Spring Beauty in the Native Flora Garden

Few flowers epitomize the grace of spring ephemerals like Claytonia virginica, commonly called spring beauty, fairy spud, good-morning-spring, musquash, wild-potato, or miskodeed. Spreading like a carpet over the forest floor, the candy-striped flowers are among the earliest to open after the snow has melted and spring warmth has arrived. The flowers and rangy foliage emerge from a small marble-size corm. They can be easily transplanted and moved after flowering has finished. Be sure to remember where they are—once they go dormant, the small corms are nearly impossible to find.