Category Archives: Pacific Northwest Natives

Colchicum Conundrum

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My Colchicum conundrum is not having to choose which of these stunning fall bloomers to buy and plant in the landscape.

Colchicum autumnale cultivar

Colchicum autumnale cultivar

Nor is it confusion about why the flowers emerge from the ground in autumn sans leaves.

No, my problem is getting them out of the back plastic pots and actually integrating them into the landscape or borders.  Lately, it’s finding the pots in the first place. I had a Colchicum with a waterlily-like bloom at one time, but after the blooms are finished or once the summer big strapping leaves are brown and gone, it becomes harder to identify the pot. I may have discarded the soil without noticing the Colchicum corms.

colchicum autumnale plastic pot

Colchicum autumnale (aka Naked Lady, Meadow Saffron & Autumn Crocus)

Usually right after blooming I move the pots to a storage area and forget about them.  When the strap like leaves appear, which are easily recognizable, I’m reminded of the fall bloom to come and to water throughout the spring and summer.

As far as integrating Colchicums into the garden beds —  I originally thought it would be a simple matter of choosing the front of the border with a low growing evergreen ground cover such as Ceanothus ‘Point Reyes’,  a prostrate catoneaster or even our Pacific Northwest native Kinnikinnick.

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Kinnikinnick aka Bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi)

The fall flowers would pop right through the carpet of green and all would look great.  But how to handle the rest of the year is the thorny issue, especially when the tall clump of strap-like leaves distracts from the other spring and summer plants.

When the clump of leaves finally browns out and the corm underground is sufficiently rejuvenated for fall bloom, then it’s an easy matter of removing the browned out leaves. Until that time though the leaves seem out of scale and superfluous.

Having just now reread the post one solution seems rather obvious to me:  Just buy some better looking pots suitable for placing in the landscape.  I could even transfer the corms back to the plastic pots for the post bloom period right through summer and use the better pots for another plant.

That said, I would love to hear how other gardeners might handle this conundrum in their own gardens.

Pacific Northwest Natives Up Close

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If you take pleasure in the details of plants, natives in particular, then even the most common occurring varieties make fine subjects for photos, especially extreme closeups.

two bees on Indian thistle

Two bees at work on an Indian thistle flower head (Cirsium edule)

Last weekend I took a wildflower photography course at the Environmental Learning Center, which is part of the North Cascades Institute (NCI), and is adjacent to Diablo Dam on the upper Skagit River in the North Cascades National Park. The Environmental Learning Center is a partnership between NCI and the National Park Service.

The course was taught by Mark Turner of Bellingham.  Mark is co-author, with Phyllis Gustafson, of the Timber Press Field Guide, Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest. Mark, a professional photographer specializing in botanical subjects, is especially knowledgeable about Northwest native plants and their habitats.   On the last teaching day of the weekend, he led us up Sauk Mountain, which was ablaze with wildflowers.

Here are three more photos from the weekend:

Flower Head of Orange Agoseris (Agoseris aurantiaca)

Flower Head of Orange Agoseris (Agoseris aurantiaca)

Campanula rotundifolio (Common harebell, Scotch bluebell)

Campanula rotundifolio (Common harebell, Scotch bluebell)

Shrubby Pnestemon (Penestemon fruiticosus

Shrubby Penstemon (Penstemon fruiticosus)

Color in the Garden: Erigeron Canary Bird

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I’m officially mildly red-green color blind.  As I understand this deficiency is quite common in males and really not much of a disability.  And yes, I can distinguish red and green traffic lights with no problem, the real differences between the red-green color blind and other folks’ color perceptions are more difficult to explain .  That said, I struggle mightily to perceive the green number two hidden in the dots below.

plate with 2I suspect each and every one of us perceives color slightly differently.   But in the fall landscape, especially at a distance, I’ll lose the reddening leaves in the surrounding green.

Lately, I’ve been enthralled with yellow.  Plenty of alpine plants, sedums in particular, have stunning yellow blooms. Others, like this little Erigeron ‘Canary Bird’ also make  fine trough plants.

Erigeron Canary Bird

Erigeron ‘Canary Bird’

E canary bird

Erigeron ‘Canary Bird’

The open blooms above are starting to fade, the yellow is less pale when the daisy like flower just opens.  Canary Bird is a “sport” of Erigeron aureus, which is a Washington State native found in and around Mt Ranier and the North Cascades.  Distribution maps show the plant ranging into the Canadian Cascades.

Like many American alpines, British enthusiasts are credited with popularizing this sterile cultivar of Erigeron aureus.  The form Canary Bird appears to me more compact than the species.  Jim Jermyn an alpine enthusiast and author from Scotland has a very interesting post on just who was involved, including two folks with the avian sounding names of “Birdie” and “Drake.”