Last time we talked about starting a wild flower garden and about that garden in general. This time let’s talk a bit about the likes and dislikes of some of these flowers. But be warned ahead of time after you have gotten your wild flower garden going you’ll want to keep on adding to your list of wild-flowers.

So here are some flowers that will help you understand a little what to look for when you study them.
Hepatica is a wild flower that everyone loves. Spring hasn’t really decided to come yet when this little flower pokes its head up and gives us a welcome to the season ahead. With a white flower which has dainty tracings of pink, a thin, wiry stem, and narrow, grass-like leaves, this spring flower cannot be mistaken. The blossoms are tucked under a covering of dry leaves waiting for the warm sunshine to bring them out. These small flowers are protected by leaves with a fuzzy covering, reminding you of a similar covering new fern leaves have.

The hepatica wastes no time putting on a new suit of leaves after the blossoms have had their day. That way the new leaves have a chance to develop properly. Hepaticas seem to like growing in clusters and are most likely to be found in rather open places in the woods. The soil it loves is loose and rich. So you should plant yours only in partly shaded places and in a bed with good rich soil conditions. If you are planting them with other woodland specimens make sure you give them the most exposed position so they can catch the early spring sunshine. You may want to cover hepaticas with a light layer of leaves in the fall. Then in the late winter (late February or early March) depending on the weather take this leaf covering away. The hepatica blossoms will be all ready to poke up their heads. Plant a number of the roots and allow the sun good opportunity to get at them. For this plant loves the sun.

Saxifrage is another March flower worthy of mentioning. This plant grows in quite a different environment. It grows in dry and rocky places and can often be found in the chinks of rocks. It has white clusters of flowers on hairy stems. I have found it in dry, sandy places right next to a group of a big rock. It has been said that the saxifrage roots twists it’s self around rocks and in fact works its way into them so that the rock itself splits. Whatever, it is a rock garden plant.

Columbine is another plant that is most likely to be found in rocky places. It loves having good drainage conditions. You can see them nestled here and there in rocky crevices with their red heads nodding at the top of slender wiry stems. The roots are not very deep in the soil, often hardly covered by it. But that doesn’t mean the columbine doesn’t care about its soil conditions. It needs to have good soil with good drainage.
So as you can see you must not make the mistake of thinking all wild flowers like their feet wet.

Bluets are a personal favorite. When they come into bloom you know that all traces of winter are gone and things are settling down outdoors. When they first bloom their blooms are lovely, little delicate blue blossoms. But as June comes and the weather gets hotter and hotter their blooms color fades, until at times they look almost white. They are known by some as Quaker ladies, or innocence. Whatever you want to call them they are charming. They tend to grow in clusters, sometimes in sunny fields, sometimes by the road-side. By this we know that they are more particular about the open sunlight than about the soil.

The Wild Geraniums purplish flowers are showy, and the leaves are rather coarse and deeply cut. This flower is not good for cutting for a bouquet. It drops its leaves very quickly after picking and almost immediately drops its petals. Its color and leaves give a boldness to the plant that is rather attractive. It is found in rather moist, partly shaded areas of the woods. It adds good permanent color to your garden, well as long as blooming time lasts.

While there are all kinds of wild flowers I might have suggested. I have mentioned these flowers to help you understand how to study the soil conditions for the purpose of starting a wild-flower garden.
Study one or two flowers at a time and after you have become acquainted with them, try adding some more to your garden next year. Soon your wild flower garden will have captured your affection.

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