I always enjoy a field full of Fireweed flowers and in July they are in full bloom and abundant here in south central AK. But I must say, this year for some reason they are even taller and brighter than usual! The Fireweed lining both sides of my driveway and towering over the grassy knoll between my house and my pasture are actually over my head huge! Wow! SO pretty! Check out my article on this wonderful Alaskan wildflower.

Fireweed - Wildflower or Weed?

I enjoyed the article. The flowers are beautiful!

Thank you!! I've been enjoying reading through your book reviews as well. I may have to go shopping.

I just came home from two weeks in beautiful Alaska. I absolutely LOVE all the wild fireweed! I was wondering, and I haven't checked yet, but can you buy seeds? I'd love to have some of this at my house in South Dakota! Donna

Fireweed flowers were one of the things that made me fall in love with Alaska when we lived there. Imagine my joy to find them growing wild, tall and gorgeous in my north Idaho meadow!

Donna Kay, perhaps I could send you some seeds when mine are done blooming?

Yes! You can buy Fireweed seed. Just think - it will be like having a little reminder of Alaska each and every year. Being a perennial up here, I have no doubt it will be in South Dakota as well.

I know they have the seeds available at many gift shops in AK and I'm guessing you can find them online as well. If you have any problem locating some, let me know and I will find you a source. I know personally - I love having a whole yard full of Fireweed every summer! It's one of my favorite things.

Hi Deb, I really enjoyed your piece about fireweed. I love the stuff too, in all its various stages. When you mentioned the cottony fluff of its seeds, it immediately brought to mind a remote parcel survey I did years ago. The location of the project was up at Sherman, along the Alaska Railroad, about 31 miles north of Talkeetna. I think it must have been in late August, because the fireweed had gone to fluff. On one portion of the job, Doug Moore and I had to define a line across a long expanse of meadow, and unlike others parts of the property, where we cut the boundary lines through forest using a chainsaw, here we were faced with six to seven foot tall fireweed for several hundred feet. Now as you can imagine, with a sharp machete, a guy can cut his way through fireweed at a pretty good pace, but even still, it took us both working quite a while on a very warm day to create the line across the meadow. To stay out of each other's way, we had used the instrument to set some high poles, for keeping ourselves on the right path, and Doug and I worked from opposite sides toward the middle. When we finally met, completing the brushed out boundary line, we took one look at each other and started laughing! Each of us was covered in fireweed fluff, head to toe, because we were sweating profusely, and the stuff stuck to our skin and our clothing. We joked that it probably looked like we had been feathered, if not tarred!

What a great story, Bill! And what a sight the two of you must have made out there over your head in pollinating Fireweed. I sure wish one of you had taken a picture. Speaking of photos, the Fireweed in our yard is starting to go to cotton already. I sure hate to see this brilliant season come to an end. I'll have to try to get some photos of "fireweed in cotton" to post to the forum. Thanks again! Excellent story!

Does flowering fireweed mean six weeks to the beginning of winter?

No, it isn't flowering itself, it's when the flowers top out that means summer is nearly over. The colas continues to grow as it flowers so there's a constant supply of flowers with new buds sprouting at the top and seeds below. When the blooming flowers finally reach the top of the stalk it has "topped out" and winter's just around the corner. Frosty

And ... as my newly (temporarily) switched out "Avatar" shows, the Fireweed is indeep going to seed or "going to cotton" as locals like to call it. I've added a new photo to my article on Fireweed on the Alaska Site page so everyone can see the process more clearly.

My little hillside of Fireweed is suddenly as much white as it is pink! I guess I'll be grateful it isn't snow ... YET!

Here's another little tidbit about fireweed. This is an old indian trick that was actually told to me by an old indian. If you break the fireweed's stalk and milk out the sap you can dab it on mosquito bites. Don't rub it, just dab a little on and within a few seconds the itching will stop and a minute or three later the swelling as well. It's especially effective on children and it's hard to beat the look of awe when you fix their bites. <VBG> Unfortunately mosquito bites are the only bites it works on as far as I know and I've tried it on every kind of bite I've gotten here. Frosty

Wow - good thing to know in Alaska!