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 

AUTUMN SEEDS of Shaw

Wild, perennial Sweet Pea
(Lathyrus latifolius)

Grown and harvested from one of 
the few remaining hideaways for this 
wild perennial occurring  on 
Shaw Island, San Juan Archipelago. 
Harvested summer of 2020.

"Although a thoughtful bee still travels

And midge-ball ravels and unravels,

Yet strewn along the pathway lie

Like small open sarcophagi

The hazel nuts broken in two

And cobwebs catch the seed-pearl dew.

Now summer’s flowers are winter’s weeds,

I think of all the sleeping seeds;

Winds were their robins and by night

Frosts glue their leafy cover tight;

Snow may shake down its dizzy feathers,

They will sleep safely through all weathers."

Andrew Young.

Autumn Seeds.

From Cottage Flowers. Marie Angel. London; 

Pelham Books Ltd. 1980.

🌿 WILD DOUGLAS ASTER 🌿

Douglas Aster
(Symphyotrichum subspicatum)

Anno 25 August 2019
A native flower growing on Shaw Island,
San Juan Archipelago, WA.
Author photograph.

Native Douglas Aster

One of the best native flowers to grow for a food source for a large number of pollinators. Can be cast out in the fall.

Life Cycle: Perennial
Hardiness Zone: 5-9

Habit: c. 3'-4' x 2', other places. (Only about 2' in height on Shaw Island, partly hidden in thick grass.) Laden with lilac-purple daisy-like flowers from July to October.

Soil: Prefers moist but also quite drought tolerant.

Germination: Seeds germinate easily and can be direct sown in fall or spring or started in flats in the spring and then transplanted.

TOLERATES: Shaw Island Deer!
For light conditions, this Aster will take full sun or partial shade areas subjected to salt or saline soils, areas that receive occasional floods and gardens that are blasted with cold winters.

Native: from the Aleutian Islands to northern California.

Notes: This is a late-season bloomer providing essential nectar to insects at a time when many other flowering plants are shutting down for winter. 
      Food source for a large number of butterfly and moth species, including the northern crescent, the field crescent, the painted lady, and the Isabella tiger moth (a.k.a. 'Wooly Bears'). The nectar-rich flowers attract hefty numbers of late-season bees, including bumblebees, leafcutter bees, and skippers. Also good for a rain garden.*

*Rain Garden: is a depressed area in the landscape that collects rainwater from a roof, driveway, or street, and also a place to let it sink into the ground. Planted with grasses and flowering perennials, rain gardens can be a cost-effective and beautiful way to reduce runoff from your property. Rain gardens can also provide food and shelter for butterflies and songbirds. 

Douglas Aster seeds
(Symphyotrichum subspicatum)
Before being cleaned for packets.
Native to Shaw Island,
Center of the San Juan Archipelago, Washington.
Photographed 12 September 2019.
Photograph by author.

For instructions on building a rain garden CLICK HERE.

People interested in food for pollinators
visiting their orchard and garden,
there are a few packets of native Douglas Aster
seeds now included at Gatehouse Seeds,
Reef Net Bay, Shaw Island, WA.

🌿 HELLO CALYPSO 🌿

Calypso bulbosa
Native to Shaw Island, San Juan Archipelago, WA.
This photo was captured at c. 200' elevation by Thea Lengyel,
hiking friend, one island to the east of Shaw,
on Point Colville, Lopez Island, this day of 14 April 2019.
The area is part of the San Juan Island National Monument,
administered by the Department of the Interior's
Bureau of Land Management. The proclamation to
protect this land as a natural area
was signed by President Obama
in March of 2013.
Dogs must be on a leash.

"The goddess daughter of Atlas was Calypso, whose name means concealment, with reference to this lovely flower's habit of hiding among the mosses of the forest floor, in the shade––essential to its existence––of high forest trees. 'Bulbosa,' of course, refers to the oval white pseudo-bulb (corm) from which grow the single, strikingly parallel-veined, ovate leaf, and the 6-inch delicate scape carrying its solitary nodding and lovely blossom. The blossom, in the windless air of the forest, delights the wanderer with its heavenly fragrance––fresh, spicy, and utterly distinctive. It is a perfume to be mentioned in the same breath with that of the Twinflower, a perfume more subtle and refined even than that of the Rein-orchid.

      The tiny 'bulb' is most tenuously fixed to the forest duff by a few thread-like fibers, which are broken with fatal effects, by the most careful attempts to pinch off the enchanting flower-stem. Further, the bulb grows only in association with certain species of fungi, so that it is virtually impossible to transplant it successfully––as many thousands of admirers can ruefully report. One must need come reverently to its native haunts, there to admire it, and go blithely away––happy in the knowledge that others may come to enjoy it. 

      An unusual feature of this sole member of its genus in North America, is the appearance in late summer of the distinctive leaf, which persists through the rough weather of fall and winter, until the plump flower bud appears and is pushed upward by the lengthening scape, from March to June according to latitude and elevation. After the flower has withered the leaf slowly shrivels, and during the early summer months, the plant is almost undetectable.

      Especially on southern Vancouver Island [B.C.,] one occasionally finds the form ALBA, ethereally lovely and glistening white. When shape and proportion, colour and perfume are all considered, this must rank as one of the most enchantingly lovely of all our native plants. 

      On May 4 1792, Archibald Menzies, naturalist with Captain George Vancouver, was anchored near the present site of Port Discovery, WA, and making a landing and excursion into the forest'... met with vast abundance of that rare plant the Cypropedium bulbosom/ which was now in full bloom & grew about the roots of the Pine trees in very spongy soil & dry situations.' Menzies' Journal of Vancouver's Voyage. 1792."

Professor Lewis J. Clark.

Wild Flowers of the Pacific Northwest

from Alaska to Northern California. pp. 53-54.

Never will seeds or bulbs of this native be for sale at the Gatehouse but we can enjoy them on treks through the woods. 

🌿 ORANGE HONEYSUCKLE 🌿

"If you look the right way, 
you can see the whole world is a garden." 
Frances Hodgson Burnett

Lonicera ciliosa
Happy growing along the road
next to the Gatehouse, Reefnet Bay Road.
Photograph of this native courtesy of Billie K
visiting Shaw Island, WA.
May 2016.

Boatshop SITKA SPRUCE

Picea sitchensis, 
native to Shaw Island, WA.

Description:
Largest of the world’s spruce family seldom found far from moist, maritime air. Lifespan of over 700 years. Grows in a narrow strip along the north Pacific coast, including Shaw Island, WA.

Seed starting:
Soak in water, then let stand for 24 hrs. No stratification is needed. Sow 1/8" deep, tamp the soil, mulch the seed bed. Can be sensitive to excess moisture.

Notes: 
Likes deep, moist, well-aerated soils—poor on swampy soil. Tolerant of ocean spray.
Great notes on the history of this Spruce can be found here

Freshly harvested seeds will sometimes be for sale again at the Gatehouse, on 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.