Mid-April report: spring beauties

The unusual warm weather experienced in SW Ontario for a while has determined many spring beauties to explode into fast growth and flowering. Then, the torrential rains arrived, and now we are heading backwards to the winter…(snow showers outside at the moment).

This is, most years, the early spring time in Ontario!

The earliest spring beauties are in flower: Lindera benzoin, Lonicera canadensis, Claytonia virginica, Caulophyllum, Hepatica americana and H. acutiloba.  Sanguinaria canadensis has almost finished flowering (depending on the region) and yesterday I noticed the first trout lilies blooming, plus Trillium erectum and T. grandiflorum with buds just about to open! The wild ginger is well on its way of carpeting the woodland floor/garden.

In the garden, few Primulas and Helleborus have been flowering for a couple of weeks now alongside Corydalis.  Other spring beauties are appearing almost on a daily basis. *Our native Primula mistassinica is in flower as well but I didn’t take a picture yet.

*Young seedlings have also appeared and some new sowings are starting to germinate.
Especially for those who have sown Caulophyllum in the ground two years ago (and the few lucky ones who received one year-old stratified seeds) –  be careful because the young shoots are dark colored (almost black) for a while and they can be easily stepped upon. Same goes for other directly sown native species in the ground, even if green colored/or sown in pots: Asarum  and Stylophorum diphyllum, Hepatica, should be germinating around this time, or soon.