We went out on Lake Appalachia yesterday with our friends to celebrate Tere's birthday.  She's 29, wink, wink!!!  She signed up for a 3 hour tour, complete with boat captain, Roger.  He and his wife own The WagonMaster Adventure Ranch, in Murphy.  It's off 294, past the Fields of the Wood.  What a fun place.  Oh, wait...

 

http://wagonmasterranchresort.com/  You can go look for yourself.  Cool place to take your grandchildren and visitors.  We had a great time.

 

We floated on the lake in a pontoon boat, short hike up to this waterfall, and even went swimming at the smallest beach in the world.  Can't wait to do that again.  

 

Thanks for including us in your big adventure.  ❤️❤️❤️

 

 

 

Passiflora incarnata, or Passion flower is a fairly common vine that can climb to a height of 10-20 feet!!!  

 

It has large, showy lavender flowers that appear in May or June and last through mid-summer.  They grow like a weed in open spaces, and no farmer in his right mind would allow it to invade his fields.  I started out this spring weeding them from the tomato cages, but then i just let them go, because the flowers are so pretty, AND the Fritillary butterflies use Passiflora as a host plant for their caterpillars.  

 

They are blooming now.  There are about 10 vines, each one with at least 5 flower buds.  Each blossom is about 2-3 inches across, and fragrant.  The fruit that develops after the flower fades is edible.  It is a many-seeded berry about the size and shape of a lemon.  It turns yellow and wrinkly when it's ripe.  It is also called wild apricot and maypop.  We've tasted them, but they have too many seeds to warrant the trouble to process them.  That's my opinion; some folks love going to the trouble and make juices, jams, tarts and pies using passion fruits.

 

They are just too pretty to throw away.  

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

This is Galax.  I didn't need Seek to know that.  We've been seeing it in the woods for years.  Actually, it almost announces itself as you're walking along.  The air is filled with the scent of garlic, (some describe the smell as gym socks.)  We smell it first, then look for it.  

 

Galax aphylla, also called beetleweed, is a low growing perennial that grows from rhizomes.  The leaves are leathery, shiny, and almost round.  It blooms May-July, with a 1-2 foot stalk of tiny white flowers.  You can see the leftover stalk at the top of the picture.  In the fall, the leaves turn a gorgeous shade of bronze.  

 

It is native to southern Appalachia, but is cultivated elsewhere, and used for wedding bouquets and Christmas decorations.  In some places these plants have been threatened by overcollection, and local authorities have prohibited the sale of the leaves.  It doesn't transplant easily, so we just have to enjoy it in the wild.  

 

I haven't seen much of it in our local woods, but there's lots of it at Brasstown Bald and Blood Mountain.  Maybe it likes the higher elevations.

 

Hope you get to see some on your hikes in the mountains.

 

HAPPY HIKING!!!

 

I know I've written about Sassafras before, but this picture is so perfect, I'm going to write about it again.  

 

I want you to notice the three different leaf shapes.  There are only a few trees that do this.  Look at the leaves at the top of the picture first.  They have three lobes. Now look at the bottom leaf with its two lobes, looking like a mitten.  And beside that one is a leaf with a single lobe.  This is very typical of Sassafras.  Three different leaf shapes on the same tree.  Mulberry does it too, but I know of no others.  

 

Sassafras albidum is a native tree in the central and eastern United States, and is prominent in our woods.  It grows 10-50 feet tall, some up to 90 feet.  It blooms in early March with fuzzy yellow flowers, and bears striking blue-black fruits with red stalks in midsummer.  In the fall, the leaves turn fabulous shades of bronze-orange to clear red and yellow.  

 

All parts of Sassafras have been utilized by humans.  Here are a few examples.  The roots have long been used to make a spring tonic tea, and to flavor root beer.  These practices have died out recently (well, the last 50 years) with the indication that the active ingredient may be carcinogenic.  The finely powdered dried leaves become filé, used as flavoring and a thickener in Louisiana cuisine, namely gumbo.   The aromatic, insect repellent wood was once used for bedposts and chicken roosts. During a brief period in the early 17th century, sassafras was the second-largest export from the British colonies in North America behind tobacco.  

 

The birds love the berries, the deer love to browse the leaves, and spicebush swallowtail and tiger swallowtail butterflies use Sassafras as HOST plants for their larvae.

 

What a great tree, Sassafras.  Look for it.

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

I just realized, this should have been yesterday's post.  Happy birthday!!!!!  ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

 

We love going to Meeks Park in Blairsville.  We walk a 2 mile loop there; it's always in the shade, and not too steep a climb to the ridge line.  

 

Last year the park acquired this mill wheel from the Tates, and restored it.  Then they built this structure, and turned it into a museum.  It's right by the Nottely River that runs through the park.  I'll go to the museum and learn more about it so I can tell you.  

 

We went by there on Saturday, but it was closed.  Not really a museum, more of an interpretive center.  But I'll have to get back to you on it.  Maybe it will be open in the fall, during festival season.  

 

Anyway, it's a cool thing to see, especially when the wheel is in motion.  It only takes a trickle of water to make it turn. 

 

HAPPY SUMMER!!

 

Where in Five Forks is this?  If you have walked or driven by it, I'm sure you would have noticed.  

 

These Zinnias are about 3 feet tall, and so cheerful, you can't miss them.  Rosalie told me they just threw seeds into this rock enclosure, and boy, did they take off!  I want some of THOSE seeds.  I'm sure I  can collect some as soon as the flowers die.  See the feathery leaves?  I'm guessing  that's Coreopsis or maybe Cosmos, and I see big Marigolds in there too.  

 

Oh, I guess I just blew the quiz.  Rosalie and Web Bailey are new residents on the north ridge.  They just finished their beautiful house last fall, and moved in as full-time residents.  I hope you will welcome them to the neighborhood when you go up to see this fabulous wildflower garden.  

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

 

Look what else we saw on the trail.  Blackberries.  Did you know that blackberries are related to roses?  Yep, same family.  Look at the leaves and thorns.  And the flowers are very similar too.  Blackberries are often called brambles, cause they grow from rhizomes and form thickets.  (Thickets rife with chiggers;  AAK!!!)

 

The blackberries in our neighborhood haven't been so prolific in the last few years, but I remember picking gallons of them in the past.  

 

Hey, I've got a great cobbler recipe;  I'll add it in the recipe section.  Just look at the bottom of the Neighbors Sharing in the menu.

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

 

Can you just imagine how many times I passed out on our hike up Blood Mountain?  Well, not literally, but I WAS thrilled to my bones.  

 

Seek told me this is Starry Campion.  Never seen it in the wild, only in my wildflower picture books.  It is so soft and feathery, you can't help but love it.  Once it was identified, we saw hundreds of them!!!

 

OK, the books tell me:  Starry Campion is in the same family as Chickweed, Fire Pinks, and Carnations:  Caryophyllaceae.  It's botanical name is Silene stellata.  They are native perennials through most of the eastern half of the United States, but infrequent in the rich woods of our mountains.  The Wildflowers of North Carolina book suggests growing it from seed in your wild garden.  I wonder where one gets seeds for this!!!!

 

Anyway, it was so fun to see them all up and down the mountain.  

 

Psst:  This picture that I took is better than the one in the book.  ;).

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

Now, you KNOW, I just about passed out when we came upon this in the woods.  This flower stalk stands about 2 feet tall.  Had to use the Seek app to identify it, because I'd never seen one before.  

 

So I looked it up in the Wildflower books, and this is what I found:  Its botanical name is Platanthera ciliaris.  And it's in the Orchid family.  These native orchids grow in peaty or wet, sandy woods, thickets, and dry meadows and slopes, from New York to Florida, and west to Texas, and bloom from July to September.  That makes me think they are common, but

 

My wildflower book says this:  "Please do not dig or cut!"  That tells me they are rare and/or endangered.  

 

I hope you you get to see a yellow fringed orchid when you're out in the woods; it was very exciting!!!

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!