How to grow and care for native Hepatica in your woodland garden
These woodland flowers are among the first to bloom in spring
Hepatica was always my favourite early-blooming wildflower to photograph in the spring woods around our home.
On most early spring photo excursions it was the only wildflower to grace the woodland floor – certainly the most delicate and the one that had the most potential for a lovely photograph. While other spring wildflowers were still in winter dormancy, these spunky little blue, white, purple and pinkish flowers – actually part of the buttercup family – were already up and blooming providing a source of much needed pollen for native bees and other pollinators.
Even if you’re not interested in photographing Hepaticas, experiencing them in your garden each spring is one of the great joys of woodland gardening.
Unfortunately great images of these small flowers can be difficult to capture in the messy spring woodland.
So, why not plant these native beauties in our own garden so we can better admire them, and maybe grab some nice images of them in the best light?
And, don’t be surprised if your hepaticas begin to reproduce in your garden through self-seeding.
On the University of Wisconsin - Madison website, Susan Mahr writes about where to find Hepatica in the wild and how to create those conditions in our garden: “In the wild, Hepatica is usually found in high-quality, open woodlands with many native trees and herbaceous plants and few or no invasive species such as garlic mustard or buckthorn.”
She writes that this low-maintenance plant is best grown in places where it can remain undisturbed for several years. However, she is quick to explain that: “Hepatica are easily transplanted and plants can be rescued from construction sites.” She adds that they should never be dug from intact woodland settings.
For more on why native plants should not be taken from the wild, please see my earlier post here.
Ms. Mahr writes: “While not typically thought of as a garden plant, Hepatica can be readily grown in rich soils in shady sites. It looks best placed in clumps of two or three or scattered about under trees with other native woodland plants including bleeding hearts (Dicentra spp.), wild geranium (Geranium maculatum), Dutchman’s breeches (Dicentra cucullaria), trilliums, woodland phlox (Phlox divaricata), and many others..”
Secret to their success
The secret to Hepatica’s early arrival is because they are a spring geophyte. All this means is that these plants have underground renewal buds which are ready to sprout immediately after the cold season gives way to spring and enough light makes it to the woodland soil through the still-bare trees. The plants’ leaves remain active throughout the winter months, conducting photosynthesis and gathering energy when it is sunny and safe to do so. The old leaves stick around until the plant starts to bloom and create new leaves to carry on its winter-surviving legacy.
The simple beauty of our native wildflowers
Hepatica growing in a woodland setting. Notice the delicate flowers and fine hairs on the leaves and stems.
When Hepatica blooms?
The Sharp-lobed Hepatica, (Hepatica acutiloba) also known as Liverwort and Liverleaf is a native woodland plant that blooms throughout April to May. The flowers are easy to spot on the woodland floor as their hairy, leafless shoots emerge in colourful clusters that add splashes of white, pink, purple, or bluish colours to the forest floor. There is also a variety called the Round-Lobed Hepatica.
Hepatica flowers actually have no petals. Instead, the colourful petal-like objects are actually sepals that frame the flower and sit on top of three green, pointed-tipped bracts. The leaves of Hepatica are also easy to identify with their mottled green colour and three deep lobes that have pointed tips resembling the shape of a liver, hence the common name Liverwort and Liverleaf.
Where are Hepatica found?
This plant can be found throughout southeastern United States and up through Ontario, Manitoba and into parts of Quebec. They are often found growing in open deciduous woodlands with a good woodland soil.
Being part of the Buttercup family, the plant has mildly toxic leaves saving it from being eaten by animals and insects looking for greenery in winter and early spring. Fine hairs along its stems, bracts, and leaves, add to its unappetizing appearance, especially in spring when they are preparing to bloom and their is little else around for deer and other grazing animals and insects.
An extreme closeup of a Hepatica shows their yellow anthers atop the stamens.
There was a time when hepaticas were difficult to find in local nurseries, but the move toward more native plants has made these spring-blooming herbaceous perennials much easier to track down at better nurseries.
Hepatica grows to about 12-inches high and are hardy in zones 8 through to about zone 4a.
The ½- to 1-inch-wide flowers have a number of oblong white, pink, lavender, purple or bluish sepals (no petals!) surrounding numerous central stamens tipped with yellowish anthers.
Imagine small clumps of these
delicate
flowers in your woodland garden
Clumps of these delicate native wildflowers spread throughout your woodland garden can be a magical experience each spring.
Hepatica can be important early food sources for many pollinators, including butterflies, bees, flies and beetles that visit the flowers during the month-long bloom period.
One important note for photographers who are looking to get an early morning photo session in on these flowers, or for those hoping to catch them in beautiful overcast skies. Chances are you will not be very successful. Hepatica flowers actually close at night as well as on cloudy days. They often don’t open up until later in the morning or early afternoon when the sun in out in full force.
Hepaticas time their bloom during warm sunny periods when pollinators are more likely to be out and about.
Hepatica also have the ability to self-pollinate.
By early summer oblong fruits appear on the plants. These are also covered with silky hairs and are a favorite food source of chipmunks and other rodents.
The seeds, which have a small, fleshy appendage called an elaisome, are dispersed by ants, that take them back to their nests to consume the fat-rich elaisomes and discard the seeds which then germinate far from the mother plant.
Other varieties of Hepatica
Hepatica nobilis occurs in eastern North America, Europe, and Japan. Variety obtusa and var. acuta occur in North America, var. nobilis and pyrenaica in Europe and var. asiatica, var. japonica and var. pubescens in Japan. In addition, several other hepatica species occur in Europe and the Far East.
Sometimes the two North American varieties are considered to be species in their own rite. The synonym for var. obtusa is Hepatica Americana, and for var. acuta is Hepatica acutiloba. They are very similar in appearance except that the lobes on the leaves of var. obtusa are blunt and those on var. acuta come to a point. Hepatica nobilis var. obtusa is often found on more acid soils while var. acuta is most common on calcareous soils.
Hepatica nobilis also occurs in Europe from England across Scandinavia thru the Baltic States, east to Ukraine, and south to Italy and Spain.
Propagation
Propagation Material: Hepatica propagation is by both clump division, and by growing seeds. Seeds, which are commercially available, can be collected from mid to late May in most northern climates and should be planted outside soon after collection.
Seeds can also be hard to collect and require cold treatment, so consider fall division as an alternate propagation plan. Clumps can be slow to increase so ensure that when you are dividing a clump, to leave 2-3 buds in each division.
