Color on display!

Sulfur buckwheat (Eriogonum umbellatum) in full bloom

NOTE- I’ve been unable to connect to Facebook for months, but that has finally been corrected.  This is outdated, first put on my web site in May, but I thought the pretty flower photos were still worth sharing!)

At this time of year many of the wildflowers planted about Derby Canyon Natives really put on a show, and one group that always impresses me are the desert buckwheats (Eriogonum sp.).  For me, they epitomize low-care reliability, being very drought-tolerant, having long-lasting blooms, generally have nice foliage and form and are attractive to many pollinators.

In the bed shown above we have seven species of buckwheats, not all visible in the photo.  The flower color of most species will range from white through cream to shades of yellow.

Closeup of flower buds of Eriogonum heracleoides, aka creamy, Wyeth, Hercules or parsnip-flowered buckwheat!

In the flower bed shown above (which I water only 2-3 times in the growing season) you can see a bit of orange, a rare color in native flora.  That would be the orange globemallow (Sphaeralcea munroana), a shrub-steppe wildflower that has been stunning in this bed for over ten years.

And we can’t overlook the other group of wildflowers that are often on display in the spring, the penstemons.

The Chelan penstemon (Penstemon pruinosus), shown above, has been outstanding this spring, tho’ it’s time is drawing to a close for this year.  Another species that has been a very reliable performer, and has evergreen (well, blue-green) foliage as a bonus, is Barrett’s penstemon (P. barrettiae), shown below.  Native to the Columbia Gorge, it has done great for many years in Peshastin.  I had 80 plants for sale this spring; with it’s color display, I sold out before my display plant had reached full bloom.  Let that be a lesson for me; today I took over 100 cuttings to root and hope to have plenty more for sale this fall.