So, how was it? I really wanted to go but had another meeting already scheduled. I particularly wanted to hear about the cliffs communities and the hike descriptions. Please let us know what you found out!

I'd love to meet y'all and say hi! I certainly won't miss it. I am new to Georgia and have so much to learn. I really can't wait. And too, the price is very reasonable.

Yes, I seem to remember you had family last year. It went very well and of course the weather was great for it. Lots of people came for the event and plenty of people came upon it just by being in Piedmont Park. I understand ABG was having an herb sale and some people might have done both. Don't be put off by the line. The sale occupies two sides of a very broad path so the crowd quickly gets distributed as people stop to look at trees/shrubs (the first area) or head straight for the trilliums. There are plenty of people with dogs, many of them because they just happened to be in the park and wandered through. Lots of park visitors bike, walk or skate their way through the sale. We only have a sale of this magnitude once a year. We do sell a few plants at meetings (every other month at ABG) and also at the symposium. You are welcome to attend a meeting as a guest and buy some plants while you are there. The meeting topics are posted on the web as the date gets closer. The next meeting will be May 9th (a Wednesday) at 7 pm in Day Hall at ABG. The topic is not yet posted. As for the sale, some stuff ran out early - jack in the pulpits and foamflower were gone by 10:30, but some trilliums and heuchera were there until the end. The two sabal minor palms (seedlings) did not sell. I think people who don't know are still unsure about having palms in Atlanta. We had tons of Virginia sweetspire (our Plant of the Year) and it all sold, but maple leaf viburnums were still available to the end. All but two of the native azaleas sold and we had a lot of those. So, I think it was a success. We (the volunteers) had lots of fun, met a lot of new people and got to talk plants all day. Can't ask for much more than that! :) Hope to see you there next year.

Razorback, I have that one. It's a beautiful book. I'll be interested to see if Tina's book is a broad range of native plants: flowers to ferns to grasses to shrubs to trees. Amazon doesn't have much information on this new book yet. Tina, is it in a local book store yet? My favorite though is not a native book, it is the Southern Gardener's Book of Lists. I use that to find a list of potential plants and then research each one in which I'm interested. Of course, I usually pick the native plants, but it helps me get going to go through the lists (which are based on site requirements or desirable characteristic).