How about Dicentra exima? Mine is still blooming.

Digitalis, mullein, oxeye daisy, Stonecrop. I guess it depends how dry your site is..sounds like a neat garden.

Ceanothus is in bloom now. Also, maybe you can get some bunchberry.

BuyorSell, Dotty and Larry, thank you for your suggestions. Dotty, digitalis, mullein and oxeye daisy are all cool plants, but they're all introduced from Europe and/or Asia, so alas, they get filtered out.

I do have a little bunchberry in the backyard, tucked under a maple. I just planted a ceanothus velutinus that I'm very excited about, although I think it's still assimilating and won't bloom this year. I'm learning to mix in some evergreens after my first winter which was a pretty empty canvas.

I do have some dicentra formosa planted, which from a google image search looks quite similar to the dicentra exima. And I love Stonecrop, thank you!

And hopefully next year my mock orange will bloom. I assumed that the "mock" was an adjective and not a verb, but if it doesn't bloom in 2007 I will come to a different conclusion.

Steve

Here are a few from the site that has photos-

http://www.rainyside.com/features/plant_gallery/nativeplants/

Tellima grandiflora FRINGE CUPS a wild Heuchera-like plant
Vancouveria hexandra INSIDE-OUT FLOWER- cute geometric leaved evergreen
Potentilla anserina ssp. pacifica SILVERWEED don't have
Potentilla fruticosa 'Mount Townsend' SHRUBBY CINQUEFOIL don't have
Penstemon rupicola ROCK PENSTEMON- looks cute, rock garden plant
Clarkia amoena GODETIA- pretty annual, self-sows

I have extra Dicentras if you'd like some additional ones. However, I have quite a few and they aren't labeled and I've had them a long time and may not know exactly which one is which. If you want to be sure, you might not want any of these. Some are hybrids such as 'Luxuriant'

False Solomon's Seal grows wild in my yard, and has nice foliage. It also blooms probably more in spring but has white flowers that smell heavenly.

Thanks for the other tips! I hardly have any shade in my garden, so I'm not sure that the Inside Out Flower or False Solomon's Seal would do so well. Thanks for reminding me about Farewell to Spring. In the Pojar/MacKinnon book they've got a lovely photo of it that I've enjoyed on many ocassion.

More penstemons and shrubby cinqefoil are good ideas! Bosky Dell has a seemingly definitive listing of native penstemons: http://www.boskydellnatives.com/description_page%5CPenstemon_spp..htm
I get persnickety because they're a bit more loose w/ their native description (geographically) than my anal-retentive aura can embrace.

My friend has something with itty bitty pink flowers (clusters) that we've been unable to identify that is in bloom today. We also saw a white single petaled rose in bloom that looked similar to rosa nutkana, but I didn't think we hadn't in Willamette Valley native roses w/ white flowers. Plus, these flowers seemed a bit big, around 3-4" across.

And finally, I have to give a shout-out to ceanothus velutinus/snowbrush ceanothus. Fixes nitrogen, fun shiny evergreen leaves:
http://www.swsbm.com/Images/C/Ceanothus_velutinus.jpg

Lewisia - Stunning Color, loves a dry, well draining area.
Indian Paintbrush

Species Lewisia will have a limited color selection, although the hybrids come in many colors.

Lewisia will re-bloom in summer if you break off the spring-blooming stalks after they fade.

I would love to grow Indian Paintbrush, HostaGuy, but I haven't had any success. I planted them in the same hole as a Oregon Stonecrop as the owner at Bosky Dell suggested. No dice. What is your method?

Larry, thanks for the tip on Lewisia. Any other natives that that works for as well?

Steve

Hi Steve
Check out High Country Gardens website for growing Indian Paintbrush. They say it needs to grow with Blue Grama grass. The paintbrush (Castilleja) is a parasitic plant that must tap into the roots of another plant for nutrients. This lovely plant also requires lean well draining soil.

Here is a link that might be useful: High country Gardens

I agree, Ceanothus velutinus is a nice plant. I have one. I have tried to grow them in pots before and they seem fussy. In the wild they are always growing on gravelly soils. In western Washington manzanita is never far away. Also I have noticed they don't bloom at all some years.

Opuntia fragilis blooms in June. You might consider Claytonia megarhiza var. nivalis - I have heard it is a real bugger to grow but Mt. Tahoma Nursery has had it. It blooms in August in the wild but would probably be earlier at lower elevations. I'm hard pressed to think of any more interesting summer flowering natives.

I would say sandy soils and hot exposures are typical for the ceanothus. You can see them lots of places where there are no Columbia manzanita, Bellevue near 405 for instance--including right along 405, where there were alot of them before the 1990 winter. Very abundant in parts of central Washington, including other side of Stevens Pass.

Normal nursery conditions are all wrong for a plant like this.

My snowberries are just blooming now. Some salal are still blooming, and of course the berries are colorful. There's native larkspurs too that I think may still be blooming, but maybe only in the high elevations.

Do you really need flowers in summer? I find plenty to enjoy just in the foliage colors and textures of the natives, and the madrones are putting on a wonderful show with just the bark, which is peeling now and exposing that wonderful chartreuse innner bark. Creeping mahonia has some leaves turning bright red now, and the indian plum is going yellow with the heat. And all the berry plants are bearing, and I count berries as ornamental as well as edible - the red and evergreen huckleberries, blackberries, raspberries, thimbleberries ... very pretty! and then you eat them.

Bear grass may be blooming now, but not a lowland plant. Monkeyflowers are just finishing I think - take sun but a wetland plant so need a damp spot. There's native pond lilies and waterlilies blooming in summer if you want to put in a little pond ...

>Some salal are still blooming, and of course the berries
>are colorful.

Aren't you making them into jelly? :) Two cups salal juice, two cups Oregon Grape juice, 4 cups of sugar and 1 packet of pectin makes the most delicious jelly you can imagine! It's like velvet fabric; lush and smooth.

>Potentilla anserina ssp. pacifica SILVERWEED don't have

This stuff spreads by underground runners and will take over your garden quickly. My friend and I both ripped it out.

My monkeyflowers just finished. I don't have nearly the natives I did at my last house - yet. I think the penstemon was a good summer bloomer. Red elderberry would be gorgeous with their berries right now.

>I find plenty to enjoy just in the foliage colors and
>textures of the natives

Same here. For me, it's relaxing not to be bombarded with flowers after the spring flush. It's a transition time when I look forward to all the leaves turning color.

In parts I frequent the big July show is from red elderberry. Some places many of them are purple instead of red, occasional ones are shades of yellow or orange. Although much less prevalent (here) blue elderberry is conspicuous and interesting for having flowers and fruits at the same time, in summer.