This is the Key to the Kingdom

The Key to the Kingdom, says the old nursery rhyme, is a basket of flowers. And this month, all northwestern Ontario is a breathing basket of wild flowers.

On a recent trip to Rock Island Lodge outside of Wawa I saw sweeps, dreams, charms, floods of flowers along the roadside and in the deepest bush. I do not think, in a long northern life, I have ever experienced a season of such amplitude. I noted with pleasure, the towns of Wawa, Michipicoten and Rossport have not cut down all their wild flowers (as we do in Thunder Bay) but let them bloom in clumps here and there.

Lupines lead the way, swathes of them all along the highway. They were joined by:
· Ox eyed daisies
· Hawk weed (startling reddish orange)
· Mullein, tall fuzzy plants with a yellow stalk of bloom
· Evening primrose (tall with yellow blooms that open in the evening)
· Many varieties of wild pea and vetch
· Bunchberries (four petals, usually in shade)
· Wild strawberry flowers (very late this rainy year)
· Wild roses, some bushes laden
· High bush cranberry (white panicles of flowers)
· Saskatoons, choke cherry and pin cherry
· Wild honeysuckle (a small shrub with yellow flowers)
· Wild asters, white and blue
· Wood lilies, (Always a pleasant surprise)
· Wild iris or blue flags (all along the Michipicoten River)
· Harebells (purple ding-dongs)
· Twin flower (tiny double bells carpet deep bush)
· Queen Ann’s Lace
· Yarrow
· Cow Parsnip (our local giant up to eight feet tall)
· Meadow rue (white lace)

To name just a few. What a cornucopia! Thank you, goddess of the wild places.

Tip. If you visit Rossport, check out the garden at the Serendipity Café