In an effort to distract myself and kill time till Cat gets home, I walked around the yard taking photos of some of the things that are starting to bloom around here. It's still early spring in these parts, so not a lot is really going on. Trees are just starting to move from buds to leaf, still not much green though. Enough talk, here's just some beautiful flowers.


The common blue violet (Viola sororia), probably the most common flower in my yard, and many others! this stuff is every where, but I always love to see it!


Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica) Another early spring favorite that grows along my driveway and creek. I have seen this flower grow in patches 1/2 acre in size carpeting whole bottoms next to creeks and rivers in the Park.


Star Chickweed (Stellaria pubera) Another common mid - low elevation wildflower that grows along the drive way. Interesting in the fact that in really has 5 petals, instead of ten. Folklore says that an open flower guarantees a few hours without rain. It rained within an hour of taking this photo.


The common dogwood (Cornaceae family), who doesn't love to see them signaling the arrival of spring? I use this plant as an indicator as to when the smallmouth pre-spawn has started.


My pear tree, just a pretty bloom I love to see. The whole tree is covered in blooms this year, which is a bit unusual since there are usually casualties due to cold early spring nights.


Common Chickweed (Stellaria media) This stuff grows along the creek and took me a while to identify. A fairly common weed that can be used as greens in salads and is a favored food of chickens and wild birds.



Blue phlox (Phlox divaricata) A beautiful spring perennial that grows wild all over the mountains. I'll bee seeing this until almost July in some sheltered high elevation streams. This clump was growing next to the creek in large patches.


Trout-lilly ( Erythronium umbilicatum) The pride and joy of the wild flowers in my yard! I have a hillside with hemlocks that these grow in huge patches of 50 to 100 plants. Listed as common, I don't think it's all that common, as I've only seen it in the wild 3 or 4 times. Named fort the mottled leaves that were believed to look like the backs of brook trout. How can you not like that!

So there it is folks! Most of whats blooming in the yard right now. Some of these are absolute favorites, since they are announcing the arrival of spring. This will be the beginning of the photo season, so be prepared for some photo heavy blogs.

How can you just not love wildflowers?