|
What’s Blooming, March 24, 2006
White River Gardens is a great place to see a wide variety of spring-flowering bulbs. The excitement starts with the winter aconite in early March and continues into May with the ornamental onions. Peak tulip display is usually around April 15. Check this site regularly for updates.
 Here’s the latest bulb update:
Six inches of snow this past week had little effect on the bulbs and other flowers at White River Gardens. The crocus and bulb iris, just ending, were hurried along a bit. The daffodils, hyacinths, squill, pansies, and even the two earliest tulips, were unharmed.
 Many of the daffodils are beginning to open. Warm weather should speed this along. The hyacinths are just starting and flower stalks can be seen on almost all the plants. As the snow was melting, the pink glory-of-the-snow (Chionodoxa) was beginning to bloom. The Cornelian cherry dogwood is still in full bloom as is the Lenten rose.
After the Snow
 If you see a tree turning red, either at the Gardens or around town, you’re probably seeing the flowers of the red maple (Acer rubrum). We usually don’t think of maples as being showy in flower but, after a long winter, even a blush of red looks like spring. Red maples are aptly named. The flowers are red. Newly-emerging foliage is red-tinged. The fruit is often red as well. Fall foliage may be red, but it is quite variable from tree to tree, so yellow and orange are not uncommon. Red maple is a popular landscaping tree. It is preferred over silver maple for its strength; over sugar maple for its rapid growth. Red maples grow best in moist to wet, slightly acid soils. In our alkaline soils, the leaves may turn yellow, a problem known as chlorosis.
 Blooming for the first time is a new addition to the Gardens – Japanese Pieris (Pieris japonica ‘Mountain Fire’). This is something of an experiment, as Pieris  requires acid soil, which we do not have. Still, this year we can enjoy the early flowers reminiscent of lily-of-the-valley. The new foliage, due in a few weeks, is also showy, emerging a fire red before turning green. Japanese Pieris is an evergreen shrub, hardy to zone 5, that will grow to 9-12 feet in moist, well-drained acid soils. It is best in part shade in a protected location. Our plants’ survival or decline will be an indication of how Pieris will do in the alkaline soils of central Indiana.
Mary Welch-Keesey
Purdue University Consumer Horticulture Specialist
Dick Crum Resource Center, White River Gardens
|