ByGD
Himalayan blackberry is everywhere in the Pacific Northwest. It’s the tastiest noxious weed ever, so it’s hard to get too upset about it. But it does displace some native species that also deserve our love. Case in point: salmonberry. Probably named for orangey-pink of its berries, salmon berry is much prettier than blackberry. Maybe the berries are not as tasty, but the prickles are less vicious. And they do belong here.
ByGD
Violets are an old fashioned flower that seem to be coming back into fashion. It’s funny that such a small, demure flower should be bred into the showy pansy popular at hardware stores. I like those too, but I prefer the original woodland flower. Bonus points for the Pacific Northwest native variety.
ByGD
I used to live in the Magnolia neighborhood of Seattle. Legend has it that the neighborhood was named by sailors, who saw a bluff covered with beautiful white flowers. Thinking they were magnolias, they named it Magnolia bluff. April Fools on the sailors! They were actually madronas – an endemic Pacific Northwest species with a beautiful mottled red bark and exquisite white flowers.
But the joke is on the natives. Madronas are a sensitive species. They don’t transplant well and they are sensitive to soil conditions and disturbances. Magnolias do grow well here, and they are very pretty. Nowadays you are more likely to see a magnolia in flower in Seattle than a madrona.