PlantPostings

May 23, 2011

Hide and seek in the Mayapple patch

I’ve had Mayapples (Podophyllum peltatum) on my mind for several weeks now—since before I posted about them as plant of the month.

There are just so many great things to say about Mayapples beyond the fact that they’re fascinating to watch throughout the growing season.

Rabbits stay away from them.
You can make jam from the fruit (but only after the fruit turns yellow).
Scientists are finding they’re an excellent source of podophyllotoxin, a compound used for making cancer-fighting chemicals.
Morel mushrooms sometimes appear where Mayapples grow (although I haven’t found any here and I’ve looked nearly every day).

They’re shy, though. A top view of the Mayapple patch looks like this:

But if you peel back the foliage or kneel down to their level, you find a surprise—lovely white blooms that rival the beauty of many showier flowering plants.

May 15, 2011

GBBD: A colorful, imperfect post

I'm about to head out the door to a theatre production of "Les Miserable," about which I am incredibly excited! But I couldn't let May 15 go by without participating in Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day. Thanks to Carol at May Dreams Gardens for hosting!

Things are a bit out of control in my gardens. After I shot the photo above, I did manage to get out and pull the wandering Ferns in the main perennial bed. But there's so much work to do!

It won't get done tonight, so here's a sampling of what's blooming in my garden today:

The Redbud is at the peak of it's brilliance (here framing one of our lovely Burning Bushes). At least it was at its peak until the wind blew many of the blossoms off. I went a little overboard with the Redbud shots, none of them particularly amazing, but it's a personal favorite tree.

I usually miss the cute little yellow Barberry blossoms. You have to get really close to even notice them:

Of course another favorite, Bleeding Heart, is lovely now and will remain so for a few weeks as long as it doesn't get too hot too fast:

The Cushion Spurge is not at its peak, and that's good because this isn't a very good shot. I have much better ones from previous years. But it is GBBD, and Cushion Spurge is blooming in my garden:

The Flowering Almond is luscious. I pruned it back a bit too much last fall, so I won't show you what the entire bush looks like, but the blossoms are among the prettiest in the garden:

The reliable Lamium has its pretty colors on, too, and they'll stay that way for months. What a fun little plant!

The Yellow Wood Violets are brightening up their little corner of the world:

As are the Periwinkle Wintercreepers:

And we can't forget the Flowering Crabapples, which are filling the air with sweet scents all around town:

Soon the Lily of the Valley will do the same:

And I had to share this photo of the Trillium in all of its "naturalness." It's an imperfect photo for so many reasons, but I like it. This is what it really looks like in my garden. Evidence of cohabitation with animals, and all.

Happy May GBBD!

May 11, 2011

Plant of the month: Mayapple
(with a nod to Trillium and Jack-in-the-Pulpit)

What isn’t blooming in my Wisconsin garden right now? Seriously, because of the cool weather through April, plants that normally wouldn’t peak and bloom at the same time are all popping out at the same time. In any year it would be difficult to pick a plant of the month in southern Wisconsin in May. This year, it’s even tougher.

But for some reason, this year the Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum L.) has captured my attention. The plants were so cute when they popped out of the ground two weeks ago:

Now the Mayapples, sometimes called American Mandrake or Umbrella Plant, are thriving in the woods out back in a rather large patch:

Mayapple has a fascinating lifecycle:

In early to mid-spring, the miniature umbrellas poke through the forest leaf mulch. They look like little buttons from the top. The umbrellas unfurl a few days later and stretch out to form a horizontal shade for the forest understory.
In mid- to late spring, the leaf and stem split in half, and white flowers form from small green buds.
In the summer, the fruits form and slowly grow into green apple-like fruits.
In late summer, they ripen to a yellowish tint, at which point they are edible, although most sources say to eat carefully and sparingly. All other parts of the plant are toxic, including the seeds.
In fall, red berries form as the plants die back.

For more information about Mayapples, check out these articles and websites:

Two other plants just hitting their stride in the garden are Trillium grandiflorum:

And Arisaema triphyllum (Jack in the Pulpit):

But these photos were taken yesterday and the way things are growing now, the garden looks different every time you look…

May 04, 2011

Hope grows: foliage!

Back in March when I last participated in Hanni’s Hope Grows meme, I said I was looking forward to foliage. Well, there wasn’t much to report on April 5. All the growth this spring has been delayed because of unusually cool, cloudy weather.

But now it’s May. And we have foliage!