Saugus Gardens in the Spring

Here’s what’s blooming in town this week to make your walks more enjoyable

By Laura Eisener

‘Iron Cross’ wood sorrel (Oxalis tetraphylla ‘Iron Cross’) is one of the plants known as “Good Luck Plant” because its leaf arrangement looks like a four-leaf clover, although it is not actually related to clover. It is occasionally called pink flowering false shamrock or good luck shamrock. This species is native to Mexico. In the wild, most plants in this species have plain green leaflets, but this variety introduced in the late 19th century has maroon markings at the base of each heart-shaped leaflet, leading to the distinctive pattern. The five-petalled flower is very bright pink, and they may continue blooming for much of the summer. They can be planted outside as an annual here as they are hardy only to zone 7, or they can be brought back indoors for the winter. The name of this maroon-marked variety derived from a cross shape originating in Prussia during the Middle Ages symbolizing bravery, loyalty and valor. The species epithet “tetraphylla” means “four leafed.” Most species of wood sorrel have three leaflets. Most wood sorrels are poisonous to dogs, cats and horses if eaten so should be kept out of reach if used as a house plant.

We usually consider Crocus (Crocus spp.) as one of the earliest harbingers of spring. While most years the snowdrop (Galanthus spp.) comes first, because of the lingering snow cover this year pushing the snowdrop blooms a little later, early crocus varieties are blooming concurrently with the snowdrops. The early spring blooming ‘Lilac Beauty’ crocus (Crocus tommasinianus ‘Lilac Beauty’) is often considered somewhat more squirrel resistant than most other spring crocus species. Known as “Tommies,” as a shortened version of their species epithet, these often bloom a couple of weeks before the larger Dutch hybrids and today are blooming along with the snowdrops in different parts of my garden. Crocuses and snowdrops usually close their petals at night and in rainy, snowy or even just cloudy weather to protect the more delicate flower parts. Tulips and crocus are often eaten by rabbits, squirrels and some other small rodents, but snowdrops, Siberian squill (Scilla sibirica), grape hyacinths (Muscari spp.), oriental hyacinths (Hyacinthus orientale), allium (Allium spp.) and daffodils (Narcissus spp.) are not very appealing to these animals.

If you have been observing shrubs and trees through the winter, the leaf and flower buds of many species are expanding as the weather warms and days grow longer. The swelling of buds on the lilac branches is especially noticeable this week. The buds of most common lilacs are green, but the common lilac variety ‘Charles Joly’ (Syringa vulgaris ‘Charles Joly’), which has very dark reddish-purple blossoms in May, has dark buds through the winter. At this point in spring, they are about twice the size they were two months ago but have not opened yet.

Spring has officially sprung in the northern hemisphere, since the vernal equinox was a week ago yesterday (Thursday, March 20). Last Friday, March 21, was the International Day of Forests, which was first proclaimed by the United Nations in 2012. Each year has a theme, and this year it is “Forests and Food.” Tomorrow is World Water Day and this year’s theme is “Glacier Preservation,” which emphasizes efforts to preserve glaciers, which have declined drastically in recent years. World Water Day was first observed in 1993 and its primary purpose is to improve access to safe drinking water throughout the world by combating drought, floods, pollution and other climate issues involving water.

Observing the ponds in town as they have changed from frozen to partly thawed, we now have open water in all our ponds, and if temperatures keep up as they have in the past two weeks we will have a very short sugaring season, since even night temperatures have been above freezing. Just over two weeks ago, I watched a troupe of Canada geese walk carefully across the thin ice of Birch Pond beside Walnut Street, but now they would have to swim to get to the other side.

  Editor’s Note: Laura Eisener is a landscape design consultant who helps homeowners with landscape design, plant selection and placement of trees and shrubs, as well as perennials. She is a member of the Saugus Garden Club and offered to write a series of articles about “what’s blooming in town” shortly after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. She was inspired after seeing so many people taking up walking.