Thursday, April 30, 2009

Spring Ephemeral Highlight: Self-Seeding Virginia Bluebells

Virginia bluebells highlight the spring ephemeral season for me. As I wrote in my post about them last year, they continue to slowly and delightfully self-seed throughout the garden.

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I eagerly await the beautiful purple mouse ear leaves which break the surface in early March. The leaves quickly grow into large glaucous green leaves.
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After the leaves are out, the blue bell shaped flowers begin to appear.
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To look into one of these is one of the most thrilling experiences of spring. They are stunning. The color variation within each bell is something man could not create. In addition, bluebells have a light, wonderful fragrance.
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My best patch is in the Long Border growing under a rose bush. It has steadily grown from three plants planted three years ago into a three foot wide patch in the rich, humousy soil underneath the rose. In areas with poorer soil the bluebells have not been as vigorous.

3 comments:

abby jenkins said...

After four years of trying different spots, I finally found the perfect place for our bluebells. Against the foundation under a mature while azalea. Beautiful! Guess I will dig up the other ones and put them there.

Jan said...

Lovely little blue flowers. It is nice to see plants that grow in a different zone than the one I garden in.

Jan
Always Growing

Julia Erickson said...

Abby,

Congratulations--aren't they great!

-Heirloom Gardener

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