Native bulbs

I've just gone out in a Scottish mist to survey the spring garden. Some things are already discouraging, like the white campion (Silene alba). It produces a pretty little rosette flower on a long stem, and can act like baby's breath (Gypsophila) in a bouquet, but it's horribly self-seeding and has thick choking roots. Once it gets established, it's hard to get rid of.

One encouraging thing, though, is the abundance of Camassia leichtlinii. A native Maryland bulb, one reputed to be a favorite pot root of the Native Americans, Camassia Leichtlinii sends up lovely progressive sprays of lavender-blue flowers on sturdy stems about two-and-a-half feet tall. (There are other varieties, such as the deep purple and shorter quamash, but this one seems to do best for me). The bluey-green foliage of C. leichtlinii is lovely too, elegantly channeled fronds that taper to points. The bulbs multiply with economical discretion, adding several to the collections in the beds every year without taking over. I enjoy the fact that the camassia also act like barometers of the microclimates in my yard. Against the house on the protected south side, the flowers have already gone to seed (not attractive,but there you are), but the farther out you go, the later they bloom. Today, spangled with rain in the perennial bed on the east side of the vegetable garden where the northwest winds whip through they are right now at their blooming best.