Welcome through Fred's Garden Gate! The sure signs of spring are finally upon us. Hardy little sprouts braving the chill air, cautiously reaching for a glimpse of the sun. Here a daffodil. Over there a tulip.. no, two. No, three!

Crocuses on the verge of bursting into a delightful display of color. Swelling lilac buds. Green mosses. What a wonderful time of year!

Soon - almost suddenly - two very early performers will appear, one for what seems like little more than a moment, the other lasting perhaps two or three weeks.

Sanguinaria canadensis

Happiest when nestled in the cool, mossy floor of acidic woods, Bloodroot has been the very first to grace our shady garden for a number of years.

Fragile, star-like pure white eight-petaled flowers with a soft yellow center on single stems only 7- or 8-inches tall emerge as the large, deeply-lobed dark green leaves unfurl.

Short-lived, their petals fall within a very few days leaving unusually-shaped pods which spill their shiny black seeds later in the season. Leaves remain at least through August if conditions are right. They prefer dappled or filtered sun which gently warms the soil beneath deciduous forest trees.

Bloodroot naturalizes nicely if it likes its home, creating a soft ground-cover that is most effective when interplanted with maidenhair fern. Their root is actually a rhizome storage structure that weeps a reddish juice when injured, hence the name "blood" root.

Plant them one-half inch deep, about six inches apart. Although not an endangered species, there aren't too many in the woods, so I don't recommend digging from the wild. They're best gotten from a friend or a wild-flower nursery.

Tulipa liliaceae - "Tarda"

This sun-loving member of the tulip family always attracts a great deal of attention in our gardens. A "species" tulip, it blooms earlier than its larger and taller cousins and lasts considerably longer. With the arrival of the morning sun, Tarda opens to a nearly-flat six-pointed yellow star fringed in white, and folds back into a bud after dark. Unlike its hybrid relatives, this one actually improves with age. While the more ordinary tulips degrade by the end of three or four years, Tarda continues to flourish and multiply, a few bulbs becoming a delightful clump in just a few short seasons.

Plant tulips in the fall - about October in our area - in deep, improved well-drained soil that has a little bonemeal added. Although they're fairly forgiving if the pH is off, better results are achieved when soil is just slightly acid. Set the bulbs in groups of six to ten, about four inches deep, and as with all fall bulbs, remove the spent flowers but maintain all foliage until it completely yellows. A light mulch of pine needles will give them all the protection they'll need and dresses-up the garden as well.

Species tulips are available from The Daffodil Mart, Rt. 3, Box 794, Gloucester, VA 23061, and McClure & Zimmerman, PO Box 368, Friesland, WI 53935. Both have free catalogs.