Columbine

The steep valleys between the peaks are crowded with dense forests of lodgepole pine, Engelmann spruce, quaking aspen, and Douglas fir trees.

Beautiful flowers from Columbine, Indian paintbrush, and lupine display their glory between waves of sagebrush.

Beneath the forest canopy, bushes like Oregon grapes, elderberries, gooseberries, and currants offer up their sugary treats in their season.

Because the area has a high elevation, summers are cooler than other areas, rarely reaching into the 80s.

It is like a sort of house of horrors, really.

We're standing here next to things like Aquilegias, Arums, Culticums, Ilex, Taxus, Buxus.

You know, they're all plants that we're familiar with, but we're perhaps not quite as familiar with some of the more horrific stories, some of the kind of ghost stories and folklore attached to them.

The Taxus, one of the folklore stories, you know, you get a lot of views growing in graveyards.

Well, it still feels relatively new to me, but I hope so.

And Aquilegia.

Oh,

yeah, nice.

We only just, uh, use them to, uh, hit send, uh, when we write the newsletter, and this one's, uh, is one of our spring newsletters.

Uh, they change very quickly because, uh, ac- aquilegias, the granny's bonnets, are coming into bloom.

Uh, the iris, you got iris in f- in flower down with you?

Oh, certainly.

I got plenty of, um, aquilegias also.

They're just coming into bud now, so very much looking forward to it.

Yeah.