Wildflowers

For as long as I can remember, I have loved wildflowers. Childhood memories always include late spring and early summer days of tramping about the southern Oregon hillsides looking for wildflowers. In later life I have fond memories of hiking up the Iron Mountain trail in July to photograph the wild profusion of alpine flowers in bloom. They are a wonder… wildflowers… popping up on their own accord with no gardener’s tender attentions, no soil amendments, careful watering, or weeding. They come and they go in quick succession, hurrying to spin their life cycle before winter comes again. With our unusually cool spring they have been late in arriving this year, but finally I begin to see Arnica’s bright yellow faces on a sunny roadside bank and Bunchberry dogwood blooms beneath the trees. (Photos by P. L. Morningstar: Arnica and Bunchberry Cornus canadensis.)

... P. L. Morningstar