We’ve planted the property around the Plantiva office with a wide variety of native and medicinal plants. Many of them begin to bloom in April, providing a beautiful display as well as important early-season food for native pollinators.
Early Spring Flowers
The weather is finally warming up, and with the sun comes the pollinators! We’ve got bees, flies, beetles, and all kinds of insects buzzing around the property in search of food. At this time of year when food sources are limited, many of them rely on early-blooming flowers for sustenance.
With this in mind, we’ve established a wide variety of flowering plants around the property with the intention of having something blooming nearly year-round, for the delight of birds, insects, and humans alike.
Below are just a few of the beauties that have been putting on a display in the past few weeks. They’re not only gorgeous, but they’re also all native to Oregon or the California floristic province which includes southern Oregon. Since they’re adapted to our area, they’re easy to grow and are just what the local birds and insects need!
Marsh Marigold (Caltha palustris) is blooming her ever-loving head off in the pond. Marsh Marigold has a bit of a bad reputation as a weed, but this variety “Plena” has been well-behaved for us. Every year around this time she puts on a lovely display of golden yellow flowers.
This delicate shell-pink Redwood Sorrel (Oxalis oregana) is slowly spreading through a dry, rocky, shaded area. We planted her there to keep her in check! Otherwise – despite her diminutive stature – she might eat the whole yard!
Five Spot (Nemophila maculata) is a lovely little native that covers the ground in low mounds of cheery white flowers with purple dots. The insects just love her! She reseeds herself freely every year, meaning we only had to plant her once and now we get to enjoy her every spring.
Baby Blue Eyes (Nemophila menziesii) is the sister species to Five Spot. These little beauties are perfectly named, as they form a carpet of baby blue fluttering in the spring breezes. She reseeds well here just like Five Spot does.
The Western dog violets (Viola adunca) are putting out their dark purple blooms. We’ve been extremely happy to see them spreading around the property since they form the main food source for the endangered Oregon silverspot butterfly, which nearly went extinct in the 1990s. Read more about the recovery program for this butterfly at the Oregon Zoo: https://www.oregonzoo.org/conserve/fighting-extinction-pacific-northwest/oregon-silverspot-butterfly.
Lewisia (a.k.a. bitterroot) is a charming PNW native plant that puts out sprays of gorgeous flowers in shades of pink, orange, peach, yellow, and off-white. The root is edible and medicinal. Species include L. rediviva, L. longipetala, L. cotyledon, and many others.
These are just a few of the more unusual plants we’ve got established here at the Plantiva office. We’re lucky to be in southern Oregon where we can grow a wider variety of plants than just about anywhere else in the U.S.
Whether it’s for food, medicine, ornamentation, or otherwise, we love everything plants!
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
If you find our content interesting and useful we’d appreciate your sharing it on your social media feeds. We’re a small family company with limited advertising dollars, so every bit of extra exposure helps! Also, if you have questions or comments, please post them below and we’ll respond as quickly as we can!