Jack-in-the-Pulpit

Jack-in-the-pulpits are one of the spring wildflowers I look for wherever I go in late April and May in Maryland and Virginia. I never saw them as I was growing up in Texas so I was delighted to see them growing in forest mulch when we moved to the east coast. They were a plant I’d only seen in pictures previously and always thought they were odd looking; I thought the same about Indian pipes and horsetails.

The Jack-in-the-pulpits seem to have become more numerous over the course of 30 years that I have found them. Maybe I just am more likely to go to the forests at the right time or I am looking for them with more experience. They often blend in with the other low green vegetation (like May apples and poison ivy!). There are often clumps of them ---- perhaps the patch happens to be the perfect place in the forest for Jack-in-the-pulpits. Other times they are all alone. The stripes come upward from the base and extend over the hood.

But you have to catch them quickly. Their window of glory for the year is only a few weeks each spring! 

Brookside Gardens - May 2013

Brookside Gardens was brimming with greenery and late spring flowers. I was there are on a sunny but breezy spring day. The layers of greenery were everywhere but I liked this scene the best: 

• The shiny leaves of a Southern magnolia in the left foreground then
• Looking over the hedge surrounding the garden to
• The arbor with spent a wisteria vine whose blossoms have been overcome by green leaves to
• The rounded shape of a willow and then
• The trees beyond….and
• The blue sky backdrop. 

Gardens are experienced with as much knowledge and observational energy we care to apply. For me - it is more about the visual appeal of the place and noticing the way plants have changed since the last time I walked around. The deciduous magnolias that were so full of blooms in April are full of green leaves now. Their Southern Magnolia cousins are just beginning to have buds. The beds of tulips are cleared for summer plantings (the gardeners were at work in the dirt while I was there). The almost hidden plants like a single flower standing out in the undergrowth or a hairy fern just unfurling are like finding hidden treasure.

I do not attempt to remember the name of everything I see. Surprising - I have come to recognize many of the plants over the years. I am pleased that I look for - and find - Jack-in-the-Pulpits almost every year but usually they are in undisturbed woodlands rather than gardens. This year there were quite a few at Brookside and they looked like they had been planted!  

Brookside has quite a collection of azaleas and rhododendron and I enjoy every year. Poppies are increasingly popular. The gingko tree near the entrance is a tree I always check; the shape of their leaves, the way the leaves flutter in the slightest breeze, the lighter green in the spring and summer then yellow in fall….it is probably my favorite tree of the gardens.

Enjoy the May 2013 at Brookside slide show!