Northwest Balsamroot growing next to Harsh paintbrush
It leaves me in complete awe over how beautifully and effortlessly Mother Nature will design her garden. Everything seems to flow so perfectly together. Colors complement each other with ease. Nothing looks out of place or arranged. A gardener can learn so much just by observing how Nature designs her garden.
Northwest Balsamroot in full bloom. In the background you can look across the Columbia River and see Washington.
The two wildflowers highlighted in today’s post are Harsh Paintbrush (Castilleja hispida) and Northwest Balsamroot (Balsamorhiza deltoidea). Everywhere we turned these two flowers were blooming close to one another like a perfect pair.
Bright and cheerfull colors in Mother Nature's garden
They certainly jumped out at us from a distance being as bright as they are.
Northwest Balsamroot (Balsamorhiza deltoidea)
Honey bee paying a visit to a Northwest Balsamroot flower.
Wickedly bright red is the flower of the Harsh paintbrush (Castilleja hispida).
It was a gloriously beautiful spring day to be out wildflower hunting. Later this week I will show some softer colors that we also spotted on our wildflower hunt.
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow, never seen either of those before, I wonder if they stay on your side of the river? Gorgeous, what a lovely thing you are doing for your kids, teaching them so much about nature and all its glories. In that first photo, is that a cloud or a mountain? It’s kind of Mt. Rainier shaped!
Hi Karen, it is indeed a cloud but it does look like a mountain- a snow capped one to boot! I must confess on this last nature walk my boys were more concerned about watching some lizards they found but at least they are still learning and still getting out there and experiencing nature!
Cynthia,
What a lovely pairing of wildflowers. The Harsh paintbrush is one of my favorites. I’m hoping we have a better year for wildflowers here in Vermont. Last summer was so unbelievably rainy we didn’t get much of a show. We can learn so much from Mother Nature in designing our own gardens, I love to spend time observing and studying. Thank you for the virtual nature walk!
Hi Liisa, last spring was horribly wet and cold for us. We did not get to get out and enjoy the wildflowers because of it. This spring is shaping up to be a very nice one and I am taking full advantage of it! Hopefully this year will be better for you in Vermont.
Cynthia, the wildflowers are beautiful. I love the red and yellow together. Looking forward to seeing more.
Thank you Michelle. We are really enjoying ourselves this spring with all the wildflowers. Like I mentioned in a previous comment, last year was horrible for wildflower hunting so this year I am all over it! It has been a blast too as we are finding beautiful areas we never even knew about. Thanks for stopping by.
We’ve been doing a little wildflower hunting between chores as well. It’s amazing, once you start taking notice, just how many are out there. I’d love to have the time to document each one’s appearance and then be able to guess when we’ll see them for the first time the following spring. We do that with just a few we know.
~Faith
That is a wonderful idea Faith! I think I may need to implement that into our Nature Studies on the wildflowers. We are doing that exact thing with the birds- taking note on when they have arrived to our feeders so we can compare it with next year’s returns. Doing the same with the wildflowers would be just as interesting. I wonder what the data would prove on this little task? Does the preceding winter have an effect on the flowers bloom time, size, health, etc., etc. Thank you for this great idea!
You’re so right. Nature is just amazing!
And I am loving the nice weather so we can go out and experience all of it too!
I agree, Cynthia, that we can learn so much from how things are in nature. I guess that is because we make natural informal gardens. I have learned a lot about the importance of lack of symmetry and sometimes planting something tall at the front from observing nature. cheeers, catmint
Natures’ palate almost always work and these images show off this great colour combination. I have always mentioned to people that are having a hard time coming up with colour combinations to look around and see what nature has done.
Thanks for sharing.