I use wildflowers that are native to Alaska in all of my work. To gather the flowers, I go out and pick them whether it be while I'm camping, on a hike, or on the side of the road. All are equally beautiful and have their own stories! I am always careful when picking though, I gather only a few from each area I visit making sure not to hurt the scenery.
One of my daughters' favorite flowers is the wild geranium. This thin, five petaled, delicate flower with dark veins adds a beautiful violet to my arrangements. Seeing these on a hike here in Alaska is almost unavoidable. They typically bloom in late June to August.
This thick stock with a flowery white top is cow parsnip. It is native to the Pacific Northwest and is very hardy! It can grow quite large, ranging around five to eight feet tall. Not only can it grow very wide too, but it has large leaves as well. Each individual flower that sprout at the top are fairly small, but look really nice in my work.
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Top view of cow parsnip. It is known for growing in moist areas, woodlands, and alpine meadows July to mid-August.
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This is the wild rose, or sometimes known as the prickly rose. Known for its beauty and pink petals, this is one of my favorite flowers to press. It grows in most places in Alaska (excluding the North slope and the Southeast). It blooms in June and goes until early July. The stem to the wild rose is lined with thorns. Though if you feel the petals, they have a velvety texture!
This beautiful fuchsia colored stock is known as fireweed. Fireweed can grow basically anywhere it wants! You can find it throughout most of Alaska in meadows and woods. This photo was taken on the side of a bike path. It can grow fairly tall, and has thin green leaves. It's one of the "late bloomers" of every summer, starting around August. It is also known for being the first thing that grows back in an area after a fire. To Alaskans, when we see the fireweed in bloom, we know that means the summer is coming to a close. Though the petals make a tasty and beautiful jelly and honey!
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These photos were taken last August in Portage, Alaska on a family camping trip. The bottom left photo is my youngest daughter in a field of fireweed.
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Dwarf dogwood (also known as bunchberry) grows close to the ground. It grows in the woods, tundra, and low alpine areas. Usually it blooms either in June or July, depending on where it is located in nature.
These beautiful little flowers that bloom in June and July are bluebells. Though the buds start out pink, they turn into a vibrant blue color later on. From the larger stem comes many small ones with the flowers hanging off of them. These photos were taken up at Arctic Valley.
Though this looks a lot like normal fireweed, this is actually dwarf fireweed. Dwarf fireweed has much more of a square-like look to its petals. Not to mention it is shorter as well. Though the two do have the same bloom time of July and August.
This is the state flower of Alaska, the forget-me-not. Known for its small five petaled appearance, it can be seen in large groups blooming together.