Sycamores, sweetgums, hornbeams, mulberries, maples, and willows on the Explore the Wild/Catch the Wind Loop are all well on their way to being fully leafed. Bald Cypress, the only southern conifer that loses its leaves in winter, is showing fresh new growth. The ashes are lagging behind and are just now starting to spring forth with new leaves.

The Museum’s Flowering Dogwoods came into their own the first week of this month, bursting open with all of their brilliant whiteness. The long thin branches of the Wetland’s Black Willows are covered with erect, yellow-green catkins. Although they’re easily overlooked, Wax Myrtles have flowers tucked in among their evergreen leaves.

Bluets, those tiny blue (usually blue) flowers that are everyone’s favorite (never heard anyone say they didn’t like bluets), are blooming. Carolina Jessamine’s yellow, tubular flowers are in bloom alongside the main entrance to Explore the Wild. Climbing high into the treetops before draping down over the trees like a cascading lavender waterfall, Wisteria can hardly be mistaken for anything else. Look for it as you gaze across the water from the main Wetlands Overlook.