Native wildflower Fringed Polygala has a close association with Mother's Day in this area. The farmer's children that lived here in the past gathered handfuls of these flowers for their mother on that special day. Now we walk to the back woods on Mother's Day to try and enjoy this treasure in a natural setting. The single plant that was moved to our shade garden from the woods nearly disappeared during its second winter in the new location. We speculated that foraging crows drawn near by the bird feeder nipped off these evergreen leaves when the snow cover was scant. Perhaps the abundant rain prompted the flush of new growth that decided to bloom today.
All of this new growth seems to indicate that this wild plant intends to survive in the garden. That's a pretty good Father's Day gift since I really hate to kill wild flowers by moving them. It is likely that this is a single plant although there may have been viable seed produced by the underground flowers that we know exist but have never seen.
We will have at least one more June flower from this bud.
The protective cage is back in place now. We had removed is because a trillium appeared inside of the cage. If the Polygala grows through the cage, we will have a problem. Frequent checks will be made to move any new growth under the edge of the cage. It seems that a wild flower should be able to survive without so much fuss but this plant is becoming less common in the wild. We will take no chances with this one.
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