It was COLD – 39 degrees – and WINDY.  Sunday afternoon, a bit of snow in the morning. 

Bloodroot

For some reason, my invitees for another trip to The Pocket all declined.  Too bad.  I thought it would be a quick trip down there, but I found myself lingering.  I didn’t find any plants blooming that I hadn’t at least seen buds on previously, but there were still many opportunities for photographs.

First, the Virginia Bluebell buds had multiplied dramatically, with most of the plants sporting one or more purple/pink/blue clusters of flower buds.  As I walked around toward the hillside on the boardwalk, I spotted many Wood Poppy plants well established.  Whereas on my previous trip, there was only a small cluster of Trout Lily leaves poking through the leaves, today there were hundreds or thousands of the leaves, from an inch to four inches long.   And while the group of four Bloodroot plants that I had spotted a week earlier had taken a bit of a beating in Saturday night’s storm, the blossom on one was not fully, but well opened, and there were a number of Bloodroot plants at other places along the trail, including along the boardwalk.  I was pretty excited to find one little Bloodroot plant just sticking about 2 inches out of the ground, still fully and tightly wrapped in its leaves. 

Chickweed were more prevalent, and the Toothwort continued to be everywhere.  However, the predominant bloom was still the Hepatica, continue to open more and more blossoms everywhere along the trail. 

Only leaves so far, but I was also able to spot the leaves of the Wild Geranium, Wood Betony (Lousewort), Wild Hyacinth, and Purple Phacelia.  But the find of the day for me was the single Dutchman’s Breeches plant I found that had sprouted – at least obviously enough for me to recognize it, since the last time I was there.  Another couple of weeks, and it may be blooming.

The explosion is about to begin!