How do we forget about things we really like? It happens sometimes. I have rediscovered some of my favorite t-shirts at the bottom of the stack and wondered how we ever got estranged, saying, “Oh man, I FORGOT about you!” Well, these same kinds of reunions happen occasionally with plants I have “misplaced.”

I was reminded recently of a shrub that had been out of my sight for too long. While treasure-hunting through the greenhouses of a wholesale nursery, I saw the golden flowers of an old friend standing all by himself, Kerria japonica. I hadn’t thought about this reliable, foolproof and joyful shrub for a long time. As we laughed and talked about old times, I wondered why we hadn’t gotten together in so long.

Kerria blooms early in the Spring and brings its graceful, airy character to almost any garden or landscape situation. The double-flowered variety ‘Pleniflora’ is the more well-known type, with its rounded clusters of flowers. This plant is occasionally seen in older properties and gardens in our area, showing us that people at one time knew about it. The fact that our local nurseries have been largely replaced by the McNurseries of big box stores has left us bereft of plants that were once common, a situation that could be depressing if one had that predisposition.

Let us not leave wonderful and worthy plants in the scrapbooks of our memories. Let’s get out some old stuff and put it on. Kerria japonica still looks good on you, Augusta.