Well, I just want to let everyone know that Lee, my DH, is working on posting the pics that he took at the swap. They will appear once we get an account with Photobucket or the like. There are about 50 pics so get your cuppa in hand before you sit down to look at them. Karen/Bakemom-I should have had Jeanne take my photo. Lee doesn't make me look skinny! Margie/Granny 57- Isaac is all healed up. My wrist is better but I have tennis elbow that was masked by the wrist pain. The only cure is complete rest for the joint. My right elbow! Like that's going to happen with a mother of five who gardens!!!!! Who will carry those eternal baskets of laundry? Have a great weekend everyone! Plant up those last few that are still in pots. I can't plant my trumpet vines until I get my gazebo made from my 8 foot satellite dish. I have one metal/wrought iron porch support lined up from freecycle. I just can't fit buying new ones into the budget. If you all know of any stray porch supports hanging around let me know. I'll be glad to give them a new home! ~~Mimi

The Pocket of Pigeon Mountain in Georgia would not be a long drive for you. It's considered by many to be the finest wildflower site in Georgia based on the diversity and concentration of spring wildflowers. An early trip (third week of March) should give you a display of masses of bluebells and celandine poppies. This site has large populations of Trillium decumbens and flexipies and lots more. If you go once you will want to return at a different time to see the ones you miss blooming. It's an easy day hike. You can spend two to four hours or explore further on some adjacent trails. Check out this link: http://www.gnps.org/POCKET1.HTM Here's directions:From downtown LaFayette, Ga., which is on US 27 BUSINESS (Main St.), go a few blocks south and turn west on GA 193 for 8 miles to Davis Crossroads (there's a little store on the right with this name), where GA 341 comes in from the right. At this junction turn left onto Hog Jowl Road and go 2.6 miles, passing Mt. Herman Baptist Church. At the top of the next hill, turn left onto Pocket Rd. and drive 1.2 miles until the road ends. Park in the Pocket Trailhead parking lot on the left. There was a sign at the Pocket Road/Hog Jowl Road intersection but last spring it was damaged and I don't know if it's been fixed.

I'm going to see if I can manage to clip back some of the polyantha to free up the little (well, not so little) wildflower without stressing it, and maybe get some more photos of both the bloom and the leaf. It does seem to grow in upright single stalks like the wooly ironweed, and the blossom is showy enough to be seen from quite a distance. The suggestions for the grasses are terrific. I keep running into the quandary of what can take all the conditions in my trouble spot. Heavy clay, really hot in the summer and soggy in the winter, and then there's the wind. Sigh. I think the grasses might be the perfect choice. I had originally wanted to put in a nice clump of gaillardia, but I'm sure not having any success with it. I had sort of had a color theme in mind, with the gaillardia paired with the orange Mexican honeysuckle (Montezuma) that is clinging to life on the fence behind it. The red-orange-gold Pinata rose is sited not too far away and I thought it might be an interesting combination if I could put some other things in there to soften it a little. Sounds like the grasses might be the perfect thing I don't know why I've had such poor luck in growing echinacea in the past. I've never been able to get it to do much of anything. It wants to stay small and sparse and not at all like the lovely photos I've seen of it in big clumps. I'm sure it was a matter of where I planted it, and the fact that it often got left out when I was busy caring for a really big garden. I might try again. I might also have my mother see if she can find starts or seeds of her big Gloriosa daisies. They seem to tolerate just about anything, and they're big and showy, if I can just keep them from seeding and taking over the place as they are wont to do. At one time I was fiddling with improving or reproducing some of the particular ones that grew wild on her property, and it would be fun to do that again. Do you have any idea of whether they might grow here? Pat

Prb'ly not a 100 yr flood, which I'd say would be a one-time event instead of long-term rains. A 100 yr flood would be like downtown Johnstown, PA in July 1977 w/10 inches in an afternoon & historical flooding. Johnstown also had an even more catastrophic, famous flood in late May, 1889 after similar heavy rains. Still, my Sept 12.48" beats the (I'm ~60 miles west of) Hagerstown, Md's wettest month (Oct 1976) by a few tenths, and its record goes back to 1890 or so. But such a record is only for one single spot and some nearby, unrecorded spots could easily have greater-amount records. Over the yrs here the stream (too small to be a creek) has meandered noticeably, one side eroding and the other side accumulating sediment, some holes filling up w/rocks & sediment or new holes dug out, etc. Edit: This got me thinking and I realized I had some old NWS spreadsheets from some other locations. Found nearby (just 12 miles to my west) Cumberland, Md's records and my Sept amount does not beat out its record amount -- 12.94" in August 1915. Edit2: More records in my library. Chambersburg, PA (25 miles north of Hagerstown) had 14.49" in Aug 1911. So my amount is looking less impressive in the big picture.