A "Little" Spring Appreciation

A few years ago, after one planting combination that would have been unfortunate in any other season, I decided that all colors worked well together in the spring in Ohio. Why? Well, after our grey-brown-white winters, Midwesterners are so color-starved that literally anything looks good popping out of the ground and blooming at the top of a stalk... doesn't matter what its neighbors look like at all!

Similarly, I decided this year that spring is the perfect time for perennials that have small flowers to bloom. Would we appreciate the blue bell clusters on a grape hyacinth in any other season? After all, you could fit between 2-4 of them within the area taken up by one of my fingernails:


Strawberries can be appreciated for another reason, but the little blooms themselves are not really much to write home about:


Leaning down to view and appreciate the tiny flowers of 'Anne Greenaway' (aka 'Anniversary') lamium helped me find another small treasure this spring:


And there are other lamiums in bloom in my garden today, too, including this 'Purple Dragon' that lurks beneath my Japanese maple:


And the passalong variety (thanks, Mom!) that is mounding all around my rhododendron:


Other spring-flowering groundcovers include the ajugas--here is 'Metallica Crispa' in the bottom of the deepest "Lock" garden:


The drought-tolerant bergenias, whose leaves have greened up and are no longer sporting their winter burgundy hues:


The dry-shade-tolerant epimediums, with their "bishop's cap" shaped flowers:


And the pulmonarias, with their silver-spotted leaves and flowers that open pink and "fade" to blue:


And the sweet woodruff, with its sweetgrass-esque fragrance:


And don't forget some of the mounding perennials! I would grow 'Jack Frost' brunnera just for its gorgeous silver leaves and drought tolerance, but these sky-blue flowers are a definite bonus:


On the darker side of the spectrum is 'Samobor' geranium--again with interesting foliage, and equally interesting, moody-hued flowers:


Rock garden plants are starting to get into the flowering act as well. No sign of blooms yet on my 'Little Plum' lewisia (the sunset-colored one I showed off in the May '08 Bloom Day post didn't overwinter) but some seedlings of the 'Neon Lights' Linaria I purchased last year from Mulberry Creek Herb Farm, via Gales in Westlake, are already starting their summer show:


And last but not least is a gorgeous dwarf iris, iris pumila, which may have come from Mulberry Creek as well. (I just can't find it on their website right now, and am too lazy to go out and check the tag!) I planted this directly in the ground in its biodegradeable pot last fall after rescuing it from the trash at the garden center where I work--along with some saxifrage and a couple of other alpines. All came back just fine, but I was particularly excited to see the beauty of the iris:


Its lovely white petals, which look like they were dipped in the lovely shade of bluish purple that veins them, are intricate and detailed, in spite of the fact that each individual bloom is not even as big as the palm of my hand:


Who says that beautiful things never come in small packages? Spring seems to be proving otherwise--at least, around my garden!