Water for the Potted Plants

We have a much larger and sunnier deck than in our old place so we have nearly doubled the number of pots to make an impact in that space.  In general I chose plants that like it on the dry side and will recover quickly if they get dried out.  Also these plants do not need to be deadheaded to continue blooming; however the Pelargoniums do look neater when they are cleaned up.

Here are a couple of photos of my compositions for full sun.  Aside from the Pelargonium cultivars these plants are all derived from North American species.  These Medallion Flower are doing quite well.  I've had mixed results with these.  I think they like warm moist sites.  This is the first year I've had the 'Evolution' Salvia, I usually get 'Victoria'.  They are doing well and I would not hesitate using them in the future.  This is the second year for 'Profusion' Zinnias.  These are great for pots low growing and dense, a great 'filler' plant.

Starting from the bottom are: Lantana camara 'Luscious Berry Blend',  

Melampodium padulosum/divaricatum (Medallion Flower), Zinnia 'Profusion',

  Pelargonium 'Balcon Princess', and Salvia farinacea ‘Evolution’

Here are more Zinnia 'Profusion' with Salvia splendens cultivars
and Salvia farinacea ‘Evolution’ backed up by Pelargonium 'Merlot'

Being in full sun these plants are in need of regular watering.  While there is a spigot nearby, we really did not want to deal with a heavy garden hose.  When we saw one of those light-weight expanding hoses in the store (as seen on TV) we thought it would be perfect.  At 50 feet it could reach from one end of the deck to the other with room to spare and its light weight would make it easier to maneuver and store.

The first few times we used it were OK, just a little leaky, but what the hey.  However, by the fifth time out the hose was hemorrhaging water at the nozzle end fitting.  I just waved the leaking nozzle end over the plants to water them.

Water is no longer coming out of the end of the hose.
The inner rubber hose broke free of the nozzle.

The inner hose expands like a water balloon

At this point I should have found the receipt and took it back to the store, but I really wanted to find out if I could fix it.  My opportunity came when the inner hose totally separated from the nozzle.  Now something had to be done!  I cut off the end or the hose to reveal a super stretchy rubber tubing about 1/2" in diameter.  This expands like a balloon under pressure and is kept in check by the nylon mesh outer hose.  The problem was that the original attachment to the male fitting was not done well.  Since I had some repair fittings for a 1/2" hose I thought I would give that a go.


My first attempt with the repair kit worked, so I got a male coupling from the store, 'slipped' it on and thought I was all set.  On closer examination of the on/off fitting supplied with the expandable hose, I found that it was leaking in two locations.  Not just at the valve, but also at what appeared to be a stress crack in the body of the fitting.  This was troubling but not entirely unmanageable.

The rubber hose was stretched over the 1/2 inch coupling, then the nylon outer hose was pulled into place.
The two-piece clamp was screwed tight and this seemed to hold well even under pressure.
I then replaced the coupler with a male fitting.

Note the two spots where the
on/off valve is leaking.

What turned out to be the killer was the catastrophic failure of the hose that occurred while I was taking the the photo of this fitting.  The nylon outer hose gave way allowing the inner balloon hose to burst.

The first image is of the hose conveniently rolled up into an extra flower pot.
Next is after the water was turned on and the hose was pulled out and tested in the photos above.
The last image is 2-3 minutes later when the outer hose failed, allowing the inner hose to burst.

 Since I had the coupling kit on hand,  rather than tossing out the hose, I chose to repair it one last time.  Now I am just using it to water the pots without putting any pressure on the hose (i.e. no nozzles or on/off valves).  I may have been partly to blame for this last failure, since the hose was not allowed to expand freely under pressure.  While I love the concept of this hose, mine was not particularly well made.  I will continue to use this one without putting pressure on it.

If you have one of these that has failed, it may be repairable.  If you don't have one, proceed with caution, there is more than one brand of this type of hose available.

White Avens

I have curtailed my trips through the woods since the chiggers have become more active.  This has limited my search for wild flowers to the relatively open places.  There are still plenty of plants that are new to me to identify.  One of these native wildflowers that, while fairly common, is new to me is White Avens, Geum canadense.

This plant is about 2 feet tall and has been
in bloom for at least 2 weeks.

I first noticed this plant along the partly sunny edges of the woods at the end of June.  The 5-petaled white flowers looked like something from the Rose family, but I was pretty sure that it wasn't a cinquefoil (most are yellow) or blackberry (no thorns).  I was able to ID using Newcomb's Wildflower Guide; It has 5 regular flower parts, alternate arrangement of leaves and the leaves are divided into 3 or more leaflets.  I was a little slow in settling on Avens because most of the species in this genus have irregular leaflets that get larger toward the end of the leaf.  White Avens tends to have 3 similarly sized leaflets per leaf.  After the petals fall off a bristly receptacle is left behind.  While interesting close up they make the plant look wild and messy, not the best choice for a formal garden.

After blooming, the ripening seed heads will turn brown
 and give the the plant a wild, ungroomed appearance.

Most of my plants are 1-2 feet tall.  The white flowers bring some contrast to to a shady woodland edge.  They have an loose open habit, so they probably wouldn't well as a focal point.  I think they would work well as background plants.


I have an area under some trees that I nuked with round-up (formerly stilt grass, multiflora rose, euonymus, bittersweet poison ivy and horse nettle).  This may be a good spot to scatter some of these Avens seeds and see if they will fill in as a flowering ground cover.  I have not seen signs of deer browsing on the Avens, but I will need to keep a closer eye on that.



The flowers of White Avens is attractive to a variety of insects.  This image caught a small caterpillar and a fly.  Since it had been raining I think the caterpillar had just fallen out of a nearby tree.  I saw no evidence of the caterpillar feeding.  I annoyed it sufficiently that it left the flower and started crawling down the stem.

White Avens is attractive to bees, wasps and flies.
Not necessarily to caterpillars.

When this caterpillar 'stood up' it gave me a clue that it may be an inchworm or looper.  A perusal images on Bug Guide lead me to believe that this was a Common Pug, Eupitheca miserulata; although I'm sure it is as difficult to assign the species of a bug with a picture as it is to do so with a plant.

The caterpillar 'stood up' when I nudged it,
then inched its way down the stem.

Co-existing with Nature

There is a conflict between nature and designed human space.  We like to have our nature neatened up and easily readable with beautiful plants arranged just so.  Nature is just do what it needs to survive, with each of its members seeking out their basic needs: food, shelter and reproduction.  Conflict arises when our focal plantings become a meal or natures breeding habitat becomes a lawn.

In putting in our new garden and new plantings I have been trying to work with nature to achieve my design goals and keep our vegetables ‘safe’ without destroying too much habitat or employing chemical weaponry. 

The double fence has been keeping the deer at bay.  The outer border has been planted with seedlings of
pollinator-friendly perennials.  I may not get too many flowers this year as these plants get established.

To help control garden insects I have left some meadow areas intact that provide habitat for predatory insects.  I have also planted a border around the garden with pollinator friendly plants.  In selecting these plants I chose ones that are listed as deer-resistant.  To combat the beetle population I have a jug of soapy water.  This works well on some of the bugs whose escape strategy is to drop to the ground.  I just hold the jug under them and they drop in when nudged.

Here are some photos of predatory insects that are in the yard.  In addition to these I have seen the 6-spotted Tiger Beetle, very cool!

This nymph of a Wheel Bug looks like something from
the movie, Starship Troopers.

This 2-inch mantid was hopping from stem to stem in a patch of
moss phlox as I was looking for a Tiger Beetle.

Compared to the green sweat flies, Long-legged flies are aptly named.  
This 1/2 inch fly is a general insect predator.

Most of the landscape plantings I have selected are not deer favorites.  For those plants that are on the deer’s menu I have been using repellents that are either scent-based (putrescent eggs) or taste-based (capsaicin/hot pepper).  The hot pepper spray seems to be effective at getting the deer or rabbits to stop feeding on a plant even after they have gotten a first taste. 

You can tell deer damage by the ragged edges they leave where they tear off leaves and stems (deer don't have upper incisors).  Rabbits have sharp teeth and will leave a clean cut, or they will consume a plant right to the ground.  

The following are lists of plants that have I have put in that are 1, deer candy; 2, occasionally browsed; 3, not bothered by deer.  It is still early in the season and these comments are based on how they treat the foliage.  Flowers will be another subject (see some comments).  While it is risky to proclaim a plant to be deer proof, I have not seen any damage to the plants on this list (yet).

The buds on this Magnolia were being eaten off
until I put on the chicken wire cage 

1.  Heavily Browsed

Apios americana 
Helianthus tuberosus 

Magnolia virginiana 

Rudbekia triloba 

Campanulastrum americanum* 

Zizia aurea* 

*These were very small and eaten to the ground so rabbits or some other critters were responsible for this damage. 

The pinnate leaves of the ground nut have been
chewed off in more exposed locations

This Jerusalem Artichoke was being browsed to the ground until the fences went up.
Now (June 27) these are 6-7 feet tall.

This Filipendula was nearly ready to bloom when the deer
ate off most of the upper growth.  Note the rough edge
where the deer ripped off the tip of the plant.

2.  Occasionally Browsed

Achillea millefolium (flowers were removed, the foliage was left behind)
Aronia melanocarpa 

Hibiscus moscheutos (just once)
Filipendula rubra (just once leaves and flower buds, not after hot pepper spray) 

Lobelia siphilitica 

Physostegia virginiana 

This Hibiscus had the tips chewed off, but no more
damage since I applied some hot pepper spray.

Rudbeckia hirta 

(The Lobelia had been untouched until yesterday.)













3.  Resistant, so far

Aquilegia canadensis 

Asclepias tuberosa 

Asclepias incarnata 
Ceoanthus americanus 

Chamaecrista fasciculata  
Chelone glabra 
Dicentra eximia 
Hedeoma pulegiodes 
Iris versicolor 
Monarda didyma 

Monarda fistulosa 

Monarda punctata 

Spiraea alba 

As far as keeping the critters out of the garden, the double fence method is still working.  I’ve been able to harvest snap peas, lettuce, chard and collards, so far.

I did notice some evidence of moles digging around the property.  For these I put down a perimeter treatment of MoleMax, a castor oil based product that moles and other burrowing species do not like. 

Discovering My Invasives

As we are coming into late spring and I have been marveling about all the native plants I have found a crop of invasive plants has manifested themselves.  I know some of these were lurking out there, others were plants that I had misidentified, but have now reveled themselves now that they are in bloom.  Here a run down on what I've got, but wish I hadn't, and I plan to do about it.

Multiflora Rose, Rosa multiflora, is scattered around the property, mostly in the woodland edges.  These roses can be identified by their frilly stipules (leafy appendages at the base of the petioles), but now are very obvious by the clusters of fragrant, small white flowers.  I had hoped that I had some native roses out in the field, but so far it looks like they are all Multifloras.

Left to its own Multiflora Rose will send stems high into a tree.  

For the plants out in the open I am continuing to mow over them.  For the more established plants I will cut and treat the stumps with concentrated Round-Up in August.  I will do an earlier cut on some plants to prevent this crop of seeds from maturing, but I want to leave enough for easy application of the herbicide later in the season.


It turns out that a couple of small trees that I thought were Pin Cherries are actually Autumn Olives, Elaeagnus umbellata.  My mistake was made clear at the beginning of May when these plants were coming into full bloom.  I was drawn to the wonderful sweet scent.  When I saw the flowers I realized that what I had was definitely not a cherry of any kind.

These two Autumn Olives are nicely situated on either side of a path.
I'll cut them down soon and replace with something native,
maybe Winterberry Holly and Tupelo

These fragrant tubular flowers
were very popular with the bees.

I decided to let these finish flowering before cutting them back to a stump and then treating the fresh cuts with Round-Up concentrate.  This seems to be a pretty general method for killing undesired shrubby vegetation.  I did this to a very large Euonymus alatus in mid-March and I have seen very little if any regrowth so far this season.


When we first moved in last fall I noticed a lot of honeysuckle vines growing everywhere.  I had hoped that they were the native Coral Honeysuckle, Lonicera sempervirens.  There were no berries present (Japanese Honeysuckle has black berries, L. sempervirens has red berries) so I couldn't tell by that.  Also a cross section of the stem appeared to solid, not hollow, so I assumed it wasn't Japanese Honeysuckle.  Now that they are coming into bloom with their sweet-smelling white flowers, I see that I have a lot of the invasive honeysuckle.  A check of the stem shows that these are in fact hollow, so looking at the cross-section of the stem may not be a great late season indicator for this species.

Japanese Honeysuckle flowers start off white, then turn yellow after a couple of days.

I'm not sure what approach to take on all the trailing stems on the ground.  Pulling and late season herbicide applications can be effective (as long as the leaves are still photosynthesizing).  In the interim I have been cutting the stems of the vines up in the trees to minimize seed production.

Garlic Mustard, Alliaria petiolata, is well establish in the wooded areas on and around our property.  I am trying to remove all of it from an area before moving on to a new area.  This is a more effective strategy for elimination than just pulling a few plants here and there from a much wider space.  The seed heads are just about to mature so it's time to take a break from pulling.  If you are pulling plants that are shedding seeds, it's kind of like planting more of them.

Year old rosettes of Garlic Mustard remain green here over the winter.  This gives me the option of either pulling or spraying when most of native plants are dormant.  Because of the diversity of native plants in the woods, I will continue pulling up any Garlic Mustard I see each spring and fall.  this will be a multi-year effort.

Same area after clearing.  The ground plane is now opened up.

Note the white center vein on the leaf.

Japanese Stilt Grass is wide spread in this area.  It fills in shady borders with a dense mass that can smoother out other plants.

As an annual it can be controlled if you can keep it from going to seed.  Cutting it back when it begins to flower in late summer can keep it from successfully setting seed.  Cutting it back earlier may stimulate earlier flowering.  For plants in the woods I will go after them with the weed wackier in August. This grass has a weak root system and is easily pulled up, but there is just so much!

This is a very leafy grass and is soft to the touch.  The shiny mid-rib is a feature that sets it apart from other grasses

This is a recently opened-up area where the stilt grass is going to town.
It is joined by some garlic mustard and  bittersweet.
The near-by poison ivy is slowing my progress here.

Note the triangular leaves of Mile-a-minute vine.
There are nasty thorns forming on all  parts of this vine.

Mile-a-Minute Vine is a very fast growing invasive.  Once I noticed it I took some time out from writing this post to pull it out right away.  It is really important to do this before its many thorns begin to harden.  In my enthusiasm I accidentally pulled up a new Redbud tree, because its heart-shaped leaves looked similar to the triangular leaves of Mile-a-minute.

To combat this invasive, a weevil has been introduced and has been found to be very effective, and selective, at consuming this plant.  I examined the plants I pulled but saw no signs of this insect.  

To keep from going crazy I've realized that these invasives did not appear overnight and that any reasonable action is a step in the right direction.

The Garden is 'IN'

Mother's Day has past so now it time to be planting the vegetable garden.  At least that is the tradition for many.  This year we had to days with frost warnings immediately after Mom's Day.  But now the weather is on an apparent warming trend.

In early March I laid out the beds for my new garden using techniques described in Weedless Gardening by Lee Reich.  The goal was to avoid having to till the new garden and remove all the grass and weeds.  The result has not been entirely weedless, but the amount of buried vegetation coming through has been manageable.  I think if I had waited until the grass had begun to grow and use up some of the energy stored in the roots there may have been few 'weeds' poking through.  More of the buried vegetation is working it way up along the seams between the cardboard and paper layers.  So for now I am just pulling off the tops of the grass and weeds to keep them from generating any new energy.

The fences are up and the garden is ready for planting.
Pollinator plants will go in along the outer fenceline.

The second phase of establishing the garden was to put up the fencing to keep the wildlife out.  My biggest concern is the deer, but there are plenty of other varmints (rabbits and ground hogs) to deal with as well.  I got a copy of Deerproofing Your Yard and Garden by Rhonda Hart.  I found this a very useful book that explains how deer operate and how manage them.

Separation between the fences is 3 ft, however 4 feet is commonly recommended.
Note the new compost enclosure in the back left, made from old wooden pallets
(Idea thanks to Washington County Master Gardeners).

The method I am trying out is a hybrid of the double-row fence and the invisible monofilament fence. The idea behind the double row fence is that while deer can jump high or long, they can't do both.  So a 4 foot fence that is also 4 feet deep is an effective deterrence. The invisible monofilament fence works by surprising deer with a barrier that they can not see.  In my case I had the remains of an electric fence to use to make my outer monofilament fence (I used the leftover electric fence wire).  I have 4 wires spaced out between 1 and 5 feet off of the ground.  For the inner barrier I have a very visible chicken wire fence.  The main purpose of the inner fence is to keep out the smaller mammals.  The chicken wire is partially buried under the mulch (flaring outward) to discourage tunneling into the garden (we'll see if that is enough).

The fencing was immediately effective.  The Sunchokes, Helianthus tuberosa, I planted a month ago had been repeatedly browsed upon, but after the fence was up they started getting taller.  About a week after putting up the fences a deer did breech the fence and it appeared to be a messy result for the deer, judging by the amount of fur left behind on the chicken wire.  I'm hoping that that was a learning experience and that it was sufficiently unpleasant.

Seeds for Peas, Collards, Chard and Lettuce sprouted within a week
and the Tomato and Pepper plants went in yesterday (5/15).

In the Deerproofing book the point is made to put up your deer deterrents before there is something to attract the deer.  So now that I've had the fence up for a couple of weeks I've started putting out the vegetables.

This year I am planning the garden based on companion planting ideas.  The plants in each of the 4 rows should all get along.  Here's whats going in:
Row 1:  Winter Squash, Snap Peas, Chard and Collards with Winter Savory
Row 2:  Pole Beans, Lettuce, Zucchini, Corn Salad and Arugula* with Nasturtums
Row 3:  Sunchokes, Tomatoes, Basil and Lettuce with Marigolds
Row 4:  Tomatoes, Peppers, Shallots and Garlic with more Nasturtums

*Arugula is in the cabbage family and may not be a good companion for the pole beans.  I should be harvesting these while young, so they may not interfere with the beans as they mature.

I'll plant the bean and squash seeds in a week or two (when the soil gets a little warmer and I should have the pollinator border plants by the end of May.

More Maryland Wildflowers - 2nd Week of April

Deciding which native plant to use in a developed suburban landscape was fairly straightforward for me.  I could choose the plants I wanted without regard for to how it would impact the surrounding plant communities.  [Re]-introduction of nearly any native species into a sea of Euonymus and Barberries and the like would be a step in the right direction.

Now that I am working in a rural landscape I am becoming more sensitive to how my new plantings will affect the existing plant and animal communities.  I am cautious about introducing species that don't belong, native or not.  One very helpful resource for me is Native Plants for Wildlife Habitat and Conservation Landscaping Chesapeake Bay Watershed from the US Fish and Wildlife Service.  This publication lists many native species found in the Chesapeake watershed including their native ecoregion (Mountain, Piedmont or Coastal) and state where each is found.  

As a designer I also want to insert some visual effects with form and color.  This may require broadening the plant palette, drawing in materials from other areas and even a few well behaved non-native plants to achieve a particular aesthetic effect.  In general I will utilize a wider variety of plants in the immediate vicinity of a house or other man-made feature.  As I move out to the edges of a property I narrow the plant selection to the regionally native species.  I try to avoid introducing any species that don't naturally belong there.  

So before I get too far in planning and planting new native gardens I need to do some surveys of what is already present.  This (finally) brings me to the topic of what I found growing during the second week of April.  The tree canopy was still pretty open and the woodland floor was really greening up.




The first thing that really hit me was the masses of Virginia Bluebells that were coming into bloom.  These started coming up about a month ago.  Some had purple tinged foliage that has since turned green.



I was very pleased to see large masses of Mayapples coming up, especially I had just bought a half dozen to plant along the driveway.  These look somewhat alien when they first break ground.  They have a large white flower that stays just under the leaf.  

Mayapple leaves open up like umbrellas, 6-8 inches across.  

Once leafed out Spicebush can still be identified by the spicy scent of its bark.

The number of Spring Beauties has finally peaked,
now the blooms remain only in the shadier spots.
Note the garlic mustard off to the right.

Spicebush was another plant that I had just purchased to add to driveway area.  I was very happy to see a large mass of these growing near the creek.  The little flower clusters add an ethereal yellow haze to the scene.  These are not as garish as the Forsythia that are also in full bloom at this time.  






The Spring Beauties, Claytonia virginica, are continuing to come out - now the ground is sprinkled with the pale pink blooms.  The Dutchman's Breeches, Dicentra cucullaria, have also come into fuller bloom.  Some are white and others have a yellowish cast.  

Flowers started out a pale green
before opening up and turning white.

In with the Dutchman's Breeches is a plant with similar finely divided foliage, but this one had tubular yellow flowers.  It turns out that this is Yellow Fumewort, Corydalis flavula.  This native annual is 4-12 inches tall and has glaucous green foliage similar to other Corydalis.  I had never seen this before and was suspicious that it may some of the non-native Yellow Corydalis (C. lutea) that escaped from a garden.  The distinguishing feature from other yellow Corydalis (C. aurea and lutea) is that the upper lip of the flower is toothed.  This species is rare in New England, but not uncommon further south and west.

This winter annual was probably among the
early foliage seen back in January

The upper lip of the flower is toothed.  Also,
 seed pods are visible just below the flower on the left.

Should be getting some yellow flowers from these Trout Lilies in a couple of weeks.
If they are white, then these would be White Trout Lily, E. albidum.

Down in the leaf litter I noticed the spotted leaves of Trout Lily, Erythronium.  No blooms or buds were evident at this time, so I will need to get back down to these is a week or so to catch them in bloom.  As I was climbing back up away from the stream I noticed that the Toothwort were finally in bloom.  The dangling white flowers are not spectacular on their own, but they complement the other ephemerals. The Woodland Phlox, Phlox divaricata, are putting up flower buds, but I did not see any in bloom.  Back up on the lawn I am seeing Common Blue Violet, Viola papilionacea, complemented by the yellow flowers of Rough Cinquefoil, Potentilla norvegica.  Oops, these are actually the non-native Indian Strawberry, Duchesnea indica, see the comments below.

Each flower stalk of these toothworts has a pair
of deeply tri-lobed leaves, hence the epithet  'diphylla'.

Woodland Phlox has formed it flower buds.  Opps, this is actually Cardamine laciniata.

Common Blue Violet has hairless flower stalks,
otherwise this could be Woolly Blue Violet, V. sororia.

Unlike other weedy Cinquifoils, Rough Cinquifoil has
trilobed leaves and relatively large blunt-tipped flowers.  However, this is actually
Indian Strawberry, Duchesnea indica. with larger flowers than the Cinquifoil
and later a red berry.

Along with all of these natives there is a large population of garlic mustard that are beginning to bloom now.  Removing these will be a long and tedious process.  I have put a supply of black trash bags around the property to collect these.  In areas where the soil is moist it is possible to get most of the root out by gently pulling the plant by its crown.  Garlic mustard has a lot of stored energy in its root and may be able to set seed even though it has been pulled out of the ground.  A good practice is to bag them up and let them bake in the sun for a while before sending them to the landfill.  Garlic mustard should not be put into your compost. However, it is edible and you can make a decent pesto from it.

Spring Wildflowers: Texas vs Maryland

Two weeds ago we made a trip to Texas to visit family.  The end of March is the beginning of Texas wildflower season.  We flew into Austin then drove up to the Ft. Worth area.  You could see that Austin was really coming into bloom.  As we drove northward along I-35 the number of Bluebonnents along the highway dropped off considerably.

Even at 75 mph you can appreciate Texas Bluebonnets

One thing about seeing wildflowers in Texas is that they come in big patches.  Much of this is due to the efforts of Lady Bird Johnson with the Texas Highway Department to create and preserve wildflower habitats along the highways.

View of Courtyard at the Wildflower Center in Austin, TX

When we got back down to Austin we paid a visit to the Wildflower Center.  Here we saw many of the wildflowers we saw along the highways, but this time with handy name tags.

Texas Bluebonnets at low speed.

There are about 50 species and subspecies of
Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja).  I don't know
them well enough to tell them apart.

I've been looking for seeds for Groundsel.  This looks like it would be a nice addition
to a low-growing meadow/lawn alternative.  It has bright yellow flowers in spring
emanating from a basal rosette of leaves.

This Blackfoot Daisy is found on dry well drained soils.
I was interested in growing this plant, but the Northeast
does not provide the best conditions.

This little Prairie Verbena was all by itself, but it is known to
grow in large swaths, turning the ground purple. 

The narrow bronzy-green leaves of this Spring Beauty
blend into the leaf litter.

On our return to Maryland, the landscape was just beginning to turn from brown to spring green.  However, there were no massive swaths of color as we had witnessed the day before.  Inspired by all those Texas flowers I took a walk through the woods and found a few subtle surprises.  There were little pinkish white flowers along the edge of the woods.  These turned out to be Spring Beauties, Claytonia virginica.  This ephemeral perennial blooms in early spring, then essentially disappears after setting seed.



Further into the woods I found the masses of Toothwort continuing to expand.  The buds still have not opened, but they are nearly ready.

It's early April and these Toothwort are nearly ready to bloom.

The latest find was masses of finely cut foliage indicative of the genus Dicentra.  I searched around for a while and found one clump with developing flowers.  I'm pretty sure that these are D. cucullaria, Dutchman's Breeches.  I will keep a watch out for other family members, like Squirrel Corn (D. canadensis) and Wild Bleeding Heart (D. eximia).  These are most easily distinguished by the shapes and colors of their flowers.

When the flowers of Dutchman's Breeches are fully developed
they look somewhat like upside down pantaloons.

  

 I'm not keeping score, but the spring wildflowers in Texas are a grand sight to behold, but when the early summer temperatures creep into the 100's they will disappear.  In the Northeast the ephemerals will also slowly fade from view, but this will be due to the developing shade of the woodland canopy rather than the heat and dryness.  No matter where you live you've got to get out and appreciate that winter is coming to an end.