Monthly Archives: March 2025

Spring Natives and My Feathered Friends

Spring is in full swing here in North Seattle. Thousands of seedlings are popping up in my native nursery pots, and flowers and leaves are springing out in the native garden.

Oregon grape seedlings have appeared in the last week.
Lupinus rivularis seedlings have also shown up this month.
Lupinus rivularis seedlings have also germinated. I am looking forward to having more of these to add to the native plant garden and share with neighbors.
More Oregon grape seedlings with year-old western columbine seedlings behind.
About two dozen western columbine seedlings survived the winter. I am feeding them and trying to boost their size before planting them out or giving them away.
I planted out most of the large-leaved avens, but this one is just waking up, a seedling from last year.

These are just a few of the thousands of seedlings that have popped up from seeds planted last autumn. Some of the seeds were planted the year before. It is tough not to get excited by the germination of the natives after so many months. The seep monkey flowers are probably the most successful germinators. I have potted at least 50 of them in small clumps into 4″ pots…tough to know if they will take or not. They look fragile after transplanting, but my hope is they will “catch” and start to grow in the coming weeks. These are annual plants, and I have high hopes of adding them to the edge of our koi pond as well as slipping some around Twin Ponds and other wet areas in the neighborhood.

Other seedlings include another monkey flower, the scarlet monkey flower, with the tiniest seedlings I think I have ever seen! There are a lot of teeny seedlings that just germinated in the last week. It will be another month before they can be transplanted, maybe longer.

Other seedlings include fringecup, Oregon tough-leaved iris, grass widows, Menzie’s fiddlenecks, Douglas aster, and yarrow. The tree and shrub seeds are slower to germinate. I am still waiting on western crabapple, madrone, cascara, pacific dogwood, blackcap raspberry, and others.

In addition to seed starting, I undertook some vegetative propagation today by uprooting some Douglas aster starts from my biggest clumps. I potted about twenty cuttings into pots and watered them well. If they strike, they should be ready for transplanting or giving away by the middle of May. I was very impressed with Douglas aster as a patio pot plant last year and will share that benefit when I share the cuttings with neighbors and friends.

Probably the showiest flower in my native plant garden, salmonberry.
My osoberry was covered in blooms this year. Their juxtaposition with the developing leaves reminds me of a shuttlecock.
My Oregon grape is blooming especially well this year.
I have not seen pollinators on these flowers, but am hopeful that there will be hundreds of berries in the fall to feed the birds and provide more seedlings to plant out and give away.

A special flower appeared in the garden today. These are usually so well-hidden that I miss them. It is the flower of the western wild ginger. I happened to get a few photos this year.

As much as I enjoy propagating these natives and watching them bloom, my new favorite hobby is documenting the “why” of native gardens–the birds and other wildlife that are drawn to my garden. Here are a few birds that are nesting in our yard this year so far:

There is a pair of Bewick’s wrens nesting in a box just outside our front window. Here is the male singing his beautiful song within a few yards of Leon and me.
I spotted this pair of dark-eyed juncos building a nest on the ground in the native plant garden today. The nest is in a not-so-safe place. I will try to help them protect it if I can. I would not be surprised if another paid of juncos is nesting on the other side of the yard. They seem to love the messy orchard garden.
Nuthatches are typically a seasonal bird for us, but I believe a pair is nesting in a box in the orchard garden. This beauty was scaling our big Douglas fir tree today.
A third bird box likely has chestnut-backed chickadees. There is a pair hanging out all over the yard.
The queen of the yard birds, our American crow, Half-Beak. We have been enjoying her visits for at least twelve years. She is back, and I heard mating noises today. I imagine she has a nest in our Douglas fir tree.
The song sparrows seem to like the branch piles in the orchard garden. It seems likely they are breeding there somewhere.

Several other bird species may be nesting in or near our yard. I have been hearing pine siskins consistently in the Douglas fir tree, which is new. They are usually long gone by now to parts unknown. I hear and see golden-crowned kinglets every day. There is a yellow-rumped warbler that visits the suet feeder every day. It looks scruffy, maybe with avian pox, but it seems to have a good appetite, and its health has improved in the last week or so. There are spotted towhees around the yard every day. They seem to like the messy orchard garden, too. I see and hear black-capped chickadees every day now, too. A pair of Anna’s hummingbirds frequents the north side of the orchard garden. Infrequently, a Townsend’s warbler appears at the feeder. Some house finches were hanging around last week. There are band-tailed pigeons that roost in several trees nearby. We see American robins, Stellar’s jays, glaucus-winged gulls, and northern flickers daily. I am excited that our neighborhood continues to host so many avian species and hope a few more of them raise broods here in our yard.