I adore wildflowers that grow in the mountains of Appalachia. There are many that grow around my house, but there are many that don’t even though I’ve seen them growing in other places in Brasstown.
For the last few years I’ve been wanting to order some wildflowers that are native to my area and plant them out back of the house in the woods. My hope is that they will take over and naturalize the area.
Even though I’ve perused websites and made lists I’ve never gotten around to actually ordering the plants.
Corie and Austin have been living in Wilson Holler for two years now.
Last spring I took a good long walk up the creek and when I came back out I used the trail that leads to the back of their house.
I stood in awe.
The entire bank was covered in the dainty white blooms of wood anemone. It was so pretty!
I’m positive they’ve been growing there for many years and I was just never in the back of Steve and Kim’s house at the exact time to see them.
I felt like they were almost too good to be true. In fact I was afraid they wouldn’t come back up this year. But they are just starting to bloom now.
I still want to order some plants to see if I can get them started, but I can mark wood anemone off my list because it’s growing right under my nose—well at least right below my house.
Last night’s video: Getting Granny’s Garden Ready for Planting.
Tipper
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One of the prettiest wildflowers that I have every found/seen growing in the mountains was a pink Ladies Slipper orchid. I messed up and told someone else about it and where I had found it. I latter found out that they had gone there, found it and dug it up.
What a treat! At our old house we had Trilliums that came back every year and buttercups like you see on the roadside.
Prayers to all who have lost loved ones, for those who are ill, many who suffer in ways only they and God can imagine. For all who need prayers, I offer mine and pray God gets y’all through whatever your needs be and hope they get you through your pain will soon be resolved. Tipper I also love beautiful wild flowers but have little knowledge as to what most of them are. I do know a few varieties, just because of listening and hearing what others call them and I’m so happy when I learn what they are and enjoy all the colors, sizes and shapes of each and every one. When it comes to growing any I’m a huge failure. I’m really just learning to plant and grow vegetables in containers. I’m so happy and excited when I see growth and finally get to pick something and eat it. Most times it doesn’t make it to the table, due to my lack of resistance. My favorite foods I planted are all of them. I’ve got potatoes, the little tomatoes, radishes, cilantro, basil, English thyme and onions. A strange menu for sure. I’m going on way too long. I’m sorry about that. But one more thing. My sweet husband has also ground planted, and has a couple of raised beds. He has squash, potatoes, tomatoes, green beans, okra and maybe others I can’t remember right now. By the way , he just reached his 85th birthday. I think he’s great. I’m still 79, as of March this year. Love and prayers to all the Acorns and to you and your wonderful family Miss Tipper. Can hardly wait to see Miss Louzine’s beautiful flower gardens in bloom. Blessings to all.
Tipper, might this also be known as Acony Belle? We have sung a song for a few years called Acony Belle. I looked it up at the time I first heard the song and it was a flower that comes up, “makes it’s home in the rocks and the rills”, you can hear Gillian Welch sing it on YouTube. It is a favorite song we start in the late winter and it sooths my winter weary soul to sing it as winter seems to just go on and on in Connecticut.
I’m not sure but it might be 🙂 I’ll have to listen to the song!
Well, I think it must be very special to have it appear in your garden and I hope it will come back. I bet Granny had a hand in it appearing, to thank you for planting all those zinnias in her garden. I just listened to the song again, for the ump teenth time, and it makes me smile even more now.
Janet, I believe you are referring to Oconee Bells, and, I have just learned about the Oconee Bells Trail, through Oconee County, SC, to Oconee County, GA.
Tipper, have you looked for your “bird orchid” (I think that was the name) that you posted about some time ago? Remember the one little pink bloom on a slender leafless stalk? I wish I could get you and I each some “mountain tea” (teaberry) plants. I think you would love them for many reasons. Along about now they would have the new tender green eaves that are “hot” with teaberry (wintergreen) flavor. And they are cute like the partridge berry; dark green and red, when the berries are ripe. PS: Do you have any galax in your holler?
Ron, it never has come back. I will share about it tomorrow 🙂 I want to find some teaberry plants. We do have galax, but it doesn’t seem like there’s as much as when I was a girl.
Love wildflowers!
In Raleigh, from the ’40s through the ’60s there was a wonderful teacher of 10th grade biology named Nancy Beddingfield Shore. She required her students to study wildflowers and to collect them and present a scrapbook of the pressed results of their work. IIRC there was a minimum number of specimens required. Higher grades were given for more specimens and for especially difficult to find ones. She did not require students to name the locations where specimens were taken lest subsequent classes deplete those sites.
Of my 8 older brothers and sisters 4 or 5 took biology under Mrs. Shore. I remember Sunday afternoon hikes to the woods to collect specimens not found closer to home. Our Pa lead those walks and helped find and identify the wildflowers.
Alas, it was my lot to take biology under a different teacher, but much later in life I bought a Mercedes-Benz 280 from her. I answered a blind ad and was delighted to spend an afternoon with her during the transaction. She regaled me with memories of her experiences with my siblings. She was a wonderful woman and teacher.
Thank you for remindnig me about wildflowers, Tipper.
So beautiful Tipper! I love that!
Randy, you are in my prayers !
I’m so glad for you making this great find! I recognize the thrill. That’s just as I am in the woods, on the constant lookout for the new-to-me, the familiar, the odd and/or unusual. Each and/or all are a blessing. Doesn’t matter what it is; plants, animals, bird calls, shiny rocks etc I’m easy to please. The other day Sharon & I walked the paved trail at Don Carter and re-discovered one pink ladyslipper not yet open and a single blooming birdfoot violet. I’m glad your find is so near, so abundant and does not need any relocation. One might just say the Lord has dropped “handfuls of purpose” for you as Boaz told his reapers to do for Ruth. Some might think that is too small a detail for him to involve himself with — but I don’t. Jan Karon wrote one non-fiction book called “Patches of Godlight” (if memory serves) that is short quotes from different people that are bright spots.
Good morning Tipper. I love your pictures of the walk yesterday and the wildflowers this morning. Ira is just a doll baby in that photo. Your sweet Woodrow will love it too when he’s a little bigger. I have a fond memory of going back in the mountains to the top of a hill where there was woods and a big meadow. It was a beautiful view. My dad used a pull behind tractor and we all rode in a wagon—except my little brother—who rode his pony. We spread out a blanket and had a picnic and I remember mama and daddy lying on the blanket after, relaxing and watching us kids playing frisbee and running around. It was such a fun day. I planted some WV wildflowers in my flower garden this year. Two of my granddaughters helped me. They are looking forward to watching them grow—me too. Have a wonderful day!!
What a delightful and beautiful surprise, Tipper! 🙂
Good morning to all. What beautiful flowers!! Here in central Oklahoma we have a severe drought going on and need some rain. Let me put it this way, we are in What they call “the buckle of the wheat plains”. The wheat is heading out BUT….the heads are empty!! This is due to no rain.
Please pray for all the farmers and ranchers that depends on their crops.
Oh and by the way…have you thanked a farmer or rancher for putting food on your plate??
This part of the note is to Debbie!!
How is little b doing?? Praying for her and the entire family. Please keep us posted!!
Tipper, thank you for all your hard work…you look marvelous…simply marvelous:-)
Glad you found the wood anemone and am also tickled that you’re trying to populate the place with native plants. I’d suggest you make that a periodical subject to touch on. We are truly blessed with native flora in our area, and we even allow some of it to wander to away over there in Cherokee County;-)
But that ivy with the darker leaves is something I’d strongly suggest to get rid of, if possible. It is an invasive species and will take over both the ground and trees. See:
https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/hedera-helix/
I agree! It’s a scourge 🙂
That pretty little white flower is blooming by the hundreds down by the old graveyard beside my lane. We call them the Star of Bethlehem. There was a similar red flower that covered the hills in eastern KY when I used to roam there. I have never seen the red variety growing anywhere else. I tried to transplant a few clumps of 5 or 6, but they didn’t come back the next year.
I have seen that lovely bloom but had no idea it’s wood anemone. I’d leave her right where she lays and keep the spot to myself or a few trustworthy folks. That’s a bloom that stands tall in beauty! I’d say in many cases less is more and that’s a bloom to give any other flower a run for the prize! I wonder if it has a scent. To me, you scored big with this gem! Congratulations on proving what a walk will turn up sometimes like the patch of ginseng I shall always keep to myself, but it’s under the nose of the whole stupid town of Bluefield just growing and hiding… I knew a lady with guard geese who had an old strativaris violin and believe me she was capable of hiding a lot of treasures like a Native Burial Mound. She donated that fancy, beat up fiddle to UVA to get “conserved”…. lol-a million dollar fiddle-who’d have thunk it????
Im so glad foe you!
beautiful flowers, everything so dry here, the neighbor’s pretty azaleas are turning brown, no rain expected till the 19th, God bless us with rain please, in Jesus name
Norman, I have commented on the drought in upstate SC, looking at the next 10 day forecast on a local station there are only two days that have 20% chance of rain, the other 8 days are not more than 5%. My son set some new flowers out and I set out 5 tomato plants, we are watering them trying to keep them alive.
Look forward to seeing your post every day
Is that poison ivy in the picture with the white flower?
Thank you! I don’t think so but we do have it everywhere 🙂
I’ve always heard , leaves of three. Leave it be !
That’s not poison ivy for sure but it looks a little like ginseng.
I can imagine the look on your face at discovering the wild flowers for the first time as you walked through the woods. That look of awe from a heart filled with gratitude. Enjoy God’s gift to you, because He knew in your heart you have longed for them. God always provides our needs and yes occasionally our wants, as long as it fills our hearts with gratitude.
I am glad you found the wild flowers and it made you happy. Five years ago this afternoon my wife died at MUSC in Charleston, SC. This is according to the death certificate, in my mind she died on the 9th at Greenville Prisma hospital during her heart surgery. I will say no more.
I’m so sorry Randy.
Wow, such a fateful day! My mother died in June 2020 but we have come to accept it. I can’t imagine losing my spouse. I think the purple flower I planted last year didn’t make it over the winter. We have lots of chipmunks in that bed that are constantly digging but I’m going to keep trying, maybe a different kind of flower this time.
About wildflowers, they are truly a gift. I planted a packet of seeds in a shady spot last year and was surprised how they produced! And they came back already this spring!! But drought conditions are a problem here too. 30% chance of rain here tomorrow which usually means we won’t get any.
I’m sorry, Randy. Thinking about you today.
I will say a prayer for you today, Randy. Take care, and God bless.
Prayers for you Randy.