Brockway Native Plants

04/12/2026

My native American plum is in full bloom. It is so beautiful and fragrant. Hoping the rain and wind is kind to it. Photo is from 12 months ago. Riverside, IL. Sprouts are blooming as well. I encourage the sprouts now reaching 4 ft tall.

03/23/2026

Wood ducks live in dens 8-20 ft above the ground in trees or in manmade wood duck boxes.

03/23/2026

Incredible and not AI

03/23/2026

Got a jig in his jag step

03/23/2026

Got a jig in his jag step!

03/21/2026

Removing invasive common privet and vinca today and replacing with native black chokeberry, serviceberry and gray dogwood. Vinca has mat- forming fibrous roots

03/17/2026

As longer, warmer days thaw layers of snow and ice, the first wave of spring plants will push their way through the ground. Early spring blooms and buds are especially important, providing early spring butterflies, overwintering bees, and other pollinators with essential nutrients and their only source of food before the rest of the spring and summer plants bloom.

Among those that are early to emerge is a particularly special group of wildflowers known as ephemerals. Although the definition of a “true ephemeral” may vary, we generally regard plants within this group as those that both bloom and senesce (age and go dormant) early in the season, typically before the canopy has leafed-out, to take advantage of unobstructed sunlight. As soon as the canopy closes, ephemerals go dormant and disappear from view, storing energy in underground storage organs like bulbs, tubers, or roots.

Spring ephemerals are mainly found in deciduous forests, such as maple or birch woodlands, but can occur all over New England. They grow in soils moist from snowmelt, which helps them tolerate the lower temperatures of early spring. Ephemerals make use of the high nutrient levels in the soil from decomposing leaves, left from the fall, and photosynthesize quickly before forest trees begin to grow leaves and absorb the nutrients and water in the soil.

Keep your eye out for the spring ephemerals shown above on your upcoming woodland walks. Blood-root (Sanguinaria canadensis) is amongst the first to pop up, blooming in late March to early April. Two-leaved toothwort (Cardamine diphylla) and trout lily (Erythronium americanum) bloom in early April, and are among the number of spring ephemerals that can be found growing throughout Garden in the Woods.

Photo: Blood-root leaves, blooms, buds © Native Plant Trust; trout lily leaves, blooms, buds © Native Plant Trust; two-leaved toothwort leaves and buds © Arthur Haines, blooms © Donald Cameron

03/16/2026

(130/250) The northern leopard frog can be found in wetlands, grasslands and ponds across much of the northern U.S. and Canada. As temperatures rise, frogs begin emerging from their overwintering spots in mud at the bottom of ponds or streams, returning to shallow wetlands to breed.



Photo by Courtney Celley/USFWS

03/04/2026

Jewelweed

02/28/2026

11/11/2025