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BLUEBELLS Church bells traditionally announce weddings in the countryside. In the woods of Pennsylvania, bluebells ring in spring and the start of mating season. Mortensia virginica, the Virginia bluebell, is one of the loveliest spring natives in eastern North America, growing one to two feet tall in shady glens and bottomlands. Often found naturalized in large colonies along streams and riverbanks, the single-stemmed plant arches elegantly to display nodding clusters of pink buds and blue bell-shaped flowers, an appetizing nectar source for butterflies, hummingbirds, long-tongued bees, and exotic hummingbird moths. Bluebells are also darlings of the nursery business because they grow easily from seeds and rhizomes, often shipped bareroot in early spring or fall. In the shade garden, they spread judiciously in moist, rich, loamy soil, bursting into bloom over a period of three weeks or so, and politely bowing out in summer so that surrounding plants like ferns and hostas can assume center stage. Strikingly beautiful in a vase or delicate bouquet, or potted as a table centerpiece, bluebells and other seasonal native plants should be considered by the wedding couple who want to celebrate nature’s simple, environmentally-friendly gifts, as they begin their new lives together. Besides -- these woodland flowers could fill the proverbial dictate of “something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue,” with their ancient heritage and au currant revival, a plant on loan from Mother Nature, gracing the wedding festivities with an ethereal blue. Kathleen Arcuri Published in Weddings Inside Pennsylvania, September 2009 |
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Kathy’s Garden Writing |