This is a great time of year to head for the North Georgia mountains or even the Atlanta Botanical Garden woodland and experience spring wildflowers. Spring beauties, shooting stars, bleeding heart and trilliums are just a few of the spring ephemerals that carpet the woodland. Make sure to keep your eyes on the ground when you walk so you don't miss anything.

Among the earliest to bloom are spring beauties, Claytonia virginica, with miniature delicate pink flowers, and trout lily, Erythronium americanum. This beauty has tiny flowers — yellow with a purple streak — and maroon-purple mottled leaves (usually 6 to l0 inches tall), a welcome sight especially on cold days in March. There is also a white form called E. albidum. Over time both these native gems form drifts in the garden when they spread their seed. As with other spring ephemerals, it is best to plant these with perennials and small shrubs that do not go dormant early, including rhododendrons, native azaleas and ferns.

Erica Glasener (ENLARGE)

Trout lily, a native wildflower, forms drifts over time as it spreads its seed.

Erica Glasener (ENLARGE)

Trout lily, a native wildflower, forms drifts over time as it spreads its seed.

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Some of my favorite ferns for the woodland include royal fern, Osmunda regalis, and cinnamon fern, Osmunda cinnamomea; both are great to fill in bare spots for summer and fall when wildflowers disappear.

Blooming around the same time as the trout lily is the nonnative windflower, Anemone blanda, with sky-blue, daisylike flowers on stems 2 to 8 inches tall. A tuber, it spreads to form clumps of delicate blooms and ferny foliage.

Another wildflower that heralds spring is bloodroot, Sanguinaria canadensis, named because of the red sap of the rhizome. The starlike white flowers may last only a few days, but their beauty is memorable. The gray-green, roundish foliage persists well into summer, adding interest to the garden. Planting bloodroot and other wildflowers on slopes makes it easier to view them at eye level.

Spotting trilliums in the wild is always exciting, but many are also candidates for the home garden. Plant them in groups of three under a canopy of dogwoods and redbuds and experience the thrill of their unique flowers every spring. Perhaps most familiar is the great trillium, Trillium grandiflorum, with three leaves whorled around the top of the stem, with a single white bloom. Often as they age the flowers fade to pink.

May apple, Podophyllum peltatum, is a perennial that's hard to miss in early spring. It pokes its green shoots up through leaves and unfurls its tiny umbrellas, with white flowers hidden under the foliage. Reaching 2 feet in height, this vigorous native will easily cover a large area. Plant it with ferns or combine May apple with an evergreen ground cover so that when its foliage dies back, the ground won't be bare.

Another good spreader is the native wood poppy, Stylophorum diphyllum, with bright yellow flowers and grayish-green foliage. For a colorful combination pair it with blue woodland phlox, Phlox divaricata.