Tag Archives: wildflower

My Favorite Native Groundcover

Posted by Sandi

This weekend is the annual Garden Tour sponsored by the Orcas Island Garden Club. The theme is Homestead Gardens, and the focus is on “the sustainable horticulture of fruits, vegetables, herbs and livestock.” This will be interesting, and I’ll probably come home hungry with flatlander envy. My consolation prize: my flourishing native plants that have been taking care of themselves for eons. While they don’t provide a meal, I find they do provide food for the soul.

Case in point: Some years ago I discovered this cute little vine creeping alongide salal. It had been there all along, I had just failed to take notice. I thought it might be a weed, but it persisted through the winter. I took a sample to a Master Gardener, and even she couldn’t identify it. Well come the next June, this glossy evergreen creeper erupted with tiny pairs of pink and white bell flowers, dangling at the top of delicate stalks. There was no mistaking it: this was Linnaea borealis, our native Twinflower. How lucky am I!

I started weeding out her competition, and she immediately showed her appreciation. Unlike salal which is quite prolific on our property, Twinflower has selected just a few areas to thrive: a smaller patch along a sunny cliff, and a larger established mat under fir trees which receives afternoon sun. In the shady patch, the blooms last nearly all summer and keep the bees busy.

Although Twinflower can be easily propagated by cuttings from runners, it’s very slow to establish and takes seedlings about thirteen years to bloom. So when taking your woodland walks this summer, be sure to look down and notice this diminutive but hardy little creeper. She’s a special one!


Looking to enjoy the simple life on beautiful Orcas Island?
Contact T Williams Realty  – we’ll help you find your way home.

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Fawns In Our Blueberry Patch

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. Continue reading

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Filed under Gardening, Nature