Each week, I’ll be featuring one or two plants that are blooming right now!  Hopefully, they will be ones out and about in our landscapes.  Watch for the weekly blogs on “What’s Doing the Blooming?”   I hope that you may get an idea or two for your own gardens, or simply answer a question about a plant that you’ve seen but weren’t sure what it was or how to grow it!  So for this week – my plant is Pulsatilla!

Every spring I am blown away by the simple beauty of Pulsatilla!  They are easy to identify, emerging in spring with fuzzy stems and foliage followed by purple or rose-purple buds that open to reveal bright golden centers. Commonly Pulsatilla is known as pasque flower, Easter flower, or prairie crocus because they tend to bloom around Easter or Passover and are native to our North American prairies. They thrive in fertile, well drained soil and full sun. Because they bloom so early they are often overlooked.  Their bloom has usually finished in the greenhouse, before we’ve opened for spring business.  Consider adding them along the border of spring blooming bulbs or among summer blooming perennials that will come on later.  They are one of our native heralds of spring and are a true treasure!