Spring Beauty's

Winter has about one day left here in Durham North Carolina, we hope anyway. Still some snow on the ground, but Thursday it'll reach 65 degrees and then into the 70s into Monday.....Yahoo! Here are some wildflower picks I found for you enjoy!Spring Beauty, Claytonia virginica This spring wonder should already be out in damp areas nearby here. I'm not sure that we get them in my woods. To find a huge patch of these in the spring is what its all about!
Variegated Milkweed, Asclepias variegata some might call it White Milkweed. We have a huge (what I call huge anyway) patch of them along the road by the mailbox. In fact I know of no where else in NC that there are so many of these plants in one place. I've trekked a lot in NC, most of the wild places anyway.
This is not so local though common in places like Croatan National Forest in coastal NC. It is Dwarf Azalea, Rhododendron atlanticum. Grows to about one foot and the aroma when blooming is wonderful. Once I found a small patch with 6-8 Palamedes Swallowtails on them. Can't wait to get out there in the forest and wander about with my camera, there are lots of wild orchids and endless pitcher plants to wade into.

Wild flowers from my woods part one

Dwarf Crested Iris (Iris cristata)
These are common in my woods. Our property is almost 4 acres and more than 3/4 of it is a wooded hillside. This plant blankets the understory in two places on the back slope. Further down the hillside on my neighbors property there is a huge mass maybe 50ft x 50ft, one of our patches are like 15ft x 20ft Thought we loose a good part of it when we had the septic field moved into the woods to make room for the addition I built. Yes the patches are smaller but also there in more light for them now. The native red Carolina Honeysuckle is abundant there also, but it does not get enough light to flower usually, maybe now it will, time will tell. We found 2 morel mushrooms with them last year!

One thing about this flower if you don't catch it in bloom, the flowering lasts 2-3 tops, you'll be waiting until next season to see them.

Hoping to find hundreds of Trout Lilies in the next few days or a week not far from these plants. This is one of the reasons I moved here the wild flowers. The Duke Natural History Group came here on a field trip I provided and I just could get them to move out from my woods...

These were tripod shots taken about 100 ft from where I'm typing right now.
Soon I'll have more on our garden, it is 22 degrees this morning and we are hoping that the baby plants handle it ok.