Posted by Sandi
The other day I went up the hill to weed our neglected blueberry garden and was delighted to find a dozen or more fawns…White Fawn Lilies! I’ve seen the striking mottled leaves of our native (Erythronium oregonum) hugging the ground all around our property, but never a bloom because we’re heavily browsed by deer. Solution: put up a deer fence and let a section go wild!
- Our native White Fawn Lily is becoming more rare because people pick them or try to transplant them, usually without success.
While this wasn’t the plan (the blueberry patch was my husband’s project that fell out of favor after losing last summer’s crop to birds), I was thrilled nonetheless. It makes me wonder what other natives would flourish if we deer fenced our property.
Sometimes called an Easter lily, the name of our White Fawn Lily was inspired by its basal pair of mottled leaves resembling a spotted fawn. The olive-brown leaves are handsome in their own right, and together with the flowers — which are sometimes borne two, three or four on a single stem — this is one gorgeous wildflower. Certainly one of my favorites!
I would like to establish these closer to our house, but after reading the propagation methods, I think I’ll just enjoy them wherever they’re growing wild throughout Orcas Island.
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Beautiful lily; never knew they existed!
Deer love to eat them so usually we just see the cool-looking leaves — I’ll post a photo a photo of the leaves so you can recognize them.
These lillies are so beautiful! I have deer in my yard which backs up to a large ravine. I tie hair from my brushes and attach to some of my favorite plants so that they won’t be eaten by the deer for dessert!
I didn’t know about the hair trick! I will definitely try it. Thanks!