Here is a photo of Phacelia bipinnatifida naturalized under tulip poplars in a suburban backyard. (The Phacelia is the purple flower. The yellow is Stylophorum diphyllum, wood-poppy.) The Phacelia is native from the southern Appalachians west to Missouri, but it seems to thrive here, further north and lower in altitude than you would expect to see it in Virginia. We maintain conditions for the Phacelia by limiting the number of understory shrubs and policing the woods for ivy, vinca, and other invaders. The woods have Virginia waterleaf, bloodroot, and other wildflowers, but this is the big show. This is about as colorful as the woods get. I look forward to this all year.
