Native plant information and updates.
Fritillaria or the checkered lily doesn’t seem very plant-like. It hasn’t the natural swirls and twirls of many things organic, but rather a geometric pattern, like someone has placed a stencil over the petals and shaded in those little squares. Squares??? Where else in the botanical world do we see squares? There are lots of dots and spots, splashes and dashes, solids and stripes, … Continue reading Fritillaria
I just finished reading Gathering Moss and it was a lovely surprise. Not what I was expecting. I was expecting lots of pieces of science detailed and separate. What I got was one whole. A story, woven together with moss. I love this book and I love moss! I see it everywhere. As I’m walking across a gravel pathway at work….there it is! As I … Continue reading Book Review—Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer
On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, four calling birds. Birds are a welcome sight in the garden, whether they are soaring between the trees or scratching for seeds in the mulch. I was fascinated recently as I watched a robin feeding on a fat juicy bunch of mahonia berries. It’s always a delight to watch the diversity in their … Continue reading The Fourth Day of Christmas—Plants for Birds
The Big leaf Maple of the Pacific Northwest has an impressive leaf size. I always notice them in the fall when they are strewn on the ground after a storm. They are big! Big enough to provide layers of mulch for the year and subsequently provide big headaches to the person holding the rake. Too bad they don’t fall in the summer, we could use … Continue reading Big Leaf Maple
An early morning hike to Franklin Falls in the Cascade Mountains presented a beautiful assortment of northwest native plants. The dwarf dogwood, or bunchberry, carpeted the sides of the trail with it’s petite presence, like a bright little star lighting the way. When I saw the false hellebore I was astonished at it’s size, growing 3-4 feet off the forest floor. I was not familiar … Continue reading Native Plants at Franklin Falls
Rainyleaf 