I've been enjoying the photographs of plants in the wild that have been posted recently, so I thought I would post some photos of our local flora here in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. Delphinium is one of my favorites, according to Flora of North America there are 108 species, subspecies, and varieties that are native to North America. In the state of Oregon there are some two dozen species, and here in the Willamette Valley there are six species, some of which are very rare and considered endangered. Flower color ranges from purple to blue to red, yellow or white, but in the Willamette Valley they are either blue/purple or white.
My impression is that Delphinium species are generally easy to grow excelt that slugs and snails love their foliage, it is like candy to them. As long as you can keep the slugs off, especially when the plants are seedlings, they will be ok. The other factor to keep in mind in regard to garden use is that the foliage is poisonous and perhaps not safe for young children to graze on.
Delphinium menziesii is our first species to bloom. It is quite variable in size and number of flowers, it also has a large elevation range and can be flound flowering from April until July depending upon the elevation. Here is a low elevation population located in a prairie remnant near Eugene.
