Summer in the Northwest is for berries. You know the delicious ones popular to eat: blackberries, salmonberries, and thimbleberries, all of which can be found on walks in the woods or by roadsides. Then there are berries that some people eat or make jam from: elderberry, salal, Oregon grape, serviceberry, red huckleberry. A profusion of additional native berries appeal to wildlife. The Native Plant Garden is host to trees and shrubs that show the variety of these berries that sustain birds and other creatures.
Among the most striking is the berry of false Solomon’s seal (Maianthemum racemosa). (Why don’t we jettison the label “false” and call it Western Solomon’s seal?) In July a striking cluster of golden berries appears, looking like some kind of strange wedding favor.
Native red huckleberry (Vaccinium parviflorum) started to ripen in late July this year—everything has been slow because of our cold rainy spring. The berries attract many birds including flickers, jays, thrushes, chickadees, towhees, and bluebirds, and by several small mammals including squirrels and foxes. When ripe, the berries are bright red; they’re edible, but face-puckeringly tart. Oregon grape (Mahonia aquifolium) has dusty blue berry clusters that birds love too. You can make jam from both huckleberry and Oregon grape, but by all means don’t forget the sugar.
Twinberry (Lonicera involucrata), after producing its brilliant yellow tubular flowers, grows lustrous black berries, relished by fruit-eating birds, small mammals, and bears.
Serviceberry (Amelanchier alnifolia) produces a blueberry-like fruit, to the delight of many birds, as well as mammals including humans in the know. The berries start out green, turning pink, and are finally navy blue when ripe.
Come by the Garden to see native berries in action and get inspired to plant something in your own garden to attract feathered friends.

May was a busy time for the Buck Lake Native Plant Garden: we celebrated being chosen as Hansville’s Outstanding Community Organization of the Year, we hosted many visitors to the garden, and volunteers did gargantuan amounts of spring planting, transplanting, and weeding. Work parties persisted cheerfully under the rain; after all, the Northwest was fortunate to receive such even-tempered rainfall when so much of the country suffered destructive drought, wildfire, tornadoes, and hurricanes.

The garden is sporting colors that range from the fiery red-orange of the native columbine, the bright yellows of skunk cabbage and the garden’s new “Big Money”(!) iris, to the deep purple of trillium, the blue of camas, and the white of the magnificent flowering dogwood—and we wouldn’t have this rainbow without the rain.

Right now another striking color, pink, is appearing in the showy native rhodies and azaleas.
Rhododendron macrophyllum, Pacific rhododendron, is Washington’s state flower. Although many gardeners prefer cultivated varieties that bloom in other colors, Pacific r. is certainly among the most spectacular with its large pink flower clusters and broad leaves. Its scientific name literally means “rose tree with big leaves.” Where they grow in woods, the plants become tree-like, reaching up to 25 feet. In open gardens, Pacific r. is shorter and more compact.

Rhododendron occidentale is the Western azalea, native to the coasts of Oregon and California. This elegant deciduous shrub can reach 15 feet; it grows in moist, open woods and stream banks. Its captivatingly fragrant flowers are pale rose to white, with a yellow area on one petal, and sometimes deeper rose markings. Western azalea has the capacity to resprout from the ground if the top has been destroyed by fire, landslides, or flooding, as long as the root system remains intact. And like most other rhodies and azaleas, it prefers humus-rich, acid soil. It blooms May to July. Bees, hummingbirds, and butterflies visit its flowers.

Neither rhodies nor azaleas have served as food or medicine for humans. But their sculptural and floral beauty place them among the most popular native plants for Northwest gardens.

Last year, Congress approved April as National Native Plant Month. Coinciding with Washington’s own Native Plant Appreciation Month, this resolution stresses the importance of native plants to our ecosystems amid the threats of climate change. It’s a perfect time to visit the Buck Lake Native Plant Garden, one of Hansville’s jewels. Winter heaves a last sigh, old branches and spent flowers get cleaned up, and green shoots and leaves and buds herald the coming of spring.

One of spring’s first signs is the native red flowering currant, Ribes sanguineum. You might see it on roadsides, and of course it’s also in the BLNPG. At the south end of the garden, check out two large shrubs of a white-flowered form.

The garden’s first volunteer work party of the year is April 4 from 9:00am to noon; work parties run on the first and third Monday of each month from April thru October. Forget the troubles of the world, get your hands in the ground, learn from master gardeners, and check out Nature’s beauty! Wear sturdy shoes and bring gardening gloves.

Kitsap Community Foundation’s Great Give, the annual 24-hour online giving event, will take place on April 20. Buck Lake Native Plant Garden will participate again this year along with other local nonprofits such as the Greater Hansville Community Center, Flotsam & Jetsam Garden Club, and Hansville Helping Hands. Your donations are increased through bonuses funded by the Foundation. Last year, more than 350 Kitsap nonprofits received over $2 million in support. Explore all these worthy organizations at https://kitsapgreatgive.org/about, and give generously on 4/20.

Looking for more about native plants or the BLNPG? visit our website - https://bucklakegarden.com, the Washington Native Plant Society - https://www.wnps.org, and our new Facebook page (Buck Lake Native Plant Garden).

The Eddie’s White Wonder Dogwood (Cornus nuttallii × florida) planted last year in the garden blooms so spectacularly white you can see it driving by on Buck Lake Road! This cross between our native Pacific dogwood and the eastern dogwood was discovered by British Columbia nurseryman Henry M. Eddy and has been commercially propagated and available in the trade since 1955, ten years after it was discovered. It has advantages over its parents including growing taller and having larger flowers than the eastern dogwood, and it’s easier to grow and more resistant to anthracnose (a fungal disease) than its other parent the Pacific Dogwood.

It grows two feet a year to 35’h x 20’w. The dark green summer foliage turns to rich red in the fall. The big beautiful white flowers are followed by orange drupes (fruits). It attracts bees and butterflies; grosbeaks eat the drupes; and it is palatable to deer.And it is a Great Plant Pick, the July 2020 topic.

Diana Tyree-Eddy (any connection to Henry M.?) took this picture at the south entrance to BLNPG showing the dogwood in the upper left background. The western columbine in the foreground is a personal favorite.

June’s a perfect time of year to follow Diana’s lead and take a walk in the BLNPG.

What to say about November 2020? Just as every other year it’s time for fall cleanup in the garden. The local garden maven suggests eliminating deadheading. Seed heads and pods provide food and cover for birds and other creatures. After cleaning up debris, groom only the first couple feet of your beds and leave the beautiful fallen leaves as mulch on the ground.

BLNPG has note cards for sale!

The cards come in packets of six different gorgeous shots of the Buck Lake Native Plant Garden throughout the year. Taken by Betsy Leuner, each packet costs $15, which will support the garden.
The cards, shown here, will be available in early November at the Hansville Store. If you miss the sale and are interested please use our contact form to get in touch.

High Bush Cranberry (Viburnum opulus var. americanum) blooms showy white in late spring and the clustered bright red berries or drupes follow in fall. A drupe is a fleshy fruit with thin skin and a central stone containing a seed. Other drupes include plums, cherries, olives, and almonds. The fruit is edible but must not be tasty to the cedar waxwings, robins, and other songbirds that leave the drupes until they have frozen and thawed several times before they eat them.

Our high bush cranberry is located in the very northwest section of BLNPG in the rain garden. This shrub is known by various names including witch hopple, pincushion tree, and crampbark tree. Crampbark tree refers to antispasmotic properties of the bark which were discovered independently by Native Americans, Asians, and Europeans, all of whom used it for relief from menstrual and stomach cramps and asthma.

Contact us to visit the garden with a docent.

The mixed hedgerow in the Buck Lake Native Plant Garden marks the boundary of the southwest corner of the garden and serves as a transition from the woods behind to the planting bed in front. The mix of evergreen and deciduous shrubs is drought tolerant now that it is well established. The flowers attract hummingbirds and pollinators. The hedgerow provides fruit and seeds for birds and other animals plus cover from predators.

The hedgerow merits several visits throughout the year to watch the transition from flowers to fruit. Fremont’s Silk Tassel bush (Garrya fremontii) starts the progression of blooms in midwinter. Fellow evergreen Hairy Manzanita (Arctostaphylos columbiana) joins it in late winter. Deciduous white flowered Serviceberry (Amelanchier alnifolia) follows in early to late spring along with Oregon Grape’s (Mahonia aquifolium) golden yellow clusters of flowers. Spring shifts into summer when the deciduous shrubs Oceanspray (Holodiscus discolor) and fragrant Mock Orange (Philadelphus lewisii) take over blooming while Fremont’s Silk Tassel flowers ripen into purple berrylike fruit for robins and towhees.

See our website for an article on planting a native hedgerow in your garden. The article includes a picture of our hedgerow. The Plant Profiles on the website have pictures of the plants mentioned above.