Pasque Flower Season

It's early May and some of the Pasque Flowers are already starting to fade, though they are also teasing us with a few more blooms.  We first 'discovered' these wonderful perennial plants several gardens ago when we lived in Minnesota.  We realize that most perennial Pasque Flowers that are sold in nursery's are the European varieties (pulsatilla vulgaris) where as the natives to the United States may be found as Pulsatilla patens  or Anemone patens.

For those who like wildflowers, I would like to point out that the first link takes you to a page on the US Forest Service website and the second to a site dedicated to Minnesota wildflowers.  Here is yet another from University of Wisconsin.  It seems that the US Forest Service page is not a permanent one as they feature a wildflower periodically and then move the web page to a new address when it gets featured again.  I admit that I get mildly nervous when excellent web resources that are put together by some of our government agencies disappear or are threatened for various reasons.  But that's probably another day's writing.

The horticulture Pasque Flowers have been hybridized to develop some variety in color and flower form.  We have seen colors ranging from red to white.  Personally, I might prefer large numbers of the native plants, but I find that I am not immune to appreciating some of these varieties as well.  The natives tend to bloom about a week to ten days earlier and they can handle much more competition than the garden varieties people might buy at a nursery. 

The flowers are featured on these plants much earlier than the leaves, which is true for many early flowering perennials.  As the season progresses, these leaves will get much bigger and the flower stalks will stretch out above the plant to hold their seeds high for potential distribution to a new location for a new plant.  If given the chance (with a bit less competition) the leaves can be quite attractive until we hit August.

The other nice thing about Pasque Flowers?  They can handle a little snow and cold.  Even if that snow comes in May (which was when the picture above was taken).  Obviously, I am NOT talking about this May.  Please not this May....
 

The 'fruits' or 'seedheads' on the plants actually can be quite decorative as well.  This year, we've noticed that some of our other plants are encroaching a bit on our Pasque Flowers more than they used to.  Maybe we'll move one or two to a new location so we can enjoy them more?  I don't know.  I guess we'll wait and see where the energy is for such things.

But, the best thing about these flowers?  It's seeing the first bit of green pushing up out of the soil - daring us to hope once again.