THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – FRIDAY, MARCH 26, 2021 Page 15 SAUGUS GARDENS IN THE PANDEMIC Here’s what’s blooming in town this week to make your walks more enjoyable By Laura Eisener I n the Victorian language of flowers, crocuses stand for cheerfulness and it’s easy to see why. Once they appear it’s a sign that spring is not going back! Several different species of crocus are coming up in lawns and gardens. Early species crocuses were starting last week, but now there are also Dutch hybrid crocuses, which are twice as big. The Dutch hybrids can be seen in bright yellow, several shades of purple and white. On a sunny day, these flowers open and reveal a vivid orange pistil and stamens. A sophisticated cook may notice the resemblance to saffron, a popular red-orange spice. An autumn blooming species, saffron crocus (Crocus sativus), not quite hardy enough for a Saugus winter, is the source of this flavoring, food coloring and fabric dye. South-facing gardens, especially those with a heat collecting wall or pavement nearby, are likely to be where you see early spring flowers blooming first. North-facing gardens or those in shade may not produce blooms for another week or two, even if they are in the same town or on the same street. Microclimates, such as these variations in exposure, can have a dramatic effect on where plants sprout, leaf out or flower in the spring. Plants which get heat reflected from pavement, stone or brick walls, concrete foundations, or chimneys can bloom earliest but may suffer from drought and heat once summer has advanced. Many of the bulbs and other geophytes blooming now will be fully dormant IN A TIGHT SPOT: Squill grows between sidewalk and wall. Reflected heat encourages early bloom. (Courtesy photos to The Saugus Advocate by Laura Eisener) by then, so such a location may not be a disadvantage. Crocuses, snowdrops and winter aconites may still be going strong and are gathering a lot of company. Another tiny geophyte has started to bloom: the bright blue Siberian squill (Scilla siberica). Each stem has several nodding flowers, usually a bright sky blue, but occasionally white. They grow from tiny true bulbs and are native to the Near East, not Siberia! If you are willing to delay mowing your lawn until late May, all these early little bulbs can all be safely grown in a lawn. Over many decades, or if you plant them thickly enough to start with, you can have a breathtakingly colorful lawn in early spring. The foliage goes dormant by late May, and once it does the lawn can be mowed without damage to the bulbs. Squill, winter aconite and, to some extent, snowdrop and crocus, can also thrive under trees. Silver maple (Acer saccharinum) and red maple (Acer rubrum) have somewhat less conspicuous flowers but both are in bloom now. Other woody plants in flower are poplar (Populus spp.), juniper (Juniperus spp.) and yew (Taxus spp.). The maples are noticeable because of the flower color – bright red in the case of red maple – and because they bloom before the leaves so there is little to distract from them. Trees and grasses with windborne pollen are often allergens, so those with allergies may already be aware. If you brush against a branch, ripe pollen may come out in a pale yellow cloud from the yews and junipers. Plants with showy flowers, pollinated by bees and other insects, rarely produce such a cloud. Also blooming in a few gardens now is heath or winter heather (Erica carnea and Erica x darleyensis). Heath has nearly 900 different species, but most of them are actually from the southern hemisphere, and the European winter heather is the only one widely available here. Its tiny bell-shaped SPRING COLORS: Silver maple and red maple flowers close-up. DUTCH HYBRID CROCUS: Yellow, white and purple flowers in a garden near Vine Street. flowers are reddish pink, pale pink or occasionally white. It is a sub-shrub with narrow evergreen leaves, and it is usually less than a foot tall at maturity. They are very similar to heather and closely related, but bloom in late winter rather than June. I have seen plants bloom some years as early as February and other years in the same location as late as mid-April, depending on weather. They like full sun and good drainage, so they are often planted on sandy slopes where a lawn meets the street, or other garden areas where there is a slight change in elevation. Blooming daffodils, pansies and tulips are all making their way into garden centers now and from there into our gardens. If you are lucky you may see Asian witch haHEATH IN BLOOM: Erica x darleyensis ‘Mediterranean Pink.’ TREES IN FLOWER: Red maple and silver maple. zels (Hamamelis intermedia ‘Arnold Promise’) that looks from a distance like forsythia. A few other bulbs popped up in my garden just today, and there may be more discoveries tomorrow. Editor’s Note: Laura Eisener is a landscape design consultant who helps homeowners with landscape design and plant selection and placement of trees and shrubs, as well as perennials. She is a member of the Saugus Garden Club and offered to write a series of articles about “what’s blooming in town” shortly after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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