Tag Archives: native plants

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

Geum macrophyllum – Large-Leaved Avens

11/14/2017 svseekins Leave a comment

garden Victoria, Vancouver Island, BC, Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

I first really noticed Large-Leaved Avens as a specific wildflower when I found it blooming beside the waterfall at Goldstream Park one May. Before that, it was just one of the many yellow blooms we see in spring.

Recently I was pleased to see it blooming in a parking lot, not far from the ocean, near Tofino. That was at Thanksgiving!

October is really very late for a spring wildflower to be blooming – but I’m not complaining. 🙂

The flower is a simple yellow daisy style; a smiling happy bloom that I find charming.
Unassuming.
Easy.

But Geum macrophyllum is not as plain as it first appears.

large-leaved avens, Geum macrophyllum, largeleaf avens, big leaf avens, garden Victoria, Vancouver Island, BC, Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

The seedhead is funky – certainly something that I’d let stand in my garden rather than tidy up.

The achenes (fruits) kinda remind me of googly eyes floating above the alien body. Apparently, the pom-poms are happy to catch rides on passing pant legs or animals: free spirits looking for adventures far afield. Groovy.

But really, the magic is in the foliage. What other plant has 2 kinds of leaves? Right at the base, near the ground, the leaves are round. Further up the stem, near the flowers, they’ve morphed into 3 lobes with deep serrations. Crazy.

The guidebooks say Avens are common to wetlands across most of North America. I’m hoping they’ll become common in my garden, too. Last month I won 3 in the plant raffle at the Native Plant Study Group. They’re now growing in one of our courtyard beds (where they’re more likely to get the extra summer moisture they need). Cross your fingers for me.

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garden visits, months 01-03: winter, months 04-06: spring, months 07-09: summer, months 10-12: fall, natives, perrennials

Bunchberry Sightings

11/03/2016 svseekins Leave a comment

On a moist spring day in June, I spotted my first bunchberry. It was blooming in the dappled shade, beside an old stump in Strathcona Park.

bunchberry, Cornus canadensis, dwarf dogwood,, creeping dogwood, dwarf cornel, crackerberry,, native wildflower, garden Victoria BC Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

You know how it is, once you notice something, you suddenly start seeing it everywhere?

That’s what it’s like with Cornus canadensis.

It was in an old clear-cut near Jordan River (also Vancouver Island), I found it again.

Even in full sun, it seems decaying wood is bunchberry’s happy place.

The underground rhizomes spread out, creating a matt of blooms – – almost a meadow 🙂 No wonder it’s also called creeping dogwood. What a beautiful transition for a logging debris field.

After getting comfortable identifying the dwarf dogwood flowers, it became my mission to find the plant in berry. Shouldn’t be hard, right? After all, it’s named bunchberry.

It was 1000 km away, seeking shade from a scorching summer day at Fairmont Hot Springs in the Rocky Mountains when I found the berries.

Now I realize why the Latin name Cornus canadensis makes sense. They grow all across Canada.

The bright orangey-red berries stand out, even in the dappled shade of the understory.

Apparently, they’re edible, but I didn’t test them. Alongside this well-travelled trail, and easily below a dog’s hip level… ?? Nope. I was a teeny bit squeamish.

Back on the coast, near Tofino, the bunchberries persisted.

Yup.

Berries
– – in October!

Isn’t that a good way to mark Thanksgiving?

Word has it that bunchberry leaves turn a beautiful red color in the fall. I noted some autumn color, but perhaps there’s more to come?

It’s also reported semi-evergreen in the Pacific Northwest… so now I have a new mission. Do you know where I might find more nearby to monitor through winter?

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Changing Attitudes About Yarrow

08/02/2016 svseekins Leave a comment

yarrow, Achillea millefolium — photo by SVSeekins

As a kid I thought wild yarrow was a boring flower. Its helicopter-landing-pad flowers might be interesting to butterflies & other pollinators, but I couldn’t get past the bland white petals.

Little did I know, but there are varieties beyond our native wildflower. Just a block or so away from our current garden, a neighbour grows a striking stand of yellow yarrow (probably Achillea ‘moonshine’ in a very sunny, & dry border.

yarrow achilea moonshine garden Victoria, Vancouver Island, BC, Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

Now that I care for my own garden, I can appreciate a plant that rarely needs water or attention.

It rocks that our local deer left it alone when I added it to our landscape.

It was an additional bonus that, after cutting back the flowering stems in autumn, a ferny mound of foliage remained evergreen.

yarrow achillea millefolium pomegranate garden Victoria, Vancouver Island, BC, Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

More recently I saw a red-flowering yarrow (likely Achillea pomegranate). I’m not sure why I’d assumed our native yarrow was the only variety, but I’m delighted it isn’t.

There’s a place for this one in our garden, too. Even though the West Coast is a rain forest, very little of that rain falls in July or August. Tough ornamentals are treasures.

It’s good to note that if regularly irrigated, yarrow is a vigorous spreader. The easiest way to keep it in a manageable clump is to reduce irrigation. Easy-peasy. I can do that 🙂

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