Photo taken by MaryAnn McCrary on May 11, 2025.
Mother’s Day was a beautiful day, with a late-spring rain system moving in. The high clouds would have made the morning ideal for outdoor wildflower photography, between gusts of wind. But Shasta Chapter CNPS volunteers had a Mother’s Day mission: to deliver an amazing assortment of wildflower books, posters, and native nursery plants to flora enthusiasts at the 32nd Annual Siskiyou County Mother’s Day Wildflower Show!
The day brought out a happy crowd. After all, the large Yreka Community Center was full of wildflowers, with mothers and their children enjoying the day together. What could be more idyllic? In Yreka, spring is just unfolding its early bloomers, inspiring one and all. The Forest Service botanists who made the amazing wildflower collection and display coordinated their collections over a wide range of elevations. This is what makes the wildflower show a truly special opportunity: one can see an array of wildflowers that would take years of day hikes to see in the wild.
Photo taken by MaryAnn McCrary on May 11, 2025.
Shasta Chapter CNPS member Laura Thomson and I drove two compact cars as full of plants and books as possible to the show, and happily returned in the evening with lots of space. Thanks to our generous volunteers, Laura (from Redding) and Kathy Pitts (from Yreka), there are now many CNPS members and supporters in the far north who are enjoying their recent acquisitions of beautifully illustrated plant books and healthy native plants, while knowing they are also supporting Shasta Chapter’s scholarship program for aspiring young botanists.
We send much gratitude to Forest Service botanists for beginning the Mother’s Day Wildflower Show 32 years ago, and for sustaining it for so long! Thank you for making civil service truly great. You have provided a standard and a benchmark to guide the future rebuilding of public service in the USA.
~MaryAnn McCrary,
Shasta Chapter CNPS Vice-President & Nursery Manager
PS: Be sure to check out the winners of the 14th Annual Siskiyou County Mother’s Day Wildflower Photo Contest.