#hardhack
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lorichirp.bsky.social
For #ColorADay #PinkMon, a bush blossom on a Spiraea douglasii, commonly known as Douglas spirea, hardhack, or steeplebush. #flower #bush #pink #photography #ECK
July 20, 2026 at 2:36 AM
swandiveswim.bsky.social
#Bloomscrolling #Spirea #ColourADay #PinkMon Hardhack Spirea (Spirea douglasii), forms impenetrable swathes along the marsh. Loved by bees and, shy birds looking to hide fledglings.
Bright pink conical blooms, along with last years dried brown ones, poke up above bright lime green coloured leaves.
July 6, 2026 at 2:59 PM
swandiveswim.bsky.social
#BloomScrolling #ColourADay #PinkMon Taken back in July, the Hardhack Spirea (Spirea douglasii) is a native species in Northwestern Canada and very common in my area.
A vivid pink, somewhat spiral shaped, conical blossom leans slightly to the right. At it's base, mid green, somewhat oval shaped leaves. The background consists of blurred images of wildflowers with white & yellow blossoms among the green foliage.
December 29, 2025 at 2:54 PM
cageyratfish.bsky.social
This is what hardhack looks like when it's blooming, by the way. It's one of my favourite native lakeside/bog shrubs. I'd dig a pond in my backyard just to have a chance to grow it.
Hardhack - a rough sounding name for a beautiful lakeside shrub with lush green leaves and lovely, fuzzy-looking magenta flower heads
October 14, 2024 at 4:58 AM
wweeta.bsky.social
Yellow-face bumblebee busy pollinating the hardhack. New blog post: wanderinweeta.blogspot.com/2025/07/busy... #VancouverIsland #Bloomscrolling #WetlandPlants #Bees #Insects #Invertebrates #Wildlife #Nature
A tall flower spike with hundreds of tiny (1-2 mm. petals) pink flowers in clusters along the stem. Near the top, a bumblebee approaches. It has a yellow rear end, and a yellow face, plus yellow saddlebags full of pollen. Wings brown, rest of body black. Background, blurred: more hardhack spikes, green leaves.
July 30, 2025 at 3:59 PM
kwilliam8.bsky.social
Seen recently at Iverson Preserve, Camano Island, Washington. Douglas's spiraea flower, on hardhack steeplebush. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiraea...
July 4, 2026 at 10:37 PM
howtoloveaforest.bsky.social
Everything I know about eastern hop hornbeam (AKA Ostrya virginiana AKA ironwood AKA hardhack AKA leverwood) in 90 seconds! #tree #trees #plant #plants #nature #forest #forests #woods #ecology #outdoor #outdoors #stem #botany #dendrology #treeidentification
August 21, 2025 at 7:15 PM
jp0610.bsky.social
Some updates from the rain garden #nativeplants
Hardhack Spirea, Spirea tomentosa. A tall plume of small pink flowers with green foliage in the background. Verbena hastata, Blue Vervain, with small purple flowers, and Culver’s root, with tall white plumes of flowers. Cardinal flower, Lobelia cardinalis, with red flower buds.
July 12, 2025 at 12:56 PM
swandiveswim.bsky.social
Spirea douglasii aka Hardhack Spirea are blooming profusely thanks to the rain we've been getting. They grow in thick masses along the edge of the marsh and, unless you are a deer or a moose, almost impassible.
2 bright pink, spiral, conical flowers against a lime green background. A field of lime green leaves with bright pink conical blossom sticking up, along with some dried seed heads from last year.
July 16, 2025 at 8:34 PM
fishgottaswim.bsky.social
This morning, swimming, thinking about Herakleitos, my grandsons learning to shoot a bow, the tension of both, I thought I should write about this. And then I remembered I already had. Read it here:
www.thetemzreview.com/kishkan.html
a sandy lake shore surrounded by greenery -- cedars, hardhack.
August 8, 2026 at 9:20 PM
gpjohnston.bsky.social
The bumbles were really going after the pretty hardhack blossoms at one spot on the morning ramble, cool to witness the relationship between native species. I think this is a common Bombus, a yellow-faced bumble bee. #Hiking #Bloomscrolling #Bees #PNW
A pretty pink cone of a hardhack blossoms, the flower of a bush called Douglas spirea, a pod that looks like hundreds of tiny flowers, with a fuzzy black and yellow bumblebee hovering near it. You can see the bee’s blurred wings and aentenna and the shot is close enough that it shows its furry-fuzzy body.
July 8, 2026 at 1:27 PM
cageyratfish.bsky.social
If we had moose on Vancouver Island, this lake would be a real moose magnet. If moose like browsing on hardhack (no idea, anyone know? Spiraea douglasii) The entire perimeter of the lake is lined with it, must look amazing when it's blooming
Looking out from near shore at a still forested lake under a variety of clouds indicating changing fall weather on the way
October 14, 2024 at 3:38 AM
wweeta.bsky.social
Beaver lodge, disguised under a crown of hardhack shrubs. New blog post: wanderinweeta.blogspot.com/2025/09/end-... #VancouverIsland #Animals #Beavers #AnimalHomes #Wildlife #Plants
The edge of a beaver pond. Water in front, with reflections of grasses and sedges. At the edge of the water, in the centre of the photo, the beaver lodge is partially disguised under shrubbery, but the lower part is seen; sticks plastered together with black mud. The shrubs on top are hardhack, Spiraea douglasii; it's a wetlands plant, producing pink flowers; now they're just brown seed heads, visible at the top of the bush. On both sides there's, first, a low area where sedges and grasses grow. Behind that, a row of hardhack and willow, and bracken ferns, a lighter green, behind them. And beyond the ferns, the foot of the forest; mostly evergreens, Douglas-fir and cedars.
September 10, 2025 at 7:42 AM
fishgottaswim.bsky.social
"What a luxury, to hang vertically in the water, thinking. The hardhack was coming into bloom, a small trout flipped out of the water near me, a silver comma in the morning. Pause. Think."
June 24, 2026 at 10:34 PM
wweeta.bsky.social
Last year's hardhack flowers. New blog post: wanderinweeta.blogspot.com/2026/04/beav... #VancouverIsland #Plants #Flowers #BloomScrolling #NaturePhotography
Terminal clusters (2) of flowers. Spiraea douglasii. They're left on the shrub over winter, and are now deep brown. (They start out deep pink.) Long, narrow, compact clusters on bare stems. This year's leaves haven't appeared yet. Background; greens and browns and light areas (dead tree trunks, barkless) of a wetland and beaver pond.
April 20, 2026 at 6:10 AM
cageyratfish.bsky.social
The one on the left is hardhack (rose spiraea) Spiraea douglasii
cageyratfish.bsky.social cageyratfish (they) UTC-7 🐟🏳️‍⚧️ @cageyratfish.bsky.social · Jul 6
Lakeside plants. i don't know what the one on the left is, i think it's a species of wild spiraea ? i really need to find my Plants of Coastal British Columbia book...

At right is one of my absolute favourite berries, the soft & intensely flavoured thimbleberry. when ripe they're a brilliant red
a fuzzy, magenta flower spike of a lakeside shrub. Other flower spikes are visible in the background. the shrub us a dense clump of green leaves Greyish-pink, buttonlike unripe thimbleberries on star-shaped sepals, grow in bunches from their plant which has large, fuzzy almost-maple-like looking leaves
July 6, 2023 at 8:29 PM
wweeta.bsky.social
A "heart" of bluets. New blog post: wanderinweeta.blogspot.com/2025/07/hear... #VancouverIsland #Insects #Odonata #Invertebrates #Wildlife #Nature
Two bluets, tiny damselflies, in mating position. They are blue, with black markings, big blue and black eyes, long abdomens with a blue tip, long, narrow, gauzey wings. The male, above, curves his abdomen down to clasp the female, below, by the neck. She, below, curves her abdomen up, to make contact with his abdomen near the cephalothorax. He holds on to a stem of a plant with his delicate legs. Background; leaves of hardhack, Spireaa douglasii.
July 1, 2025 at 10:17 AM
cageyratfish.bsky.social
Similar colour, similar bloom time, very different plants.

Pretty sure hardhack (Spiraea douglasii) got its common name from someone trying to break a trail thru it

I should visit that lake i went to last fall that's completely surrounded by it, i bet it looks amazing right now 😻
cageyratfish.bsky.social cageyratfish (they) UTC-7 🐟🏳️‍⚧️ @cageyratfish.bsky.social · Oct 14
maybe from a distance (or in my blurry pic), but hardhack flowers are very tiny & they form fluffy clumps, whereas fireweed has tall spikes of larger flowers. Hardhack always grows near water, fireweed can be near water too but it really prefers disturbed areas like recent burns & clearcuts.
a fuzzy magenta-pink flower spike of hardhack, a woody shrub on the shore of a lake. more of the dense shrub & its pink flowers are in the background A blooming spike of fireweed. the pink flowers begin opening near the bottom of the spike, and finish blooming at the very top over the course of the summer
July 4, 2025 at 4:26 PM
wearegonnafindout.bsky.social
This morning I wandered around my garden and took pictures of the many plants that are gearing up to bloom. Early June is like that in my garden (in central Maryland, focused on native plants).
Here pictured are some of those plants. Alt text has species names if want to test your ID skills 🌱 thread
Spiraea tomentosa, steeplebush/hardhack Cephalanthus occidentalis, buttonbush Two species of Lobelia: L. siphilitica (top), great blue lobelia, and L. cardinalis (bottom), cardinal flower Rudbeckia triloba, brown-eyed susan
June 7, 2024 at 3:58 AM
johnsonbridgwater.bsky.social
This grows thickly around here. #UpNorth #Wisconsin

#hardhack is another common name for #steeplebush ( #Spiraea #tomentosa or Spiraea #douglasii), a small #native #shrub in the #rosefamily known for its pink or purple spire-shaped flower clusters.
August 1, 2026 at 7:19 PM
wweeta.bsky.social
Autumn meadowhawk, Sympetrum vicinum. On hardhack leaves. Near Echo Lake, Vancouver Island. New blog post: wanderinweeta.blogspot.com/2024/09/hurr... (With mating meadowhawks.) #VancouverIsland #Meadowhawks #Dragonflies #Insects #Invertebrates
A dragonfly perched on leaves. Pale orange body, darker orange eyes, yellowish legs. One dark patch on the wing. She's a female; shown by the triangular protrusion on the end of her abdomen, and the fat second segment of the abdomen. (And the pale colour.) Background; deep blue of a shady pool.
September 6, 2024 at 8:33 PM
senselessfool.bsky.social
be like the hardhack, after a fire: regeneration is still possible
August 6, 2025 at 8:14 PM
treesandwords.bsky.social
Seasonal. Today is sunny & mid-60s & feels like warm farts. Yesterday, when I took these, it was chilly and dark, as it should be at this time of year.
Hardhack foliage turned orange & dark red dock seedheads Blackberry leaves turned brilliant orange-red
October 20, 2024 at 5:54 PM
wweeta.bsky.social
Road across "my" beaver pond. New blog post: wanderinweeta.blogspot.com/2025/09/sept... #VancouverIsland #Plants #FallColours #Landscapes #Nature
A view of a rustic road, curving off to the left; two stony ruts and weeds in the centre. It comes out from under the shade of overhead branches into full sunlight. Shrubs at both sides of the road out there are bright yellow, bearing brown, dried flower heads gone to seed. Beyond the shrubs (hardhack) is a pond; this end is in deep shade, and the marsh horsetail growing in the water is vivid green. Overhead branches are red alder and cedar. On the far side of the pond, the forest resumes, but there's light beyond.
September 14, 2025 at 7:01 AM
cageyratfish.bsky.social
i have some fence-demolishing to do out front. then thinking about what to replace it with. Impenetrable hedge of wild rose, thimbleberry & hardhack would be nice, but hardhack likes a much wetter environment than my front yard
June 2, 2026 at 4:46 AM