"AUTUMN IS......

 a second spring when every leaf is a flower."

Albert Camus (French writer)

Bracken Fern
Ben Nevis Loop
Shaw Island, 
San Juan Archipelago, WA.
October 2025

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.

 

WINTER TREES

 

"All the complicated details
of the attiring and 
the disattiring are completed!
A liquid moon
moves gently among
the long branches.
Thus having prepared their buds
against a sure winter
the wise trees
stand sleeping in the cold."

A  Magnolia "Black Tulip" photographed 15 December 2024, at the Gatehouse garden close to the upper Moongate, waiting for gentle March mornings.
Poem by William Carlos Williams, American physician and writer.

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)
Gatehouse Garden,
Reefnet Bay Road,
Shaw Island, San Juan Archipelago, WA.
1 June 2018.

"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.

Carol's Foxglove seeds
(Digitalis purpurea)
Packets available
at Gatehouse Seeds,
Reefnet Bay Road, Shaw Island,
San Juan Archipelago, WA.

"UNDER THE CLOAK OF WINTER" –

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 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.

HARVEST TIME IS HERE

Shaw Island grown
European Pears
"Orcas" variety 
developed by Joe Long of Orcas Island,
San Juan Archipelago, WA.
September 2023 harvest. 

THE EARTH HAS ROLLED AROUND AGAIN

AND HARVEST TIME IS HERE,

THE GLORY OF THE SEASONS

AND THE CROWN OF ALL THE YEAR.

Carolyn Wells

BRINGING UP THE COW'S TAIL

 

Wild Douglas Aster
(Symphyotrichum subspicatum)

Photographed 12 September 2023.
Gatehouse garden 
Shaw Island, San Juan Archipelago, WA.
Click image to enlarge.

The last native wildflower seeds to be harvested for the Gatehouse this year–the highly noted Douglas Aster. Regarded by gardeners who like to feed a large cross-section of visiting pollinators while knowing this perennial is low maintenance, deer-resistant, and adaptable to conditions of full sun or part shade. 

The plant featured in the above photograph was grown by direct seeding, broadcast from Shaw Island wild-collected seed. Easy street. Cast out in autumn or spring in this hardiness zone of 8b.

Fresh seeds for fall planting
are now installed at 
Gatehouse Seeds,
Reefnet Bay Road,
Shaw Island,
San Juan Archipelago, WA.

More particulars about the cultivation of this plant can be seen with earlier posts on this site 

DEADHEADING

Rosa "KATHLEEN"

An heirloom rose growing
on Shaw Island,
San Juan Archipelago, WA.
July 2023
Click image to enlarge.

Rose "HANSEAT"

An heirloom rose growing
on Shaw Island,
San Juan Archipelago, WA.
July 2023.

Deadheading is the one profoundly rewarding war. It tidies away the signs of death and encourages yet another show of flowers. It was wonderfully understood by Vita Sackville-West in her garden at Sissinghurst Castle. 

"Deadheading roses on a summer evening," she wrote, "is an occupation that carries us back into a calmer age and a different century. Queen Victoria might still be on the throne. There is no sound except the hoot of an owl and the rhythmic snip-snip of our secateurs." Vita Sackville-West

Source:

Robin Lane Fox, English writer
Thoughtful Gardening
Perseus Books Group
2010; New York.

SUMMER WHITE OVER THE GARDEN GATE

Clematis montana
wilsonii "Peveril"
Growing on Shaw Island,
San Juan Archipelago, WA.,
USDA Zone: 8b.
 for this photograph taken 
7 June 2023. 

She casts slight fragrance and
stretches the blooming season
of the species Clematis montana.
Soon a bounty of fresh 
ripe seeds will be on the vine.

Worth a try after reading 
Clematis, The Montanas;
A book for Gardeners.
John Howells, M.D. 2005  
Garden Art Press.
A division of 
Antique Collectors' Club.

"Summer is a promissory note signed in June,

it's long days spent and gone

before you know it, and due 

to be repaid next January.

American writer Hal Borland

Clematis montana
Wilsonii "Pevril"
Mature seeds harvested 
7 July 2025.
Shaw Island grown.

HAPPY MAY DAY

 

May Day Flowers 
A bouquet of the earliest
heritage Lilac to bloom locally,
 originating on the former
John Biendl/Ruth Shaw farm,
Shaw Island, San Juan Archipelago, WA.
Often known as "Biendl's Early White Lilac"
Grown from a sapling courtesy of
gardener Gwendolyn Yansen. 

Lots of seed packets installed on the racks on Reefnet Bay Road, Shaw Island, WA. Hand-harvested, hand-packed, healthy, island grown. 

BOWLES' GOLDEN GRASS

 

Remember this post from pre-Covid days? The seeds are back at the Gatehouse since the grass is stunning in the garden after a long, gray winter & early spring. The golden leaves are trying hard to shine out and cover up a rotting Alder stump. One of my favorite domestic grasses.

It is featured in a spring 2023 issue of the luscious British magazine Gardens Illustrated.

Bowles' Golden Grass
(Milium effusum 'Aureum')

A colorful grass worth knowing.
Click image to enlarge and view
the thin spray of dainty seeds
bringing magic to the garden.

Photo was taken in the evening
rain of 20 May 2019.
Save the seeds to sprinkle around
in the shadier places in your woodland
garden or snip the stems into a bag,
if you wish to control the numbers.
 for some strange reason.
Deer resistant and pathetically easy.
Back on the rack at the
Shaw Island Gatehouse,
Reefnet Bay Road, 
San Juan Archipelago, WA.

Botanical name: Milium effusum ‘Aureum’
Native Region: Garden origin. Prefers open woodland.
Zone Range: 6-9
Type: Perennial grass.
Bloom Description: As the season progresses tiny golden, bead-like flowers on thin stems gracefully create a delicate sparkle of gold.
Maintenance: Easy.
Tolerates: Deer.

Notes:
Most grasses and grass-like plants require full sun, but this semi-evergreen grass is the exception to the rule. The bonus is that the delicate chartreuse leaves will brighten a shady corner in any garden. Sow seeds in fall or spring, by just broadcasting out where you would like to see them germinate in situ. Best grown in partial but will take full shade. Self-seeds freely, but is very easy to control.
If it gets messy looking in the heat of high summer, just use scissors to snip back the delicate foliage.
This grass comes true from seed propagation.

RHS Award of Garden Merit (AGM.)

The common name "Bowles Golden Grass" is to honor E. A. Bowles, a British horticulturist, plantsman, and garden writer who introduced this variety into cultivation. It was considered one of his best finds when he introduced this yellow form of wood millet.

"E. A. Bowles, (1865-1954) 
Edward Augustus (Gus or Gussie) Bowles, known professionally as E. A. Bowles, was a British horticulturist, plantsman, and garden writer. He developed an important garden at Myddelton House, his lifelong home in Enfield, Middlesex and his name has been preserved in many varieties of plants.
 E. A. Bowles was born at his family's home, Myddelton House. He was of Huguenot descent through his maternal great-grandmother and his father, Henry Carrington Bowles was Chairman of the New River Company, which until 1904 controlled the artificial waterway that flowed past Myddelton, bringing water to London from the River Lea. 

      Through his elder brother Henry, Bowles was the great uncle of Andrew Parker Bowles (born 1939), whose first wife, Camilla Shand, became Duchess of Cornwall on her marriage to Charles, Prince of Wales in 2005.

 
      Bowles gave his name to upwards of forty varieties of plants, and there are others that originated with him. For example, he named a Hellebore 'Gerrard Parker' after a local art master, Crocus tommasinianus 'Bobbo' after the boy who first spotted it, and Rosmarinus officinalis 'Miss Jessopp's Upright' after a gardening neighbor.

 Erysimum 'Bowles' Mauve' was among "200 plants for 200 years" chosen by the RHS to mark its bicentenary in 2004 and, to coincide with the hundredth anniversary of the Chelsea Flower Show in 2013 was shortlisted (from among introductions between 1973-83) as one of ten "plants of the centenary".
 Other significant introductions included Viola 'Bowles' Black', cotton lavender 'Edward Bowles' (Santolina pinnata subsp. neopolitana). Vita Sackville-West cites the yellow and brown Crocus chrysanthus 'E.A. Bowles' as among the first bulbs to flower in her garden at Sissinghurst, while another spring plant, the slow-growing Muscari 'Bowles's Peacock', is commended by Richard Hobbs, holder of the British National Plant Collection of Muscari. 


      E. A. Bowles brought into cultivation several other yellow-leaved grasses and sedges. He also introduced a golden form of the wood sedge, Luzula sylvatica 'Aurea' and found Carex elata 'Aurea' on Wicken Fen, one of his favourite hunting grounds. 
      It has been described by another doyen of plantsmen, Christopher Lloyd, as "a plant to treasure, its colour changing in unexpected ways". 


      In 1908 Bowles was elected to the Council of the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), whose grounds at Wisley, Surrey, now contain a memorial garden to him. Bowles received the society's highest award, the Victoria Medal of Honour, in 1916 and was a Vice-President from 1926 until his death almost thirty years later. RHS colleagues knew him as 'Bowley'.
"