Tag Archives: native plants

attracting birds, months 04-06: spring, months 07-09: summer, natives, urban deer

Hardhack

07/17/2015 svseekins 1 Comment

It first caught my eye on a walk in the sunny, rolling hills of Panama Flats. What a pretty shrub! AND It’s happily growing in the wild with no gardener to fuss over it!!!

hardhack, steeplebush garden Victoria BC Pacific Northwest — hardhack
photo by SVSeekins

My mind flashes to fantasies of a low maintenance garden. Isn’t this shrub a good candidate for membership?

My go-to native plant guide, Plants of the Pacific Northwest, helps identify it:
Common names: hardhack & steeplebush.
BUT it’s the Latin name that rings bells with me: Spirea Douglasii
Spirea !!
Cousin to the decorative spirea that I see in so many urban landscapes.
Very encouraging.

non-native spirea garden Victoria BC Pacific Northwest — non-native spirea
photo by SVSeekins

The Douglas Spirea ‘s deciduous leafs are grayish with woolly texture which leads me to guess that they’re deer tolerant. Word has it that black tail deer graze it. Then another source says it is deer resistant Who knows?

It tops out at 6ft./ 2m, which is handy for hedging.

The typical home is in moist areas. That explains why it’s found at Panama Flats as well as Swan Lake Nature Sanctuary. It’s suckering habit produces dense thickets along stream banks.

The pink steeples of Hardhack first appear in June. The flowers last through the heat of summer eventually turning to brown seed clusters that hold on long after the leaves fall. That’s a luxuriously long season for feeding bees, then birds!

This plant is just as pretty as the classic lilac (syringa) & butterfly bush (buddleja). Both of those shrubs can be dominating in a garden landscape, seeding or suckering willy-nilly. I reckon hardhack is a choice replacement option, especially because it is much more of a food source to local birds, pollinators, & wild life. It can be dominating like the other two, but only in very moist situations.

I’d like to grow hardhack in my yard, but the moisture requirements are too high. We do have a ditch that would supply the moisture needed… maybe C would give up a patch of grass along there ??

-30-

months 04-06: spring, months 07-09: summer, months 10-12: fall, natives, perrennials

Vanilla Leaf

06/30/2015 svseekins Leave a comment

Along the forest edging of our campsite at Ralph River grows a pretty carpet. What catches my eye is the unusual leaf configuration. It kind of looks like the footprints of some 3-legged duck.

vanilla leaf, deer foot, Sweet After Death, Deervetch, achlys triphylla, garden Victoria BC Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

I know to bring my copy of Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast when we go into the wild. It’s always my fastest way to ID native plants.

It turns out this plant is named Deer Foot. Really?

Duck Foot vs Deer Foot. What’s your call?

Its more commonly known as Vanilla Leaf.

The first people’s of the west coast hung dried bunches of vanilla leaf in their homes as an air freshener and insect repellent.

OK, that’s a naming convention I can support.

-30-

attracting birds, months 04-06: spring, months 07-09: summer, months 10-12: fall, natives, perrennials

Bunchberry

06/27/2015 svseekins 2 Comments

Native to the moist Pacific Northwest, bunchberry is at home in the forest shade around Buttle Lake and the Ralph River Campground of Strathcona Park.

It also happens to be comfortable growing at the base of an old stump in PS’ fern garden here in Victoria.

PS has nurtured her garden for 40+ years and is particular in what she grows. I understand why Cornus canadensis (aka dwarf dogwood) makes her list.

Extended Seasonal Interest

late spring: white flowers
mid-summer: edible red berries
autumn: burgundy leaves
winter: darn near evergreen

It’s almost enough to make my list too because it invites wildlife into the garden. The birds like the berries and I’m willing to share. It’s the local deer that I have little faith in. With small juicy plants like this, they’re not likely to leave anything for me to enjoy.

-30-