Urban Landscape, Native Landscape: Erigeron speciosus

Friday, May 30, 2014

Erigeron speciosus

Erigeron speciosus 'Darkest of All' in the Ornamental Border at Bradner Gardens Park in June 2013

Erigeron speciosus 'Prosperity' in the Cascadia Garden in June 2010

Erigeron glaucus in the Cascadia Garden in June 2012

Erigeron species at Frenchman Coulee near Vantage WA in May 2013

Erigeron species at Crab Creek near Moses Lake WA in May 2013

This is a post about Erigeron speciosus & High Country Gardens. Erigeron speciosus (Showy Fleabane) is a perennial with beautiful flowers, widespread in the western US, including Washington. There are quite a number of cultivars & hybrids in various shades of blue, lavender & pink. It grows to a height of about 30 inches. It is a low maintenance & fairly drought tolerant plant. While I'm at it, I'll also mention Erigeron glaucus & Erigeron in general. I think Erigeron glaucus is the most beautiful & useful species of the genus in Seattle. It blooms for a very extended period from May through October & is highly drought tolerant. The flowers are as large as Erigeron speciosus, but the plant is low & spreading. The genus Erigeron has almost 400 species growing in a variety of conditions throughout the northern hemisphere. Eastern Washington has a number of small species adapted to very dry conditions. Two of them appear above.

In January of 2014, I received this message via email: I noticed a photo of Erigeron 'Darkest of All' on the blog The Ornamental Border at Bradner Gardens Park on July 6, 2013. High Country Gardens is offering this plant for our Spring 2014 season and we are in need of a photo for our website. We were wondering if you would allow us to use the photo. If this is something you would be willing to do we would be happy to send you a High Country Gardens gift certificate as a thank you.

I was happy to receive a gift certificate for $50, because I have high regard for High Country Gardens. I ordered plants from them several times for the Cascadia Garden. They were always in excellent condition. High Country Gardens sells plants for the arid western US. Many of their plants have limited use in Seattle. But some are worth trying on dry sites, in pots filled partly with gravel, & under the overhangs on the south or west walls of buildings where they get a limited amount of rainfall. Others, like Erigeron speciosus, grow well along the Pacific northwest coast.

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About This Blog

This blog began in 2008 as Metropolitan Gardens to provide information on gardening in Seattle & places like it. Click on Gardening in Cascadia. The blog expanded to include Parks P-Patches Public Gardens in the US, Canada & Europe. Then Nature was added. (The difference between nature & gardens is intent. Nature happens. Gardens are planned.) Many recent posts are not about Seattle, or even Cascadia. They are Urban Landscape: streetscape & architecture. Cascadia is the region including the Cascade Mountains of Washington & Oregon. If you want to contact the blogger, leave a message in comments. Comments are moderated & private messages will not be posted.

Our Land & Climate

The city of Seattle rests between 2 bodies of water: Puget Sound & Lake Washington. Puget Sound is a substantial part of the Salish Sea & a very small part of the Pacific Ocean. The Salish Sea is set apart from the Pacific by the Olympic Peninsula in the state of Washington & Vancouver Island in the province of British Columbia. The dense, wet clouds of the Pacific Ocean travel as far as the Cascade Mountains, near the Salish Sea & not very far from the ocean. East of the Cascades lies the desert of the Columbia Basin. The moist, temperate climate of Seattle extends south to northern California & north to southeastern Alaska. The Pacific Northwest Coast from San Francisco Bay to Cook Inlet shares a flora dominated by evergreen coniferous forest. The central portion, west of the Cascade Mountains, is called Cascadia. The climate is cool & wet from fall to spring, warm & dry in summer. The Olympic Mountains block Seattle from much of the Pacific rainfall. Seattle is drier than the Atlantic coast of North America & northern Europe, cooler in summer & warmer in winter. It lies near the latitude of Paris & Quebec City.