On the Shores of Lake Chicago

gardening in Oak Park, IL, in the clay mud of prehistoric Lake Chicago

Spring’s Progress May 1, 2008

Filed under: Gardening, Native Plants — lakechicagoshores @ 12:23 pm

'Bloodgood' Japanese maple

For all the folks that hit my blog looking for the Japanese maple ‘Bloodgood’, here’s mine, just leafing out. It’s right next to a red-twig varigated dogwood, and a forsythia is in the background.

Gigantic celandine poppy

Can I say again how much I like celandine poppies? All of them are already a foot and a half high and covered in yellow flowers. Yeah, I said the same thing last year at this time

American bittersweet leafing out

Both the male and female American bittersweet (Celastrus scandens) vines have leafed out. I’m hoping for flowers this year now that they are a couple of years old.

Shooting star buds

My hopes for shooting star (Dodecatheon meadia) blossoms this year appears to be based in reality. They haven’t bloomed since I planted them a couple of years ago, but it looks like they’re well established enough to pop this year!