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Bluebells carpet Poland, Mill Creek parks
Bluebells Bloom
Video
Wildflowers are blooming in the Poland Municipal Forest and the Bluebells steal the show,
POLAND
Every spring, a lush, blue layer of flowers carpets the forest floor at Poland Municipal Forest and at two locations in Mill Creek Park in Youngstown.
The flowers are commonly known as Virginia bluebells and scientifically known as Mertensia virginica.
Bluebells normally are in peak bloom about the third week in April, but they peaked in early April this year after an extended period of warm weather in early March, said Keith Kaiser, horticulture director at Mill Creek Park.
“They’re a native plant to Northeast Ohio, and they do well in a wooded, moist setting,” Kaiser said. “They actually do OK as a garden plant as long as there’s moisture and some shade or filtered light.”
Bluebells normally are in bloom for about three weeks, he added.
The area’s prime bluebell-viewing location is in Poland Municipal Forest along the Bluebell Trail and Bluebell Circle, which are accessible from parking lots at the dead end of College Street and along Indian Trail.
When the bluebells are in bloom, the one-lane Bluebell Trail and the one-way Bluebell Circle are open to cars entering via College Street only, but those gravel-surfaced trails are closed to motor vehicles during the rest of the year.
Users of the Indian Trail entrance can reach Bluebell Circle on foot by going right onto the Thacher Trail and left across the Mauthe Bridge, a suspension footbridge across Yellow Creek, which leads to Bluebell Circle.
Mill Creek Park naturalist Ray Novotny will lead a two-mile spring wild- flower hike at 2 p.m. Sunday through Poland Municipal Forest, with hikers gathering at the College Street entrance to the forest.
In favorable weather, this annual hike has drawn close to 100 participants in recent years.
Although the bluebells will be past their peak, some of them still may be in bloom during Novotny’s hike, especially in shadier
and cooler areas of the woods, said Ellen Speicher, assistant horticulture director at Mill Creek Park.
Even if the bluebells are few and far between, Novotny said: “We’ll still get a nice walk in a beautiful place.” In Mill Creek Park, the prime bluebell locations are on Valley Drive just north of the Silver Bridge on the west side of Mill Creek, and on West Drive en route to Birch Hill Cabin just north of Old Furnace Road.
Ernest Vickers, who was Mill Creek Park’s first naturalist, imported to that park thousands of bluebells in 1932 from the area that would be flooded by the creation of Meander Reservoir, Novotny said.
They were among some 40,000 wildflowers and ferns Vickers relocated to the park from the soon-to-be-flooded Meander basin back then.
Smaller clusters of bluebells are visible along the hiking trails in the wooded area of Boardman Park.