A few days ago my children and I went on a walk looking for various plants and flowers that we might gather for my natural dyes and medicinal uses. I noted that in just another week or two tansy will begin to flower. Tansy grows like a weed around where we live and many people may call it just that. I also noted that the goldenrod still has quite a bit longer to go before it begins to even set bud. This year I hope to gather some goldenrod for my dyes as well as for some medicinal purposes. I have not used goldenrod medicinally before but have been reading about it what it is good for and hope to try it out some.

One plant on our walk was in bloom and ready to be gathered for medicinal purposes or even for dyeing. That herb happens to be one of my favorites too. I am talking about Achilea millefolium or yarrow as it is commonly known.

Yarrow can indeed be used as a natural dye and will in fact produce various shades of yellow. It has been a favorite of mine for medicinal purposes for many years now. I like to turn to it in times of colds, flus, or fevers and will add it to my medicinal tea mixes.

My daughter had so much fun helping me pick a bundle of Yarrow’s flowering tops.

We brought this bundle home and hung it upside down to dry. Yarrow dries very nicely this way.

One could even use some of the flowers in a dried flower arrangement. Dried yarrow flowers hold up rather well and look pretty mixed with other dried botanicals.

I always make sure I point out my children on these walks how important it is to never take more than we can use and to always leave plenty of the plant behind to continue growing and producing. Also, it is so important to make sure you are harvesting from areas that you know have not been treated with pesticides. Safe and courteous wildcrafting is something I cannot stress enough! For more information on wildcrafting I suggest taking a look at this informative pdf link.

I did not intend to take so many days to post the last part of this wildflower walk that my family and I went on. Last week proved to be a very busy week in my garden and much was accomplished. Although it did wear me out and leave no time for anything else! I hope to share some of what I did in the garden later this week.

Now to continue on with our last nature walk: in the last post I showcased two very bright wildflowers that jumped out at us as we wandered the path we were on. I am more drawn to softer colors and really enjoyed the wildflowers found in today’s post. I like the soothing colors of blue and purple flowers and the wild lupines in full bloom certainly fit that bill.

Broadleaf Lupine (Lupinus latifolius)

I have never before seen a wild larkspur and had to look these pretty flowers up to identify them. We did not find very many of these blooming so I felt rather lucky to stumble upon the few that we did.

Upland Larkspur (Delphinium nuttallianum)

The final flower to show from this nature walk was one of the sweetest little wildflowers I have seen. Small little white bells tinged with blue dotted the landscape here and there and would remain unseen if you were not paying close attention.

Bicolor Triteleia (Triteleia grandiflora var. howellii)

I hope to have my family go on a couple more wildflower hunts this spring while we still have the chance to spot a few. If there is one thing I have learned about nature from gardening is that Mother Nature does not wait for you. One must go out and enjoy all Mother Nature has to offer while you can because if you snooze you lose! The wildflower displays may be short lived but they are so worth going out and finding them.

A few days back I took my children out for another wildflower hunt. This time we were searching for a few specific flowers that I had read were in bloom at the moment. What a treat we had waiting for us!

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.