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2010 Asheville Spring Bloom Wildflower Forecast |
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March: Asheville spring bloom really takes off in late March as the lovely redbud begins flowering and overlaps with the early April blooms of dogwood. The roadsides in many areas are lined with these delicately beautiful flowering trees.
April: In early April the beauty of the mountain wildflower bloom continues as dogwood trees lining the roads and woodlands burst forth with their delicate white and pink flowers. The dogwoods are fading by mid April to be replaced by the wild orange, pink and red of early Azaleas that come into their own in late April.
May: Azaleas continue, fading just as the delicate whitish pink of mountain laurel sweeps across the hillsides. By late May the first of the dazzling wild Pinkshell Rhododendrons become the star of the Asheville spring bloom, starting in the lower elevations and creeping up the mountainsides as the days pass. Other wildflowers in late May include phlox, The flaming, star shaped Fire Pink, the delicate lavender bittersweet, blackberry, columbine, and many others.
June: Dozens of wildflowers bloom in June but they all seem to take a backseat to the profusion of wild red-pink Catawba Rhododendrons that blanket the hillsides throughout western North Carolina.
In springtime the Parkway is a tunnel of green lined with a dazzling array of wildflowers and offering regular vistas across the green rolling mountains. One of the wonderful things about the Parkway is that the elevation changes, constantly changing the blooms that you can see and offering the chance to see flowers at higher elevations that may already be past bloom time at lower elevations.
Wildflower bloom times along the Parkway are roughly the same as the Asheville schedule above at elevations below 3500 feet, and as much as three weeks later at elevations of 5000-6000 feet. Peak times to see the spectacular Catawba Rhododendron blooms at the two prime areas, Craggy Gardens (Mile marker 364.4, elevation 5500 feet), and at Pisgah (Mile marker 407.0, elevation 5000 feet) are in the third and fourth week of June. This can be as much as a week later if the high elevation spring has been unusually cold or wet.