Spring Ephemerals to Treasure in the Garden

When you walk through the woods in early spring before the trees leaf out, you may be delighted to see lovely wildflowers blooming before anything else is even up and growing.

- Jennifer Howell

These spring ephemerals are often woodland natives. They grow under deciduous trees and take advantage of the sunshine by blooming, setting seed, and completing their life cycles before a full canopy of leaves shades the area.

Flowers are fleeting but fascinating. Bees, beetles and ants rely on them for early food, pollinating along the way. While only briefly in the garden, these short-lived flowers have a big impact while they last.

The great thing is that you can also grow these in your garden. Spring ephemerals don't need deadheading or pruning-just plant them in the ground and they'll do their thing. Mix them in beds with other perennials that cover fading foliage as they go dormant, and you won't even need to clean them up. Here are a few easy-to-grow ephemerals to welcome spring and bring life to the garden.

Shooting star
Dodecatheon meadia

It's easy to see how shooting star got its common name the unusual flowers point to earth from the top of a long scape. Petals are turned backward like an inside-out umbrella, with pistils and anthers forming a pointed tube below. The flower has no nectar, but native bees, such as bumblebees, vibrate their bodies to shake out and collect pollen from the flower's pointed end.

Native to the eastern United States, it thrives in soil that is moist in spring but dry in summer when the plant is dormant. It looks great in the front of the border, rising from a bed of ground covers or naturalized into a woodland or meadow garden. Pair it with slower-growing perennials or grasses that will fill in the space after the shooting star dies down.

Though it will spread by seed, it takes several years before it grows to blooming size. To get more plants, divide shooting star in early fall by digging it up and splitting the crown, replanting at the same depth.