Wednesday's Woodland Walk - Join Me!





Shooting Star - Dodecatheon meadia


Welcome to my wednesday woodland walk!
This week the weather
couldn't seem to make up its mind! One day it felt like summer, 
 the next day, I was trying to find my favorite warm sweater to put on! After a bit of a dry spell for the past several months, we had rain all weekend. We really needed rain and I'm very thankful for it - - - - -but do we really need that cold raw weather with it?

 Today, its still cold and a bit gloomy. The sun has been playing peek-a-boo with me all morning. On the bright side, the rain and cool temperatures will prolong my beautiful spring flowers much longer than if it stayed hot and dry!

White Shooting Stars and Pink Bleeding Hearts



My white Shooting Stars are blooming right now. They have beautiful spring green colored leaves that just seem to pop against the darker foliage around them.  Their amazing white flowers bloom above the leaves on tall stems allowing the flowers to hang down in white clusters, their petals grow upwards and pushed back, making them look like little shooting stars. A definite favorite of mine!

There is also a pink shooting star which is gorgeous.  I actually have one, but something seems to always happen to the flower stalk before it blooms. Last year I sadly watched my dog step on it before I could shoo her away! I guess I need to protect it somehow! 

White Bleeding Hearts

White Bleeding Hearts are just as pretty as my pink ones, they aren't as striking a color as the beautiful pink bleeding hearts but they will brighten up any shady spot in your garden. Like many of the other spring empherals, they will eventually finish blooming and their foliage will quietly die back leaving no trace of it ever being there until next year.



 



  White Trilliums, Yellow Celandine Poppies, Red Trillium,

 and Pink Bleeding Hearts snuggle around a rock

 in my sitting area along my woodland path.

My Sitting Area is one of my favorite places along my woodland path. It was inspired by two towering black walnut trees standing side by side, calling out for a bench! Across from them, sat the rock in the picture above. It was covered in virginia creeper, and other plants when I discovered it. I also created a very rustic little stone patio with the rocks I uncovered around our property while digging  other gardens, linking the bench between the black walnut trees and the large rock.  For years its been evolving as I add or change plants when necessary.

 

Oakleaf Foamflower - 

Tirella cordifolia var. collina 'Oakleaf'

I have two types of foamflower growing along my path.

 Last week the Allegany Foamflower (Tirella cordifolia) began blooming and this week the Oakleaf Foamflower has begun flowering. Don't tell them - but this one is my favorite. Their leaves are oakleaf shaped with a tinge of red and their flower buds are a deep pink opening into a pale white/pink flower, giving it that two-toned effect. They are so pretty!

Red Trilliums and violets happily growing near this protective

 rock along the path.

This is a closeup of a Red Trillium-Trillium erectum

I adore Trilliums!

 One of my goals was to establish them along 

my woodland path. I've since been successful and have white, red, and yellow trilliums. Starting with one or two plants they have finally established themselves and are multiplying very slowly, but surely. Ants are one of the chief ways seeds are dispersed. Trilliums generally take 5 years to flower from seed, which is one reason mine are multiplying so slow!
  

My Woodland path is so gorgeous, new wildflowers are blooming every day.

I hope you join me next week!

Tracey :-)

I would love to hear from you, please leave a comment, or share the type of wildflowers that are blooming in your part of the world!!