To cure a powerful bout of spring fever last weekend, I headed to one of my favorite wild places in Georgia — the Pocket at Pigeon Mountain near LaFayette, in North Georgia’s Walker County.
The profusion of wildflowers that bloom there this time of year draws spring fever sufferers like me from far and wide. In their book “Favorite Wildflower Walks in Georgia,” photographers Hugh and Carol Nourse of Athens say, “Many people consider [the Pocket] to be the best wildflower walk in the state from mid-March to mid-April.”
I ran into the Nourses last weekend, in fact, when they were leading a group of wildflower enthusiasts from Alabama to see the Pocket’s botanical gems. I was there with fellow members of the Georgia Botanical Society.
The state-owned Pocket is set in a deep, wooded, north-facing cove through which a swift-flowing mountain stream runs. The abundant blooms can be seen from the Shirley Miller Wildflower Trail (named for the wife of former Gov. Zell Miller), which consists of an 800-foot boardwalk built to prevent visitors from trampling the flowers. At the end of the cove is a beautiful waterfall reached by a rugged, wildflower-lined trail starting at the end of the boardwalk.
One reason the Pocket is so botanically rich is that calcium from surrounding limestone cliffs washes into the cove and produces neutral soils rather than acid soils. Depending on when you visit, some two dozen wildflower species may be seen and photographed from the boardwalk in early spring.
Last weekend, we oohed and aahed over the colorful blooms of cutleaf toothwort, round-lobed hepatica, bloodroot, trout lily, Dutchman’s breeches, harbinger-of-spring, celandine poppy, giant chickweed, rue anemone and others.
Our visit, however, was only a preview; the big show is yet to come. The unusually cold, lingering winter delayed spring blooms, said our leader, Mike Christison. Peak bloom for the Pocket probably will be this weekend or next weekend.
Still to come, for instance, are the abundant blooms of the Pocket’s signature flower, the stunning Virginia bluebell. Its blue flowers, mixed with the celandine poppy’s yellow blooms, can be a glorious sight in the Pocket. Also yet to show are foamflower, phacelia, wild hyacinth, mayapple, several trillium species (including decumbent and bent trilliums), several violet species and many others. In a week or two, a particularly striking flower, wild columbine, also should be adding its colors to the Pocket’s rich floral mix.
By late April, however, the big show will be over. Most of the brilliantly colored flowers now booming or getting ready to bloom will have faded and turned to seed.
For directions, photos, and more information, visit www.uswild flowers.com.
In the sky: The moon will be last quarter on Tuesday — rising about midnight and setting around midday, says David Dundee, astronomer with the Tellus Northwest Georgia Science Museum. Mercury and bright-shining Venus are low in the west just after sunset. Mars rises out of the east before sunset and sets in the west before dawn. Jupiter appears low in the east just before sunrise. Saturn rises out of the east at sunset and is visible throughout the night.
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