Spring arrives in Puget Sound…
Mahonia buds
Amelanchier × grandiflora ‘Autumn Brilliance’
Autumn Brilliance Single Bud
Salix caprea ‘Pendula’ Weeping Pussy Willow
Salix caprea’s male catkins mature yellow
Lilac Buds
Viburnum carlesii – Korean Spice Viburnum
Primula marginata ‘Mauve Mist’ bud just emerging
Camellia buds
In my neck of the woods the last few days have brought fog, low clouds and misty mornings.
Giant Pampas grass (Erianthus?) against a background of Douglas Fir
Ferry fog horns and the misty mornings provided a nice backdrop for this Autumn Brilliance Serviceberry.
Amelanchier × grandiflora ‘Autumn Brilliance’
To my color-challenged eye, grasses look especially fetching in the misty filtered light.
Pennisetum orientale ‘Karley Rose’
Fading tan colored seed heads made a nice background for the rose colored ones that persist until frost.
All that moisture in the air, disguised as raindrops, condensed on this aster bloom.
This Fuschia, which may be ‘Gartenmeister,’ hasn’t quite finished blooming. I’m not sure how hardy it is and I may just lose it if we have a hard winter.
Also in the still blooming category is this Chocolate Cosmos.
Chocolate Cosmos in a Pot
Cosmos atrosanguineus up close
The color of the berries on this Cotoneaster (the exact species still stumps me) seem to deepen with dropping temperatures and so far don’t seem to register as food for birds or other critters. The misty morning and the leaves turning golden on the Chestnut in the background are nice foils for the green and red show.
Possibly Cotoneaster ‘Rehderi’ or Contoneaster lacteus (aka C. parneyi)
The berries on my Dropmore Scarlet Trumpet Honeysuckle aren’t quite as showy as the Cotoneaster’s, but when blooming, this Lonicera is irresistible to hummingbirds
Lonicera x brownii ‘Dropmore Scarlet’
The spent dahlias discarded on a compost pile were a serendipitous discovery.
Dahlias on the compost heap
In an earlier post I wrote about some of the most common wildflowers found in the Cascade mountains of the Pacific Northwest, especially how they make fine subjects for close up photos (Pacific Northwest Natives Up Close). On that trip, wildflowers hugged the trail up Sauk Mountain; it was hardly ever necessary to leave the trail to find a suitable subject.
Earlier this week I made a quick trip to Mt Rainier, hoping to photograph more wildflowers.
View of Mt Rainier from hike near Paradise (after morning clouds parted)
The trails around Paradise are well maintained for the hordes of tourists that flock to the mountain. Visitors are implored not to leave the trail and respect the sensitive surrounding meadows.
Meadow near Paradise on Mt Rainier
I did manage to find a meadow, a bit further afield, where I could safely get closer to two plants, Gentiana calycosa and Mimulus lewisii.
Gentiana calycosa (Explorer’s Gentian)
The Explorer’s Gentian, aka Mountain Bog Gentian, has upward pointing flowers of a lovely shade of blue with some yellow spots in the throat.
This species tends to be found in the wetter parts of meadows. It’s definitely a common sight in late summer or early autumn near stream banks, alpine meadows and other wetter sub-alpine habitats. It ranges from the Sierra Nevada and Klamath Mountains in Northern California into the Cascades and a bit of the Coast Range of Oregon and continues throughout the Cascades and Olympics of Washington State.
Another common wildflower, Mimulus lewisii, sometimes called Lewis’s monkeyflower, has flowers that range from pink to a bright rose with yellow splashes in the throat.
Mimulus lewisii (Lewis’s Monkeyflower)
Mimulus lewisii also grows in wet areas alongside stream banks and meadows. It’s a wide ranging and very common western native alpine, which is also found in sub-alpine and forest areas in and adjacent to the Rockies, Sierra Nevada mountains and throughout the Cascade and Olympics of Washington State.
The pink flowers may range in color from lighter shades to deep pink and magenta. Its also one of the many species (and a single genus) bearing the name of Meriwether Lewis, who certainly qualifies as an “explorer,” while the Genus Gentiana is named for King Gentius of Illyria, who lived around 500 B.C.
According to Mark Turner and Phyllis Gustafson’s Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest, King Gentius is alleged to have discovered medicinal uses for Gentiana lutea, from which a tonic of bitters is still made.
Pacific Northwest Specialty Plants 