Sounds like henbit.

Thanks Brenda, I googled Henbit, which wasn't quite right as far as the leaf, but one of the henbit links led me to a look alike which was/Purple Deadnettle (Lamium purpureum). That's it!

Hi from Robin in Lewisville. I have plunked down cash for those... havent we all? They are so easy to grow and a nice ground cover in dry shade. They also come in yellow, I believe. Another nice wild-looking thing blooming profusely in my garden right now is indeed a native flower/ weed called Mountain Bluet. They are only 1 inch tall and have 4 blue petals. They are just darling and bloom in full sun to bright shade all around my property. The flowers are the size of a Forget-me-not, which are also in full bloom for me right now. What a perfect day spent in the garden full time today... mulched a lot using last Fall's free compost, did some watering and sowed flower seeds. What else is appearing in your garden now? Your fern fronds must be be pushing up. One of my ferns is, but I need to find it's name. Maybe it's Holly Fern because it's evergreen, about 18" tall with fronds that have 2 inch long holly-shaped leaves opposite one another. I expect my Geranium Pyrenicum to bloom soon, raised from seed last Spring.

They are cute if you get down on your hands and knees with a magnifying glass, lol. None of my ferns are showing any sign of new growth but the bloodroot was blooming in my outbuilding. I brought it out (along with some other stuff) and will get it in the ground this spring. Figs are showing buds and the sassafras look like they made it through winter!! Yay!! Watered the figs and put them back in the building for a little while longer. It's that time of year when just about everyday you discover something new growing, so I love it!

Yep, my bloodroot and pennywort are up too. Love it.

Brenda, do you grow your penneywort in soil or water? If water, is the type you have more of a bog or pond type plant.

It's dry shade clay here, and they were already here before me. I have some I can dig for swap in an area that was recently logged if you'd like.

rootdigger, did the birds plant your sassafras or did you do it from cuttings or a started plant?
I have one in my other yard and no success trying to root a cutting. I'd love to find a sassafras for sale but no luck so far.

Brenda, yes, Thank-you! I'd like to try some. I have a good spot for it I think. Wooded area that gets a good bit of rain run off at the bottom of my hill. Comfrey loves it down there and so does a wild ginger (Little Brown Jug).

Dottie. I got my Sas from a trade last year. I'm trying to remember who it was.... I've tried them a couple other times but sometimes they didn't have enough root or they died over winter. They do not like being moved at all and people have told me they are hard to dig. I've never tried them from cuttings. If you have any small babies around yours you could try digging one. Try to disturb the root as little as possible. Then baby it a lot! Trying to find Sas is about as hard as trying to find native Witch Hazel! I also want to try starting some sourwood. It was my FIL's fav and so beautiful in the fall!

deb- i'm pretty sure you got that sassafras from me. y'all dug it up, i think- i don't remember for sure, though. i did give one to someone & i think it was you. the plant was only about 18-24" high, right? maybe the key is getting them small. glad to hear it made it. tam

Tammy, Ahha, Now I remember! I wasn't sure at first, but figured it had to be you or Brenda or Nancy. I don't think we dug it though, because we got those last fall (didn't we?) and the time we came by was in the spring. You dug something while we were there. I think one of the berries. Oh, did you see where my fig is budding?!! Way Cool! I have the two you gave me and one I picked up at the Farmer's Market up here. It's a 'no name' but doesn't look like the common Brown Turkey type we see around.

Brenda, are your Sanguinaria 'Multiplex' up yet? Mine show no sign of waking, although the trilliums are busting out everywhere.

Yes, the bloodroot is up finally. It was like up overnight, and they are going fast - I think that warm stretch we had did them in. Lots of seed pods still up - is there any trick to getting them to germinate? Funny, my bloodroot patch stretches about 100 ft by 15 ft, and it is multiplex, or double, at one end.

Deb, do you have the native comfrey, Cynoglossum virginianum? I have one 20 X 20 patch - I have never seen it anywhere else - and it took me 6 months to i.d. it. Funny stuff. Every seed that hits the ground around the plant produces another plant, but if I pot a seedling up, it dies. It must have very specific environment it is looking for. I have never brought a sasafras to the swap before, so no one got one from me. I'll try this year.

My bloodroot hasn't come up yet, which is just as well with the warm weather we had. Brenda, that patch must be beautiful in the spring. I haven't seen anything like what you describe since we lived in Pennsylvania. I like North Carolina better, but the wild flowers in PA were to die for there!! There were a couple of parks we used to go to that had carpets of trillium, bloodroot, Va. bluebells, Mayapple, Blue-eyed Mary... the flowers were truly amazing.

brenda, i wonder if it just resents being transplanted. have you tried sowing the seeds in pots? or sowing them elsewhere? i'd love to try it. it's very pretty. i'm sure your patch is beautiful.

yeah, the wildflowers in PA are incredible. there was one small area (not a park- actually in a strip mine) within a 5 minute walk of where i grew up that had troutlilies, trilliums, hepaticas, mayapples, solomon's seals, ferns, skunk cabbage, and probably lots more that as a kid i didn't know just in huge swaths. i can think of areas that had carpets of bloodroot, dutchman's breeches, wintergreen, violets in all colors, phlox, dame's rocket, columbines, jack in the pulpits, all within a 10 mile radius of my mom's place. and that's just the spring stuff i can think of off the top. we had so many trilliums around i always picked a bouquet for my mom & dad's anniversary because they were their favorite and i had no idea i was killing the plants. of course i'm embarrassed by that now, but they grew like weeds up there. is it any wonder with that bounty around i love wildflowers, especially the spring ephemerals? it's truly stuning up there. unfortunately, it's also cold and there aren't a lot of good jobs. where we you at, alicia, and what were the parks? i was lucky enough to grow up in the shadow of 2 wonderful (and very different) parks. i miss the scenery. and my family of course.

that said, i love carolina. and, you know, i was on a plant save for the randleman lake project last yr (out towards winston salem), and there were carpets- and i mean solid sheets- of trillium cuneatum, troutlilies, bloodroots, dicentras, green dragons, hepaticas, tiarella, heucheras, asarums- evergreen & not, cinereria, violets, solomon's seal, iris cristata, toothwort, spring beauties, sevral types of ferns and so much more. and i was on a plant dig just a few weeks ago that was similar, if not as diverse or heavily covered right here in the triangle. and those are natural- not planned or planted areas. so it's out there- you just need to know where to look. for anyone into wildflowers a visit to the blomquist section of duke gardens is a must see. also, franklin co nature preserve is stunning.

my advice for folks wanting to have wildflowers at an affordable price? join the nc wildflower society ($25 a yr for a single membership). they let you know where & when there are plant digs/saves and have nature walks and are a wealth of information all around. the folks are just super nice. and you're helping yourself while you're saving a small piece of nc wildlife from being bulldozed. the more the merrier! i sure wish i'd known about it sooner. tam

Tammy, I was intrigued enough to google and find the wildflower society you mentioned. It's worth a link. I'm going to join. Thanks. Adele

Here is a link that might be useful: NC Wildflower Society

thanks adele- i'm lazy about links. tam

Tami, I was in Washington, about 30 miles west of Pittsburgh. One of the parks is Mingo Creek, the other (with the blue-eyed Mary) is Enlow Fork near West Finley.

It is too cold in Pennsylvania for me; the winters didn't start all that early but they sure dragged on, and while summer can be limiting here it's not nearly as limiting as the winters up there. We were only slated to be there three years and as soon as that was done we came back down here.

pete's grandma was in a home in washington for a while- i know where you're talking about. never been to those parks, though. what is the botanic for blue eyed mary- it isn't aka blue eyed grass is it? ohiopyle, which sin't too far, is gorgeous. pete has an unc that live close to there. yeah, the winters go on for freaking ever up there. i miss one or 2 snows a yr, but not the endless dreary cold(and it got so cold sometimes!). i know, nothing like the midwest, but still miserable compared to here. my kids think it'd be soooo cool to live there. little do they know. i gotta outta dodge at 20 and can't see going back.

i grew up about and hr north of pittsburgh, within a stone's throw of moraine state park, aka lake arthur, and mcconnell's mills. mc's mills is in a glacier gouged gorge, with dripping, mossy, tree covered boulders along the ridge and a wild creek at the bottom. there's an old grist mill and a covered bridge situated at the bottom. the diversity is just stunning. there's an old boy scout camp along the same creek with wonderful stuff (agawam), and an old smelter area a few miles away that is home to many of the wildflower swaths i spoke of that runs along a tributary to slippery rock creek (the one that goes through mc's mills). paths throughout. the lake park isn't as drop dead gorgeous, but very pretty. reminds me a lot of falls lake- in looks, topography, size & all. highly, highly recommend anyone headed in that direction to stop & ck them out. making me homesick- at least til i think- it may be cold & dreary here today- but they probably have snow &/or ice right now. ugh. tam

Blue-eyed Mary (Collinsia verna) is different from blue-eyed grass (I put a link below with a picture). It was fantastic carpeting the whole forest floor next to the river. We visited Ohiopyle two or three times. The thing that go to me (and the flowers) about PA winters was the constant freeze/thaw, and the MUD. We were up there during some unusual winters too, one year snow at Halloween, two feet of snow once (I couldn't believe Raleigh got that much after we moved back down here, we got 1 foot here), endless icestorms (unbelievably, we didn't ever lose power, even with over an inch of ice), -22 degrees with a wind chill of -45 (I think it got down to zero here). The most amazing thing is practically NO SUN during the winter, except when it got really cold. I remember one day, the only day the sun was out the entire month, and the high was zero. Strangely enough, the typical cloudy days in the thirties were tolerable, because the cold made it crisp.

Here is a link that may be useful: Blue-eyed Mary

Brenda, I think that's the one I have but I'll try to find out for sure when it blooms again this year. I put it in two spots. The one at the bottom is doing wonderful. The other I sunk in a pot in one of my beds. I haven't tried to transplant babies. Maybe they need to be older before moving them? From what I've read the way to multiply these is to just dig into them. It's pretty impossible to get all the root and any piece left behind will grow a new plant. You can throw the leaves of this plant onto your compost pile and it accelerates the breaking down process. I've read where some people also make a tea from it to use on plants.

This is the russian comfrey but it applies to our native form too.

Here is a link that might be useful: Comfrey