June 12, 2023
Summer Wildflowers in the GSMNP
The Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP) has more kinds of flowering plants than any other North American National Park. In fact, the GSMNP boasts more than 1,500 varieties of flowers!
Perhaps the most well-known are the spring ephemerals—so called because they appear in late winter, flower, fruit, and die back within two months. They emerge beginning in February and are usually gone by the end of June. Spring wildflower walkers can see lady slippers, fire pinks, columbine, bleeding heart, jack-in-the-pulpit, little brown jugs, violets and many others.
Summer Wildflowers Are Magnificent
But that doesn’t mean that spring is the only season to view wildflowers. The display continues with cardinal flowers, pink turtleheads, Turk’s cap lily, small purple-fringed orchids, bee-balm, butterfly weed, black-eyed Susan’s, and jewel weed, among others.
Black-eyed susans bloom during the summer months. Photo by Julie Blake Edison.
Rosebay rhododendron blooms during July in the mid elevations. In the summer sourwood trees produce their small, bell-shaped white blossoms. Sourwood honey is prized for its light amber color and flavor of anise and spice. This tree is only grows in the Eastern mountains. To connoisseurs, it has a richer and more concentrated flavor than the more common clover or wildflower honey. Some local eastern Tennessee businesses have sourwood honey for sale. http://Applebarncidermill.com
Summer wildflower seekers can find beautiful blooms later in the season, well into fall. Look for goldenrod, sunflowers, iron weed, mountain gentian, monk’s hood, coneflowers, and asters. Purple Joe-Pye-weed can reach heights of ten feet! From October through January you can find the yellow blooms of witch-hazel. The late summer/early fall weather is nice for hiking, and the trails are less crowded after the children have returned to school.
We look forward to seeing you this summer! And don’t forget that we offer hearty and delicious packed lunches for $12 to fuel you on your wildflower tramp.
May 28, 2019
Tennessee Wildflowers Come to Buckhorn Inn
Wildflowers are a tremendous asset to pollinators, in addition to looking beautiful. In fact, we have planted a mini-meadow of wildflowers near our bee hives. Our seed mix includes perennials, self-seeding annuals, and biennials. We sowed: butterfly weed, partridge pea, lance-leaf coreopsis, plains coreopsis, purple coneflower, rattlesnake master, Indian blanket, standing cypress, blazing star, wild lupine, lemon mint, drummond phlox, Mexican hat, clasping coneflower, black-eyed susan, scarlet sage, and spiderwort.
How to Grow Wildflowers
Wildflowers have survived floods and drought, sandy soil and clay, scorching sun and freezing wind, all on their own. They can be as tenacious as, well, weeds. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.” So how difficult are they to grow? As it turns out, they are very adaptable.
Honeybees love black-eyed susans.
We ordered a seed mix specifically designed for our geographic area from http://www.americanmeadows.com. We selected a sunny site and removed the grass from the soil. We loosened the dirt and scattered the seeds. We worked the seeds into the soil by walking on top of them. The seedlings have emerged. We will continue to water them until they are about 6″ tall. After that, Mother Nature will handle the watering! We hope the first blooms will appear in early summer.
In late fall, after the flowers have dropped their seeds, we will mow the whole area. The clippings will stay in place to break down and feed the soil.
Our meadow should not require chemical fertilizers or herbicides, so they are an eco-friendly option. If this small experiment works, we may expand our meadow. There are many advantages to growing wildflowers. They enrich the soil and require very little mowing–usually only once a year. Different bloom times guarantee a spectacular show throughout the warm months. The plants are good for steep slopes where they can stabilize the land and prevent erosion.
We will be sure to post pictures as our new addition grows and blooms!
July 31, 2017
Hikes in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Many of our guests spend quite a few of the hours they have here hiking in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. One of our favorite trails for hikes is the one which leads to the Grotto Falls. The Grotto Falls are the only falls in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park which you can walk behind!
The hike to Grotto Falls is very popular with Buckhorn Inn guests.
The Trillium Gap Trail leads to, and behind, the Grotto Falls. The trail winds through old-growth forests and many large eastern hemlocks. The path is wide and well-worn, but be careful of the rocks and exposed roots! Be sure to wear sturdy shoes and bring water. The Buckhorn Inn has hearty and delicious sack lunches available if you choose to take one on your hike. The trail is a moderate climb. The roundtrip to the Falls and back takes about 2-3 hours. During the hike you will cross four small streams. In the springtime watch for the blooms of white and yellow trillium, white violets, and Dutchman’s breeches. The Dutchman’s breeches are so called because the flowers resemble men’s trousers hanging by the cuffs on a clothesline.
White trillium are plentiful in the spring on the hike to Grotto Falls.
The Grotto Falls cascade down 25 feet. The Great Smoky Mountain National Park has all the elements for beautiful waterfalls–ample rainfall and an elevation gradient. In an average year, the mountains receive more than 85 inches of rain. The rain trickles, then rushes down the mountainsides, cascading beautifully onto the large boulders below.
Directions to Grotto Falls for Hikes
From the Parkway in Gatlinburg, turn at light number 8. Follow the Historic Nature Trail into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Take the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail to the large parking area near stop number 5. You will see a sign for the trailhead. For more information on planning your hike, visit http://www.nps.gov/grsm/planyourvisit/grotto-falls.htm Happy hiking!
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