Peggy, I have Caryopteris "Blue Butterflies" and a beautiful hardy Hibiscus "Grenache Pink" if you're interested in trading for your Antennaria and Nicotiana "Milk Chocolate". PLMK Thanks, Ann

your mystery purple flower looks like honesty to me (silver dollars) lunaria. if it gets more of those purple flowers on an ever increasing branching bloom stalk, that's what it is. The dollars will form later in the season. The trilliums you saw would have been grandiflorums, and it must have been west of here. they don't do really well here, and fade to pink/purple as they age. All along the parkway you can see hillsides covered in them if you go at the right time in spring. They are one of the first wildflowers i took note of as a kid and are still one of my very favorites. To me, they symbolized my mom & dad's wedding, as they bloomed about the same time and it was one of their favorites. Some of the plant rescues i've been on have been stunning- one in particular. Fields of trillium cuneatum, a huge steep bank of bloodroot so thick it looked like snow, massive swathes of trout lilies (for a local peek try swift creek park or hemlock bluffs), a big, tall bluff with ferns, asarum and hepaticas tucked in every mossy cranny, greeny yellow blooms on spicebush sprinkled throughout , newly palmate foliage of yellow buckeyes in big drifts, purple new foliage of cineraria and wood asters in clumps all over, sweeps of green dragons, lots of mayapples , banks covered in spring beauty and toothwort, and amazingly, much more than i recall. Truly breathtaking. So pretty i nearly cried- and, of course, i didn't have my camera. All was out at what now is the Randelman reservoir, underwater. I feel privileged to have seen it, but am so sad it got flooded. It really was like a fairyland come to life. One i did have my camera for was closer to home- a bluff with huge patches of iris cristata all in bloom. Unfortunately, i accidentally deleted the best pix of it. Boy was i kicking myself that night!! That site also had a big floodplain of a mix of many wildflowers, just coming up among the poison ivy- yellowroot, jack in the pulpits, yellow buckeyes, trout lilies, violets, thalictrum, and more i'm forgetting now. I should take notes after the saves. Up north close to where i grew up there was a neat little pocket of trillium grandiflorums, trout lilies, phlox and hepatica that all bloomed in close proximity to each other near a stream and tiny pond. It was a hike up into an old coal strip mine around the corner from our house and hardly anyone knew about it. It was my private meditation place. They closed off access after someone hid a dead body up there when i was a teen (not close to 'my' spot). Across the road from mom's house there was a really nice patch of trilliums, skunk cabbage and some other spring wildflowers that grew next to a stream. By late spring it was hard to get in there for the poison ivy, though. There was also a little nook i discovered only once way up past the strip mine that was like cathedral of pine trees set in a bowl with a mossy sun dappled center. You could almost see the fairies dance in there- it's more of a dream than a memory now. I almost wonder if i really went but am certain i did. I was maybe 10 or 12. Many times i've longed to go back, but i doubt it's there anymore- it's all been sold off now. Someday i will attempt to paint that vision in my head. Up home there was a neat little park/hike that went along a stream about 1/2 mile back to an old furnace and gorgeous waterfall called hell's hollow. I don't know if the patches of wildflowers had been planted along it or they were wild, but it was much like blomquist garden out at duke gardens with patches of phlox, columbine, jacks, dutchman's breeches, bloodroot, trilliums and more. Really wonderful, but becoming too well 'loved', used & known by the time i left PA- so i have a feeling t is not so nice now. Those places don't hold up really well to a constant onslaught of foot traffic, esp where there's no warden presence to keep people in check. This one was such a narrow corridor of beauty it wouldn't take much to trample it to oblivion. I'm sure the foundry and waterfall are still there. I don't know if it's a northern or country thing, but people (mostly teens) tended to party and trash those sorts of public park areas up there. Maybe it's taken for granted because it's fairly common to have those type of wildflower pockets up there- i don't know, but it's distressing. A lot of teens apparently just though of it as a conveniently hidden place to party & park. They always did the same at McConnell's Mills, too - another treasure. I haven't noticed that here so much or even in the mountains down here. 'Course i don't know about the local hidey holes, either-so maybe that's where the boozy teens go here & there.

It must be spring! I have my first case of posion ivy! Argh! A first I could have done without. Had another productive day in the yard yesterday. Uncovered lots more goodies sprouting in the warm weather.A few larkspurs fixin' to bloom w/ lots more right behind them.Yellow scabiosa has buds.Tons of poppy seedlings,about 6 different varieties.A lot ferny looking seedling I can't id until they bloom. The wild evening primrose are trying to take over one bed so I'll have to thin those out along w/ native gauras that self-sewed rather abundantly.Didn't get around to pruning back my rose bushes so they already have buds. Some of the bearded irises have fat buds soon to bloom and the hostas in pots are unfurling their leaves. A sure sign of a storm w/ high winds and/or hail to blow over the irises and/or beat them and punch holes in the hosta leaves. Looks like I'm borrowing trouble but it happens every year. Have to move the compost pile onto the new veggie garden and noticed several large sedum "Autumn Joy" and a few bearded irises,I tossed onto the pile last fall coming up so I'll have to find new locations for them. Gotta tidy up the "Gnome Home" under the big double trunk oak the dogs keep running thru chasing squirrels up it. They've up-ended all my little gnome people.I'll have to put a tiny picket fence around it and hope that keeps them out. One of these days I'm going to learn to operate this new camera and replace the scanner that just refuses to work any more. Redhotflowermamma, if you'll work for plants,room and board....come on down I could use the help.I haven't even made a dent in the plants that have to be divided and potted up out in the greenhouse.*G* PP

That is a nice plant! Funny how the foliage does not scream "orchid", but those flowers sure do.