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"The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer someone else up" Mark Twain Iris unguicularis 'Walter Butt' ...
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Illahe Nursery and Gardens My little nursery is located in the South Salem hills at an elevation of about 600'. In following the sage...
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Fritillaria eastwoodiae I've always loved plants named after Alice Eastwood. My old mentor Jack Poff would tell stories about her, I ...
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Anyone?.....Anyone?..... $15 credit toward bulb purchases off this years offering to the first person to guess correctly and enter it int...
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Fritillaria liliacea- wonderful, early Californian, I really do like the native left coast species. Fritillaria hermonis ssp. amana Frit...
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Please visit: www.illaherareplants.com to see the new catalog! We are phasing out this old blog server so you need to go visit the new ...
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The fall bloomers are starting. I had a nice talk with the department of agriculture today and I will be proceeding with international sh...
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Fritillaria whittallii Mr. Charles Hervey Grey in the three volume Hardy Bulbs 1938 has this to say: A native of Asia minor, collected b...
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The chief obstacle to the progress of the human race is the human race. Don Marquis Narcissus hispanicus ssp. bujei Chilly ...
Monday, December 2, 2013
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
First frost!
Crocus banaticus
Sorry about the double post on the shipping season ending. The blogging app on my phone stopped working but I got it up and running again. Hence the double post as an test of the phone.
!
The growing season has officially ended for the tender inhabitants of the garden. A freeze warning was issued yesterday and it came true last night. It was 28 degrees F in the greenhouse when in left for work at 6:00 this morning. I like to post such things because this blog is also my personal gardening journal and it helps track the weather from year to year.
Well, another growing season is in the books, but that's the exciting thing about growing bulbs, some are just starting into growth and some are starting to bloom as we speak.
Cheers!
Mark
Friday, October 11, 2013
Elvis has left the building
Sternbergia lutea
Shipping has ended for the 2013 season. Thank you to all who placed orders, I hope the bulbs bring you many years of enjoyement.
Based on preliminary feedback it looks like international shipping was a success! Just a few bugs to work out, mostly related to the massive amount of paperwork that APHIS requires on my end. All in all I am pleased with how it went and hope that I am able to get more bulbs to the folks oversees in the years to come.
I have a few payments yet to recieve so if you haven't paid for you bulbs yet please do so.
I will get back to blogging with some fall flowers as they come on, and it won't be long before winter has entrenched it's icy grip and we start seeing the super early....or are they super late? Flowers starting up. I think November is about the only month that there isn't something starting into bloom in the bulb house.
Have a great Fall!
Mark
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Fall is in the air!
Crocus kotschyanus
Temps have cooled and rain has returned to the valley. I said a fond farewell to summer on float down the wild and scenic Deschutes river.
I think I'm going to close up shop a bit early, so if you see anything you still want off the bulb list get your order in now. I'll accept orders up until, Sunday September 29th.
Cheers!
Mark
Thursday, September 5, 2013
update to bulb list-Still some great fall bloomers left
Thank you to everyone who got early orders in, I know not everyone gets everything they are after but I assure you there is always next year.
Still some great selections of fall bloomers available like the Colchicum 'octoberfest' pictured above.
or C. "Glory of Heemsteede"
or some of the Biarum selections being offered.
Biarum marmarisense
Colchicum 'Nancy Lindsay'
Fritillaria purdyi X biflora
Fritillaria purdyi
Get them while you can!!!
Cheers,
Mark
Thursday, August 29, 2013
I think we cleared customs!
The fall bloomers are starting.
I had a nice talk with the department of agriculture today and I will be proceeding with international shipping this year. All the details will be worked out when the catalog posts early next week.
A basic run down for international customers of how it will work. I have to process your order and have it ready for shipment, its then inspected and certified on my end. All the phytosanitary paperwork will be included with the shipment which should allow you to receive your order. However I don't have any control once it leaves here so I will be asking for prepayment on international orders. Obviously this isn't a perfect system and should you run into problems on your end I will help to resolve the situation the best I can but please understand that all countries have different requirements and I will have done everything I can on my end to make sure you are in compliance with your countries phyto requirements. International customers will have to cover the cost of phytosanitary certification which is $25 alone, however this is per shipment so if you have a friend in your country who wants stuff you can bundle an order and save money.
Domestic orders will be filled and shipped in the order they are received. International orders will be filled in the order they are received but have to be inspected so there will obviously be a delay.
Start asking questions now if you have them and it will help me get all the details sorted out on the catalog. This is new territory for me so remember that I'm not a global capitalist just a small time nursery grower of specialty bulbs trying very hard to get them to people who appreciate such things.
Cheers,
Mark
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
The catalog is coming.
Polypodium scouleri....this picture looks really tropical to me, but its taken out at Nestucca bay, one of my favorite beaches in Oregon.
Here is the underside of the leaf.
Now that you are good and distracted here is a picture of some biarum bulbs that will be offered in this years catalog. I have the harvest pretty much complete. I'm just awaiting am inspection from the at department and you'll see the list here shortly...
Tell your friends!
Mark
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Not all who wander are lost
So I've been off floating down wilderness river canyons and climbing Mt. Peaks for a bit. But the end of July marks a return to reality, thusly harvest of the bulbs shall begin soon.
For you international folks that have expressed interest in bulbs, I have had one visit from the department of agriculture for phytosanitary certification this year and they want to see them again post harvest. If everything works out I'll try to accomadate you, details to be sorted out later.
Part of how I spent my summer vacation .
Cheers to a bountiful harvest ahead,
Mark
Monday, June 17, 2013
Thunderflowers
The title is an inside joke my daughter told me....but this is a Dianthus I got from Rick Lupp...its 5 years old and still only about 8 cm dialated.....oh man, I crack myself up. Anyway, I never did catch the name of this lil guy. But thunderstorms are headed this way, so there ya go....thunder flowers .
Cheers,
Mark
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Farewell to spring
The mix of mostly Californian late bloomers in the greenhouse.
Which has recently become a hot house with the nice warm summer weather.
This last clutch of flowers tends to signify the end of the "growing" season for a bulb grower. Yet, this group of mostly zeric bulbs also signifies that shortly the
"harvest" season will begin .
This also begins a great season in the garden as the flower beds really start to come on.
And the vegetable garden is loving the transitional weather with cool nights and hot days.
Cheers to a great summer and big harvest!
Mark
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Busy times
I know I haven't been updating this much and that always happens around this time of year....I am a farmer and planting time means getting busy. It also means spring Chinook are in the river and I'm also a fisherman.
Anyway,Delphinium nutallianum, lilium pardalinum and some yellow allium all bloom at the same time in a raised bed....so there ya go!
Cheers,
Mark
Monday, May 6, 2013
Rock midgets
Mimulus rupicola
So its a blessing and a curse that I am driven to make a scientific experiment out of everything I possibly can in this world...if you harken back to a year ago I did a three part series on my adventure to death valley to find one of the rarest monkey flowers around.
Last year I was so excited to get seed I kind of rushed them into production. Trying lots of different soil mixes, but the results were the same. A few flowers then death without any seed set.
So this year I set about to experiment with them a bit. Enter a large piece of pumice that probably blew off the top of Mt. Mazama. Drill some holes fill it with a gritty soil mix and top dress the plants with aquarium grade crushed coral.
If you know the geological history of it, death valley was once an inland sea. I figured a little salt wouldn't hurt a plant from death valley... after all the entire valley floor is composed of salt and borax. And the calcium component of the coral seemed logical.
Anyway, the rock midget is said to grow on drippy limestone cliffs...so I let the hose trickle over the rock every once in awhile...I'm pleased with the results. This looks much more like the plant I always coveted from pictures
Hot sunny and very in Oregon like here now.
Cheers,
Mark
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Cactus weather
Pediocactus simpsonii var. Nigrispinus.
I bought this tiny little golf ball sized plant at a NARGs winter study weekend probably 7 years ago...its approaching softball sized proportions now and has bloomed for many years. There is something so satisfying in seeing a ball cactus blooming in western Oregon. Usually home to perpetual dampness, rain and fog. Its 78 now, I'm seated by my wonderful specimen of p. Rockii enjoying the heavenly scent and looking forward to a weekend in the upper 80,s......too early to call it a draught but check back in august and I will update.
Cheers,
Mark
Saturday, April 20, 2013
All apologies
I got called out for calling peonia brownii an ugly duckling.... so here I am apologizing for that.
Just for reference here is another herbaceous peony that I got from Jane...I think this may have been a Halda collection.... I think it starts with an M......anyone?
Highs in the 80's next week.
Cheers,
Mark
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Evolution
Fritillaria verticillata
I've heard that the frittilarys with tendrils have evolved to grow up through shrubs as an adaptive protection from grazing. I'm trying to figure out which shrub this would most likely grow up through. I've read it ranges through central asia, into Siberia and china....anyone want to throw out some shrub suggestions?
Gale force winds and rain coming down in buckets. Sucks cause the orchard just started blooming and all the bees are snuggled in the hive drinking honey.
Cheers,
Mark
Friday, April 5, 2013
Messing with my breeding program
This little guys back is so loaded with fritillaria pollen he can barely fly.
Fritillaria latakiensis
So I have no monograph and a Google search didn't turn up much on chromosome counts for the genus....but I put a whole lot of f. Recurva pollen on this thing just for fun. The growth habit, flower morphology and bloom timing are crazy congruent so we shall see!!!
Pouring like a mutha again in the valley. Supposed to do it all weekend too. Temps in the 50's and not much differential.
Cheers,
Mark
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Goldilocks
Fritillaria glauca "goldilocks"
You all should have figured out by now that I put food on the table by either growing it, or on the occasion that I have to buy it, I pay for it with money I earned from planting native plants for the municipal capital city of Oregon. Its kinda refreshing when I get to play with native plants that aren't strictly Willamette valley riparian or wetlands species. So this little goldilocks comes from one of my favorite regions, southern Oregon. I spent a lot if time backpacking the kalmiopsis wilderness and siskiyou mts. The flora is really unique in that region .
The first real rain we've had in awhile came down pretty good today and now its blow in up a gale here in the hills. Fickle spring weather.
Cheers,
Mark
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
All the small things
I finally cleared out some land for my rock garden, removing the two giant cottonwoods that have been an impediment to the project....I've been stockpiling some alpines in the mean time in some raised sand beds. Its fun to watch them bloom and view it as a painters pallette for when I finally have some beds to plant in. I doubt time or money will allow the rock garden project to happen this season...but I'm one baby step closer.
Some bulbs for posterity's sake.
Warm and sunny today with rain in the forecast. Incidental... and mostly for my own records, its been pretty dry since December... 1.53" for Jan, 1.72" for February and 1.53" for March which is damn near a record...leaving us 9" short of average.
Cheers,
Mark
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Patience my friend....patience
Peonia brownii in the front and rocks peony in the background.
Patience....because I collected seed of that 8 years ago and its gonna bloom!!!!
Incidently this little ugly duckling can cross with those big beautiful ones....might have to see what comes of it.
Spring weather...almost downright summer weather.
Cheers,
Mark
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Monday, March 25, 2013
Don't Juno what flower that is?
Iris graberiana 'yellow falls'
Iris hoogiana 'white falls'
The light was really good in the greenhouse after work today. Been super mild temps in the 50's and 60's. Its fun to look back at last years blogs and see that we had a huge snowstorm this week last year and late frosts that nuked the potatoes. I guess that's one of the things I love about gardening, you have to deal with variables that you can't control.
Cheers,
Mark
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Monday, March 11, 2013
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