AUTUMN NEEDS NO CLOCK....

 

Rosa glauca hips 
Shaw Island, WA.
September 2025.

"See it,

smell it,

taste it, 

and forget the time 

of day and year.

Autumn needs no clock 

or calendar."

Hal Borland

CYCLAMEN HEDERIFOLIUM Seeding About

Cyclamen Hederifolium album

The tubers were rescued from the garden
formerly tended by Elsie Crawford,
and her parents before her, at the little
cottage once snuggled in the tight 
 quarters of the Shaw Island landing. 
(The location is now the Anacortes ferry line.)
It is said that ants aid in spreading the
ripe Cyclamen seeds.
Hoorah for the helpers.
Photograph at the Shaw Island
 Gatehouse Garden, the Crawford 
Cyclamen cosy under a native Sword fern,
August 2025.

"Go not to the Elves for counsel, for they will say 

both no and yes." J.R.R. Tolkien

RUTHIE'S "MOUNTAIN BLUET"

Ruthie's "Mountain Bluet"
(Centaurea montana,)  
a perennial now established at
The Shaw Island Gatehouse.
Seed packets available.

Common Name: Mountain Bluet.

Water: Dry to medium.

Maintenance: Low

Suggested use: Naturalize

Tolerates: Deer, drought, dry soil.

Culture: Easy to grow in average, dry to medium moisture, well-drained soils. Remove spent blooms unless you are saving seeds for Cherie.

Characteristics: Erect, clump-forming; stoloniferous; free from harmful toxins.

Problems: no serious insect or disease problems.

Uses: Best massed in border fronts, cottage gardens, along pathways, cutting gardens, pollinator gardens, or naturalized areas. Seldom used in modern herbalism. Attracts bees and butterflies.

Nectar source for pollinators. 

"Mountain Bluet "seeds
(Centaurea montana)
Now available at the 
Shaw Island Gatehouse
Reefnet Bay Road,
Shaw Island,
San Juan Archipelago, WA.

TODAY WE'RE WRAPPED IN PURPLE

 

WESTERN LONG-SPURRED VIOLETS
(Viola adunca)

Native to the 
San Juan Archipelago, WA.
This photo was taken 14 April 2025.
More on this local perennial can be 
viewed HERE.
Thanks to a helpful harvester, these 
cleaned Viola seeds are now 
available at the 
Shaw Island Gatehouse
Reefnet Road,
Shaw Island, San Juan Archipelago, WA.

"The shortest route to an intimate 
understanding of a plant's needs is to
tend it from seed packet to maturity."

APRIL 2025 at the GATEHOUSE

Slowly learning what to 

plant for pollinators 

that the deer don't eat.

Gatehouse Garden

Shaw Island, 

San Juan Archipelago, WA. 

 11 April 2025

Seeds are being broadcast.

 'Spring with that nameless pathos in the air

which dwells with all things fair,

Spring with her golden suns and silver rain

is with us once again."

                                                    Henry Timrod.

HELLEBORES = A HAPPY WINTER DAY

Floating Hellebores and Pieris came by
for a photo on this day of
21 March 2025
Gatehouse gift, a vintage English dish
kindness of Nancy D.

Celebrate the Vernal Equinox at Sunrise as the 

Celebration of New Beginnings,

the Reawakening of Nature & the moment 

when the Time of Light becomes greater

than the Time of Dark.

A PRODIGALITY

 

"The vegetable life does not content itself
with casting from the flower
or the tree, a single seed,
but it fills the air and earth with a 
 prodigality of seeds,
that if thousands perish,
 thousands may plant themselves,
that hundreds may come up,
that tens may live to maturity,
that, or least, one
  may replace the parent."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Extracted from "The Triumph of Seeds"
by Thor Hanson
Signed copy from the library of 
Gatehouse Seeds,
Shaw Island, San Juan Archipelago, WA.
Wild Douglas Aster seed harvest of 2024.
More about this easy-street, wild perennial,
wildflower, loved by many pollinators - 
can be seen here.

,                                                                 

                                     

Wild Douglas Aster
(Symphyotrichum subspicatum)
Shaw Island grown.
Seed packets available at 
Gatehouse Seeds,
Reef Net Bay, Shaw Island, 
San Juan Archipelago, WA.

Merry Christmas in the winds of December 25.

Merry Christmas Greetings 
and thank you for the great year!
 The Shaw Island Gatehouse.