Archive for the 'Photography' Category
The Painted Hills in the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument in north-central Oregon are an out-of-this-world landscape. Layers of colorful bentonite, formed from ancient volcanic ash, change color with the light and moisture content. Each spring they pick up golden highlights from two endemic plants. The taller of the two, Golden Bee Plant or Cleome platycarpa, is an annual with a bright tuft of flowers at the top. The other, John Day’s Pincushion or Chaenactis nevii, is also an annual. continue reading »
May 26 2010 | Native Plants and Photography | 3 Comments »
Last weekend I made a 1000-mile road trip to see a bunch of plants. Most were in the wild, but I stopped in Yakima to see my friend Ron McKitrick’s Hillside Desert Botanical Garden.
Ron has the most incredible cactus garden you’ll find just about anywhere. He’s been growing cactus, which are native only to the Americas, for decades and has filled his back yard with these prickly beauties.
The photo here is of one of the most spectacular clumps in the garden, a Scarlet Hedgehog Cactus. You might know it as Echinocereus triglochidiatus var. octacanthus. But then again, cactus taxonomy seems to be in flux and the name may have changed. Anyhow, that’s what Ron calls it. You might find it growing in the wild in any of the southwestern states, but not up here in Washington. continue reading »
May 20 2010 | Gardens and Native Plants and Photography | 2 Comments »
A week or so ago one of the garden magazine editors I work with regularly sent an e-mail saying she was looking for photos of gardens with flea market stuff in them for a story. A couple of days later she wrote again, saying they were going to do a whole special magazine on the subject. I searched my files and put together a preview gallery for Diane, and then got to work trying to find some new material.
The Birchwood Garden Club met last Wednesday night, and I asked whether anyone knew of gardens that might fit the bill. One lady, who I didn’t know well, mentioned her friend in La Conner and said she’d give her a call. Cutting to the chase, I visited Chris McCarthy’s garden on Friday afternoon and spent a couple of hours making some new images.
Chris was a little hesitant for me to shoot on Friday afternoon since I’d initially approached her to “just take a look.” But the light was nice, filtering through the trees, and she had some nice stuff in her garden. I also convinced her that I was good at cropping weeds out of the frame and that we could just pluck the dandelion seed heads that were in the way.
This hand rising out of a pot on the back porch, seemingly caressing the emerging foliage of some balloon flowers, was one of the first images I made while Chris weeded the next shot. continue reading »
May 10 2010 | Gardens and Photography | 1 Comment »
Try saying the title three times fast. If you’re not up on your botanical Latin maybe the words don’t quite roll off your tongue.
Anyway, what do these have in common? They’re all members of the rose family, Rosaceae, they’re all in bloom right now, and they all have tasty edible fruit later in the season.
The Amelanchier alnifolia, commonly called Serviceberry or Saskatoon, is a large shrub with masses of flowers with shaggy white petals. It’s native on both sides of the Cascades, smells sweet, and is showy along roadsides right now. My friend David Perry collected some for a bouquet over around Spokane a week or so ago and wrote about it on one of his blogs, A Fresh Bouquet. David is an exquisite photographer with a keen eye and discerning taste. If you’re not following his blogs you should be.
There are other species of Serviceberry in other parts of the country. I learned the name of this plant, pronounced “sarvisberry,” as a kid in West Virginia. Out there the species is Amelanchier arborea. Whatever you call it, the flowers will be followed by small dark purple fruit around mid-summer. I usually leave them for the birds, but they’re edible and often used for jams and jellies. continue reading »
May 03 2010 | Native Plants and Photography | 1 Comment »
A couple of weeks ago I was over to Ellensburg for the semi-annual board meeting of the Washington Native Plant Society. It’s an all-day business meeting dealing with important affairs of the organization, but not near as much fun as getting out and poking around among the plants.
The next day Don Knoke, one of the most knowledgeable plant guys in the area, led a field trip along the Old Vantage Highway with stops at Whiskey Dick Wildlife Area and a couple of places in Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park. We ambled among the grasses and sagebrush, meandered across the lithosol, and threaded our way among the plants on the sandy dunes along Wanapum Reservoir on the Columbia River.
This photo was made near the Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park visitor center at Vantage, just a hundred yards or so off the road toward the river. Showy Phlox, Phlox speciosa, and Carey’s Balsamroot, Balsamorhiza carreyana, are what’s blooming here. In mid-April you’ll find Showy Phlox carpeting the hillsides in many places throughout central Washington. It truly lives up to its name. Carey’s is just one of several species of Balsamroot. Just over the hill to the west of Ellensburg you’re more likely to find Balsamorhiza sagittata which has somewhat fuzzy leaves and distinctly hairy bracts below the blossoms. continue reading »
May 01 2010 | Native Plants and Photography | 3 Comments »
