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IT’S MID-JUNE ON CENTER ISLAND. My meadow’s wildflowers came and went in May, and the wild roses with their pink blush and nose-tickling scent are almost a memory.
But we can always depend on a sudden wild splash of creamy, sun-catching florabundance just before the summer solstice when the oceanspray blooms. Bearing large tassels comprising scores of starry florets, oceanspray virtually floods our forest with waves of white.
This woody shrub (Holodiscus discolor) is native from Southern British Columbia to Southern California, with variations reaching into South America. It typically ranges from three to 10 feet in height, and spreads like crazy in open forest floor like the front of my island plot.
It’s also known as ironwood, for the hardness of its woody stalk. According to the website Native Plants PNW, native tribes used the wood for many tools and utensils. Rendered even harder by heating it over a fire and polishing it with horsetail stems, the wood was used for salmon-roasting tongs because it won’t burn, for digging sticks, fishing hooks, needles, canoe paddles, bows, and spear, harpoon, and arrow shafts. Oceanspray pegs were even used in construction when nails were not available.
Every June, the blooms are a welcome sight that welcomes summer to the San Juans.
Speaking of which: The 2026 summer solstice occurs on Sunday, June 21, at 1:24 a.m. PDT. This exact astronomical moment marks the official start of summer in the Northern Hemisphere and brings the longest day — with 15 hours and 59 minutes of daylight in our islands — and shortest night of the year.
I’m marking the event by participating with a friend in Orcas Island’s homespun Solstice Parade through downtown Eastsound. What are your plans?
Celebrating Solstice by enjoying a rogue sound bath in the acoustic tunnel under Highway 14 along the Columbia River gorge – bowls and instruments played by my Goddaughter Jesse! Summer Solstice to me is the most bitter sweet day – So full of light, yet beginning its slow goodbye…
Sounds like a hoot! Happy summer!
Your ocean spray is a week or so ahead of ours! Love all the ethnobotany of this reef.
My plans for the 21st are more prosaic. It is not only Father’s Day, but – and Im getting complaints about this – the Annual Meeting at the temple. With the rabbi still out on sabbatical, ill be doing the master of ceremonies gig. Yes, it’s as exhausting as it sounds.
I hope you have a good Father’s Day, a happy solstice, AND a genial and productive annual meeting.