Spring is a wonderful time of year! Searching for wildflowers is like looking for Easter Eggs in the woods! There are many different types of wildflowers that bloom at different times of the year. The springtime wildflowers are so popular to so many people because these are very special ones. They are called "ephemerals," which means that they are fleeting. They rise up out of the leaf litter on the forest floor and turn toward the sunlight. In early spring, the leafy canopy is not yet shading the forest floor, and these tough little plants must gather all the sunshine and nutrients they can in a short time.

 

Some of the ephemerals in the southern Appalachians can be found in many other areas of the country, and so when you read about spring wildflowers keep in mind that they may grow where you are too!

 

The Lily family includes many favorite wildflowers, but perhaps one of the most popular and sought after would be the trilliums. Trilliums all have three leaves, three sepals, and three petals. There are about eight in the southern Appalachians that we have found in recent years.    

All of these wildflowers have short bloom times. Begin your search for these in the southern Appalachian Mountains on sheltered slopes from later February until end of April, depending on your altitude. But you can find these beauties a little longer if you chase Springtime up the hills.

In progress, post-production - a spring wildflower DVD! 

 

This project has now evolved into a multi-program series.  First up is a program about early spring ephemerals in the Southern Appalachian Mountains.  You will see these wildflowers up close in living color, learn all about them and the habitats they live in, and find out why these flowers are so dear to hikers and wildflower enthusiasts.  Although the wildflowers on this DVD were photographed in the Southern Appalachians, many of them are also found in other places, frequently as far north as Canada.  Because of this, people from all over North America may find this series interesting and informative.  We plan on one of these programs centering around where to find these beauties in the Southern Appalachians, including north Georgia, western North Carolina, and eastern Tennessee.  People planning trips to these areas may want to choose their travel dates to coincide with the bloom time of some of these flowers.  There is nothing like a hillside of white fringed phacelia with yellow trillium rising up out of that snow-like carpet.

 

Our prized wildflower DVD has been pushed back due to several other more immediate projects that have come up.  But we promise, we are working on it as we can!  We have received many emails and letter from folks who are waiting to see it.  Thank you very much for your interest and we hope you can be patient a little longer.

 

Meanwhile, please go to our Smokies pages on this website and to our photography section, to see pictures of wildflowers found the Southern Appalachian Mountains.

 

We have added a page to our Smokies section about where to find wildflowers in the Southern Appalachians!