We’re back with Donna MacIntosh from her recent adventure with Cindy Lou (Hi LOU & ERIC). While they were out cruising, they went to a “secret” spot that was covered with Trillium flowers. These snowy white blooms are woodland wildflowers that bloom in the spring. They have exactly three leaves, three sepals and three petals and are prized for their beauty. But please just admire them and take photographs, picking the stem and leaves, removes the plant’s ability to make food, so you can kill it or prevent it from blooming for several years. Note: Wild Trilliums are protected in Michigan and many other states as it takes 4 to 7 years to grow from seed, so if you want some in your garden, it’s best to buy them from a nursery, rather than digging them up in the wild.

Donna’s third and fourth photos are Lily of the Valley flowers, often called “the queen of spring scents” as its fragrance is sweetly scented and quite potent. As pretty and dainty as they are, be careful with them, as they are highly poisonous and can cause severe reactions in humans and pets.

And finally the bottom shot, that’s Phlox in one of the area cemeteries. It’s a spring perennial and annual plant found mostly in North America. They can be pale blue, violet, pink, bright red or white. These beauties grace many cemeteries in the area... so pretty like a blanket of color.

We join Visit Keweenaw for a look at the Historic School out in Gay. The lead-in says: “Inside the Historic School at Gay, you’re standing in a place where layers of Keweenaw history are lovingly preserved - a former copper milling company town where everyday life, community memory, and Lake Superior industry all left their mark in quiet, lasting ways.”
2026 Season: June 19 through October 10 Wednesdays & Saturdays, 12pm–4pm (also by appointment)
Free, donations appreciated. Stay tuned: More on this Keweenaw County Historical Society site will be featured in The Crossing Place (2026).

Such beautiful flowers. We dug up all of the lily
of the valley in our yard because of our cats.
They're pretty and smell good but we love our cats
so... We saw the phlox at the Houghton cemetery
when we were checking on my grandparent's grave.
It's all over up there. So pretty. Nice job,
Donna.

Hi
I kept checking yesterday but by 10:10PM on June 9 I
was watching the Stanley Cup finals. Hope you are OK,
Charlie.

I have lots of lily-of-the valley in my yard, but they
and the trillium are long past blooming here.

Wow Donna, how exciting to visit your “secret
Trillium spot”, they are so gorgeous! Love how they
cover the forest floor like a luxurious green and
white carpet. Down here we visit a not-so-secret
State Nature Preserve in late April for the Trilliums
and other wildflowers. Quite the show before the
big Beech and Maples begin to leaf out :)
Nice video too, wasn’t aware of the Gay
Schoolhouse/museum.

That was just a beauty of a day. The "secret"
spot is somewhere, w/a road cut deep in the woods,
and it is super steep, the homes back there HAVE
to be "off grid" and I have NEVER seen so many
trilliums in my life! The entire woods are covered
in white....that was so beautiful! The Lily of the
Valley and the Phlox were in local cemeteries. I
love the smell of the Lily's...but every part of
that plant is poisonous. In that "Dainty blooms"
pic is a leaf in the foreground that was not a
Lily, and I have no clue what that was. Pretty
tho!~

Hi Eric!

The flower is always the bud’s undoing. Let go
then.

Pavithra K. Mehta