Spires of shocking pink rising from the greenery call to me. This is a color that says “look at me!” Closer, the fuzziness of Douglas spiraea (Spiraea douglasii) blooms beg also to be touched. I have to watch out that I don’t grasp a foraging bumblebee. These native summer flowers are popular with bees … Read more
“That’s way too many plants,” is something you’ll never hear me say. Shifting baseline syndrome is a term ecologists use to describe how our definition of “wild” changes with the current condition of wilderness. As we lose species diversity, we become use to less and less complexity, less life, less wilderness. And we forget what … Read more
In Heather’s kitchen, around plates of rice crackers and hummus, homemade chocolates and Best Day NA beer, the talk turned to Spanish bluebells. I held my tongue and listened, nodding along with Shannon’s heartache after digging and digging last year only to see just as many return this spring. Ryan would love to do … Read more
Bent at an unflattering angle to get the blooms backgrounded by the falls, I heard Alder call from the trail above. His long legs and distance runner’s lungs were constantly carrying him two or three switchbacks ahead of me. Plus, I had to keep stopping to admire the flowers. Last spring break, my son … Read more
The only ice I welcome is silk-tasseled icicles falling, a shrubby catkin chandelier, spike-inflorescence waterfall of pollen-laden drips. Watch me sneeze and persist jostling, releasing more fine grains to the winds. No ice in the garden, a frost-light winter, an ice-heavy, ice-weary country. No ice in the garden, only Garrya elliptica, the coast silk-tassel, … Read more
There’s a field I walk weekly with my friend Jamie and our two reactive dogs. It’s filled with a succession of wildflowers. There’s something blooming nearly every month of the year. The dogs notice the shift in smells, their noses ever curious. Jamie and I are more visual, noting the blues and yellows … Read more
1. Is it a coincidence that July is full of yellow flowers? The golden sun is hot and high, saturating the days with radiance. Wildflowers and garden blooms respond in kind, echoing the open-hearted hue. Sticky-budded blooms of tarweed and gumweed open this month in the wild fields. Their resin reminds me of sweat … Read more
When my mom tells me that my favorite thing to draw as a little girl was rainbows, it sounds right. I do love color. All of it. Still. Looking at photos of past Junes to choose a plant of the month, I was confronted with an array of rainbow colors. This is a peak … Read more
I never thought of irises as a plant that pollinators would like. They don’t have brushy wands of pollen like a checkermallow or radiant disks of the stuff like a fleabane. Iris keeps her treasures secret, hidden behind rainbow-colored flags. The bees know how to find her secret nectar, though. They’re guided by the … Read more
After night-long rains, a day of sun and increasing heat coaxes a new adult flower fly to emerge from her pupal slumber transformed, winged! Ready to fly. Her large compound eyes see in 360 degrees. Her vibrating wings carry her where she knows nectar and pollen will energize her for the day. Flowers of … Read more