PERENNIAL SEEDS

PERENNIALS

Perennial plants will live for three or more years. Many perennials require several growing seasons to flower and produce seed. Perennial plant seed can also be re-sewn in the landscape. Some key things to know are: stratification and vernalization. Stratification is the cold requirement that some seeds may require before they will germinate, vernalization is the overwinter cold requirement that existing plants must experience before they will make seed heads.

Ethnobotany is the study of a region's plants and their practical uses through the traditional knowledge of a local culture and people. An ethnobotanist thus strives to document the local customs involving the practical uses of local flora for many aspects of life, such as plants as medicines, foods, intoxicants and clothing. Ethnobotany is investigating plants used by societies in various parts of the world.

Perennial Info & Photos:

Pearly Everlasting: Anaphalis margaritacea: For dried bouquets, Pearly Everlasting is the best of our “everlasting” natives and is often used as a cut flower. It grows in many garden settings with sunny, open sites. Flowers begin blooming in mid-summer and extend until winter. It grows in open meadows, roadsides, and forest openings at all elevations.

Yarrow: Achillea millefolium: On dry to moist, well-drained open sites, rocky slopes, sometimes in open forest at many elevations.

Narrowleaf Milkweed: Asclepias fascicularis: Grows in dry to moistsoil near streams in valleys, foothills. Likes direct sun.

Showy Milkweed: Asclepias speciosa: Grows in fields, roadsides, near streams and ditches.

Common Camas: Camas quamash: Grows in moist meadows that dry in summer. Can be found in oak savannahs. Lewis and Clark reported that this flowering plant occurred in such large swaths that it resembled lakes of clear, blue water.

Pacific Hound's Tongue: Cynoglossum grande: This plant likes the woods under oaks.

Hooker's Fairybells:: Disporum hookeri: Grows in shaded woods with plenty of rain.

Oregon Fawn Lily: Erythronium oregonum: Well-drained, open to dense woodlands.

Bluedicks: Dichelostemma capitatum: Likes open woodlands, grasslands, and dry woods.

Blue Globe Gilia: Gilia capitata: One of the easiest and most reliable showy annuals with ease of establishment. Very attractive to honey bees, and we also see great numbers of small ground-nesting sweat bees showing up on it, especially on warm mornings.

Columbian Larkspur: Delphinium trollifolium: Grows in moist, usually shady places in oak and mixed woods where one might not expect to find colorful blue-flowered plants. Organic matter on the forest floor is the best soil for growth.

Oregon Iris: Iris tenax: open areas, fields, pastures, roadsides, logged areas, and open woodlands.

Crevice Alumroot: Heuchera micrantha: Grows on cool, rocky cliffs, established banks, but also likes open forest glades and sunny wild gardens.

Tiger Lily: Lilium columbianum: Woodlands and moist open sites, also road ditches in the foothills.

Riverbank or Streambank Lupine: Lupinus rivularis: Flowing water, forest, grassland or meadows.

Meadow Checkermallow: Sidalcea campestris: Grassland or meadows, ecotones.

Slender Cinquefoil: Potentilla gracilis: Likes wet spots such as marsh edges and sufficient organic matter.

Cardwell’s Penstemon: Penstemon cardwellii: Grows on rock slopes and in forest openings.

Narrow Leaf Mule’s Ear: Wyethia angustifolia: Forest, grassland, freshwater wetland, meadows.

Stream Violet: Viola glabella: Moist steambanks, meadows, shady places.

Inside Out Flower: Vancouveria hexandra: Grows in deep shade in conifer forests.

Western Trillium: Trillium ovatum: Likes the dim, becalmed deciduous forest floor.

Fingercups: Tellima grandiflora: Grows in moist forests, along streams, bare or rock-covered ground, by flowing water, and grassy meadows.

Canada Goldenrod: Solidago canadensis: Prefers undisturbed sites, it would be part of an old-fashioned flower bed. Likes wet meadows and forest openings (ecotones).

Blue Eyed Grass: Sisyrinchium idahoense: Dry rocky bluffs and meadows, open oak woodlands, freshwater ponds, and scrub areas.

Western Red Columbine: Aquilegia formosa: Likes open to partly shaded sites, meadows, rocky slopes, forest glades, roadsides.

Western Wild Ginger: Asarum caudatum: Moist and shady garden nooks, banks, edges of Rhododendron beds, woodland glens. ( Available in 2022)