My attention piqued when I saw the forecast high for last Wednesday was 65. I believe I drooled a little when I saw it was supposed to top 70 on Thursday and Friday. Despite the fact it had been 11 two days earlier I could think of only one thing.

Spring. Specifically, spring wildflowers.

We typically associate spring wildflowers with, well, spring, which this year commences on March 20 (at 5:01 a.m. Eastern, to be exact). In fact, the first spring wildflowers in the piedmont — trout lilies and spring beauties — typically appear a month before that, in the second or third week of February. Get a few days of the right circumstances — warm temperatures and sunny skies — and they can appear even earlier. My personal record for a spring wildflower sighting — the delicate trout lily (pictured at top) — is January 27.

I was understandably expectant, then, when I saw last week’s forecast. We had a hike scheduled that Sunday for Penny’s Bend Nature Preserve in Durham, where floodplain forest and protected south-facing river banks make for prime wildflower habitat. The temperature that day wasn’t supposed to make it much past 50, but sun was in the forecast. The prospect for an early season spring wildflower sighting was strong.

Pitchers, catchers and spring wildflowers

When I was growing up in Colorado, my countdown to spring began when pitchers and catchers reported for training camp. It may not have been warm enough to play baseball where I was, but it would be in six weeks or so. Spring was on the horizon.

While I still look forward to the opening of training camp — early next week for most teams — I know associate the approach of spring with the appearance of the first trout lily.

Spring wildflowers are on a tight time schedule. Nestled on the forest floor, they must quickly take advantage of the warming sunlight to bloom and set in motion their reproductive cycle. They’re on a deadline because that warmth and sunlight will soon trigger surrounding trees to leaf out and block that precious sunlight. While you may see some blooms as early as January—the perky daffodil and crocus come to mind—they aren’t official harbingers of spring: they’re not native to the region and thus play by a different set of rules. The true sentinels of the season are trout lilies and spring beauties. And knowing where to look for them is key.

In bottomland forests

Typically, the first trout lily appears the third week of February, according to Dave Cook in his “Piedmont Almanac.” But really, with the weather anymore, what’s typical? I watch for a more tangible sign: the first 70-degree day of the year. Which, as forecast, did indeed occur last Thursday.

When I lived in Hillsborough, I knew just where to look for those first responders: in floodplain hardwood forests where the rich soils and threat of an imminent canopy blackout prompts an early bloom. Two areas where early blooms were particularly common:

• Poet’s Walk at Ayr Mount, Hillsborough. Where this mile-long trail drops down to the Eno, trout lilies and spring beauties shyly pop through here and there. Then, within a day, the spring beauties especially are everywhere.
• Pump Station Access, Eno River State Park, Durham. This 2-mile trail starts off Rivermont Road and drops over a bluff to the Eno. There, the trail has the Eno to the north and a wide floodplain forest to the south, butting up to the bluff. For about a week after the bloom begins, the area is carpeted with spring beauties.

On south- and west- facing hillsides

Another good place to look: hardwood-forested hillsides with a southern or western exposure. The sun, still lower on the southern horizon, hits here first, stays here longer, and offers the extended warming sun wildflowers crave. A couple good examples:

• Sycamore Trail, Umstead State Park, Raleigh. We’ve found the spring wildflower viewing spotty at Umstead, but one place where we’re never disappointed is on the Sycamore Trail at it rises above Sycamore Creek west of the Graylyn Multiuse Trail. Climbing up from the creek, the rocks along the trail harbor a robust community of wildflowers.
• Mountain Trail, Pilot Mountain State Park, Pinnacle. Roughly two-thirds of this 4.3-mile trail at the base of Pilot Mountain is on the mountain’s south or west flank, and much of it passes through mature hardwood forest. To avoid the park’s spring crowds, access this trail from the parking area off Pinnacle Hotel Road and enjoy the show by your lonesome.

Alas …

Last week’s fleeting appearance of spring apparently was too fleeting: On Sunday, we saw nary a sign of spring wildflowers at Penny’s Bend. Later, I stopped by a long-abandoned homestead in the Dan River Game Lands north of Greensboro where the past two years I’ve seen daffodils.  Nada.

But with warm temperatures back in the forecast, including a high above 70 Sunday, our search for spring will continue. If we’re successful, we’ll let you know on our BlueSky page, at:

@getgoingnc.bsky.social

Here’s hoping spring gets off to its unofficial start this weekend!