Today my husband and I visited the nearby North Carolina Botanical Garden (NCBG), a five-minute drive away, to check on the progress of the spring wildflowers. We were last there on February 27 and caught the first of the native spring ephemerals unfolding, Erythronium umbilicatum (Dimpled Trout-lily).

We were looking for trillium and bloodroot, which we found, and we encountered other delights as well that were not visible on our last stop.

The first little beauty, Hepatica americana (Round-lobe Liverleaf), is native to eastern North America.

Anemonella thalictroides (Windflower) is native to eastern United States.

We did find Trillium beginning to emerge. Looking closely we observed flower buds forming on this stand of Trillium stamineum (Twisted Trillium). This one is native to Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi.

The garden features many other kinds of trillium, including southeastern U.S. native Trillium cuneatum (Little Sweet Betsy).  I cannot tell them apart unless they are obediently close to the plant markers. We will have to check back in a few days, but here are some we saw.

This is a flower my husband particularly sought out. Packer aurea (syn. Senecio aureus) (Golden Ragwort) is native to eastern North America.

Sanguinaria canadensis (Bloodroot) is beautiful. Only a few flowers are blooming so far, but there should be many more.

I could not resist giving this Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Arnold Promise’ (Hybrid Witch hazel) some attention. It looked ebullient in the sun’s afternoon glow.

Podophyllum peltatum (May-apple). Until I saw the pictures later I did not know there were flowers.

Micranthes virginiensis (Early saxifrage) was flowering near the parking lot. I hope we do not wait too long to visit again to check on the progress of the early spring bloomers.