Maybe Mallow

This gallery contains 21 photos.

I am, by no means an expert on flowers. I’m just a guy with low batteries in my point and shoot camera, walking in the back yard. These plants come up each year in one section of a flower bed. … Continue reading →

Trilliums Show their Stuff

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The Western White Trillium usually blooms about three weeks before Easter in Western Washington. To get more information about this showy flower, and to see a photo collage showing the color change that takes place, go to: The Western White Trillium (Trillium Ovatum), … Continue reading →

Fairy Lanterns, the Hidden Flowers

This gallery contains 4 photos.

Also known as Smith’s fairy bells, fairy lanterns (Prosartes smithii) are native to the deep moist wooded areas of western North America. Leathery oval leaves ending in a point, grow from upright stems with wide spreading branches. I have noticed … Continue reading →

My Featured Flower for 2011: Chinese Foxglove

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I tend to chose the same tried and true plants for my flower beds year after year. To be honest, although I love gardening, I’m just not very good at it. However, I do know what plants have given me … Continue reading →

The Mysterious Ghost Plant

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While hiking an Oregon coast trail last week, I came upon a very strange patch of flowering plants. The stems, leaves and flowers were all an odd translucent white, and the flowers were pointed downward, as if wilted. Luckily I … Continue reading →

The Three Weeds I Despise the Most

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After extensive thought and research, you plan the layout of your flower bed, you amend the soil to provide a rich growing medium, you select plants that are suited to the space and your tastes, then you put it all … Continue reading →

The Western White Trillium (Trillium Ovatum), Stunning Early Bloomer of the Forest

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I always look forward to spring. The forest comes alive with new growth. One of the early attention grabbers along the trail behind my home is the Western White Trillium. A solitary three-petaled blossom unfurls from a stem about a … Continue reading →

Voodoo Lily is Beauty and Beast

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Several years ago, I was given a single bulb to plant in what I called my garden of oddities, a small area I reserved for “interesting” one of a kind plants. From the description I had received, it sounded like … Continue reading →

From a Pack Rat’s Journal: That Mountain of Planters

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I admit it. I’m a pack rat. It’s very difficult for me to throw anything away. If I believe there is even the slimmest possibility that I will find a use for something years from now, I will keep it. … Continue reading →