Wild Hyacinth

Camassia leichtlinii

Wild Hyacinth rises in May with tall spikes of star-shaped blue to creamy white flowers that catch every passing native bee. The flowers are delicate and lavender-blue in color, massing beautifully when planted in large drifts and creating a meadow-like effect in May and early June. Like all camassia, the plant grows from a bulb, dies back by midsummer, and reliably reappears year after year without any attention. It's one of the few native bulbs that actually thrives in wet conditions. plant it at the edge of a rain garden, in seasonally wet meadows, or in low spots where spring standing water excludes most other plants. The foliage fades gracefully. Camassia bulbs were a critical food source for Indigenous peoples throughout the Pacific Northwest. the Great Camas Meadows of Idaho were among the most prized landscapes on the continent.