It can be hard to choose a favorite time of year to be in the Blue Ridge Mountains, every season brings its own special qualities: Summer offers the warmest weather and lots of opportunities to enjoy the cool mountain water; Fall bursts into life with the apple harvest season and fall foliage color show; Winter bring the warmth of the holiday season followed temperatures that are often mild enough to continue to enjoy the great outdoors; and Spring — well!  Spring may just have the rest beat!

The Southern Appalachian region is known to be one of the most diverse regions in the entire world, in terms of flora and fauna, and every spring, an untold number of different plants burst into life, showcasing their stunning blooms — sometimes small and delicate, and other times called “flame” or “fire” for a good reason.

Follow along with us as we track mother nature’s finest display of blooms all spring and into the summer. Here’s what to expect from this year, but keep in mind that the temperature always dictates the bloom schedule, so some of these may vary from one year to the next:

• March –  The show typically begins in mid-March, usually the earliest signs are the non-native species, like daffodils, forsythia and Bradford pear trees. As the month comes to a close, more blooms open up, both in locals’ front yards and in our many state and national forests, like violets and trout lilies.
• April – The tulips and dogwoods typically unfurl in April, followed by the delicate pink blooms across the area’s hundreds of acres of apple trees. Later in the month, scour the forest floor for native blooms including (but not limited to) pink lady slippers, many varieties of trillium, and sweetshrub.
• May – This is a great time to be on the lookout for Jack-In-The-Pulpits, a native, carnivorous plant, as well as aptly-named, vibrant flowers such as flame azaleas and fire pinks. Towards the end of the month, be on the lookout for delicate mountain laurels as well as some varieties of rhododendron. This is also a great time of year to spot lantern-like Eastern Columbines.
• June – This is typically prime time to see the rhododendrons blooming, both along the Blue Ridge Parkway and while hiking through rhododendron thickets and tunnels in many of the area’s state and national forests. Tall, yellow mullein plants, with their soft leaves, thrive in sunny spots.
• July – Drive along any road and around you, the ditches are likely to be filled with vibrant, orange lilies. Along trailsides, be on the lookout for jewelweed — a wonderful, native plant that always grows near and is the cure for getting poison ivy oils off your skin. Coneflowers, black-eyed Susans, milk weed and Joe Pye weed are also found in abundance.  

See below for our weekly updates on what has popped up this week!

(Please note: the photo here and at the top of this page are from previous years.)

The week of St. Paddy’s Day and the first week of spring were a great week to be in Hendersonville! Front yards of homes and businesses, and area parks began to show their first signs in the last week or so. Some of the non-native blooms dotting the landscape have included daffodils, violets, grape hyacinth, Bradford pear trees, ornamental cherry trees, and even downtown Hendersonville’s tulips are mostly in bloom already! Heading into the woods, at Holmes State Educational Forest, yellow trout lilies covered the understory, bloodroot flowers were beginning to open, and smaller blooms such as Carolina springbeauty, violas and star chickweed dotted the forest floor.