Ahead Of The Storm

Typical April days have presented our plants with a wide variety of conditions.  Several warm sunny days were followed by ground whitening frost on two consecutive nights.  Today is presently warm but a wet heavy snowfall is set to begin at any moment.  Predictions vary from 3" to 11" and we are ready to be snowed in for possibly several days.  Pictures taken both before the storm and after will allow us to see just how these native plants handle April in NY.  Three Bloodroot plants show different degrees of releasing their flowers.  Starting with the partially open bud in the upper left, the protective curled leaf has been left behind with the petals starting to open.  The flower in the center is a bit further along with its pollen load visible.  In the lower right a bud still in close contact with its leaf is still holding its tightly curled petals.  We will return after the storm releases us from its grip to see the condition of these plants.

This flower has nearly extended its eight petals into a flat circle.  The small green leaves beneath the flower are likely a wild Geranium.  The larger leaves to the right remain unknown to us.  One of these days we will try to identify the fallen tree leaves since these trees are nothing like the Red maples and Oaks that grow on our land.  These rotting leaves may have produced soil that meets the needs of the Bloodroot plants.  There has to be a reason why their growth here is limited to one small piece of ground.

These two separate plants are possibly displaying good judgement by holding their buds close with the approaching storm.

 

Subdued light resulting from the storm cloud cover allowed us to finally take a picture of Spring beauty flowers that show their actual colors.  This plant grows from a pea like structure that is located far from the above ground growth.  Without this pea no growth will follow transplantation attempts.  One cannot go for the pea until the plant begins to die back  Taken too soon it will simply die.  Trying to find it later will likely prove unsuccessful.  So we drive across the valley to see this beautiful plant in flower.

These next pictures were taken in our woodland garden.  Our Dutchman's breeches have been protected under a wire cage preventing the deer from simply trampling them into a state of nonexistence.  Even the cage presents a hazard when its removal fails to see a dead blossom breaking stalk trapped in the wire.  These plants will soon disappear from sight when their short growing season comes to an end.  We will endeavor to place name bearing stones at the known edge of these plants.

We have been checking here daily for the first signs of life from our Wild ginger.  Its habit of protecting the top surface of the leaves by holding them inside of a tight package with only the unseen underside of the leaves pushing up through woodland soil.  When the canopy of wide intact open leaves covers the soil, the flowers will open in actual contact with the ground.  These flowers are easily missed as they will be hidden from view.  Roots seen creeping just above the ground are normal for this plant.  We have learned to simply leave this plant to fend for itself.  How much new ground will be claimed this year remains to be seen.  We anxiously await for it to spillover the path defining stones as that will make the open flowers easier to see.

In the center of this carefully cropped picture are the only two Bloodroot plants to have made an appearance in our shade garden this year.  A spherical light brown ball can be seen atop a reddish colored stem with the leaf wrapper close to the ground.  Each day we search for more but so far have found nothing.  I failed to describe the location of the second plant.  Its still tightly wrapped flower is still held close to the ground to the left of its big brother.  So we wait.