Spring Ephemerals Have Emerged! Pre-Order Your Native Plants Today!
- Media Manager
- Mar 28
- 3 min read
Early Spring is the only time to order affordable small sizes of bare root spring ephemerals, shrubs, & Trees! East Coast Natives has opened up their inventory to Bountiful Gardens for a Early Spring Native Plant Pre-Sale! The list of Native Plants offered is HUGE!
Small plugs and bare root shrubs and trees can be a great pick for anyone who wants to save money and plant many shrubs and/or trees at once.
Because bare root shrubs and trees will arrive in a dormant state, they need to be planted before they begin producing buds. Anyone that orders a bare root shrub or tree will be given simple directions on how to plant.
Don't Miss Out! You can order Spring Ephemerals now for a limited time.
A woodland garden full of blooming Spring ephemerals can be quite a magical place, offering visitors peace and connection to nature. Spring is a season of renewal, and these are some of the first plants to rise to the occasion!
At the beginning of Spring, before deciduous trees produce their leaves and cast shade on the forest floor, the sun hits and warms the soil, triggering the great ephemeral emergence. These unique wildflowers only last a short while (hence their name), but they put on a dazzling show and play an essential role in the woodland ecosystem. Searching for these first wildflowers of the year is one of the highlights of the gardening season.
Spring ephemerals provide food and shelter for early season pollinators and other insects when the forest is just waking and other food sources are still scarce. Many of these insects end up becoming much needed food for migrating birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians. When their blooms are spent and the trees have spread their leaves, the ephemeral plants die back, providing critical nutrients to the soil.
Interestingly enough, Spring ephemerals are almost entirely reliant upon ants for their seed dispersal. Each seed has a protein-and-lipid-rich structure called an "elaiosome" attached to its surface that attracts ants. The ants take the seeds back to their nests, eat these structures, then deposit the seeds on their trash piles, which just so happen to be filled with rich organic matter, perfect for germination.
When it comes to pollination, most Spring ephemerals are reliant upon different types of bees. Dutchman's Breeches, for example, features large flowers that need to be burst into by bumblebees for their pollen and nectar to be accessed.
Besides being important sources of nectar and pollen for native insects, the Spring ephemerals also serve the purpose of saving soil and reducing water runoff during a time of year when few other plants are growing.
It is easy to look at their diminutive size and their ephemeral nature as signs of delicacy but these plants are anything but. In fact, when one examines the intricacies of their lifestyle, they can see that spring ephemerals make most other plants look like total softies.
As we all know, after a long winter, foraging deer tend to be very fond of fresh new plant growth. Most spring ephemerals have developed adaptations that make them unpalatable to deer, including hairy stems and leaves, and poisonous compounds!
Spring ephemerals and other early-blooming woodland perennials have developed ecological strategies for flowering, pollination and seed production that are reliant upon and inseparable from the seasonal cycles of our native northeast forests. They fill a very specific niche that can only exist in the precise conditions of our local climate. In other words, they're incredibly special, and they deserve a feature spot in your garden!
