🌿 ELSIE'S CALIFORNIA POPPIES 🌿

California poppies surviving in the rock along
Blind Bay Road, Shaw Island.
Planted by island gardener Elsie Fowler long ago.
Photo June 2015.

Elsie's California poppies,
not exactly wild and not native,
but self-sowing gently each year to brighten the roadside.

Botanical Name: Eschscholtzia californica

Native: USA and Mexico. The official state flower of California where it covers the hills of Napa Valley.

Zone Range: 4-10

Life cycle: Annual and perennial.

Preferred climate: warm and sunny.

Bloom: An almost continuous summer display of bright orange flowers on mat-forming foliage 12" high. Flower petals close at night and on cloudy days.

Culture: requires poor, well-drained soil in full sun. Drought tolerant, self-seeding. Resents being transplanted.

Degree of difficulty: EASY.

Seed viability: one source claims 3 years.

Notes: Widely planted as an ornamental. Survives mild winters.

Gwen Yansen told me that her friend, Elsie Fowler (1900-2003), scattered the poppy seeds many years ago; they still survive in the hot, dry, rock bank across from the Community Building on Blind Bay Road. 
      Elsie, who came to the island in 1938, moved away to Anacortes in 1996. She was an early member of the Garden Club, later called Women's Club, that kicked off the fundraising for the Shaw Islanders, Inc building project.
      The seed packets carry Elsie's name to honor her love of Shaw Island and garden flowers, she bloomed where she was planted.
      These seeds are not harvested from her plants in order that the small colony of poppies will self-perpetuate.
      If you broadcast California poppy seeds along the road, as Elsie did, choose the sunny side.


Nomenclature:


"Johann Friedrich Eschscholtz (1793 - 1831) was a Livonian physician, botanist, zoologist, and entomologist. He was one of the first and most important scientists in the exploration of the Pacific, Alaska, and California.
Born in Dorpat (now Tartu) in the Russian Empire. He studied medicine at the local University of Dorpat, and spending the main part of his career there: extraordinary professor of anatomy (1819), director of the zoological cabinet (1822), and professor of anatomy (1828).
From 1815 to 1818 Eschscholtz was a physician and naturalist on the Russian circumnavigational expeditionary ship Rurik. He collected specimens in Brazil, Chile, California, the Pacific Islands, and on either side of the Bering Strait, Kamchatka, and the Aleutian Islands.
One of the other naturalists was the botanist Adelbert von Chamisso, who took over Eschscholtz's specimens on the completion of the voyage. The two were close friends and, after his early death, Chamisso named the California poppy Eschscholzia californica in his honour. The results of the trip were published in the Berlin journal Entomographien in 1822."
Source of nomenclature data: Seedaholic.

These island-grown seeds are for sale
at the Gatehouse seed shed,
Reefnet Bay Road,
Shaw Island, San Juan Archipelago,
WA.

🐝 🐝 🐝 "EVENING PRIMROSE" (Oenothera biennis)

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

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

Life cycle: Hardy, upright biennial.

Growing region: USDA Zone 4 to 9

Tolerates: Deer, drought.

Height: 3-6 ft.

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

Habitat: full sun; well-drained soils; 1 and 2-year-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 every day as well.

Excellent in any garden.

Primrose oil is now commercially cultivated in 15 countries. 

All parts of this plant, including the roots, were once used as food by the Native Americans. 

Great description here:

EVENING PRIMROSE
(Oenothera biennis)
Seed packets for sale at the
Gatehouse, 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. 

Lychnis coronaria
Seed packets are available at 
Gatehouse Seeds,
Reefnet Bay Road, Shaw Island,
San Juan Archipelago, WA.