Garden Blogger's Bloom Day was started six years ago by the May Dreams Gardens blog. On the 15th of every month, garden bloggers from around the US post photos of all the plants that are blooming in their gardens. It's been a late spring here in Massachusetts. He...

As a garden designer, one of the questions that I’m often asked is “What can I plant in the shade that the deer won’t eat?” We all know that while hostas may be gorgeous and highly collectible, they are also a tantalizing “salad bar” for grazing deer. Pulmonarias, with their eye-catching foliage and ea...

During my first visit to Monticello last month, I came across a wonderful book that piqued my interest in native plants. Andrea Wulf’s highly engaging The Brother Gardeners brings to life the science and adventure of eighteenth-century plant collecting, beginning with colonial farmer John Bartram who started shipping seeds o...

After a week of much-needed spring rain, the garden looks lush and expectant. Everywhere, there seems to be a new wonder to appreciate and admire. Hosta leaves unfurl, the blossoms of the crabapple trees are buzzing with bees, and the arching stems of old-fashioned bleeding heart are lined with dangling blooms. And, hugging the ground, a d...

To many gardeners, the name phlox conjures up images of a fragrant perennial in the sunny mid-summer border. There is another phlox, however, Phlox divericata, that creates a cloud of shimmering blue and violet in woodland shade.

Woodland phlox is a deli...

Every spring, there are a few new plants on my “plant lust” list – plants that I have read about or seen and just have to add to my garden. This year, the spring flowering Erythronium is high on the list. Depending on what part of the country you’re from, you may know Erythronium by a different name – perhaps Adder'...

There arehundreds of species of flowers that are native to the woodlands of northeastern North America, and nearly 90% of them bloom in the spring. Spring ephemerals are among the first of the woodland plants to emerge, allowing them to take full advantage of th...

My husband’s Uncle Charles is an avid outdoorsman who loves to hike and canoe all over the country. At the young age of 81, he is constantly conquering another river, portaging his canoe over landmass obstacles or enc...

When we bought our 90 year-old house in the suburbs, I anxiously awaited my first spring to see which flowers would emerge from the ground. After all, many generations had owned the property. Surely there would be a few long-lived peonies, some daffodils, bleeding hearts, and other “heirloom plants.” The property was graced with beaut...

In May, the blooms of Tiarella carpet the woodland floor with a layer of foamy haze. The fuzzy flowers are held like little bottle brushes above green leaves that often are centrally marked with maroon. Until recently, Tiarella was only grown in home gardens that were devoted to woodland plants. Now, thanks to the work of plant hybridizers and a wea...

One of the most well-known and well-loved of the spring ephemerals is the old-fashioned Bleeding Heart, a graceful ornamental with rose-pink, nodding, heart-shaped flowers hanging off of arching stems. Bleeding Heart’s unique blooms delight children, and the plant’s elegant appearance enhances cottage gardens and shady retreat...

One of the most graceful flowers of the woodland garden is trillium, a genus of more than 40 species of spring ephemeral perennials that are native to North America. Commonly called Wakerobin, Wood lily and Trinity flower, trilliums enchant us with single large blossoms poised above three whorled leaves. Thus the Latin name trilliu...

Springtime in the woodlands of eastern North America begins slowly and ends with a crescendo of blossoms that carpet the forest floor in May. Many of the earliest wildflowers in this succession of bloom can be effective and adaptable additions to the home shade garden. One such wildflower is our native twinleaf, Jeffersonia diphylla. Its flow...

Spring is the season we all await impatiently. During this time of year, I can be found scouting my gardens nearly every day, searching for the slightest hint of new green growth pushing up through the bare earth. Already, there are crocuses and snowdrops in bloom in my gardens and in just a few short weeks, the early spring ephemerals will be in full force with their delicate and fleeting beauty. Bloodroot is one of the first of these early bloomers and it is also one o...

Few flowers are more appreciated than the first blossoms of spring. One of the earliest flowers is the diminutive snowdrop, usually blooming several weeks before crocuses appear. Often emerging out of a blanketof snow, the aptly named snowdrop flower resembles three drops of milk hanging from a stem. Its Latin name, Galanthus, means “milk-white flowers.” The plants gr...