Wildflower Medley Guild

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Example of a Native Plant Guild:
***For Reference Only - Not For Purchase***

Turn a corner of the yard into a living bouquet, straight out of the wild meadows of the West — and most of it edible.

What Is a Guild?

A guild is an idea borrowed from nature and from permaculture: a community of plants chosen to support one another. Instead of a lonely row of a single crop, a guild layers a central tree or shrub with companions that feed the soil, draw in pollinators, cover bare ground, and yield food — each sharing light, water, and nutrients the way a small patch of wild woodland or meadow does. Plant one, and you're not just gardening; you're starting a little ecosystem.

The Wildflower Medley Guild

These spring gems are a rare sight even on a hillside hike now. Drop the daffodils and plant a medley of native wildflowers instead — a shifting palette of blues, purples, oranges, whites, and pinks, many of them First-Food roots and corms, just outside your kitchen window.

Plants in This Guild

  • Great Camas — edible corm — First Food
  • Common Camas — edible corm — First Food
  • Tiger Lily — edible bulb wildflower
  • Chocolate Lily — edible corm (rice root)
  • Harvest Brodiaea — edible corm
  • Hooker's Onion — edible wild onion
  • Fool's Onion — edible corm
  • Nodding Onion — edible wild onion
  • Giant White Fawn Lily — creamy woodland-edge wildflower
  • Henderson's Checkermallow — edible mallow wildflower
  • California Compassplant — wildflower / edible seed
  • Lupine (Broadleaf) — nitrogen-fixing companion — not for eating

These are the plants we'd reach for — mix, match, and add your own. See each plant's own page for full details, and the Planting Guide tab for how to lay the guild out.

Ecology & Design

A meadow is more than pretty: camas, brodiaea, and lily corms were dug, pit-cooked, and traded as staple foods, and their flowers feed native bees and butterflies through the spring.1 Plant the corms in drifts, let the whole patch go summer-dry as a wild meadow would, and it will return and multiply for years.

References

  1. Pojar, J. & MacKinnon, A., Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast, 2014; Moerman, D., Native American Ethnobotany, 1998.

Planting Guide: Wildflower Medley Guild

Tip: Plant the corms and bulbs in drifts in fall, and let the whole patch go summer-dry like a wild meadow — it returns and multiplies on its own.

Design & Layout

Drifts, not rows: Scatter each species in natural-looking clusters.

Layer bloom: Mix early and late bloomers for a long show.

Companion: Tuck lupine through for soil and structure.

Plan on roughly a 10-ft circle (or a sunny strip).

Choosing a Site

Light: Full sun to part shade.

Soil: Well-drained; moist in spring, dry in summer.

Water: Spring moisture, then a dry summer rest.

Planting Steps

Plant dormant corms and bulbs in fall, a few inches deep.

Firm in and water once; let winter rain do the rest.

Let foliage die back in summer — that's normal.

Care & Establishment

Year one: Water deeply but infrequently to build deep roots; then wean off — these plants want a dry summer.

Mulch: Mulch bare soil (leaf mold, wood chips) until the groundcovers close in.

Weeding: Keep weeds down the first season or two; after that the guild largely mulches itself.

Patience: Trees, corms, and shrubs settle over a few seasons — the guild fills in and improves each year.

Guild Notes

Gophers/mice: Love the corms — protect with hardware cloth if they're a problem.

Multiply: Leave clumps undisturbed and they'll spread by offsets and seed.

First Foods: Camas and lily corms can be dug once patches are well established — always leaving plenty.