LILY-OF-THE-VALLEY, MOUNTAIN ASH, LILACS AND ROSE BAY RHODODENDRONS

LILY-OF-THE-VALLEY

WILD LILY-OF-THE-VALLEY

MOUNTAIN ASH

COMMON LILAC

ROSE BAY RHODODENDRON

Tuesday, 9:00 AM.  54 degrees F, wind NE, variable and mostly very light.  The sky is cloudless with some haze in the east. The humidity is trending down, at 79% and the barometer is also down, now at 30.03".  It will be a cool but a very nice day to continue getting the yard and gardens in shape.  Our Sunday Christ Church open house was a success, with over fifty people stopping in to tour the historic little chapel.
   So many plants are blooming now that it is difficult to discuss them all, but I will try keep up until things quiet down in a few weeks.  I am not even trying to comment on perennials and vegetables. For those who may wonder why I do this, especially considering that it gets redundant with successive springs; I try to be fairly accurate as to when things come into full bloom, and this data, kept over a period of years, can be examined to determine if springs are early, late or on-time average.  This can be used to determine trends in temperature change and other factors relating to plant hardiness and usefulness. In order to be dead-on accurate, the recorded bloom date should be when the flower is at full anthesis, i.e., shedding pollen.  I am probably not that consistent.   I may never interpret the data myself in any serious scientific manner, but it will be there if a researcher or hobbyist needs it.
   Lily-of-the-valley, Convallaria majalis, in the Lily family, is blooming, its very sweet scent evident when walking past a bed of the flowers.  It was introduced to North America probably hundreds of years ago from Europe, was often planted around settlers homes. and is very persistent, often  forming large leafy mats.  If one comes across a patch of it along a roadside or in the woods it is a certain indicator that a home once stood there (there is also a native species in the eastern mountains of the US, C. montana). The attractive red berries, and indeed the whole plant, is quite poisonous, and has a long history of use as a heart medication similar to Digitalis, to treat heart failure.  Children should be taught at the youngest age never to eat anything wild unless it is given to them by a responsible care giver.
   The wild Lily-of-the-valley, Maianthemum canadense, is native to much of  eastern North America.  It is a small woodland ground cover plant with attractive spikes of sweetly fragrant  white flowers, closely related to Convallaria.
   Mountain ash trees are in bloom now. The European mountain ash, Sorbus aucoparia, is often escaped from cultivation.  S. americana and S. decora are native to the northeastern US and upper Midwest.  All are rather difficult to tell apart, but the one most sold by nurseries is S. decora, which has bright red berries, whereas the others have orange to reddish fruit.  All are in the rose family, the common name mountain ash referring to their pinnately compound leaves.
  Common lilacs, Syringa vulgaris, are just starting to bloom, as is the rose bay Rhododendron, the one pictured probably being 'Haaga', developed by the University of Finland and hardy here along the lake.
   Wisconsin has a native, rare and endangered Rhododendron, R. lapponicum, the Lappland rose bay, found as a disjunct population on the sandstone cliffs of the Dells of the Wisconsin River, in south-central Wisconsin north of Madison. The population was left there by retreating glaciers and has survived for the last ten thousand years.  It is a diminutive species, seldom more than a foot tall.  It also survives on Mount Washington and Mount Khatadin in the White Mountains of New England, and on the arctic tundras of the Northern Hemisphere.

LAPLAND ROSE BAY (Wisconsin DNR photo)S