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April has to be my favorite month of the year, followed by October. I always hate to see it end, knowing I have to wait another 12 months before
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I can enjoy it again! That is why I try to get out and enjoy as much of it as I can. Yesterday Kenny and I went to the Smokies to see what was in bloom. A lot of my old favorites had already bloomed and were gone. The Bishop's Cap; Foamflower; Sweet White, Canada, and Long-spur violets seemed to be the dominant flowers. The most exciting flower we saw was
Painted Trillium! There was a moss-covered boulder that had several plants growing on it. The photographers were going nuts taking pictures, kind of like wildflower paparazzi! :)
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There were huge patches of
Dwarf Crested Iris growing along the trail, some of the biggest I've ever seen.
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There were a lot of people hiking and it seemed we talked to most of them. :) As we were talking to one man, his wife came back down the trail from photographing a waterfall. She heard me talking about wildflowers and my website and asked excitedly, "Wh
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at is your name?!" When I told her, she exclaimed, "I'm Susan, I'm the person who wrote you asking about where to find the Yellow Lady Slipper Orchids!" We had corresponded a couple of times last week. What a small world! This time of the year I get a lot of e-mails from people who want to know about wildflowers, they often send picture files for me to identify. It was fun to get to meet one of my "e-friends" in person!
Today I noticed the Common Milkweed is coming up in my garden. The Monarch butterfly that I saw sipping nectar from the Phlox flowers last week must
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have laid her eggs on the milkweed, I found several on the plants. It will be fun to watch the caterpillars hatch and grow as they eat the leaves. I started doing that back in 1986
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when my son was in kindergarten. Another exciting event in my garden was the emergence of the baby Carolina wrens that are nesting in an old bird house. I enjoyed seeing them stick their heads out looking for mom while she was out hunting for insects!
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