dispose of the seeds in their refuse pile where they are free to grow at their leisure. Trillium, another favorite ephemeral with interesting foliage and white or yellow blooms, also relies on ants to perform seed legwork. Most trillium is pollinated by bees and wasps, however there are red varieties that attempt to look and smell more appetizing to their preferred fly and beetle pollinators. Another favorite for bees and flies is aptly called spring beauty, and it is rare to find one of their pink and white blooms without a visitor. Carolina spring beauty is another, more local variety of the same plant with slightly darker blooms. Both plants, while possessing rather dainty flowers, develop dense collections of small tuberous roots which inspired their other common name, fairy spuds. Not to be confused with the thuggish and invasive Spanish bluebells, Virginia bluebells can create some especially breathtaking sweeps underneath trees while still staying manageable. Their dark pink to blue flowers are butterfly magnets. Dutchman’s breeches and squirrel corn, conversation starters in their names alone, have an early spring display that is equal in character. Both are favorites of newly emerged bumble bee queens as they begin to build their nests. Jack-in-the-pulpits can add a prehistoric flare to shaded gardens while also collecting water in their foliage for insects and other wildlife to drink. They produce attractive clusters of berries later in the season which feed a variety of creatures. Pay attention to the ephemerals in the forests around you this spring, and consider planting a few in your gardens as well.

Unsure of What to Plant?

No matter what you choose, a wide variety of native plants seems to be most important when it comes to providing food and shelter for local wildlife. A recent study performed on multiple bumble bee species revealed that while many of their preferred blooms overlapped, each species also favored blooms that the other species ignored. Other pollinators like butterflies can be picky, especially when they are thinking of laying eggs. Having a mix of many different plants native to the area in your landscapes is the best way to cater to the pollinators in your area. Although native plants are the best (and only) way to cater to many of our beneficial insects, not all native plants are created equal. When looking for plants, avoid any cultivated varieties that focus on modifying the plant’s bloom or foliage. Altered blooms, like the popular double bloom variety, usually involve mutations of the flower which can make it less attractive or unusable to pollinators. The foliage color in plants is partly due to protective chemicals in their leaves. Changes to these colors are best to avoid, as beneficial insects have not evolved an ability to negate the effects of human-altered plant defenses.