WILDFLOWERS? HA!

We will now take a break from dogdom to 1)assure our Stanford member that I am still talking plants and 2)report on the ongoing succession of flowers in the mountains and meadows of the Columbia River Gorge.

FORGET IT.

The rain and cold have been relentless since May. That was the last time I saw an open-bloomed flower with its face to the sun. Pollination? Ha! Truly, this weather has been a trial.

For instance, my favorite fragrant shrub, Michelia figo (aka the banana shrub), did a two or three day waft through my french window and then, zip. I live for this June fragrance, a dead ringer for Juicy Fruit gum, though never flowering in enough abundance to make me want to gag. Sweet, as you know, can get cloying. But not my Michelia, which, like most fragrant flowers, needs the kiss of the sun to spread its joy.

But wait, it doesn't stop with the Michelia. What about my huge Pittosporum, P. 'Tall and Tough'? Thousands, I mean thousands of small beneficent blooms that send fragrance all the way down the block. NADA. Well, not entirely, there've been a few moments, but I have pictures from several years ago of friends dining beneath the pittosporum positively giddy. I won't go out to sweep now let alone dwell in the garden.

Let us remember Spring with a moment from June past...

The cushions are still in the basement and the Miscanthus has chronic hat head.