Solstice Flowers
The longest day has come again to the northern hemisphere, this year it brought with it a welcomed cold front and some soaking rain showers. It’s a lovely Saturday to sit at the computer and not think about dragging hoses around the garden as the steady rains just seem to be increasing through the morning. This is a reminder of many Junes past when the longest day of the didn’t always mean summer temperatures. I spent some summers as a teenager driving a hay bailer through the tall fescue and perennial ryegrass fields that dominate the valley bottoms and flood plains around here. It was often not until after the 4th of July that you could count on things drying out enough to get the seed combined and the hay dry enough for bailing. This welcome rain also brings with it the summer flowers.
The flowers of Spring are often ephemeral, fleeting sometimes delicate and while I enjoy them immensely there is an honesty and a toughness to the flowers that can stand summers heat, and drought. As we move into summer, just a reminder that I’ll be shipping plants only until the end of June. Then taking a little break before the bulb harvest with that timed to arrive somewhere around the end of July and early August. I’ll start shipping plants again when the cooler temps of Autumn say it’s time. Currently planning some mountain adventures to find good plants and scenery this summer. Something I have always delighted in is seeing true alpines in there native habitat and if I’m lucky enough getting a few seeds to try to recreate that in my garden. Last years champion in the mountains and now in the garden is Chaenactis douglasii the Douglas Dusty Maiden, that we got to see in bloom in the scree slopes of the high Wallowa mountains, hopefully I get some seeds from my plants and I can get them up on offer next year! So enjoy some of the flowers of summer, this gallery features a look at some of my favorite summer bloomers, from the mountain peaks of Eastern Oregon’s Wallowa Mountains to the Chilean Andes and the Rocky Mountains.
The Heterotheca are fantastic summer bloomers, pair them with silvery leaved, blue flowered dwarf sages, or late blooming blue and purple Penstemons for a fantastic show. While I have never managed to commercialize the Alstroemeria’s I think they are fantastic summer flowers, I use them in patio pots and a have a few of the dwarf ones on the edge of the rock garden. While the hybrids are fantastic, I have always loved my species flowers, the wilder the better if you ask me. The few different high elevation species I have managed to grow from Chile are fantastic!
Oxyria digyna-The Mountain Sorrel, Seen here growing just below the summit of Aneroid Mountain at about 9,600’ is available for purchase here But remember I’m only shipping plants until the end of June.
Post script, look away now if you are offended by an American with a broad world view and a healthy dose of empathy: Boy did that talk of the king touch some nerves. I lost a few customers to that one for sure, but you won’t find me apologizing to the keyboard Karens who so willingly bend the knee. This is me doubling down: The truth is after a few complaints by the hotel lobby (I’m thinking the Hiltons have a direct line to Mar A Lago) and the realization that the look of grocery stores with produce aisles barren and empty isn’t a good look for the king of pain and suffering. So he did what he always does, capitulated, and now they won’t be chasing the farm workers from the fields and his staff at his many hotels can stay employed. The hypocrisy so rank you can smell it across the country. Humans evolved as a migratory species, if you can’t stomach that you probably can’t stomach any bit of science. Along came nation states, and borders and economic injustice and wars and famine and drought and all the other things that would cause any migratory species to pick up and relocate just as we have been doing since the fertile crescent gave up it’s ghosts a few million years ago. I even remember reading a chapter called exodus in a book that the name escapes me right now, but it talked a bit about some early migrations of people trying to find a better place for themselves in this world. I don’t know that I can believe in Karma any more because it never seems to enact its revenge the way I wish it would on the evil doers. But if Karma could have it’s way I’m sure that even the subservient followers of the lordly king of the flies, may have to once again pick up and migrate as their ancestors had to, as eventually the war, drought, fire and famine that chased those willing to come here with nothing but the clothes on their backs will chase us all from where we feel comfortable and safe right now. Best to hope that wherever we end up is as welcoming as we were? Karma……..