I was thrilled the last few weeks to see that two of the pots of red elderberry seeds have germinated. They are just tiny plants right now but they have a bright future.
These wee ones will grow into deciduous shrubs that may top out at twenty feet tall. They will produce bright red berries. Interestingly, the seeds inside the berries are poisonous but the berries themselves are not. Indigenous people removed the seeds and used these berries as food and as medicine. In modern times the berries have been found to have cancer-fighting abilities and are also used in sinus sprays.
Another dichotomy this plant presents is that its flowers have a mild sweet fragrance but its leaves, when crushed, have a pungent unpleasant smell. These plants love a moist area and are mostly found in riparian areas from sea level on up. They bloom typically in April and the berries ripen in late June or July.
Please see more about S. racemoa here and here. I will plant one of my seedlings in my own garden despite the anticipated size. They aren’t something you see in people’s yards at all so it seems critical to introduce one to the neighborhood through my native plant garden and to introduce more when I give the other seedlings to neighbors.
I was extremely sad today when partner Leon came in and let me know that the neighbor to the North of us was having her entire yard sprayed for bugs! This is just devastating because I’m trying so hard to invite nature back into the neighborhood. I think I’ll drop a copy of Doug Tallamy’s book off on her patio–who knows, maybe it will make a difference.
To offset the sadness, the universe sent me into the greenhouse and there, while puttering amongst all the plants, I was startled when a bird flew out of the giant hanging Coelogyne cristata orchid near the back. Taking a quick look, I saw this:
The bird was a female dark-eyed junco and she was sitting on her nest with two eggs! I’m so excited to add them to the list of breeding birds in the yard this year. We have the nesting spotted towhees near the front door, and now the juncos, who may well be starting their second brood of the year.
I’m hopeful that our yard will provide enough bugs and seeds the the juncos and towhees don’t have to venture into the poison zone next door!
I noticed that the big leaf maple saplings that I keep along the driveway in a pruned, shrubby state, are becoming part of the food web.
I am guessing this is leaf-cutter bee damage, but it cold be other critters, as well. I’m just so happy that the critters are dining on the buffet that is growing here.
This scene caught my eye with the evening light:
I just love the way these native grasses catch the light. They light up so much! I hope the skipper butterflies and other bugs find them as attractive as I do.
Over the last two weekends, I’ve planted a few more plants out in to my native plant garden. I planted the wonderful Garry oak that my brother bought for my birthday.
In his new book, The Nature of Oaks, Dr. Douglas Tallamy says that these trees may not produce their first acorns for seventeen years! He also mentioned that they are wind-pollinated, so another tree needs to be close by. I plan to plant one of my seedlings from the failed Garry Christmas promo alongside this 4-foot sapling so that they can grow together and pollinate each other. Won’t it be great if I live to see the trees’ first acorns?!
At the same time, I planted a Lewis’ mock orange (Philadelphus lewisii), three Achillea plants, and a native iris. Today, I planted out a bunch of my home-grown seedlings–about 15 Aquilegia formosa, and six Sidalcea hendersonii.
As I planted these plants in my weird little prairie, I was really enjoying the blue lyme grass flower stalks.
And overall, the garden is growing well this year.
My favorite “Ifyouplantittheywillcome.org” moments today involved birds. A hummingbird swept in within two feet of me and picked a spider out of a web right outside the greenhouse. Also, while I was potting some native seedlings into larger pots,I spotted this in the greenhouse, which tells me more of “them” have come! Hurray!
The last few weeks saw me spreading native plant love in a modest way with friends. I gave eighteen Lupinus polyphyllus seedlings to our friends Stacy & Eric to plant around their restoration project up in Kenmore. I also gave nine Aquilegia formosa seedlings to friends Louise & Philip over in Broadview who have a great garden and a lot of hummingbirds. I also passed one of my Ribes sanguineum cuttings to my boss, Annie. Lastly, I had a bunch of native trees and shrubs delivered from Seattle Native Plants to a friend who was looking to fill some space in his barren Shoreline backyard.
We’ve been seeing spotted towhees around the garden the last two years. I attributed it to my more natural gardening style. I’m leaving a lot of leaf litter and branches and debris all around and the towhees love scratching in that “mess.” One human’s mess is a bird’s buffet! I’ve seen the towhees around my window feeder, too, but they are too big to get in/on it–they just scratch around or I will set out some sunflower seeds where they can get at them.
Most recently, we’ve noticed these birds very close to our front door. As we watched them, they seemed to be diving into some ground covers just about twelve feet from our front door. We had the driveway power washed two weekends ago and I assumed that if the towhees were thinking of nesting there, the noise and water spray only three feet away would scare them. But it didn’t!
Interestingly, the nest was placed among non-native ground covers (Geranium macrorrhizum) right on the ground, but very well hidden under a heavy covering of leaves. I’m excited that our yard has enough fauna to support this soon-to-be family of six! When I start feeling down and worried that nature can’t mix with humans, surprises like this towhee nest put me back on track.
How lucky we are to have Camassia quamash as a native plant in Seattle. This spectacular bulb has a short bloom period but it makes a huge impression.
“The quawmash is now in blume and from the colour … at a short distance it resembles lakes of fine clear water, so complete is this deseption that on first sight I could have swoarn it was water.” Meriwether Lewis, June 12, 1806
Here are some camas in my native plant garden being visited by a native bee just today:
And here are some camas blooming among the grasses in my mini native prairie:
I purchased these camas as bulbs from Europe so they are not likely the locally evolved strain, but my hope is that they are close enough genetically to benefit local fauna. In addition to these purchased bulbs, I have about twenty seedling plants of great camas that I started in the last year. I can’t wait to add more of these fantastic, easy plants to my garden and to share some with neighbors and friends.
I watched a great slideshow featuring native plants of the Olympic peninsula. Many of the plants listed are the same ones native here in Seattle, so it was great to see and hear more about different kinds. There are some new plants added to the list for my little prairie and my woodland, for sure. Find the video HERE.
My strange little prairie garden is growing on me, with the blue lyme grass really filling out and the camas bulbs shooting up around them. There are Collomia grandiflora around them, too, and a few Sidalcea and Achillea that were planted last autumn. It is a fun little experiment.
In the coming months, I plan to add some Lupine and columbines. There are some bulbs I identified in the above-mentioned video that I’d like to add, as well, including death camas and Brodiaea. It might be tricky finding seeds for those, but at least I know what to look for now.
A friend wanted to go up to Sky Nursery just north of my place this weekend. I thought it might be a great time to check out what native goodies I might add to my collection. Boy, was I wrong! There are so many problems with these big nurseries. First, there is no way to know whether systemic pesticides have been used on the plants, so I simply won’t buy them. HERE is a video explaining the dangers of neonicotinoids, if you aren’t aware. Adding plants that have been treated with these chemicals has a high potential to kill pollinators, rather than to help them.
Second, Sky obviously isn’t focused on local native plants. This label was on an oak tree in the paltry native plant area:
Not familiar with this oak, I looked it up–it is native only to California. So, not very useful to local Seattle fauna.
Third, while there were some true Seattle natives–Oregon grape and blue elderberry–just look at the price on this elderberry!
When I got home, I immediately placed a big order with Seattle Native Plants, where gallon-sized trees and shrubs are only $9.00! And 4″ pots are $4.00. And I know they aren’t using chemicals on the plants that would harm the creatures I’m trying to attract!
Here is one of my $4.00 fringecups blooming after a year in the garden. Worth so much more than I paid for it and safe for pollinators!
I found this amazing moth on our screen door this week. The native moth and butterfly group on Facebook identified it as an Omnivorous Looper. It was fun to see.
Another very cute, but non-native visitor landed in the native garden this week–an eastern cottontail rabbit. I never knew these animals were introduced into the state from the east coast. I grew up thinking they were “our” rabbits. She was darling, for sure, and it appears she is making a nest somewhere nearby. I should be afraid for my garden, but so far I haven’t seen any damage. I’ll keep an eye on her, though.
My mini native plant nursery is bursting at the seams. I transplanted nearly forty Lupine polyphyllus seedlings into four-inch pots. There are probably at least twenty more newer seedlings that will need to be potted up in a couple of weeks.
Today, I tackled the Douglas aster seedlings (Symphytotrichum subspicatum) that were started from seeds off the plants I bought from Seattle Native Plants last year. There were fifty eight seedlings in all! I’m so excited to have all these young natives coming along–they should be ready for planting out or gifting by September.
Here are a few native plants in the native plant garden.
Fragaria vesca–a wild strawberry. It looks like something has been eating the flower petals…The common camas, Camassia quamash, just starting to bloom.Thimble berries (Rubus parviflorus) shooting up around the native plant garden. Some leaves look mildewed again, and some are being eaten. I tried to find the culprit, but it might be nocturnal because it wasn’t anywhere I could see.
A Way to Garden is an interesting website and podcast hosted by Margaret Roach. Increasingly, Margaret focuses on ecologically friendly gardening. She is a moth fanatic, among other admirable traits, and she has had my hero Doug Tallamy on her podcast several times.
The podcast this week focuses on a new park, Brooklyn Bridge Park, in New York, and how native creatures are one of the main focuses of this beautiful space.
In my own native plant garden, I planted about thirty Collomia grandiflora seedlings in front of the blue lyme grass starts near the front of the bed. I noticed the hundreds of camas bulbs I planted last autumn are now putting on a burst of growth and their flower buds are visible now, as well. Interestingly, the bulbs included a few variegated cultivars though I did not order those. I’m curious whether they will perennialize as well as the all-green type.
One of the ways I intend to increase native plants locally is for me to grow and give away locally native plants to neighbors and friends. Our friend Staci is restoring some land that her family owns near Swamp Creek in Kenmore, Washington. She was willing to give the Collomia seedlings a try in some land she recently cleared of Himalayan blackberries. I gave her about thirty of my seedlings and I also passed her eleven western red cedar saplings and a Douglas fir seedling that I had in pots–they had seeded themselves here in the yard or in the pots themselves. I’m excited that these natives will have an excellent home. Hopefully, the deer won’t find them too tasty in their new wild place.
It is exactly a year since my own native plant garden received its first phase of planting. Those plants are mostly doing very well.
The red-flowered currants have flowers, though they look more pink than red.
The tall Oregon grape is also blooming well.
The Dicentra are filling in nicely–such beautiful leaves. The flowers are almost unnecessary when the foliage has this much color and texture interest.
And best of all, one of the Trillium ovatum has resurfaced with not one, but two flowers!
The Douglas asters seem to be very happy in the native plant garden–they are spreading far and wide. I have left the old stems on them from last year. That sounds so easy, yet it is just so tempting to tidy things up and remove those tall, dead stems. I wonder when humans formed their idea of what garden beauty is and how long it will take to “fix” it so we are all comfortable with the messes, tangles, and debris that foster excellent ecological health and diversity.
On the native plant seedling front, I have a dozen or so more Aquilegia formosa seedling that have germinated and are ready for transplanting.
Maybe two dozen of the Lupinus polyphyllum seeds have germinated and are close to transplant-ready.
Dozens of the Douglas aster seedlings are up–they may get transplanted next weekend.
Some of the Puget Sound gumweed have germinated (Grindelia integrifolia), along with a very few Oregon sunshine (Eriophyllum lanatum). And best of all, finally, there are a few Solidago canadensis that have poked their heads up.
It looks like some other seeds are coming along, too, but too early to be sure they are what I think they are: Mahonia, Sambucus, Amelanchier, Frittilaria, Tolmiea, and Tellima.
I set up a trial plant giveaway along the sidewalk last weekend and it worked pretty well–I gave away a few of the extra Collomia grandiflora that way. I plan to do this frequently so plant geeks get used to looking for treasures there.
We visited our cabin near Tonasket two weeks ago and I found this spectacular Mahonia aquifolia, our native “Oregon grape.” I think exposure to sun and cold result in these brilliant red plants.
This past weekend, I ventured to Happy Valley, Oregon, and took a walk to a small nature park with my best walking buddy, Brian. It was fun to see all the native plants maturing quickly in the warmer weather.
Catkins on a native willow.Pink-flowered cultivar of red-flowered currant.Another view.Salmonberry.Stinging nettles.Fringecups
I wandered around my year-old native plant garden today and it looks pretty good. There are some glaring omissions–so far, no sign of the two Trillium ovatum starts that I purchased and the maidenhair fern (Asplenium pedatum). Several Dicentra formosa plants have come up, and I noticed the native ginger, Asarum caudatum, is pushing through the mulch of leaves and branches. The osoberry is finished blooming already, while the native hazel and serviceberry have yet to leaf out at all. The Oregon grape has not bloomed yet, but it has lots of blooms swelling. I’m not sure why it is so late. Most of the local ones bloomed a month or more ago. But I’ll take those brilliant yellow pollinator treats whenever they decide to pop. Here is how the ones in Happy Valley look.
I don’t see any seedlings in the strip I planted of annual and perennial seeds several weeks ago. I really hope some of them grow. My back-up plan will be to plant the Collomia grandiflora seedlings there–they continue to grow well. I can add the Aquilegia formosa seedlings, too, and some barestem biscuitroot seedlings, too.
The native garden isn’t pretty right now. It is awkward toiling in the gap between winter and spring and between being new and established. It may take years for it to mimic the grace and beauty of a natural landscape. I find much happiness and hope there, nonetheless. The native aster plants (Symphytotrichum subspicatum), set out from four-inch pots last April, are starting to spread madly. One has even poked its way through the brick retaining wall! I left all the old stems, hoping to attract native bees to them in the future. One of the native roses (likely R. nutkana) is sending rhizomes long distances toward the retaining wall, as well. I plant to pot up some of these starts, along with some from the nearby memory garden and give them to friends or neighbors.
