A CERTAIN RELIEF

Warm Shaw Island Colors
November 2024

"More often than not, there is a certain relief when summer is over. It so seldom lives up to our exaggerated expectations. But autumn is a season of which nobody ever expects or remembers much and it can thus spring on us frequent and pleasant surprises."

The late, great English writer/gardener Christopher Lloyd,
The Well-Tempered Garden.

SUMMER

"OH, THE SUMMER NIGHT

HAS A SMILE OF LIGHT

&  SHE SITS ON A SAPPHITE THRONE."

Barry Cornwall

 

WELSH POPPY
(Papaver cambricum)

Seed collecting and 
flowers blooming
Gatehouse seed shed,
Reefnet Bay Road,
Shaw Island, WA.
June 2024

FOXGLOVES

CAROL'S FOXGLOVES
(Digitalis purpurea, mixed.)
Gatehouse Garden,
Reefnet Cove Road,
Shaw Island, San Juan Archipelago, WA.
1 June 2018.
See packets available at the stand.

"Some of the common names of the foxglove, Digitalis purpurea, date back to early days when fairies and evil spirits were familiar presences, while others have a Christian character. They are folk's gloves, witches' gloves, fairy gloves, fairy caps, fairy thimbles, dead men's bells, bloody fingers, and gloves of our lady. Because the plants are biennial, in their first year they produce only the basal rosette of leaves. 

During the second summer stems four feet high [+] appear, bearing a spire two feet long of nodding two-lipped flowers that grow on one side of the stem. The entire plant is softly hairy. When grown in semi-shade or sparse woods, conditions similar to its wild haunts, foxglove will self-sow freely. 

Helen M. Fox, The Years in my Herb Garden©1953 by the Macmillan Co.

"Every Gardener Knows –

under the cloak of winter lies a miracle – a seed waiting to sprout, a bulb opening to light, a bud straining to unfurl. And the anticipation nurtures our dream."

 Barbara Winkler, American author.

Checkered Lily 
or Guinea-hen flower
(potted Fritillaria meleagris)
Photographed with the
5:00 p.m. sun of 8 April 2024
Gatehouse Garden 
Shaw Island, WA.

This is a petite bulbous perennial that is native to river flood plains in Europe where it is frequently seen growing in large colonies. These bulbs are one of the best sellers in the US, commercially grown in Holland. Easy to stuff in a pot to place for easy viewing. This pot of bulbs survived 7 degrees F, of icy snow during the winter of 2023-2024.

In the Pacific Northwest, we have the native Chocolate Lily (Fritallaria lanceolata) growing in the San Juan Archipelago to view in their chosen wild habitat.
        Bulbs of the Chocolate Lily were eaten by the Coast Salish after steaming in pits or, more recently, boiled in metal pots. The bulblets are said to be tender and delicate, resembling rice, except for having a slightly bitter taste. Pojar and MacKinnon (1994) note these flowers, also known as "mission bells" are quite rare in many places and should be left undisturbed.