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Woodland Flowers

© Howard Deutch

Most serious gardeners carefully plan their gardens. Adjacent colors are complementary. Heights, sizes and periods of bloom are well matched in these gardens. Seemingly natural sections are diligently thought out before implementation. Year after year improvements are made where earlier plans need change or growth has not followed intentions. Nature's approach is wild abandon. My garden must be following nature's lack of guidance. While I do not plant a Serviceberry in front of a bed of short perennials, when it eventually encompasses them I let nature take its course. That seems to be true of many areas of my garden where plants strain to creep out from under enveloping giants. In the woods, it is also the survival of the fittest.

A fellow Girl Scout Leader of Kay's, before Kay eventually graduated to the board, called any wildflower she could not identify "just a weed". Weeds are thought to be the hardiest plants, surviving under stress and out competing less vigorous growth. Wildflowers in a forest's understory seem to fit that description. Take the Dwarf  Dogwood. It is only several inches high and manages to exist in the gloom of the trees towering over it. This is a Dogwood?  Yes. I did not know that when it was first encountered. I am more accustomed to Dogwoods that are taller than I am. The fittest adapt.

Dwarf Dogwood

 

Another flower, in addition to the Dogwood, that I found in abundance in British Columbia forests was the  Salal. They seemed to be everywhere. A true definition of a weed. If only the weeds in my garden were as interesting.

 

Salal   

 

The third Canadian wildflower illustrated here is a form of Goatsbeard that was new to me, Goatsbeard Aruncus dioicus. I found this growing alongside paths in many of the woodland trails.

Goatsbeard

 

On the other side of the North American continent, in a New York state park next to my house, there was a Canada Mayflower. The flower was gone but the bright red berries remained. It seemed to be a reminder of our recent vacation in Canada.

Canada Mayflower

Jewelweed

 

 Nearby there were Jewelweed and Aster flowers. All were flourishing beneath the canopy of tall trees. If I had that much shade in my garden I would be hard pressed to find things to grow