We should really tear ourselves away from the Tulips out front and catch up on what’s happening in the Back Garden. For most of the year this is the shady part of the garden, but to date the tall trees have just barely started to leaf out.
Right now the Celandine Poppies (Stylophorum diphyllum) are blooming their hearts out. They’ve taken over the whole corner that sits between the back of the garage and the west side of the back porch.
Some people look down on this native wildflower because it is so prolific in the wild, and even more so in the garden. But how can you not love those four-part golden flowers and the deeply-lobed, blue-gray leaves? Celandine Poppy gets ratty over the summer, but I wouldn’t call it a spring ephemeral. It will rebloom and put on fresh leaves in the fall.
Great Merrybells (Uvularia grandiflora) is another of my favorite spring-blooming natives. With sufficient moisture, it makes a nice groundcover that lasts all season long. It tends to bloom before fully leafing out.
I love the drooping flowers with long, twisting tepals. Great Merrybells is a wonderful common name (there are others for this plant, but I ignore them). It sounds like something out of Chaucer.
And here was a nice surprise: Marsh Marigold (Caltha palustris) survives the winter nicely in a pot with no special coddling. Basically it sits in a container without drainage holes, and that keeps it happy enough.
Meantime, the foliage of the Lenten Roses (Helleborus orientalis) have filled out nicely.
Oh, I should mention that the plastic netting continues to protect the Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica). As for the scare cat, it’s too soon to say.
The ‘Autumn Brilliance’ Serviceberry (Amelanchier x grandiflora) seems unusually full of flowers this spring.
So delicate.
This afternoon Judy was inspired to make a May Day wreath with flowers from the garden. Nice, isn’t it?
A happy and floriferous May Day to you all!
gardeninacity 
Beautiful
Thanks.
Lovely wreath. Not much blooming anywhere around here. Most of us gave up on tulips because the deer would eat them all. I should take a pick of my neighbors tree. Not sure what it is but the flowers are beautiful.
Maybe a crabapple? They’re one of my favorites.
I love your native wild flowers, I do not recognise them at all but they are beautiful. Amelia
Thanks. It seems many American wildflowers become popular garden plants in Europe.
Good job Judy! A marvelous inspiration and a gorgeous May Day wreath. I love all the cheerful yellow spring flowers you have in the back garden. The Great Merrybells are a delight, wish I could come by some. Beautiful post. Thanks!
The Great Merrybells should be planted in more gardens, I think.
The wreath is gorgeous. When I was a kid, May Day baskets were the tradition: tiny little baskets filled with flowers (I remember violets and lily-of-the-valley) and left anonymously on people’s porches. Just once, I was present at a Maypole dance. The ribbons, as I remember them, were all the colors of your garden flowers.
My mother was actually a Maypole queen during her youth in South Dakota, before she made her way to NYC.
How lovely to dip into some old traditions! The wreath is wonderful! I don’t want to know what other names Great Merrybells might go by; I agree that it has a ring of Chaucer (pun intended) and must be, therefore, the best name. Thanks for the close-up of the Serviceberry blossoms with the soft woolly leaves — almost like lambs’ ears. Delicate indeed. Very whispery.
The other main name is Large Flowered Bellwort. I mean, I ask you.
What a pretty May Day wreath and as Shoreacres notes above, puts me in mind of May baskets. My celandine poppies are in bloom as are the mertensia. Don’t know what happened to my serviceberry, the blooms were not up to snuff this year and have already disappeared.
That seems to happen some years, can be something of a mystery.
We are between houses, the pandemic caught us in a tiny apartment during the final segment of our move. Wish I had a garden and backyard but I’m enjoying yours – thank you – and we do have a front stoop with a bit of soil and room to hang a few plants.
This pandemic has caught so many off guard.
Lovely wreath, lovely back garden. Thanks for sharing.
You’re welcome!
Everything looks beautiful, Jason!
Thanks, Lavinia!
Nice wreath, and I sure wish I lived closer so I could trade you something for a piece of a Hellebore. 🙂 The daffodils I planted are blooming, but the two pots of tulips have lush green leaves but no flowers. I don’t think I have the tulip touch. 🙂
I’m at the stage where I have plenty to share, but I wouldn’t say no to a piece of pie.
Lovely wreath Judy … it made me wonder if I should try an Aussie autumn wreath, there are some colourful leaves and a few autumn flowers blooming. Great MerryBells is the perfect name for a spring flower.
Your garden is looking lovely. 🌞
Never heard of an Aussie autumn wreath, now you’ve got me wondering.
I like the spring wreath. I even see some fern fiddleheads in there.
Yes, we have plenty of fiddleheads to spare!
Your garden is beautiful, and what a pretty wreath. This is such a wonderful time of year, I’m so grateful there was no snow/ice storm like last year.
Totally agree! Though the weather has been mostly unseasonably cool, which is a mixed bag.
What a beautiful garden you have, and I love the wreath!
I’m intrigued by your celadon poppies. Mine appear here and there throughout the garden, popping up here and disappearing there. I’ve never seen it form a nice colony like this. I don’t believe it is native here but I don’t care, I love it. Merry bells is a delightful name for Uvularia! What a nice colony you have of that, too!
Here the Celandine Poppy is quite aggressive. I’m just realizing it can smother other spring-blooming plants that are shorter. Still a good plant, but requires some management.
Huh. I wonder what causes a plant to be berserk in one place and not another. Or maybe it just hasn’t gotten going yet in my garden, and I should be forewarned!
They just respond to differences in the environment, I guess.
I guess so. Now I’m keeping a more suspicious eye on mine!
Cuter, too, not to be disloyal.
(:
Is a saskatoon a specific cultivar of serviceberry, or a different species? Everyone familiar with the species seems to know them only as serviceberry.
Well, it is not Amelanchier x grandiflora. It is an Amelanchier alnifolia. So, it is a different species from yours, but is the same as ‘Smokey’, which is (I believe) what we tried growing here. I suppose I am putting too much though into what should just be ‘serviceberry’.
Saskatoon is a different species, more native to western North America.
Western?! That must be farther north. There are none of the genus here as far as I am aware of.
I have really enjoyed this look at your garden – you have some beautiful plants.
Thank you! I’ve enjoyed your posts as well.
Just a couple of days ago I saw some Marsh Marigold growing down near the stream where we walk our dog. So your garden will be catching up with us quickly too I suppose! The garden looks lovely, and Judy‘s May Day wreath too. The Lenten roses are particularly pretty.
I didn’t even know that the Marsh Marigolds grew in Europe. I wonder if it is the same species.
Hi Jason. I looked it up and our species is Caltha palustris. I actually call it Kingcup, but I think it is more commonly called marsh marigold here too. They vary in size. Sometimes you find enormous ones with huge leaves, hence the name I suppose as they are slightly cup-shaped. 😃
Love the plants AND the wreath – kudos to Judy!
I will convey your message!
What a wonderfully floriferous post. Happy May Day to you and Judy. Love that flower wreath. Perfect way to welcome May.
Thank you!
Wait … people look down on the Celandine poppy?! I did not know that. It’s a wonderful plant. The foliage is so elegant and the early pop of yellow color so welcome. The great is gorgeous.
You know how it is with some people. If something grows wild, it is automatically a weed and undesirable.
Beautiful, all of it, including the celandine. If no one declared it a weed, would we declare it so ourselves? I think not. I love how cheerful the flowers are.
Hi Tammy! Yes, I agree with you about the Celandine Poppies. Do they grow in your part of VA?
Just lovely seeing all the blooms and blossom. Good to know the netting/cat are working! That is such a pretty wreath.xxx
Thanks.
Wow, your Amelanchier is stunning! The Merrybells are also very unsual-looking with their twisted leaves and flowers. With your hellebores, do you get Hellebore leaf spot? It’s one of the main reasons we don’t have them in the garden.
Interesting. I have never had trouble with leaf spot on the Hellebores.