The garden in any season is a battle-ground. Each plants footprint is variable, deceptively small in spring, rampant and running over others in fall, this occurs in each season in the perennial garden. The intent is the same for the most part, gain ground and bookmark a space. A serious game of spread and conquer. Within the scheme of growing there are differences in methods of acquisition, adaptations that vary mightily between spring and fall. Early in the year we find the stress avoiders. They arrive with delicate flowers and few leaves. Many are bulbs or spring ephemerals, their life above ground is short. Good examples include snowdrops, daffodils, Virginia bluebells, and tulips. The underground bulb or storage unit is full of food, garnered during that short time when leaves were above ground. The stress they avoid is heat and drought, two common traits of summer in Virginia. Their thinking is grow during spring rains, flower while there is a smaller pool of flowers for a better chance of pollination, and don't bother growing while things are tough. Not always a perfect game, the biggest drawback might be the spread of others into their space while they rest in dormancy. With that in mind they produce large leaves after the flowers have finished and the effect of heat on these leaves and stems elongates both. The leaves then stretch, hopefully beyond the boundary they garnered this year, and fall over with the intent of suffocating all beneath. The elongation of flowering stems (now seed pods) is also a highly evolved scheme to spread their seeds beyond the mother plant, effectively making a ring around the mother plant and producing seedlings beyond any foreign neighboring plant. In time that circle of seedlings will spread and hopefully choke out others between them, eventually becoming a larger patch of mother's progeny.

The stress avoiders are serious at their game. To survive they have to be. Once heat sets in, the end is near and there will be a long stretch of time before they sprout again. Most are cool season growers, triggered by the cooler temperatures, they want to grow while the trees have no leaves. In the big picture, trees are warm season growers, developing leaves with spring warmth and building a canopy as it gets warmer. The leafy canopy of tree leaves is just another ploy to shade out root competition for the trees. The stress avoiders are savvy to that and cool means grow, hurry and grow. Of the many growth habits, this is just one but it makes the garden look full in spring. Those excessive leaves left by the stress avoiders make the gardener think that space is limited in the garden in spring, when in fact these will disappear as summer approaches. It is essential that the leaves are left to wither and die naturally, at least until the food stored in them in transferred to the resting root or bulb. The good side is that many plants can be put directly in with this group of plants, essentially growing in their space when they don't use it, when its vacant later. The gardener's job is to allow both to live happily. So the gardener cleans up the spot where daffodils or Virginia bluebells sprout in early spring, especially if winter did a poor job of breaking down thick leaves of others that rest on top. The real test of a successful gardener is knowing how to manage the interface of various plants as they attempt to spread and conquer. It is a battleground, and yeah, who really is in charge here?