Earlier this year, we saw an abundance of spring wildflowers blooming in our garden. The early spring blooms provide much-needed pollen and nectar for honeybees, bumblebees, and other pollinators. The flowers also support other beneficial insects, which help to control insect pests that otherwise damage our vegetable crops.
Yellow golden groundsel was the first to bloom, as usual. This is a great native plant for wet areas, like our garden, and it grows in both full sun and partial shade. It will also grow in dry and medium soil. It is multiplying and forming colonies where it is happy and serving as a groundcover and living mulch throughout the year. You can read more about golden groundsel and its use in the Chesapeake Bay watershed here.
 |
| Golden Groundsel beginning to bloom |
 |
| Colony of Golden Groundsel |
 |
| Virginia bluebells |
Virginia bluebells were the star of this year's show. These spring ephemerals pop up, bloom, set seed, and then disappear by midsummer. The plants are dormant for most of the year, with underground tubers that will send up leaves again next spring. Bumblebees, butterflies, and moths all appreciate its nectar.
Did you know there is a geranium native to North America? There is, and it's growing and blooming in our garden! This plant grows in partial to full shade and medium to dry soil. It is native to the woodlands of the Eastern United States. We grow it in a bed at the edge of the woods, in partial shade.
 |
| Wild Geranium (Cranesbill) |
 |
| Woodland phlox (Phlox stolonifera) |
This year, native creeping phlox bloomed in a new pollinator bed at the edge of the garden. Like the native geranium, it grows in full to partial shade. This plant likes the rich, moist soil of the forest floor. We've planted it in a partially shaded garden bed at the edge of the woods.