And our first contestant is . . .

I’ve got Starflowers beginning to come up in my yard! These are Michigan natives, so they’re perfectly fine coming up right now, even if it should snow on them, which it just might. They will have a nice rosetta of leaves and then send up a handful of stalks from the center with white starlike flowers, then die back completely around late summer.

I’m so pleased to see that they are multiplying, as I always worry about finding the right place for wildflowers the first time. It’s illegal to pick or collect wildflowers in Michigan, but you can buy them from licensed growers and sellers, and that’s where I got these. It makes me feel better knowing I might be helping to replace a little of what’s gone, and that they didn’t die is a huge relief. They’re the first up in my Michigan wildflower garden, which also has trilliums, Mayapples, Jack-in-the-pulpit, and Wood Poppy. Lots of Wood Poppy. I’ve got little pots of them resting in my bed to give to my mom this spring, potted last fall and left in the ground to settle in for a season so they have lots of good roots when I give them to her. They’re coming up pretty good too, but not as showy as the Starflowers.