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Friday, March 30, 2018

Name this Trillium?


Good Friday finds



 Trillium Question for you all, So last year I saw this growing in a local woodland park and for some reason I wanted to call it T. chloropetalum, This year I went poking around in the same woodland and found a bigger population of it, and here I am again and scratching my head now because it looks an aweful lot like T. kurabayashii. But then I started doing my research again and I realize that neither of those species grows this far north. 





Can any trillium experts out there give a decent id?

I would be pretty stoked to find out it's some northern subspecies and it gets named for me, I mean after all isn't that the holy grail for any plantsman? I always wish I could have lived back in the days of true botanical exploration, when almost every plant you saw stepping off a sailing ship was new to science. Or maybe its just Trillium kurabayashii actually has a disjunct northern population?


Sunny and warm with temps hitting the 60's this week, and the weekend looks almost as good! Happy easter to you if you are out hunting eggs. 

Cheers,
Mark

Thursday, March 29, 2018

Holy Week



"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."
 Martin Luther King, Jr.




Pulsatilla vulgaris

Flowers are always going to be a source of strength for me, I love the renewal of spring, when the death and decay of fall and winter, springs forth new life. Nothing lives for ever, but there is something so rewarding in seeing the first shoots pushing out and the new buds fighting through the scales and sheaths.

Anemone apennina 'Petrovac'

The week before easter, some sun breaks and clouds and when the suns out it does feel like spring is hitting pretty good. 

Cheers, 

Mark

Monday, March 26, 2018

Fritillaria pudica


They grew under the old Oak tree out by the driveway, the spring brought them back every year, but the summer made them disappear. The Golden Bells of the Sahaptin Land.



Fritillaria pudica

The diminutive Yellow Fritillary will always be one of my favorites, back when I was just out of College, I spent a lot of time botanizing through the Gorge and out to the Wallowa Mts. This was always a good early species to run across in those areas. Those were some pretty simple times, when I could throw together some backpacking gear into the Jeep and head out for a weekend in the hills and mountains. Life really was pretty simple back then, before mortgages and retirement accounts, health savings and insurance for everything. 

"Hesitation increases in relation to risk in equal proportion to age." Ernest Hemingway

It's been a while since I hit the road with some spartan supplies, a tent, a sleeping bag and a well worn copy of the Oregon Atlas and Gazateer.....maybe it's that hesitation that comes with each advancing year. Maybe the trick is to outpace the hesitation, cast of the bowline type of attitude, jump off the cliff and begin the journey. I'm going to try to get out to see the wild things more this year. I miss those simple times, when I could wander but was seldom lost. 

Chilly start to the day, rain back in the valley this morning after a mostly dry Sunday. 

Cheers,
Mark

Sunday, March 25, 2018

The Narcissus




“Daffodowndilly

She wore her yellow sun-bonnet,
She wore her greenest gown;
She turned to the south wind
And curtsied up and down.
She turned to the sunlight
And shook her yellow head,
And whispered to her neighbor:
"Winter is dead.” 
A.A. Milne









Just some collages of the Narcissus species that are blooming out right now. Snow and Sun, Rain and Wind it's been a hell of ride but I think Spring is really right around the corner now.

Cheers,
Mark

Thursday, March 22, 2018

Fritillaria ionica

Fritillaria ionica
 Io was a mortal lover of Zeus, some of the legends say that to hide his lover from his wife, he turned her into a white heifer, other versions say that Hera turned her into the Heifer, on the legends go, so that Hera when she found out about Io as the white heifer sent the gadfly to sting her constantly, so Io left and wandered the earth to try to rid herself of the constant stings of the gadlfy, the Bosporus (0x passage) was so named because she swam across the straight on her wanderings. Eventually Io was to escape to Egypt across her namesake Ionian Sea and be returned to human form by Zeus.

The Ionian islands seem to have a storied past as well,settled by the greeks around 1000 bc, invaded by the Romans, the Venetians, the Russian Turks and the British through history.

From the Mountains on the Ionian Isle of Corfu, Fritillaria ionica doesn't disapoint, the green areas on the bells are lightly checkered, and the brown and green pattern is always a show stopper on this hardy albiet somewhat compact species.

We had a little snow yesterday, actually off and on most the day it was rain and snow mix at times, I'm ready for some sunny weather to really get out and enjoy the flowers! 39 degrees today maybe its going to get up to 45?

Cheers,

Mark

Sunday, March 18, 2018

Tulipa ostrowskiana


“A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”  Mark Twain


Tulipa ostrowskiana

From the mountains of Kazakhstan comes this flamboyant beauty, If I had to describe it in other terms I would probably say it's like a flamenco dancer doing a backflip and caught right upside down. It's really quite the show stopper in the greenhouse right now because of the predominant yellow's of the Narcissus and the browns and greens of the many Frittilaria in bloom now. Oh to have been a bulb purveyor back in the tulipmania days in Holland right? Maybe I could have paid the mortgage off on the property with a single bulb.

It was frosty this morning as I left in the dark, although it wasn't a half bad weekend, temps got up into the high 50's. The mizuna mustard greens are flowering in the vegetable garden now and the bees were busy collecting pollen. I sowed some early vegetable pots in the greenhouse, but I'm late on some of the bedding flowers. Hoping to correct that with some sundowner work this week.

cheers,

Mark

Thursday, March 15, 2018

The Requiem of the First Affinis

"It's nothing sinister but my private life belongs to me." Myanna Buring

 Not to rehash old work, but this is really one of the finest form of affinis I've ever seen and I really like taking pictures of it. So Here it is again.


Fritillaria affinis Vancouver Island

The Yellow Wallpaper Incident


"The sound of colors is so definite that it would be hard to find anyone who would express bright yellow with base notes, or dark lake with the treble." Wassily Kandidinsky



Erythronium 'Jeannine'
This is purported to be a hybrid of the Californian's E. tuolumnense and E. californicum 'White Beauty' or maybe a backcross involving those parents.

I was watching the bees this past weekend with a bit of that warmth we had they were flying in huge numbers, and bringing in loads of pollen.  I was also kinda wondering why are so many of the early flowers yellow. Most of the research suggests it has to do with pollinators waking up from the long winter rest and having an easy target to hit. Yellow is that bright, attention getter type of color that you can't really ignore. Like curious George and the man in the Yellow hat, it wouldn't really make sense if it was Curious George and the man in the brown fidora. 


I was gonna throw a bunch of yellow flowers on this post, but I think maybe i'll space em out a bit. 

It was a chilly 38 when I drove out this morning, but the day's have been warming up a bit. I think it's going to rain this afternoon and maybe hit 60. 

Cheers, 
Mark





Sunday, March 11, 2018

Stink Bells and Other things

Fritillaria agrestis

Spring showed up just in time for Daylight savings to Spring Foward an hour. The sun was out and it was warm and pleasant most of the weekend. Made quick trip out to the coast for my Moms 69th birthday, paella in Yachats with the family was a real treat. The stink Bells are flowering very strong thiis year, maybe the milder winter weather we had for the most part that reminds them of the native California climate. The bees were buzzing in and out of the greenhouse, Carson (my Nepew) and Anya both had school off on Friday so paid them to mulch the orchard with a load of arborists chips. Got the burn pile done as well and the grass mowed, it was a pretty productive weekend for being gone for most of it!

Anya and Carson putting in a good days work at Illahe Nursery and Gardens

Supposed to be pushing 70 tomorrow!! WooHoo, It's feeling like Spring for real!

Cheers, 
Mark

Tuesday, March 6, 2018

Frosty mornings and sunny afternoons.


The chief obstacle to the progress of the human race is the human race.
 Don Marquis




Narcissus hispanicus ssp. bujei
Chilly start to the days this week, with frosty temps down into the 20's. The Narcissus sure don't seem to mind, Even this rare subspecies of the Spanish daffodil,  but a few of the medditerranean arums are doing the flag drop. 

I'm wondering if anyone read the Butterfly Revolution as a kid, curious how so many can be influenced by a strong, charismatic leader, to behave so badly. I don't remember how I found that book as a 13 year old, but it certainly stuck with me through all these years. I see parallels in our present day. 

"You're late said spring to winter,  "I arrived precisely when I meant to, and besides, your invitation seemed flexible as to when the party was to start" Winter replied,"....Mark Akimoff


Saturday, March 3, 2018

Sun, showers and Bee Flights

The bees have been flying despite the weather, which today saw sun, showers, hail, sun, drizzle and sun again.

And they were all about the crocus. They found Colchicum hungaricum 'Valentines Day' particularly attractive.

Friday, March 2, 2018

Tooting the Horn



"I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit"
John Steinbeck


Getting the 2017 Outstanding Community Educator Award
 from the Marion Soil and Water Conservation District

It suffices to say that government work can be an absolutely thankless task, no matter how good you are at your job, or how much you try to go beyond the expectations (which for some can be minimal at best), there will always be someone who thinks that they should live in a society where roads, and drainage, drinking water, parks, natural areas and rights of way should all be free and  no one should have to pay for these things because all of these things are inalienable. 

It would probably be best at this point  to remind folks that I don't make a living growing and selling flower bulbs, believe me I wish I could. But I don't, and most years I don't even make one of the monthly mortgage payments on the property where Illahe Nursery and Gardens is located  from flower bulb sales. I make my living by educating people in the Willamette Valley about the importance of clean water, and I do that for a small local government. This is where the thanklessness of the job comes into play, believe it or not, natural resource conservation is not an innate behavior. No one is born knowing that you have to keep your water clean if you want to drink it and not get sick, or you have to protect the soil on your farm if you want to be able to grow food on it for generations. Natural resource conservation is a learned behavior, which means it has to be taught to you by someone.  Most of the time doing that sort of education for a resource poor, primarily conservative town of 37,000 people, with a fiscal budget of zero dollars is an utterly thankless task. But every once in awhile, whether its a hand drawn thank you note from the 5th grade class at the local elementary school, or kind word from someone walking the dog in the park admiring the new tree plantings a bit of gratitude is felt. 

I got a huge dose of gratitude this past month when the local Soil and Water Conservation District chose to give me the award for 2017 Outstanding Community Educator. It felt really good to know that someone thinks I'm doing a good job, and it felt especially good to know that the folks that are tasked with protecting the counties most valuable natural resources, clean water and friable soil, were the ones that felt I have been doing a good job. If you aren't familiar with the Soil and Water Conservation Districts, do a little reading on the dustbowl. I'm a huge Woody Guthrie fan and the John Steinbeck quote is no coincidence, as he is a favored author, both of who had to live through the dustbowl era and could tell you a thing or two about what happens if you are careless with nature and disregard the delicate balance on which we teeter between starvation and abundance. So here I am tooting my horn and feeling happy about a little bit of recognition for time I put in to try to teach people that if you don't take care of the resources around you they will soon be gone and with it the quality of life that we have all enjoyed. 


I felt like a much needed vacation was in order, so quick trip down to Baja earned me some sun and my first ever Dorado.


Don't worry I'll get back to pictures of bulbs soon enough, if the weather ever cooperates that is. After the mild December and January where we hit temps in the 60's multiple times and it looked like spring was pushing up the daisy's. We are now firmly back in the throes of winter. Temps in the low 30's with the occasional snow flurry in between wind whipped rain. Oh how I wish I was back in Baja. 

Cheers,
Mark