🐝 🐝 🐝 "Evening Primrose" (Oenothera biennis)

Angel's "Evening Primrose"
Oenothera biennis
Shaw Island, 
photo summer 2014.

Common name: "Evening Primrose," "King's Cure-All"

Life cycle: Hardy biennial.

Growing region: USDA Zone 4 to 9

Height: 3-6-ft.

Bloom time: Late Spring-Summer

Flower description: Clear yellow; showy; fragrant; short-lived; June-August.

Habitat: full sun; well-drained soils; 1 and 2-yr old plants grow together in localized clumps––sea-level to 2,000-ft.
Notes: 
According to the Xerces Society, this plant has special value for native bees.

A plant for the moonlit garden, the flowers unclasp their hooked cover at twilight and open their flowers to the moon, welcoming the night with their sweet fragrance and emissions of phosphorescent light. As the season progresses, the flowers stay open all days as well.

Excellent in any garden.

Great description here:

Seed packets for sale at the
Gatehouse, Reefnet Bay Road, 
Shaw Island, WA.

🌿 Golden Feverfew 🌿 (TANACETUM parthenium 'Aureum' )

Golden Feverfew
Growing on Shaw Island 2016.

TANACETUM parthenium ‘Aureum’

Common name: Golden Feverfew
Type: Hardy perennial herb
Growing region: USDA Zone: 5 to 7
Height: .75 to 1-ft.
Bloom time: June to October
Sun: full sun.
Water: medium
Maintenance: medium
Suggested use: annual, naturalize.
Flower: showy.
Tolerates: drought.
Foliage: Chartreuse, aromatic.

Culture:
Easily grown in average, medium, well-drained soils in full sun. Prefers moist, humusy soils with good drainage. Sometimes considered to be a biennial, but will usually remain in the garden through self-seeding that I’ve never considered invasive. Autumn or spring planting. 

Shear the spent blossoms immediately after blooming if you choose to avoid self-seeding.

Notes:
Grown in medicinal gardens for centuries. Contains pyrethrin, a natural insect repellent. 

Suited to container growing, especially around outdoor seating areas, naturalized areas or cottage gardens where it can freely self-seed. 

The Golden Feverfew is very easy to weed out if you choose. 

May be used in rock gardens, edging, or bedding plant. 

An excellent companion to roses.

 

Golden Feverfew 
(Tanacetum parthenium 'Aureum'
Seeds available at the 
Shaw Island Gatehouse 
Reefnet Bay Road, Shaw Island,
San Juan Archipelago, WA.

🌿 CAMAS 🌿 (CAMASSIA quamash)

Camas
(Camassia quamash) 
This photo was taken on Yellow Island,
San Juan Archipelago, WA.
A nature preserve.

Common name: Camas

Life cycle: Hardy Bulb.

Growing region: Zones 4 to 9.

Height: 12-24 inches.

Flowers: Late spring.

Bloom Description: blue-violet (rarely white.) Showy; April-June. 

Habitat: moist soils, at least in early spring, prairies; meadows; grassy flats. Occurs on both sides of the Cascades. 

Tolerates: Summer drought.

Notes: 
Camassia species deserve wider use in perennial gardens or for naturalizing in woodland settings. They are used more extensively in Europe than in the USA, where they are native.  These long-lived bulbs are easy to establish.
The bulbs were an important food for Native Americans, and territorial battles were fought over quamash fields. The Lewis and Clark expedition also depended on boiled bulbs for food during their journey west. 
There are six species of Camassia native to N. America. There are two species native to the San Juans. 

June 1806 Meriwether Lewis came down into the Nisqually prairie and said these famous words:

"The quamash is now in blume and from the colour of its bloom at a short distance it resembles lakes of fine clear water, so completely in this deception that on first sight I could have sworn that it was water!"

One of my favourite reference books for researching this specimen, partly because the author took space to include the well-known Lewis quote, in her fine book:

A Christmas 2014 gift book
from dear friends.
Only available from within
Northwest Indian communities
Published by The Northwest Indian College
Vanessa Cooper-360-392-4343.

the North American Native Plant Society has good notes here.

Camassia quamash
seed packet
Available at the Shaw Island
Gatehouse seed shed
Reefnet Bay Road,
Shaw Island, WA.

🌿 ROSE CAMPION (Lychnis coronaria) 🌿 (Updated)

Rose Campion
(Lychnis coronaria)
Growing at the Gatehouse garden
Shaw Island, San Juan Archipelago, WA.

Lychnis coronaria 

Herbaceous biennial.

Common names: Rose Campion, Mullein Pink, and in the U.K., "Bridget-in-her-bravery."  It is still widely referenced under the synonym Silene coronaria.

Native Region: Southern Europe
USDA Hardiness: Zone 3-10
Preferred Climate: Temperate

Bloom color: Rosy red.

Height: 28"-30" 

Environment: full sun to part shade.
Description: 
Rose Campion, well-loved for its long bloom season, comes reliably true from seed and makes an attractive accent in the garden. It seems rather elegant at times. This erect, woolly, silver-gray plant produces a succession of long-stalked, flowers from late spring through the summer and into autumn if deadheaded. This biennial reseeds itself reliably but doesn't become thuggish and may survive as a short-lived perennial. Height 24-36 inches; spread 18 inches.

Tolerates: deer, drought, dry soil, rocky soil.

Attracts: Butterflies, especially the Swallowtails, in my experience.

Pale Tiger Swallowtail

This day 30 June 2019
Gatehouse Garden, Shaw Island, WA.
Rose Campion.

Log House Plants, Cottage Grove, OR.,
 Bed & Breakfast Project tells of
this butterfly having only one generation
per year. They need host plants on which
they can lay eggs, "bed & breakfast"
plants specific to each species, where the
young caterpillars can feed and grow until 
becoming chrysalides & then butterflies.
This butterfly was observed feeding on
two plants of Rose Campion for over
two hours at the Gatehouse Garden,
Reefnet Bay Road, Shaw Island. 

Culture: Rose Campion is easily grown in average, medium, well-drained soil in full sun, but will take some light shade. Prefers moist soil, but will tolerate some dryness. 

Cultivation:
Sow seed in situ in spring, or start in containers in a cold frame. Since it is classified as a self-seeder, seeds can be cast out successfully in the autumn. Nothing ever seems to bother this plant.

Let the last blooms go to seed so the Lychnis will re-seed itself. If re-seeding is not desired, cut the stems back to basal growth after flowering.

"When we plant butterfly host plants and nectar-rich flowers, clean up the garden carefully--being aware and protective of small caterpillars and chrysalides. By voiding the use of pesticides and herbicides, our gardens can become havens for the butterflies of the Northwest, places where they can safely feed, mate, and bring up their next generations." 

Log House Plants/ OR.

Shaw Island connection: Elizabeth Jones grew this flower in her natural garden, where this writer observed them growing happily without deer fence protection. 

🌿 Gwen's "Welsh Poppies" 🌿 (Papaver cambricum)

"Gwen's Welsh Poppies" 
Papaver cambricum 
var. Aurantiaca
Photo: 1980s, Shaw Island, WA.

Common name: "Welsh Poppies"

Type: Perennial

Native Region: Western Europe

Growing Region: USDA Zone 6-8

Preferred Climate: Temperate.

Maintenance: Low.

Degree of Difficulty: EASY

Tolerates: Will grow in damp or dry conditions. This poppy made it through 
the blooming period without being molested by local deer at the Gatehouse Garden.

Description:
If you are looking for an easy Papaver to grow, this is it. A tap-rooted hardy perennial, this plant produces a succession of yellow to orange blooms that will brighten any garden. Height, 18 inches.

Cultivation:
For maximum freshness, please keep the seed refrigerated in its original packaging until it is time to plant. Sow seeds where they are to be grown in spring or fall. Easy to just broadcast out. Grow in humusy, moist but well-drained slightly acidic soil in sun to part shade.
Easy, reliable, and undemanding.

Notes: 

Welsh poppies are grown at the well-known, exuberant Great Dixter estate garden in southern England, at the Washington State Extension display garden in Mount Vernon, WA., and then they kept sailing west to find their way across the saltwater to grow happily on Shaw Island for at least, the last 40 years. See the name change in the caption below.
     

PAPAVER CAMBRICUM
 Shaw Island seedpod harvest. 
Botanists have officially changed the name from
Meconopsis cambrica under which we had
previously listed this specimen.
Now it is officially a POPPY.

🌿 Carol's Foxgloves 🌿 (DIGITALIS PURPUREA)

Carol’s Foxgloves
Digitalis purpurea (mixed)
Shaw Island, WA.
Photo courtesy of gardener Carol.

Native Region: Europe

Growing Region: USDA Zone 4-9

Preferred Climate: Suited to a wide range of conditions.

Description: Mixed colors of white, shell pink to deep rose, lavender, and purple. This is one of the truly grand, old-fashioned flowers of that almost mythical English Cottage Garden, that so many people strive to recreate. This biennial produces attractive rosettes of large leaves the first year, with tall spikes of flowers 3 to 6-ft or more in height the 2nd year. Handsome, large spikes and drooping bell-shaped blooms spotted inside, during their second year. 
Extremely attractive to bees.

Maintenance: Easy if watered in dry weather. Grows in almost any soil but prefers humus-rich soil in partial shade.

Tolerates: Shaw Island DEER.

Foxgloves growing on the north shore
in the Stitt family garden, Shaw Island.
L-R:  Mae & Dave M. Stitt
visiting his parents, 
Bertie Stitt & David P. Stitt (1862-1949) 
 4th July 1937. 
Click photo to enlarge.
Courtesy of William B. Evans,
a Stitt relative, 
 and helpful history informant 
for Shaw Island archivists.

      Medicinal: A classic example of a drug derived from a plant formerly used by folklorists and herbalists.
One of the few wildflowers to be well received in the garden. 

The whole foxglove plant is extremely poisonous. Fortunately, it tastes very bitter and causes irritation of the membranes in the mouth. It also causes diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting, so if it does go in, it soon comes out.

Sowing: outdoors from September to October on the surface as the seeds need light to germinate, in pots or in-situ. 

Days to sprout: 14-21.

Notes: Carol imported her original seeds from Saltspring Island, Gulf Island Archipelago, BC. Digitalis viability is 2-3 years so keep the seed in the fridge if you didn't get a chance to cast them out after purchase.
Foxgloves grow in almost any soil except in very wet or very dry. Prefers humus-rich soil in partial shade.

Foxglove flowers in an arrangement supposedly make the other flowers last longer.

White Digitalis
mixed with the other colors.

According to Elizabeth Murray in Monet's Passion, this flower is grown at the painter's garden at Giverny.

Foxgloves
(Digitalis purpurea)
flanked by Linaria, 
Angel's garden, Shaw Island, 2003.

Digitalis is an introduced species, but becoming "almost native." The bees would like to see more in cultivation.

My favorite book for research on this particular specimen:

"The best of all foxgloves is the wild species of woods and banks––it is almost impertinent to try to 'improve' a plant of such elegance and charm. A hardy biennial, with rosettes of leaves at the base, the flower is too well-known to need lengthy description. It has drooping tubes of flowers up one side of the stalk in mid-summer. The flowers are in shades of purple, white, or sometimes a pure and lovely pink, richly spotted inside.
      The foxglove is very much a cottage plant, brought in from the wild over many centuries for herbal use, and is one of the few plants still used in modern medicine, a treatment for heart disease. The cottage paintings of Helen Allingham, a friend of Ruskin, Tennyson, and Browning, which now fetch high prices in the salesroom, nearly always have foxgloves waving among the roses and pansies by the cottage door.
      There is room for foxgloves in almost every garden which boasts a tree or a few shrubs, for it likes a little shade; it prefers light soil, with some humus. Being biennial, seed should be sown in two successive years to get continuity of flower; after which it will seed itself forever. The hybrid 'Excelsior' strain, which I deplore, has horizontal flowers clumsily crowded all around the stalk, but there is a pleasant perennial foxglove, D. grandiflora, with yellow flowers.
      Foxgloves look best scattered among plants as unpretentious as themselves and the tall, pink-flowered rose species, Rosa glauca, with leaves of soft blue-green on red stalks, makes a perfect background. 
      Foxgloves require no staking, no feeding, no dosing for disease, and the leaves provide winter ground cover. What more can any plant be asked to give?"
      Pg 93-94; Published by Summit Books, a Division of Simon and Schuster, New York. 1988.

      

Fresh foxglove seeds for sale
at the Gatehouse, Reefnet Bay Road,
Shaw Island, San Juan Archipelago, WA.

🌿 Angel's CROCOSMIA "LUCIFER" 🌿

Crocosmia x "Lucifer"
Loving the heat of summer.
Angel's garden, Shaw Island, 
San Juan Archipelago, WA.

Type: Herbaceous perennial.

Native Region: Garden origin (species is from South Africa)

Growing Region: USDA Zone 6-9

Preferred Climate: temperate

Description:
A stately hybrid developed by Alan Bloom, Bressingham, Eng. He thought 'Lucifer' was the hardiest, and most spectacular of the Crocosmias. One of the most popular perhaps because it is the hottest color of all.
Large clump-forming, with pleated green leaves and bright red flowers on wiry stems in midsummer. Height 3-4 feet. Grow at the edge of a shrub border or in an herbaceous border. Makes an excellent cut flower. It does not need staking. According to Christopher Lloyd “Lucifer” will grow true from seed.

Link for growing this cultivar from seed is here
But please don't store your freshly harvested seeds in a plastic bag. A paper bag is advised to ward off mould.

Cultivation:
It will grow well in shade, but will bloom better in sun.  
For maximum freshness, please keep the seed refrigerated in its original package until it is time to plant. Sow seed in containers in a cold frame as soon as ripe. Grow in moist but well-drained soil in sun or partial shade. Lift and divide clumps in spring, periodically, to maintain vigor. 

Notes: 
Only country folks call this lovely plant "Montbretia" because the rest of us have been to re-education camps where we have learned to use the name Crocosmia for these fiery South African plants.
For city courtyard gardens, informal cottage gardens, borders, beds. All 7 species come from S. Africa where they grow in moist grasslands.
      I have seen this plant reproduce with only 2 or 3 seedlings in the warm gravel under the raised bed where the original plant grows, but mainly it spreads gently by corm production. Angel's plant is never invasive; if it is out of control as sometimes written, it is easy to extract the young corms to grow on in the cutting garden or share with a friend.
Give it room to display the fine foliage so it doesn't have to be trussed up like a Christmas goose.

Deer: Often this plant is listed as deer resistant but in 2019 the island deer dined on the blossoms of this plant. 

“Lucifer” was introduced by the famous Blooms of Bressingham. 
It won the breeder an RHS Award of Garden Merit (AGM.)

Crocosmia x crocosmiiflora
"Lucifer"
Sun-loving, tropical-like foliage, hot red
flowers let us know summer is here.
Seed packets of this easy, island-grown flower
are for sale at the Gatehouse,
Reefnet Bay Road, Shaw Island.
According to the original grower,
this flower will come true from seed.