Springtime in rural Wisconsin brings a chorus of “peeper” frogs and a cascade of flowers that boggle the senses! The peepers cacophony hushes as we near the small pond, lulled by the sweet magnolia fragrance.
A little slice of Heaven…
The genius of our botanical garden is brilliantly displayed in a stepwise blossom reveal … typically. With prolonged rain quickly eclipsed by summer temps, it’s speed blooming this Spring, which boggles my hope for weekly flower feature. Forced forsythia inside the house brightens our rainy, cold Easter and Passover.
Soon flourishes of golden forsythia dot the barren perimeter of our lake.
Next is double bloodroot, the dressed-up cousin of the wild type which has a single layer of petals. Adjacent to the bloodroot, my patch of wild ginger plants set their single bloom underneath nature’s mulch of dried leaves.
Simultaneously, by the house, two of my wishlist plants from our Portland years: helleborus and star magnolia. I tried and failed with helleborus three times in my postage stamp yard. Here, it flourishes under our smallest of six star magnolia trees!
Common blue violets are the state flower of my childhood home, Rhode Island. The uncommon yellow violet, yes, yellow violet is a hardy competitor in our circle garden here in central Wisconsin. Along with bleeding heart which grows like a weed and trillium. Find all three in the featured photo!
Trillium, an endangered species, was another perennial failure in my Portland garden.
… not endangered in our neck of the woods! And lastly, can anybody identify this gorgeous flower?
An oasis of nature’s mindfulness moments to soothe the soul and lift the spirit!
Photos by S.A.M. Steiner, Spring 2022
