Could this Possibly be Wood Betony?

While coming back down the mountains at Newfound Gap Tennessee, my friend and I pulled over to snap a couple of pics alongside the roaring and beautiful stream. This was only two weeks ago, and the weather was nicely hot and steamy, with loads of large dark butterflies flitting about everywhere. The place we chose for a photo was a standard tourist pull-over spot just above the stream itself. As my friend was positioning himself down the rock wall and into the stream, I was marvelling at the butterflies on a nearby wildflower. It was then that I looked down at my feet. I do believe I spied one of my favorite herbs of all time, right here in its natural habitat. It was a small specimen, and stubby enough for me to doubt my eyes, but I quickly snapped a picture to study when I returned home, since my friend had a plane to catch as soon as he climbed out of the stream.

Upon closer inspection and retrospection, I suspect it truly may be Wood Betony. The blossoms are shorter than my own at home, and the petals appear to be grander in this example, but the shape of the leaf, and the blossom on the long spike definitely spoke of the familiar as soon as I laid eyes on it......as for the retrospection part - I suddenly remembered where I purchased my Wood Betony. I was completely obsessed with herbs back in the late 90s and scoured nurseries for unique plants that one only reads about. The vendors of the Kentucky Herb Festival in Frankfort included this lady from Tennessee who would come every year to sell native selections. She always had truly wonderful things and I managed to cross off several obscure herbs off my wish list when visiting her booth. Ironically, it was the Tennessee lady who sold me my Wood Betony. The one in the National Park may be a slightly different variety, but I'm pretty convinced of the match. However, I also remembered one other experience with her wonderful selection of native plants......be careful when shopping at places that offer native wildflowers....I was 2 minutes away from walking away with my very own specimen of Burdock for my garden. Luckily I studied my purchase more closely as I walked away and suddenly recognized it as that giant weed that grew out by the barns on the farm here in Kentucky - luckily she was nice enough to let me have an exchange! One man's weed is another man's wildflower!

Kentucky Herb Festival 2008

Since our move to Kentucky about 15 years ago, we have made the Kentucky Herb Festival in Frankfort an annual tradition. It is not a large festival, but quaint and just big enough to take up about half of the day allowing the rest of the day to get home and plant what was bought! Last year, for the 15th anniversary, the Kentucky Herb Association decided to move the date from the second weekend in June to the third weekend in May. Unfortunately, only their die hard members got the news and the largest city nearby, Lexington was left out of the advert....so this year appeared to be much better attended. To give you a taste of why this trip is worth the yearly dedication, I will provide a sampling of the day's activities, including lunch and another favorite garden center visit that makes the day very special.

The day begins with a stop at the Herb Fest located in the farm buildings of Lakeview Park which overlooks a golf course and nice size lake.

The festival is free to get in, but parking is $3.00 and if you want to stay for their herbal lunch held at the beautiful brick building at the entrance, the cost is $9.00 and limited to 120 people.

Other activities include guest speakers, live music and an auction with proceeds benefiting the Kentucky Herb Association.

Now for a few tasty morsels from this year's festival:

One booth we usually make a bee line for is Wash House Herb Farm's homemade herb breads. They sell out pretty quickly, so we load up before heading around to the rest of the booths.

Chrisman Mill Vineyard (the oldest licensed vineyard in the U.S.) offers a very nice wine tasting with wine bread and cheese spread standing by for a wonderful sampling.

The other booths loaded with wonderful smellygood stuff and books about growing, cooking or crafting with your favorite herbs make for a visually appealing and diverse shopping experience.

And then there are the herbs and plants! So many unique herbs, wildflowers, native plants and perennials to choose from!

In fact, there are so many things to load up with at such reasonable prices, we have adopted the habit of bringing along our trusty antique grocery cart. Simply perfect for bags of bread, wine, herbs and everything else we can pack into it. The opening is also just the right size for laying a flat of plants on top. But as you can see, we only bought a few herbs this year that fit into bags on top of the bread.

As we head back to the car, we have thoughts of lunch at Gibby's (voted Frankfort's favorite place for lunch!) and then more plans for shopping at a local greenhouse - Wilson's.

Wilson's Nursery sits on Frankfort's By-Pass and takes up many acres of growing space.

The displays throughout the greenhouse, giftshop and terraces combine to create a gardener's heaven! Once upon a time Wilson's used to participate in the Herb Festival but left several years ago, preferring to put on a nice herb sale at their own place. In years past, the sale has been very significant, but this year the Herb Fest is a month earlier and so the sale is not as wonderful, but the selection is still worth the trip!

The ultimate fairy garden!

And be careful where you rummage through the plants! You may find a feline hiding in the roses. One of the workers said she was very friendly, but didn't know her name....only that her mother's name was Lola! So keep an eye out for Lola's daughter while spending your Saturday wandering through Wilson's!