Spring in the Horton Park wildflower gardens

The native plants in the wildflower gardens at Horton Park have been behaving as if it was spring for weeks now, even though we all doubted the season until now. In the shade garden, there are false rue anemones blooming and the leaves of common trout lilies showing. These two plants are spring ephemerals, meaning they have only a few short weeks in the spring to send up leaves, bloom, and fruit before it all goes away and energy gets stored in their specialized roots until next year, when they do it all again! This is a strategy to take advantage of the light before the forest canopy greens up and blocks much of the light from reaching the forest floor. Other wildflowers blooming in the shade garden are large-flowered bellwort, downy yellow violet, and wild ginger. In the prairie "sign" garden on Hamline and Minnehaha, there are lovely big patches of prairie smoke and pussytoes in bloom.

Our next gardening date is Monday, May 16th, from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm. After that, we switch to our regular schedule of second Sundays from noon to 2:00 pm. Join us!