Is Claytonia blooming yet in your area? Let us know, so we can plan our observations!
Claytonia is in bloom for approximately 3-4 weeks, in most areas. If possible, please plan one observation during the first week of bloom, another during peak bloom, and another during late bloom.
Spring Beauty and the Bees 
I saw the first LEAVES of virginica in my back yard this morning. Pretty certain a couple weeks prior to blooms.
Centreville VA 20120 38.84°N 77.43°W
Leaves also up in Red Bank, NJ.
Claytonia virginiana has been blooming since January in my area.
Saw the first bloom (just one!) here in Reston VA this afternoon.
On a walk at Adkins Arboretum in Caroline County, Maryland (eastern shore) on Saturday, March 19, some were seen blooming. See blog post at http://adkinsarboretum.blogspot.com/2011/03/soup-n-walk-march-19-2011.html
I saw a few scattered blooms in Centreville VA this afternoon.
Claytonia virginica is starting to bloom in Annandale, VA (Northern Virginia). I saw three flowers on Saturday, March 19 at Mason District Park.
Kathy and I, walking in the Edith J Carrier Arboretum in Harrisonburg, Virginia, found amixed patch of Claytonia caroliniana and C. virginica on Saturday 19 April, 2011. A single bloom on C. caroliniana was open and the C.virginica was just showing leaf (majority) with some in tight bud. Today (23 April) the C. caroliniana showed open (m), closing (f) and spent flowers with still many buds. Some of the C. virginica buds were showing colour but the majority of buds were tight and tiny.
Thanks for that information, Ann! I just wanted to point out to the readers that I think you meant March, not April.
I saw my first bloom of the year on March 23, in a state park just outside of Columbia, MO. Not sure which species.
Correction: it was C. virginica.
Some time between last weekend when I was doing a stream valley cleanup and this weekend, the C. virginica started to bloom in the Holmes Run Stream Valley in Falls Church, VA. I did my first set of observations today (with intermittent clouds) and didn’t see many pollinators (except some sitting on leaves within my sample area!). It was good to finally see the bees live.
At my house near Ann Arbor, MI there are leaves up in one area, but not many in other places where I know that I have Spring Beauty.
saw first blooms here in easterm panhandle of WV week of April 4
It is March 3 , 2012 and I’m seeing the first blossoms this week . That makes this years
blossoms showing 4-5 weeks earlier than in 2011 .
We have had an unusually mild winter .
And there are very few claytonia virginica to be found this year . I’m shocked at how
few there are comparied to last year and previous springs .
first flowers – Claytonia caroliana – in western New York State, two miles from Lake Erie’s southern shore: 42 degrees 27 minutes N; 79 degrees 19 minutes W
Flowering started this week (April 11) in Red Bank, NJ
Spring Beauty is awesome now near Ann Arbor!
I was out on Saturday at Ellanor C. Lawrence Park in Chantilly, VA, about 10 miles from my monitoring site where I started seeing blooms 4/3. I was surprised to see full bloom at EC Lawrence and many Spring Beauties (C. virginica) still had many buds. It looks like it will be a long blooming season!
Marcyanna Millet, March 31, 2012 I have done two observations a week apart. I have very large plots. Will finish the third one after Easter as I will be away for the holiday and I will send the seeds as requested. Very mild winter; most things are blooming 2 – 3 weeks ahead of normal times.
Still snow showers and below freezing at night in northern Vermont. Will start checking for leaves soon.
We had a extraordinarily warm week (in the 70s) about a week ago here in the higher elevations of Massachusetts. A very few first bottom flowers bloomed in that week. Then, we had a more typical very cool week (in the 40s). I just checked today (still cool at upper 40s and cloudy) and lots more first flowers have appeared along with a few second flowers. But, there are no pollinators since it is so cool.
C. virginica at the site I am watching along the Rivanna River in Charlottesville, VA, is in the later stages of blooming. Not too many buds remaining. I have done two sets of observations, Mar. 11 and Mar. 29. We have seen a few pollinators, but none during the observation times at the sites we were watching. Have seen a few bee flies, a few bumblebees, saw what I think were a number of Andrena zooming around holes they’d excavated along a trail, but not on the Spring beauties and a couple honeybees during the earlier observation time.
Yes, it registered! Thanks.
I have seen two or three single flowers blooming, but no clusters in north Van Zandt County in Texas yet. Temperatures this week have been chilly with upper 30s at night and 50s in the day. Some of our early spring flowers are also showing up. Verbena, henbit, t
wo kinds of bluets.
In Charlottesville, VA, in an area that has many Claytonia, I saw no plants let alone flowers when I was there several days ago. I will check again in a few days.
Ruth Douglas
In McLean VA, I saw Claytonia Virginica in early March (just a few) and then it became consistently unseasonably cool for this area. April 4 was the first warm, sunny day in quite a while, and I observed a fair number of early stage blooms and some pollinators. I also saw miner bees emerging from their holes on April 4. With warm weather predicted for the coming week, I think we can expect to see a quick acceleration in both blooms and number of pollinators.
Susan Bartram
Saw a few on March 3, then a spell of cold weather. Saw more on March 28, and a few more on April 3, 6, and 7. But it’s a VERY late spring. I have not seen the Andrena (miner?) bee holes yet, but saw some flying low to the ground on April 3.
I am in Charlottesville, VA, about 100 mi. SW of McLean, VA. I was out in the area I study
on March 3 and saw one clump with several blooms, and in another area, one bloom. I did not look at the entire area where they are found: too much to look over. Then, on March 6 we got about 12″ of wet snow and it was generally pretty cold.We again had wet snow, about 4″, on March 25. I was out on Thursday, March 28. There were quite a few in flower then, but spring continues to be very slow. And I was out on field trips in the area on April 6 and 7, though had no time to do a survey. But I saw very few bees flying around the flowers.
I assume you have seen the papers in Science, 29 March issue about the global plight of pollinators.
Ruth Douglas