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Disjunct Plants, or “How did THAT get here?”
North Central Washington has a concentration of endemic plant species, those found growing nowhere else (see blog post of July 1st, 2014). This area also has quite a few disjunct species, small...
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My Tronsen Ridge Suite
Last week I made a seed collecting foray to Tronsen Ridge above Blewett Pass, escaping the smoke-filled Wenatchee Valley. This area is easily one of the top spots for wildflowers in Central...
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Harvesting summer fruits
One of the great pleasures of summer in Central Washington is the abundance of fresh fruit to enjoy: cherries! peaches! serviceberries! Over the past two months I’ve been harvesting a variety of...
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Seed Cleaning 101
We’ve already begun sowing the seeds for the 2015 seedlings. Some of the seeds we take from storage in the freezer, having been collected in previous years, and other seeds are custom collected for...
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Open for business!
Tomorrow, Friday the 13th (good luck!), we get the 2015 season underway once again. We will be open for retail sales Fridays 9-5 and Saturdays 8-12N through June. If those times don’t work for...
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Scouler’s Willow
In the forests of Eastern Washington one of the first woody plants to bloom is the Scouler’s willow. A large Scouler’s willow at Derby Canyon Natives in March By mid-March most years (early March this...
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Quiz time! – Wildflower seedlings
Arrowleaf balsamroot and showy phlox (pink in background) With this early spring the wildflowers are already blooming, and the seedlings at Derby Canyon Natives are up and growing. Curious to know...
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Native Plants for Native Bees
Anthophora bee on phlox A few weeks back I attended a talk by Don Rolfs, who spoke about the over 700 species (!) of native bees we have in this state. Don, who has done fine work and photography on...
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Plant Quality and Containers
Our objective at Derby Canyon Natives is to grow native plants that meet our customers’ needs in both quantity and quality. Most of the plants we grow are planted in restoration projects, often in...
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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,...
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It’s cooling down – time to plant!
Bumblebee on cutleaf penstemon (Penstemon richardsonii) What a hot summer! It’s been hard on people, wildlife (especially fish) and plants. Even with diligent watering in the nursery there were a...
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Collecting conifer cones… and thinking of wildfire
September is the month I collect cones from both Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) and Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii). I won’t sow the seeds for a few months yet but I need to get the cones...
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Collecting conifer cones… and thinking of wildfire
September is the month I collect cones from both Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) and Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii). I won’t sow the seeds for a few months yet but I need to get the cones...
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2016 – Up and Growing Again!
Flower buds on Barrett’s penstemon (Penstemon barrettiae), from cuttings we rooted over the winter Derby Canyon Natives is now open for business. Through March we open by appointment Monday through...
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Red-flowering Currant
It happens every year. As soon as the red-flowering currant (Ribes sanguineum) blooms in the nursery there is a rufous hummingbird on it. I saw my first male hummer of the spring on Saturday,...
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Blanketflower – and NPAW!
What is NPAW, you ask? Why Native Plant Appreciation Week, an annual event organized by the Washington Native Plant Society to recognize and celebrate the beauty and diversity of our native flora....
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Penstemon Time
I get excited about this time every year when the penstemons start to bloom, both in the nursery and in the wild. The colors and diverse forms of the penstemon species found in the West are amazing....
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A Good Season Winds Down
Colorful fall leaves on red osier dogwood (Cornus sericea) With autumn weather (rain!) and colors upon us it’s good to take some time to look back at the season that is winding down. It is gratifying...
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Opening soon (I hope!)
The pictures above and below were taken March 8th. At this time the previous four years we had the hoop houses covered with poly and little seedlings were emerging. Not this year! While much of the...
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Live stakes and cuttings
In late winter, before any seeds have germinated in the nursery, we are out in the snow with loppers and clippers in hand. Our objective? Collecting live stakes and cuttings from stands of willows...
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