Designs © Margaret Östling, copyrighted with U.S. Copyright Office

Wild and beautiful, these roses, called Nootka roses in the Pacific Northwest, grow abundantly in forests and along rural roadsides in Washington's Cascade Mountains. The Native Americans for whom they were named used them as food and medicine. Loving their strong yet delicate beauty, I created the model for my wild mountain rose by studying the Nootka roses that grow near our home in Leavenworth.