New Growth: Early Spring in the Garden

Early spring is always a very exciting time in the garden. New shoots emerge for the early-growing species and spring ephemerals like Bloodroot, with its beautiful white blooms, take advantage of the sunlight before the trees leaf out. It's also a time in which we check on plants that were transplanted during the prior year to see if they survived winter's harsher temperatures. Other herbaceous perennials send up shoots weeks later. These include the milkweeds, Joe Pyes, and Ironweeds. Learning what each species looks like in this early stage of growth is its own adventure. To help you on your own plant knowledge journey, we are making an effort to photograph each plant's early growth and will add them to the site. It's never fun when you think a plant is weedy and you pull it from the ground, but realize only later it was something you had planted or wanted in your garden. This kind of misidentification is painful and we'd rather you be able to avoid it in the first place. 

There are also some species that retain a base layer of green leaves throughout winter (called a basal rosette), allowing them to photosynthesize and keep the surrounding soil warmer. The goldenrods like Blue-Stemmed Goldenrod and Showy Goldenrod, penstemons, and Golden Alexander are among the species that have basal rosettes. On the other end of the spectrum, plants like Purple Coneflower, Late Boneset, the Joe Pyes, milkweeds, and the Ironweeds all die back to the ground during winter. This latter set of plants take longer to show signs of life, but be patient with them. Their relative slowness is helpful in the event of late frosts in spring, when they would otherwise pour energy into doomed shoots.

If your garden census reveals some plant deaths, you can begin thinking about what you want to place in those spots. While these deaths are sad, they’re also an opportunity to reshape your space. This is a natural way for your garden to evolve. Sure, you can slot in the exact same plant species as before, but stop and think before you do so. Consider that that particular spot may not have had the best soil moisture or sunlight conditions for that species to begin with. Even if it was sited well, maybe it didn’t thrive like you thought it would or the location became more sunny or shady over the years. Be bold and try something different. Your garden will evolve in a more organic fashion because of it. Gardening should be an  experimental process, not a final result. In other words, don’t turn your garden into a museum.

You can still plant seeds for those species we have labeled “easy” for germination indoors or outdoors (and often those classified as “Cold(30)” as well).

Happy spring, all!

-Andrew