New England Wildflowers

Hello Everyone. I am Tina's daughter. I was thinking of my mother and her blog this weekend while on a hike in the Camden Hills State Park. We were going rock climbing in the area, and had a mile hike to get to the site. On the way my mother was all in my head because I kept seeing such beautiful little wildflowers growing.

I took several pictures that I thought she would like to do a blog on, I got dubbed to do it instead.



We walked downtown Camden after the rain made our climbing no longer something we could do safely. While in Camden I bought a great book to help me identify the flowers that we saw on our hike.

The top pictures are of common wild violets. These certain ones are white and yellow. There aren't many yellow ones in the wild here anymore so it was so nice to see some on our hike.

This beautiful maroon flower was so interesting. There were a ton of them out there but only this one was in full bloom. This is a red trillium, I could not remember the name when talking to my friend Margaret about this flower but she knew exactly what it was. They are also called Wake Robins because they bloom just before the Robins return from the South. What I found to be really interesting about this plant is that EVERYTHING about it grows in threes: leaves, petals, sepals, pistil, and stamens are all in threes!
This next plant, though not a wildflower, caught my eye because looked similar to a hydrangea, but the leaves were woolly and growing on old growth. It is a Hobblebush and is in the Honeysuckle Family. Not the greatest looking thing, a bit straggly, but the flowers are nice and I am sure it will look better when it is more filled out!

This here is a Yellow Clintonia or Blue Bead Lily (for the blue berries that it gets when the flowers have gone by). Being part of the lily family and not seeing lily of the valley in quite sometime, that is what I thought it was when I first saw it, but knew that they did not have such large leaves. The flowers are going to be small cream or yellow colored bells and lily looking when they open.

This next flower is called Wild Oats or Little Merrybells. Aren't they cute? They are also part of the lily family and are a type of Bellwort. These grow in clusters , as you can see from the first picture. The book says they do smell, but because of the droopy flower it is hard to get a good sniff.

Knowing that we all love irises, I hate to post these without the blooms, but I do believe that they will prove me right in being such. I believe that these are Blue Flag Iris. They grow on stream borders and in marshes, or anywhere wet. As you can see these are actually growing in the middle of the stream. I will be going to the area often enough that I hope to take more pictures when they are in bloom.

Knowing that my mother is such a tree person, I thought that showing the ability of a tree to grow just anywhere would be fun. This photo did not come out well, but is of the the root system of a tree. Hanging in nothing but air. This tree had grown so that it was in the cracks of the rocks that we were climbing. The root grew to the bottom of the crack and out of the underside.

The next picture is of the larger root that is growing along the crack. It is actually a very good picture and the contrast of color is really nice. The last picture is very bad, but if you look closely you can see that the tree is alive and starting to bud. Remember up north this far our growing season is well behind that of where my mother lives.

Thanks you for having me. I hope that you all enjoy the flowers. I hope to get out to the area again soon to take more pictures and hopefully find more wildflowers as the spring, summer, and fall comes upon us. Maine has many beautiful wild plants that grow here.

Springtime in Georgia by Skeeter

Hello from Georgia! Tina has invited me to write a posting. I am neither a writer nor a professional where gardening is concerned. But like so many people in this world, I enjoy playing in my yard and talking! I will not be professional by any means but hopefully you will enjoy my occasional postings with Tina. Thanks for inviting me Tina….

I snapped some pictures in the yard today before we headed to town. I am sharing three of my favorite shots of the day. I am not sure how to get them in any other order so until Tina assists me in this department, you will see the photos together in a row. Sorry, I am not too computer savvy but can at least get this on the sight. (I hope so anyway)

We have an island in the middle of our paved driveway. I cannot take credit for the plantings within as they were here when we purchased the house in 2001. The island consists of a Crepe Myrtle, Snowball bush, Nandina (which I did plant) and pink Azaleas. I love when they all bloom in sync with the white dogwoods of the woods in the background.

I snapped a close up of one of the snowballs. It is not completely white as of yet. It is a pretty color of greenish white but will be white soon. I played with a setting on the camera to focus on the snowball with the azalea in the background as a pink backdrop.

I went into the garden to see what was happening there and when I turned around to look at the lush purple Verbena, I spotted the island and dogwoods in the background. What a beautiful sight to the eyes. I think, if you click on each picture, it will become larger so you can really see the full impact.

We drove around town today enjoying the beautiful colors of spring time. I must say, this place has to be the most beautiful place I have ever lived during the spring. The Saint and I both agree that this has been the best year for Dogwood trees. They are popping on trees that we never knew were dogwoods in the woods! The azaleas have not been so lucky the past few years but they are still pretty also just not as perfect as the dogwoods this year…

Tomorrow we will be going to the Masters to see the golf course. We could care less about the game as it really does not interest either of us even though we do watch the final day of play. You kind of have to if you live in Augusta Georgia. They would throw us into the Savannah River if we didn’t. I have two cameras packed and lots of batteries for lots of beautiful pictures. I wish all my garden buddies could be with us. You were on my mind today while driving around taking in the beauty and you will be with me in spirit tomorrow also!