A collection of the most ornamental spring-flowering herbaceous plants. Early flowering plants are harbingers of spring. However, the warmth and sunlight of early spring are not enough to provide these plants with the optimal nutrition and photosynthesis needed to form shoots. Spring flowering plants are therefore adapted accordingly. They are like a reservoir where nutrients, minerals, and starch are stored. Energy is stored in the winter and used in the spring for germination, growth, and flowering.
Ephemeroids are a group of perennial herbaceous plants for which fall-winter-spring vegetation is common. During the dry season, the plants remain dormant in the form of seeds, bulbs, tubers, or rhizomes. The vegetative period of ephemeroids in arid zones (tulips, sedges, meadow grass) is short about two months. Optimum growth occurs in the spring. They only flower after the snow has melted and flowering for about two weeks. For the next two weeks, they mature and sow seeds. They then build up food reserves for the following year, turn yellow and die. When the trees fully open their leaves in early summer, these plants are no longer visible, but the so-called storage organs remain in the ground: onions, corms, and rhizomes. The plants are divided into ephemeroids of arid areas (tulips, daffodils, hyacinths) and of forests (windflowers, wild gingers, gageas).
Some spring ephemeroids sow their seeds and summer only underground, while their rhizomes or bulbs spend this time dormant. Other ephemeroids, like liverworts or kingcups, turn green in summer. But plants like coltsfoots or butterburs first produce their flowers and then emerge. Ephemeroids grow naturally in the wild, but many cultivars have been developed.
VU Botanical Garden in Kairėnai started to develop this new plant collection in 2020. It is intended to collect the most ornamental and low-maintenance spring flowering herbaceous plants, to introduce visitors to the diversity of these plants, their care, and their combination with each other in the design of flowerbeds and in decorating the environment.
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Noble liverwort (Hepatica nobilis L.) The plant grows 4-15 cm tall. It has a short rhizome. The petioles are long and covered with long fine hairs; the leaves are trifoliated with cordate or kidney-shaped bases and broad, equilateral lobes. Flowers solitary, petals 6-7. Flowering in March-April, sometimes in May. The liverwort grows in mixed forests, on wooded slopes, and in forest undergrowth. |
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Imperial crown fritillary (Fritillaria imperialis L.) Perennial herbaceous bulbous plant. Height up to 120 cm, width 17-20 cm. Shrub steep. Stem is also steep, and sturdy. Leaves lanceolate, 7-13 cm long. Inflorescences of orange flowers 5-6 cm long, drooping. Inflorescences of up to 8 flowers. The elongated upper leaves emerge above the flowers. Flowering in May. |
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Dutch hyacinth (Hyacinthus orientalis) 'Splendid Cornelia' Perennial herbaceous bulbous plant. Grows up to 30 cm tall. The inflorescence is a compound cluster with 5 petals, light pink in color, and darker in color through the central axis of the petal. It prefers a sunny, lightly shaded position, free from spring flooding and sheltered from the wind. Flowering in late April. |
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Two-flowered tulip (Tulipa bifloriformis L.) The flowers are small, star-shaped, with a pleasant scent, and open only when the sun shines. Inflorescence with 1-5, sometimes 10-15 flowers, one-sided, the pedicels of unequal length. Outer petals with inwardly curving margins, much narrower than the inner petals, pinkish-purple backs, and creamy-white margins, turning completely white towards the end of flowering. Stems are glandular, purplish green, and 10-25 cm tall. Leaves grayish green, linear-lanceolate, gutter-like, with smooth margins. Flowering from April.
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