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Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Colchicum bivonae and the end of the sale season.

Colchicum bivonae
Widely distributed Mediterranean species, Greece-Turkey-Sardinia, I love the tesselations on this one and I keep meaning to put a infrared or UV filter on this to see what it might look like to a pollinator species.

 I've wrapped up bulbs sales for this year. Thanks again to all the great customers. It was another fun year for us at Illahe. If you missed out on anything, I'll leave the catalog up and you can dream about getting your order in early next year. It was a bit of an abbreviated season for me, so expect much more next year.

A thick smokey haze has filled the valley as wildfires continue to burn up in the cascades. Temperatures hit 100 here today and you could taste the burning pitch in the air. We need a cool down and some rain soon.

Best,
Mark

Thursday, August 24, 2017

Colchicum alpinum

Colchicum alpinum
The classic alpine meadow saffron from the high altitude regions of the European Alps. This species does very well in the unprotected raised beds. The culture is easy and top dressings of composted cow manure mixed with pumice every so often have yielded a nice increase in corms. Another nice early bloomer doing it's think in late August.

So tomorrow the shipping season ends and I can get back to taking pics of the fall blooming species as the come on.

Hot, sunny and dry weekend ahead! Temps in the 90's although a sprinkle was felt today on the way into work.

Cheers,

Mark

Wednesday, August 23, 2017

The first of the fall bloomers have arrived-The Shipping season is coming to an end.

Colchicum haynaldii

Grecian species, introduced into cultivation in the 1980's, this one is relatively new to me, I like the relatively compact habit and the very early bloom season of late August.

Catalog Update:

 I am going to wrap up the shipping season by this weekend so please get any last minute orders in by friday. I'll be offering the following discount:

10% off order totals until the shipping season has ended, This Friday the 25th of August. 


Best,
Mark

Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Its totally better than you can even imagine!


It's really hard to to find the words to describe the intensity of a Total Solar Eclipse, I had no idea it would be that amazing. The Pictures don't do it justice and words just can't describe the eerily changing colors as the sun goes away. Then the bright, silver and white light dancing around the rim as the moon totally obscured the sun. 360 degree sunset, I was floored and everyone who witnessed it felt something 




A Total Solar Eclipse from Prospect Hill in South Salem. 

My Uncle Orion set up his Surveyers scope to project an image of the progress.


So the bulb sales are winding down and some of the fall bloomers are starting to come on, I think I'm going to wrap up sales this week. I'll offer 10% off total order discount from now until Friday, the list is updated and there are still a few choice things left.

Cheers,
Mark

Sunday, August 6, 2017

Harvest 2017

It's a muggy 90 with ample humdity and a generally miserable feel for an Oregon summer. But the harvest is happening anyway.

Hope to have the list out very soon so keep checking!

Wednesday, August 2, 2017

The Calm Before the Storm

A calm summer evening at Illahe Nursery and Gardens

I've had quite a few inquiries about the availability list so I thought I would offer this update. I'm going to start digging bulbs this weekend, with any luck the list should be out by mid to late next week. I am pleased to announce that I will be offering some of Diana Reecks incredible clumping Erythronium's on this years list so be sure to check back often to get in on that offering. Look through the April posts to see what you can get.

In other news, it's insanely hot here in the valley this week, highs topping 105 today and it's supposed to stay super hot the whole week and into the next. Ugghhhh.....I'm not a big fan.

Mark