It was a family affair for us. My daughter, granddaughter and I went. If any of you saw the little girl being pulled in a coaster wagon , holding the umbrella for shade, that was us. We followed the east trail. I went down into the valley by the water and dug some ferns for my daughter. She came down to carry them up. The granddaughter supervised and told us not to fall or hurt ourselves. While down by the water, I found a native azalea. I believe it is the Alabamense white because it was by the water. I was raised not too far away and I tramped those hills and fields all my life. I hunted the area from Carson Road (before it was built in the late 1960s) to Turkey Creek and camped at the old Indian Valley Boy Scout Camp. The Alabamense is very common along the streams. I went up the hill on the northwest side and found a bunch of medium sized oak leaf hydrangeas. You must know what you are looking for and know where to look. The only thing I really missed was that when I was a kid, after going to Turkey Creek, we always went to Price's Drug Store (old downtown (Mount) Pinson for a root beer.

Trillium catesbaei does that too (white to pink). They are "nodding" and have reflexed petals. My grandiflorum are starting to get pink about now... never "purple" though.

I use herbicide on tough weeds when hand control methods are not working. For example, I have large patches of clover and pulling them by hand is either making it worse or not making much progress. The worst patch is where I grow tomatoes. Now that the season is done, I can do some spraying there. I also use brush be gone for poison ivy and for painting the stumps of saplings that I cut down (I am over-runneth with red maple saplings and want to increase the diversity of my native plants so the saplings get taken out from time to time). By and large, my eradication efforts are simply through hand pulling. I am hoping to get the upper hand on my japanese honeysuckle this way over time. It certainly put a dent in my smilax infestation ... and for the blessedly small amounts of privet and elaeagnus that make their way into my yard.

Thane I have noticed that my T. grandiflorum do come up with their leaf sheath bent, but only for a very short time, they seem to pull out straight pretty quickly. I have never noticed T. ovatum that close to check,--- interesting. The grands are older and have a much thicker stalk and bigger leaves, the the natives I have are smaller, so maybe they are very fast at coming up straight, or are curved underground only. Will have to remember to check next year. My two patches are very close and I have seedlings now that are probably crosses with many different sizes of flower petals. I have a native patch that I got from a different source and they have very thin narrow petals. Judy