Consider-the-Lilies Web Gallery
Virginia Bluebells
It seems to me that most of the early wildflowers found in the Shenandoah Valley display blooms colored in shades of white or yellow, or mixtures thereof.
(For some examples to be seen in the Gallery, visit the Field Pansy, Hairy Bittercress, Yellowrocket, Whitlow-grass, Shepherd's Purse, Marsh Marigold, or Garlic Mustard rooms.)
Virginia Bluebells, however, are one colorful exception to this observation: As you can see its blooms are a distinctive sapphire-blue.
Interestingly, the buds are a pastel pink, to which shade the spent blossoms will revert when they begin to decline.
This jewel, a native perennial, can be found beautifying shady areas along fence lines and in forests throughout the eastern United States.
Also known as Virginia Cowslip, this wildflower is, along with some of the other early bloomers, categorized by botanists as an "ephemeral perennial."
Plants of this category lose their blooms and go dormant relatively soon—in May for this variety—when many other wildflowers are just making their seasonal debut.
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