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fast blooming woodland natives from seed

13 years ago

Can anyone suggest native woodland wildflowers I can sow in fall that will bloom the following spring? I want to grow Ohio woodland natives like spring beauty, violets, lady slippers, squirrel corn, mayapple, touch-me-nots, woodland phlox, dutchman's breeches, jacob's ladder, virginia bluebells, wild geranium and so on.

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Comments (3)

fatamorgana2121
13 years ago
You will probably need to focus on native annuals if you want blooms that quickly. From seed, many perennial natives will take at least 2-3 years to bloom.

FataMorgana
Lynda Waldrep
13 years ago
As stated by FataMorgana, most of the shade plants need lots of time to germinate, not to mention years to blooming time. I glanced through Cullina's book to see what he listed as "four weeks, sown at 70 degrees," and for shade. Arisaema is listed, but in my experience it takes over a year, and it needs two-three years to bloom. Darmera may work, if you have a moist spot. Polemonium germinated for me in one year. Both Tiarellas and Trilliums have self sown for me in the woodland, but they are slow growing and take a long time to bloom.

I, too, wanted a lush look when I was first interested in shade natives, but eight years later I am still adding as many as I can. I recommend a variety of native ferns to fill in the spots created when many of the plants you mentioned die back as the weather gets warm.
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dapjwy
13 years ago
clovan,

The touch-me-nots are annuals and will bloom...but not in the spring. Mine have been blooming for a couple of weeks, but they seem early this year.

You might be able to get the native columbine to bloom if you plant it now, it may have enough time to bloom next spring. If not definitely the following spring. I planted some last year and they bloomed this year.

I'm sure there are some others, but as was mentioned by others, many wildflowers take years to bloom from seed.

Here is a link that might be useful: A Native Backyard

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