🌿 GARDENING WITH BOOKS 🌿

A dear Hardy Plant Society member and celebrated gardener, speaking at a conference in Portland, OR, said: "We have to garden with books and periodicals as well as in the dirt." Remembering Faith MacKaness.

Spring flowers 
7 May 2015
Mideke hand thrown porcelain pot,
Art by Orcas Islander,
C.C. Gill.

🌿 A fragrant thank you 🌿

Species Rhododendron decorum blooming this day.
Non-native, but she grows over-my-head, 
emitting a fragrant thanks to
Anne and Sheila for the visit and kind note.
Anno three May 2015
Shaw Island, WA.

SONG SPARROW NEST

Shaw Island Song Sparrow Nest
2015 photo thanks to Joanne.

🌿 NATIVE COLORS FOR EARTH DAY 🌿 2015

48.5923°N - 123.0320°W

Celebrated in more than 192 countries each year, Earth Day is the largest secular holiday in the world. Honoring the 45th anniversary, these wildflower photos were taken today, on one of the world's smallest inhabited islands––Yellow Island, 11 acres just north of Shaw Island, in the San Juan Archipelago, Washington State. 

There are at least 50 species growing on Yellow Island.
Today we could view Indian Paintbrush, two species of
Camas, Chocolate Lilies, Buttercup, Fawn Lily, 
while others shine off the designated foot path.

Most of these flowers are also native to Shaw Island, 
our home base. Does "Indian Paintbrush" grow on Shaw??

There are packets of wild Camas seeds for sale
at the Gatehouse on Reefnet Bay Road.
(They were not collected on Yellow Island.)

Shaw Island's Earth Day paintbox of color.
Back at home and shining out
on the bank of Blind Bay,
Native "Flowering Red Currant"
(Ribes sanguineum.)
Judge Stanley C. Soderland (1917-2001),
 former resident of the island,
 propagated cuttings and planted this species at   
 the garden of the Shaw Island
Community Building in the late 1980s.
Thanks Stan.

The Early Lilac

"Biendl's Early White"
Single Lilac
Mideke porcelain pot.
Shaw Island flowers harvested 15 April 2015.
A fragrant bouquet to cross the miles 
to Napa Valley visitors to the island.
Thank you for leaving the nice note at the Gatehouse.

The 15th of each month is given over to photographing and sharing what's blooming in our garden.
      The garden featured on this site is the one laid out on the island of Shaw. This time of year, she has quite a display. 
      Here are two of her finest white flowers, the first a heritage shrub blooming for several decades in several island gardens. It is thought of as a heritage plant grown here by this family below. You might not recognize the family members, but the silo is still with us.

Ruth Shaw Biendl, John Biendl
& their four girls and infant John 
on father's lap.
If one looks carefully, the shoot for
shipping out firewood for the limekilns
at Roche Hbr can be viewed on the shore
of the family dairy farm on Shaw Island.
 Date c. 1923.
Photos from the Gwen Yansen collection.

      Ruth Shaw, who grew up on Shaw Island, and her husband, John Biendl, settled on their farm in the early 1900s. They cultivated the land later farmed by Gwendolyn and Don Yansen. Island and family historian, Gwen, honored their memory by naming the earliest Lilac to bloom in her garden, "Biendl's Early White." A delicate, lacy, single white with an official name not recorded in any memories residing on Shaw Island. 

      The native flowering spring bulb greeting us today in special mossy nooks, often shady, is the single stalked "White Fawn Lily" (Erythronium oregonum.) There are many nicknames for this flower; the one chosen here is used by Scott Atkinson and Fred Sharpe in their Wild Plants of the San Juan Islands; Mountaineers, 1985, and by the professor, Lewis J. Clark late of Victoria, BC in his Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest; Evergreen Press Limited, 1976.

"White Fawn Lily"
Erythronium oregonum
Shaw Island, WA.
April 2015.
Three photographs by Carol ©

      This delicate "White Fawn Lily" is native from northern OR., through western WA,, Vancouver Island, and the extreme southern coastal mainland of BC. Lewis Clark warns that plucking the beautiful leaves dooms the bulb. 
      According to Clark, the better the exposure to light, the more intense the color of the reverse side of the tepals. The colors vary from yellow-green to rose-maroon, as we can clearly see in these incredible photographs by Carol.

Little stars at our feet, 

 "White Fawn Lily"
U of Washington Biological Preserve
Shaw Island, WA.
15 April '15.

Photo courtesy of Angel©

      The dainty flowers grow in the protected habitat of the U of WA Biological Preserve, where they are not pushed aside by bulldozers but sadly have their habitat invaded by a threatening mass of non-native Scotch Broom (on the State of Washington Noxious Weed list which can be seen here.)
      The stunning native gem, Calypso orchid, is saying goodbye for another year, while the vivid blue Camas is unfolding; more photos another day. Thanks for stopping by.

🌿 HERITAGE NARCISSUS 'Van Sion' 🌿

"SPRING IS NATURE'S WAY OF SAYING
LET'S PARTY!"

The great Robin Williams,
an American comedian & actor.

Photograph looking north to
Orcas Island is courtesy of Eli,
a childhood resident of
the old Griswold home place,
12 March 2015.

The Skagit Valley growers are keen to host festivals to celebrate their acres of flowering spring bulbs; please join me in celebrating these special 'survivor' daffodils, now dancing in our offshore breeze. There will not be any Narcissus seeds available at the Gatehouse but the double Narcissus 'Van Sion' has been happy here from early settlement days, naturalizing on at least three former homesteads on Shaw Island. Their long history catches my attention.
      I may be accused of using the term 'heritage' rather loosely for some of the specimens listed in previous plant posts, but this bulb of unknown origin is recorded as first flowering in 1620 in London. Parkinson listed it in his Paradisus. The highly regarded daffodil expert, Englishman E. A. Bowles writes in his 1934 Handbook of Narcissus, that his bulbs were sent as a gift from a wild patch growing in northern Greece. 
      The Narcissus 'Van Sion' is well described in journals as heritage for her survival through the centuries, in varying climatic conditions without special nurturing; usually, it is this lush, double daffodil found at early abandoned homesteads, long after the residents have moved on. Often the flowers are tinged with green; there are other double daffodils, but this is the one with a pedigree.
      The three known places where 'Van Sion' is found naturalized in the thick, lush grass of Shaw Island were former working farms, recorded in federal documents as being settled in the 1880s. I sent photographs to a professional to verify my guess of the correct name.  
      When Jeremiah Griswold filed Shaw Island homestead papers with the federal government, he listed 1882 as his first personal settlement. We don't know if he planted these flowers, but the next two generations of Griswolds also operated the farm. Their first farmhouse burned to the ground in 1911, but the large extant hay barn and the daffodils were happy to stay on.
      For this historian, these are enough reasons to classify this flower growing on Shaw Island, as one of our true heritage plants.
      Here is a piece from the local Journal newspaper in 1974: 

"It might be called a town that never was; hardly any reason for it to be called anything. But there it is––on most maps––Griswold; on some maps, the only name on Shaw Island. Signs of a town are just missing." 

     And there it is, a blend of our horticulture and our history; it is a lovely 'pot of gold' the Griswold family left behind at Griswold.

Gift of cut Narcissus 'Van Sion'
grown on the site of
the old Griswold home, 
Shaw Island, WA.
Debbie Dean porcelain pots.
March 2015.

      

I mentioned a pedigree; she did earn an Award of Garden Merit from the Royal Horticultural Society (London.) 
     Shaw Island Women's Club, the gals that spearheaded the early fundraising for the construction of the Shaw Island Community Building, started out life as a Garden Club, with membership––I like this––in the Royal Horticultural Society, England. 
      

🌿 HELLEBORES AND HEARTS FOR VALENTINE'S DAY 🌿 2015

Traditional Hand Hooked Wool Mat
in the garden with Hellebore orientalis
(a.k.a. "Lenten Rose")
now into their fourth decade living
in this writer's Shaw Island garden.
The 7" x 10" wool on linen mat was
designed and hooked by gardener 
and artistic needleworker, Marlyn Hoffman
Shaw Island, 1998.

🌿 Shaw Island Pussy Willows for February 🌿

PUSSY WILLOWS
Salix harvested on Shaw Island, 1 Feb 2015.
Early hand-thrown Crow Valley Pottery from Orcas Island,
"Eggsit" by Guemes Island's Yvonne Davis,
 a trio 'blooming where they are planted.'
for G.E.Y.

This willow is familiar to those who love the botanicals of Shaw Island. According to Louise Thomas, Gladys F. Difford (1891-1988), who lived out her senior years on the island, received a florist bouquet gift that contained sprigs of this willow. Her resident son-in-law, John Nichols, planted them along the edge of his property where they have thrived with abundant moisture, and have grown to tree size. The trees are about 3 weeks early in sharing their buds this year, a special gift to welcome February.
      Nice to know the historical background; thanks, Louise.

Gladyse F. Difford (1891-1988)
At home on Shaw Island.
Photo by Gwendolyn Yansen

Shaw Island native, Susanna Larsen,
in the Hoffman family lower garden, age 4.
She's in the Willow tree grown from a sprig
cut from Mrs. Difford's Willow tree along Blind Bay.
Sadly, the tree was removed to let in more sun.
Photo courtesy of Marlyn Hoffman.

Favorite reference for researching Salix is photographed and quoted below:

Dover Publications, 1967.
Unabridged republication of the original
published by the Forest Service of the US
Gatehouse Garden Library,
Shaw Island, WA.

"A striking and valuable cultural feature of the willows is their remarkable vitality, that enables them to grow persistently and easily from cut stumps and pieces of branches or roots.
      The willows are swamp or moist-ground species, finding their habitat from sea level to 10,000-ft or more.
      They don't have much commercial usefulness except in the manufacture of baskets and furniture. They are, however, distinctly important to the forester for binding shifting sands and for holding banks of streams in soft bottoms where serious ruin of agricultural lands may result from erosion of unprotected banks. 
      Approximately 70 species occur on this continent, while about 13 trees inhabit the Pacific region. They are of very ancient origin. Remains of these exist in the Cretaceous formations of the Mid West, while willows appear to have flourished extensively on this continent and in Europe during the Miocene period.
      With few exceptions the various species of willows, that, as a class, are nearly always distinguished as willows from other trees and shrubs by laymen, are exceedingly difficult to identify, especially before they become trees. When they have attained tree size most of the important ones can be distinguished by a careful study of their mature leaves, bark, twigs, and habit of growth. But individual trees are likely to be found which will baffle attempts at i.d. without a close examination of the minute characters of the male and female flowers and the tiny seed capsules, all consideration of which is here omitted. Such an exam requires a strong lens and a good knowledge of plant morphology."