In April, shades of green usually return to the muted Wisconsin landscape, transforming it. Yellow-green, pale green, gray-green tinted with pink, bright green, and many other hues appear and change as buds open, leaves unfurl and expand, and tree canopies fill in throughout the month. Garden tasks include trimming last year’s plant material, checking perennial weed emergence and weed seed germination, giving presentations, leading the first 2026 garden tour, and setting volunteer schedules. If weather permits, volunteer groups begin gardening this month.

Under the leafless or developing tree canopy, herbaceous perennials emerge through dried leaves covering the soil. The plants described below are best suited for home gardens with semi-shaded conditions during summer. Some are true spring ephemerals, with leaves that die back within a few weeks of blooming and setting seed. Some have leaves that persist through part or all of summer, long after blooming. Each species is visited by pollinators or insects that are active early in spring. These species are just a small sample of early floral diversity.

Large-flowered bellwort (Uvularia grandiflora) and prairie trillium (Trillium recurvatum) are suited for gardens in light shade, with moist soil conditions for the former and moist to dry-mesic conditions for the latter. Bellwort leaves are held vertically after emergence and during flowering. Later, when the tree canopy has developed, bellwort leaves are held horizontally. The yellow flowers are six-parted, with six tepals (petal-like structures), six stamens, and a three-parted style (which receives pollen and matures into a three-parted capsule holding the seeds). These flowers produce both pollen and nectar and are visited by spring queen bumble bees and other early Andrenid, mason, and Halictid bees.

Prairie trillium has reddish stems and three spreading mottled leaves. A single flower is held just above the leaves. Each flower has three petals, three sepals, six stamens, three stigmas, and a three-angled fruit. While blooming, these flowers offer only pollen, and little is known about their pollinators. It may take ten years for the plant to reach flowering size if grown from seed.

Both bellwort and trillium may spread by rhizome (underground stem) and form clones, and they can be propagated by division. Both species have elaiosomes attached to their seeds; those fat bodies attract ants, who disperse the seeds.

A member of the carrot family, aniseroot (Osmorhiza longistylus) grows best in moist to mesic soil conditions. It has horizontal compound leaves divided into three leaflets and three sub leaflets. The white flowers are tiny (three millimeters) and held in compound umbels (umbrella-like flower clusters). Each flower has five petals, five stamens, and a style divided into two parts. After small and medium solitary bees and flies visit the flowers for pollen and nectar, fruits are produced in mid-summer and split in two. The ridged, bristly seeds are dispersed on animal fur or gardeners’ clothing. The leaves and plants die back in mid- to late summer.

Two true spring ephemerals, Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginiana) and Dutchman’s breeches (Dicentra cucullaria), are excellent plants for moist soils and for supporting spring queen bumble bees, mason bees, and other long-tongued bees.

Bluebells have long bell-shaped flowers (pink buds and blue petals at bloom time). The fruits have four lobes, each with four nutlets inside – a characteristic of the Borage family. Bees visit the flowers for nectar and pollen and other floral visitors like bee fly, butterfly, and moths visit for nectar only.

Dutchman’s breeches have delicate dissected leaves with a fern-like appearance. Each plant has several stems bearing pendulous flowers. Each flower has four petals, but the floral structure requires a large pollinator to “open” the flower, to access nectar and pollen. Nectar-robbing insects may access nectar by poking through the petals. This species can produce seeds even if cross-pollination does not occur.

A short time after bloom and seed set, leaves on these two species die back completely and are not visible during other times of year. Both species can form clones, spreading by rhizome.

These are but five native species to grow in a garden with light shade in summer. Explore them and many more this April as our green landscape returns.

– Susan Carpenter, native plant garden curator