There are three natives in this yard that develop good-sized seed collections, which start getting distributed in July: twinleaf, trillium, and false Solomon’s seal. These plants did very well setting fruit this spring, but the nonnative Solomon’s seals, which seem to like similar habitats, did not.
Twinleaf seedpods are very silly—eventually they split open at that manic smile of a seam, ready to dribble seeds nearby.
Within a month, they have turned into dried-out old seedpods that look like they are huddling, perhaps in conversation.
The trillium are yellowing and their seedpods have finally broken off and landed on the ground, where they look like something took a bite out of them, as the missing pieces are nowhere in sight.
The other remarkably seedy native is false Solomon’s seal. This arcing, roughly knee-high plant has a beautiful plume of starry flowers in May, which start blooming from the bottom and progress to the tip.
They set fruit quickly, but will not drop them for at least another couple of months. The clusters of fruits are heavy enough to have bent several of the plants midway up their stems, so the seed clusters rest on the ground.
The Asian Solomon’s seals all bloomed nicely in early to mid-May, but have not set fruit well. This could be a matter of not having the correct pollinators at hand, or perhaps we can blame the weather.
The variegated Solomon’s seal led off the season with a very nice showing of flowers.
Despite all the flowers in May, there is not a single fruit to be seen. There should be a little fruit hanging off each of those now-empty former flower stems.
The Solomon’s seal ‘Heronwood’ put on a nice display of flowers this past May. These are my favorite of the Asian Solomon’s seal flowers. They are gracefully shaped and have beautifully tinted petal tips.
This is the middle-sized species of my Asian Solomon’s seals. They have a few—very few—maturing fruits here and there. They will eventually turn a deep blue.
The smallest of my Asian Solomon’s seal, dwarf Japanese Solomon’s seal, also bloomed well.
It has a better fruit set than its larger cousins, but is suffering from what seems to be too much sun. On the one hand, the plants are rather shallow-rooted, so it is possible that the soil dries out a little too much without the shade of a tree. These plants were fine when they were in the lee of the gone pawpaw (the link will open in a new tab). On the other hand, we’ve had a surfeit of rain—according to the National Weather Service we had 6.6 inches of rain in June, while the normal rainfall is 3.9 inches, and even more surprising, over 4 inches of rain so far in July, while the normal rainfall is slightly less than 2 inches. On the other hand, over 3 inches of July’s rain were from Beryl, on July 10. We got off easy!
I have been contemplating rearranging the pawpaw bed that these Solomon’s seal inhabit for at least a couple of years. This may be the summer. I hope to move them into deeper shade, but will not finalize anything until late September when the weather cools down.
All in all, these spring flowers start the succession of seediness that characterize the segue of high summer into late summer and fall. Interestingly, the only one of this group that disappears for the remainder of the growing season is the trillium. The rest remain, adding texture and interesting shapes to the green background of the yard.