Picking wild flowers by the road

[Leondegrance]

By picking, I actually mean uprooting..

Can I expect human resistance if seen shoveling up plant life on the side of the road? You see I'd like to beautify my garden this summer by creating a wild flower meadow around a young alder tree. So far the wild flowers I've seen in abundance around here are lupins, chasta daisies (haven't seen brown-eyed susan..?), orange poppies, and of course broom. What other kinds have you noticed?

Now, I've never been up Mt. Arrowsmith, but here's apparently what grows there (holy!):

[Nostradama]

Don't know, but I'm sure someone here does: an area like Arrowsmith might be protected, since it's obviously what they'd classify as alpine. I just don't know if there are laws against it; there might be, but I can't point you in the right direction to find out. OTOH, if you're off in the bush with a shovel, who's gonna see you? Black-eyed susans (or brown--brain fart time!) don't grow wild here, unless they've seeded from some that someone's planted somewhere. They're not native to the area. And broom is generally regarded as nothing but a stinkin' nuisance. They're not native to the area, but were brought here by early immigrants, and now are regarded as weeds and pests. Every year groups will go out and uproot them, trying to get rid of them. There's something--someone help me here--that's five to six feet tall, puts out humongous off-white blooms, and those things are dangerous. Can't remember everything, but I know they can raise nasty skin rashes. Any time the railway sees them on their right-of-way, for example, they're generally removed, or used to be. One thing not to do, which used to happen a lot: "midnight gardening", when people would dig out flowering plants from city flower beds. The City of Nanaimo really doesn't like it.

[Nostradama]

The little orange ones are California poppies. The red brighter ones with way bigger blooms are oriental poppies, and there's actually a law that you can't have more than six in your garden. Handled properly, they produce opium. A little old lady neighbour of mine, long ago, had a visit from the RCMP telling her that some of hers would have to go because she was over the number allowed. As if she was gonna go into opium production!

[Lucky Dog]

Hi,
Mount Arrowsmith Massif Regional Park covers the upper 1300 hectares of alpine forest and peaks of Mount Arrowsmitih.
The alpine vegitation is beautiful and the area sensitive. If your up there please enjoy and take only pictures, it's a special place.
The Park itself is protected, and removal of vegitation is prohibited by Bylaw. Area monitoring is carried out by volunteer wardens and much of the trail maintenace is carried out by hikers and the mountain club.

Nostradama, the nasty plant you describe sounds like it might be Giant Hogweed. If so it's very nasty stuff and can cause severe skin inflamation and blindness if it gets in your eyes. You need protective gear and eyewear to deal with it.

Happy Trails.

[Nostradama]

Hi,
Mount Arrowsmith Massif Regional Park covers the upper 1300 hectares of alpine forest and peaks of Mount Arrowsmitih.
The alpine vegitation is beautiful and the area sensitive. If your up there please enjoy and take only pictures, it's a special place.
The Park itself is protected, and removal of vegitation is prohibited by Bylaw. Area monitoring is carried out by volunteer wardens and much of the trail maintenace is carried out by hikers and the mountain club.

Nostradama, the nasty plant you describe sounds like it might be Giant Hogweed. If so it's very nasty stuff and can cause severe skin inflamation and blindness if it gets in your eyes. You need protective gear and eyewear to deal with it.

Happy Trails.

Glad to hear that the alpine area is protected. I've never hiked as much on the Island as I did in the southern interior, particularly the area south of Apex Ski Resort, which wasn't protected at the time, at least by any governmental body, but certainly protected by a family who had held it as Crown range land (summer pasture) for three or four generations. Another area they guarded pretty carefully was known as the "golden zone", because it was land where logging had gone on perhaps a hundred years before, with a resulting belt of deciduous trees surrounded by conifers, so every fall there was a belt of trees changing colours, surrounded by unbroken green. So old that there were still remnants of an old "corduroy road", logs laid side by side, very rough going, that had been used during long-ago logging.

You're right--it was Giant Hogweed that I was thinking of. Something I'd never heard of until I moved to the Island.

[Leondegrance]

Good suggestion, I'll stick to low-traffic areas like gravel pits and development sites on weekends. But if I see something exceptional elsewhere (wild of course), it might be worth a scolding.

I've seen oriental poppies in Nanoose, so will have to return to investigate. As for alpine meadows, I'll save my breath and stay down here. My site is only about 50-60sqft, and like I said it's around a tree that I've yet to transplant. I could then build a short decorative split-wood fence and place a wagon wheel (or something old) against it, let the grasses grow around it, give my place a country look & feel. I can't afford acreage right now, but I'm really wanting to reconnect with nature - not an easy endeavor with city bylaws in place to discourage such practice. "Consume-consume-consume!", they tell me.

More amazing wildflowers:

[Nostradama]

"Good suggestion, I'll stick to low-traffic areas like gravel pits and development sites on weekends. But if I see something exceptional elsewhere (wild of course), it might be worth a scolding."

If you dig something up from a legally-protected area, I think you could end up with charges (worst-case scenario), not just a scolding. If you're looking at an area of about 50' - 60', it might just be easier to go out and buy one of those wild flower mixed-variety seed packs and start from seed. Basically all you have to do is dig, rake, and scatter. Most of those varieties are pretty hardy, too.

[AllieG]

"Good suggestion, I'll stick to low-traffic areas like gravel pits and development sites on weekends. But if I see something exceptional elsewhere (wild of course), it might be worth a scolding."

If you dig something up from a legally-protected area, I think you could end up with charges (worst-case scenario), not just a scolding. If you're looking at an area of about 50' - 60', it might just be easier to go out and buy one of those wild flower mixed-variety seed packs and start from seed. Basically all you have to do is dig, rake, and scatter. Most of those varieties are pretty hardy, too.

I agree. We bought one of those packets of mixed wild flower seeds and just literally sprinkled them in an area of our garden without doing anything else. Now each year we get a lovely (random) display or bluebelles, poppies etc. Even better, the wind scatters the seeds from the flowers so we have little surprise flowers popping up in other places in the garden. Much better than uprooting.

[Caravallio]

Good suggestion, I'll stick to low-traffic areas like gravel pits and development sites on weekends. But if I see something exceptional elsewhere (wild of course), it might be worth a scolding.

I've seen oriental poppies in Nanoose, so will have to return to investigate. As for alpine meadows, I'll save my breath and stay down here. My site is only about 50-60sqft, and like I said it's around a tree that I've yet to transplant. I could then build a short decorative split-wood fence and place a wagon wheel (or something old) against it, let the grasses grow around it, give my place a country look & feel. I can't afford acreage right now, but I'm really wanting to reconnect with nature - not an easy endeavor with city bylaws in place to discourage such practice. "Consume-consume-consume!", they tell me.

More amazing wildflowers:

These are really amazing flowers. I love the color of them. I would love to buy flowers online which look exactly like these on the picture. Our nature is amazing. I think I will order some beautiful flowers online because I need a little bit of color in my flat.

[Jane_Whitt]

Autumn flowers will be everywhere soon! You can take something home and keep pressing and drying. And then, oh, all the things you can do, including the wonderful decor, the inimitable, the infinitely versatile, simple sweet jar.

You can decorate a jar for all sorts of purposes, from holding their pencils to a current canning pot to wear a gift of jam, but the flowers and candles go hand in hand .... Flowers and candles! I decorated a candle homemade container in a pint jar.
The easiest way to press flowers is in the same way you did when you were a child. Flores separated from the stems and lay down carefully on a sheet of paper, cover with another sheet of paper and press in the folds of a book. Stacking heavy books on top. Most of the light, delicate flowers flat newspapers within hours or overnight, but will have to keep pressing and dry completely. How long does it take to dry the flowers varies depending on the type of flowers, but can be accelerated by drying in the microwave. (Press the flowers, at least several hours or overnight before drying in the microwave.)

To dry the flowers in the microwave, place the flowers pressed between sheets of paper into a microwaveable dish. Place else, microwave, on top.
Heat in short bursts, 15 seconds on high, until dry. Let the flowers are completely cool between bursts of heat. Flowers light, delicate dries quickly by this method and can continue the fun.

To adhere pressed, dried flowers, use a transparent glue. Thin the glue with water. This is not rocket science or brain surgery, do not worry too much about the amount of water and the amount of glue. Fill the bottom of a small container with water and then squeezed some glue and stir it up with a small brush.
Place a dab of glue diluted in the bottle you want to place the flowers. Carefully transfer the flowers clamps are a good way to move. Place each flower where you want and press lightly with back of spoon. (It is best not to use your fingers.)
Once you have placed each flower, gently brush each flower with diluted glue mixture to seal. The beauty of this method, instead of using a varnish, is that if you ever want to do more with the bottle, simply wash with hot soapy water to remove the flowers.
You can request the flowers at any design you like, all on one side of the jar or wrap around the jar. Be as creative as you want. You could add all kinds of dry materials like leaves, if desired.
silk flower arrangements