I planted these seeds so long ago, I can't really remember when it was. I think it was in the late 90s, but certainly no later than about 2005. Today is the first bloom I have ever seen on it, having had to use a photo of a flower blooming down the road for last year's "Year of Flowers" photo. Which means that it took about 20 years to see a bloom. It took about 12-15 years to see a leaf. So, I'm pretty tickled to see these flowers today!
I have rescued native plants from roadsides, construction sites, drainage ditches... These camas plants were the last camas bulbs not planted by humans that I had seen in my little town, growing in a small field just east of Palouse, about a block away from me. I loved seeing a camas flower or two show up every May for years in this particular spot. The owner had told me that I was welcome to dig any plants that I wanted, and I had gotten a few cinquefoil plants a long time ago, but I left the camas unmolested. For several years, the owner let someone overgraze their horses on it, so that it became a patch of dirt, mostly, and for about three years afterwards no camas bloomed. Then, four years ago, one camas came up in that spot and I thought--I'd better mark this and try to get the bulb. So I did, and I planted it in my camas patch, hoping for the best. Two plants came up! But, no flowers until this year. The lot has since been sold to a person who thought it would be a great idea to build an apartment complex there--fortunately the community came together and made sure that didn't happen, but it is only a matter of time now before they build a house or something there, so I am very happy to have saved these jewels.
I have two clumps of this, rescued from a drainage ditch just across the border in Idaho, just as the spraying outfit was coming for it. I didn't know what it was, but I knew it was something. Well, now I know, thanks to my official Whitman County botanist, Pam Brunsfeld. This is another plant that DNA analysis has complicated with confusing names (well, to me, anyway). Its common name--Grassland saxifrage--is stable, but its scientific name has gone from Saxifraga integrifolia to Micranthese fragosa.
Since we're getting some real rainfall this Spring, flowers that I didn't have last year are blooming this year. Last year I had to use an older photo to show Sugar bowls (Clematis hirsutissima). It just started blooming out there this year. Such a wild flower!
