Native plants for a Cape Cod garden

Spring keeps pushing ahead despite winter trying to keep a desperate and unwanted foothold. The ospreys have been back for a few days now, with birds arriving around March 23 on the Cape, and a nesting pair also returning to the museum of natural history platform in Brewster on March 29. I’m sure they would have thought the April Fool’s snow merely annoying, but just as well this proved to be mostly an off-cape weather event. Today the sun is out and a warming trend is in the works. The ruby-throated hummingbirds are not too far off – they are now in New Jersey and will be here in another week or two at the latest. Once the hummingbird migration website mentions arrivals in Connecticut, I will put out the feeder. As for the world of flora, plants keep emerging from the soil, with the following species now well in evidence above ground with new growth:

• Aquilegia canadensis (wild columbine)
• Asarum canadense (wild ginger)
• Dodecatheon meadia (eastern shooting star)
• Mertensia virginica (virginia bluebells)
• Monarda didyma (bee balm)
• Monarda fistulosa (wild bergamot)
• Physostegia virginiana (obedient plant)
• Tradescantia ohiensis (bluejacket spiderwort)

Additionally, Lonicera sempervirens (coral honeysuckle) is budding and showing new leaves.

Surprisingly, Tiarella cordifolia (foamflower) and Uvularia sessilifolia (wild oats) have shown no signs of new growth or appearance, respectively. But they may make up for lost ground quickly.