Spring-blooming beauties
This is a great time of year to head for the North Georgia mountains or even the Atlanta Botanical Garden woodland and experience spring wildflowers. Spring beauties, shooting stars, bleeding heart and trilliums are just a few of the spring ephemerals that carpet the woodland. Make sure to keep your eyes on the ground when you walk so you don’t miss anything. Among the earliest to bloom are spring beauties, Claytonia virginica, with miniature delicate pink flowers, and trout lily, Erythronium americanum. This beauty has tiny flowers — yellow with a purple streak — and maroon-purple mottled leaves (usually 6 to l0 inches tall), a welcome sight especially on cold days in March. There is also a white form called E. albidum. Over time both these native gems form drifts in the garden when they spread their seed. As with other spring ephemerals, it is best to plant these with perennials and small shrubs that do not go dormant early, including rhododendrons, native azaleas and ferns. Some of my favorite ferns for the woodland include royal fern, Osmunda regalis, and cinnamon fern, Osmunda cinnamomea; both are great to fill in bare spots for summer and fall when wildflowers disappear.
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