🌿 SHAW ISLAND'S SPECIAL PRIMROSE 🌿

Primrose Quaker's Bonnet
(Primula vulgaris flora-plena)
A long-lived primrose compared to the hybrids of today.
A true Heirloom that dates to at least 1835 in an Irish
garden and maybe 100 years later on Shaw Island
where it was grown & shared by gardening pioneer women
Eunice Biendl Copper and Elsie Crawford Wood.
There will be some potted starts for sale at the
Shaw School fundraiser 21 April 2018.
No Quaker's Bonnet seeds for sale at the Gatehouse;
instead, try hard not to be a cheapskate,
buy a potted start and support the scholars
planning a field trip to Washington, DC.

🌿 WILDFLOWERS WILL BE MARCHING IN 🌿

(L-R) Shaw Island brothers
J. "Lee" and Eber Bruns,
Picking wildflower Easter bouquets of
Erythronium oregonum ("White Fawn Lily.")
The bulbs love the rocky, coastal bluffs,
thickets, and woods of Shaw Island.
Seeds of Erythronium not offered
for sale at the Gatehouse;
please leave these flowers untouched
for others to enjoy.
Photo c. 1920.

It was long ago that well-known women, Elizabeth V. Dodd and Harriet G. Tusler completed their monograph Wild Flowering Plants on Coon, McConnell, Reef, and Yellow Islands. It was released in the spring of 1959.
      The compilers of the list of 177 flowering plants said that seven of the plants listed under 33 families are found only on Coon Island, ten on Reef and forty on Yellow Island.
      "Tib" Dodd has identified the plants on Yellow Island, Mrs. Tusler has identified the flowering plants on Coon Island, where she lives, McConnell and Reef Islands.
      Included in the published work is a description of the Islands covered as follows: "Coon, McConnell, Reef and Yellow Islands belong to the Wasp Island group of the San Juan Archipelago. They lie within a few hundred yards of each other about ten miles from the Canadian border in the northwest corner of Washington State. The three acres of Coon Island are mostly wooded with considerable underbrush. There is open grassy point facing N.E., N.W. and S.W. and some small grassy slopes on the south side of the Island. The thirty-one acres of McConnell Island are heavily wooded with some open fields, several grassy points and a small open, swamp area near the hightide line on the north side. The seventeen acres of Reef Island are heavily wooded with much underbrush with a few small areas of open fields.
      The eleven acres of Yellow Island are mostly arid and open, there is a wooded section on the top of the island a few small groups of trees on other parts of the island. the rest is mostly open fields and grassy points. This island is exposed to all winds while the other three islands are more sheltered, especially Coon."     
      Included in the bibliography are eight books used in identifying the plants and in conclusion there are two pages of line drawings picturing Hawkweed, Willow Herb, Cudweed, Wood Rose, Deerhead Orchid, Giant Adder's Tongue, English Plantain, Dog Fennel, Indian Pipe, Everlasting, One Flowered Cancer Root and Nipple-Wort.
      The Orcas Island Historical Society contemplates the compilation of a Herbarium of Orcas Island flora. A start on this work may begin this spring and will be continued over a period of years.
Above text from the Orcas Islander. April 1959.
        When you boat over to Yellow Island this spring to see the wildflowers, remember it was on that gem of an island that Tib lived and did some of her botanizing. Tib and her husband Lewis were friends of Shaw Island.