DUTCHMAN’S BREECHES

Perched like laundry on a line, the quirky flowers of Dicentra ucullaria dangle from arching stems above mounds of blue-green ferny foliage. Just below ground, this ephemeral?s small fistlike clusters of pinkish bulblets will break apart and reproduce to form large colonies in woodlands from Nova Scotia to Kansas. Zones 3 to 8.

WILD COLUMBINE

Longer blooming than many spring wildflowers, Aquilegia canadensis can flower into July, after which it dies back to a thick underground stem. Naturally occurring in a range of habitats ? from gravelly slopes to rich deciduous forests across the eastern half of North America ? columbine?s long-spurred, pendulous red and yellow flowers make it a good hummingbird plant. Zones 3 to 9.

CELANDINE POPPY

A prolifically blooming wildflower native to much of the Southeast and Midwest, Stylophorum diphyllum is a poppy relative, with 3-inch, crepe-paper-textured flowers and distinctively lobed blue-green foliage. Hairy-looking pods can drop a multitude of seeds, which are carried off and ?planted? by ants, which relish a fatty appendage on the seeds called an elaiosome. Zones 4 to 8.

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