Nor Cal

Just a quick photo tour of  my trip to California, had to go lay Grandma Shook to rest. Botanizing is a great way to get the mind off of missing someone special and plants are always a recharge for me anyway. 

Calochortus amabalis
So this was in the hills above Calistoga where the fires burned this past fall. 

Ziagadenus in the Sonoma Hills

Mexican butterworts at California Carnivores, this epic nursery is just a few miles down the road from My grandma's house, I"m gonna miss those plant filled visits. 

California Carnivores is a plant collectors type of place. 

I need one of these for teaching about water quality and the carnivorous plant connection, almost every kid anywhere has heard of or seen a venus fly trap so it's the ideal intro plant to teach botany and evolutionary adapatation.

Made it home to see the cherrys and mustard in full bloom, a hive of bees buzzing happily away and a pretty solid week of good weather. Life is good when it's like this.

Cheers,
Mark

A few more bloomers

 "Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it."Henry David Thoreau

Iris graberiana 'Yellow falls' in the rock garden,
I have noticed that the color tends to wash out on this one a bit in the outdoor grown specimens vs, the greenhouse pots. Maybe this extra long spring rainfall we have been having is a contributor.

Fritillaria acmopetala 'Dark Form'
from a year ago. There is a story about this one, but for now it's a place holder

Branding and advertising something I haven't done much of, but thinking about diving into it a bit more. It's always been my dream to have a cool hand illustrated hard copy of the catalog. I don't really have much time for drawing anymore, but at this weekends PBS talk Kit Strange was talking about the botanical illustrator working on the Juno Iris monograph, it got me thinking that I better do this catalog thing the right way before it's too late. I'm throwing the collage up because it's making me think how hard it will be to pick 5 or 6 of the best species to illustrate for this years catalog. I was even thinking I'll probably print out a few dozen and drop them off a the local garden centers, who know's might capture a few new customers from it........Branding, marketing, capital investments, market share, dang I wish I had a business person who was passionate about that stuff and I could just do the growing and drawing!

Rain showers like serious heavy, but nothing near what my family in Kauaii have had to deal with. Crazy flooding.

Cheers,

Mark

The Weekends flowers

Just a collage of some stuff blooming this past weekend.

The Trillium kurabayashii saga continues as a friend took pics of this up near Detroit lake....way out of its known range. Looks like a species undergoing a rapid range expansion. ...hmmm one for the scientists to debug?  My theory is that it's a spontaneous mutation of T.albidum.

More soon

The Pacific Bulb Society

What a weekend for a plant person it was. Jane McGary hosted a get together of the PBS to hear Kit Strange from Kew Gardens talk about her work with the bulb collection.

Janes bulb house was a great place to hear some very knowledgeable plant folks conversing. Kit has a special interest in Juno iris and has a hybrid out recently she named for her sister. I was able to get some tips on fertilization for improved seed set.

Kits talk was a tour of the Kew gardens alpine house followed by pictures and discussion of the propagation areas, national collections, and what was so impressive was all the different houses that store the collections not on display that have little microclimate setups to cater to ever plants possible need. Jospeh Banks would be proud.

Janes Garden was exploding with bulbs, including this Trillium that I would love to get the name of.

On the way up Joleen Schilling showed me the Chemeketa (alma mater) greenhouse availability for some up coming landscape jobs.

The chemeketa students and staff look to be doing an excellent job with the houses stuffed full of choice color spots and bedding plants.

Back home the incessant rain showers continued with not a glimpse of sun in sight for most of the weekend. I'm really ready for some warm weather and some drying so I can do a little work in the veg garden.

Cheers,

Mark

Fritillaria persica

"Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future,too." Marcus Aurelius

Fritillaria persica

The persian empire was by all accounts a magnificent testament to conquest, technology of the day and strong willed leadership. Cyrus the great kicked it off around 550 B.C. when he combined the Median, Lydian and Babylonian empires. There seems to be some lacking of historical factual data about how he did it, for example some of the records indicate that he took Babylon without a fight. I imagine with war machines being what they were back in the day it was probably far better to rely on diplomacy and discourse then it was to bury your populous under the crushing and maiming of axes, swords and spears. Not to say it's gotten any easier today. But as I sit here typing this we seem to be teetering closer and closer to the brink of war in Persia once again. With Chemical weapons being used on innocent civilians and the Russians involved, the brutal regimes propped up by foreign governments and rebels fighting for their lives. Makes one wonder if they really did take down Babylon some 2,500 years ago without a single arrow or spear thrust through flesh and bone.

Peter Tosh might have said it best sometime in the 1970's before he was gunned down violently :

Would you kindly reduce the temperature on this earth, it's too hot down here
Fire fire, fire fire, fire fire, they have no waterBabylon burning, babylon burning, babylon burning, they have no waterFire fire, fire fire, fire fire, they have no waterBabylon burning, babylon burning, babylon burning, they have no water

The weather report is not looking good for mid April, of course the showers are hear, but the cool temps and the blustery weather I could do without. 

Cheers, 

Mark

Risk Aversion

"I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious."

Albert Einstein

Fritillaria purdyi x biflora

I once heard a passionately burnt out co-worker tell someone, she couldn't address the problem because she was a "risk averse person". That in and of itself was not the ridiculous part, many people try to avoid conflict at work and so tend to avoid taking risks because it might lead to conflict.That is  somewhat understandable, as work place conflict is really better avoided if possible. But the way she said it, as if it was something to be proud of and owned, like bragging about not being able to cook, is what turned my stomach. Many can't cook, and not for lack of trying, and again that's understandable. But being proud of something that actually makes you a less capable human is not an admirable trait. Owning proudly that you are risk averse person makes you someone who should not venture out of the very narrow confines of say a small flat in a quiet town, perhaps spending your days stuffing envelopes or knitting sock puppets. Unfortunately people like this often end up in leadership roles, of course upper management thinks this is great, because installing someone who is risk averse below them, will likely not create problems for them from a people management perspective. However it's incredibly troubling that the lack of inspiring and truly dynamic leadership so prevalent in the work place today, is so fueled by risk averse people.

No one truly achieved anything remarkable or great by avoiding risk. You have to bet big to win big, you have to put it all on the line at some point.

I have taken a few chances in my day, some far more calculated then others. I've sunk boats in raging rivers, and I've been lost deep in the woods, and I came out alive on the other side. I've run a lot of experiments with plants in my day, some very scientifically planned out, theorized, calculated, measured and remeasured and some were just throwing darts at a wall. I've come to realize that Mr. Einstein's quote is so incredibly spot on, I've always wondered "what if" and been willing to take the chances required to find out. Maybe growing plants isn't really about any specific special talent, and green thumbs are really just the mark of someone passionate enough to take risks and keep trying, and keep trying, and keep trying.

Maybe some people just want to exist through this life. But not me, take risks, roll the dice, burn the sauce, whatever it takes to avoid becoming that jaded, burnt out person that won't take a chance on anything, because like Mark Twain said, "The person who won't read, has no advantage over those that can't read".

Ahhh.....flower bulbs are blooming and sometimes you have to vent.

Cat's and dogs have been falling from the sky as we have been locked in a deluge with temps more like early December.

Cheers to the risk takers and the passionately curious.

Mark

Fading Away

"Time Like a petal in the wind Flows softly by As old lives are taken New ones begin A continual chain Which lasts throughout eternity Every life but a minute in time But each of equal importance." Benjamin Franklin

Fritillaria pudica

You catch these just right in the fading light as the flowers are starting to turn and they take on this lovely setting sun gradient from the orange to the yellow.  Boy were the petals in the wind this weekend, weather report said gusts to 50mph, but I'm pretty sure it felt like some 70 milers coming through. Definitely a blustery day of Winnie the Pooh proportions this past Saturday. The Bulbs are coming on like crazy now with 5 or 6 new ones opening every day. I've been thinking about taming down the vegetable garden this summer to leave some freedom for travel. Kind of a double edge sword if you are trying to live off the land as much as possible, cultivating it ties you to it, but also supports your health and vigor by making you work for it. the continual chain as it goes around and around.

Cheers, 

Mark

The second affinis

"Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive."

C.S. Lewis

Fritillaria affinis
This one is from Mt. Hood, Jane used to live up on the flanks of Mt. Hood outside the town of Estacada, I'm guessing this was one of her seed collections from the area, But I need to double check that with her. While this form doesn't have that fantastic rippled edging that the Vancouver Island form does, this one is a steller selection none the less with it's square shouldered bells and it's deep pattern markings. I like to think of the affinis selecitons I grow kind of like a fine Cabernet, subtle differences make them all unique, but if a buzz is what you are after they will all work just fine! When the other few forms I have open I'll put them all together so you get a better idea of the side by side comparison, I just stumbled up on a macro lens I forgot I had so I thought I would throw this up as a test.

Wind storm rocking the valley right now, and the doors just blew off the greenhouse, gotta run

Cheers
Mark

"Fawn Lilies Sir from over the bridge "

Life is eternal, and love is immortal, and death is only a horizon; and a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight.  
Rossiter Worthington Raymond

Erythronium 'Pacific Sunset Strain'
From the amazing Plantswoman Diana Reeck, these are insanely beautiful little gems, you really should see her raised beds chocked full of them with hundreds of flowers.

I was thinking about those T. kurabayashii that seem to spreading now, just a thought, but someone that gets to do science should do some genetic work on those, my guess is T. kurabayashii is actually a spontaneous genetic sport of T. albidum that could perhaps be induced by some environmental factor like a changing climate. That would explain it showing up well outside of it's range all of a sudden and the population I found is intermixed with T. albidum. Let the plant mutations begin!

Rainy in the valley, but temperatures seem to have moderated to spring like, at least it's in the upper 50's. 

Cheers, 

Mark

Changing of the guard.

RIP

Lois Shook

1923-2018

from left to right, My dad, My grandma, My mom, My daughter and me.

My dear grandmother passed away yesterday. I started to think back on some memories and the fondest are of  her and grandpa in the amazing gardens they kept. As a kid, visiting that grand garden down Green Valley Road was so much fun. Running through the immaculate orchard, always perfectly pruned, jumping over the watermelons they could grow so well in the fine, Sebastopol dirt, Picking chilean guava's off the sprawling bushes and racing around the manicured boxwood hedge that surrounded the house chasing alligator lizards caught basking in the summer sun. The roses and impatiens seemed to be two of her favorites and they always put on a show, next to the enormous sycamore tree that dwarfed that little swingset we played on as kids.

I learned early from her what a garden was to look like, and I learned to appreciate the homesteading way of life, and self sufficiency that could have only come from years of toiling through the great depression and war years. She taught my mom how to can your preserves and my mom taught me and now it's my responsibility to teach the kiddo. I love how she passed on knowledge and I think that is such an important thing, This picture is three generations of strong women. Love you grandma and thank you so much for imparting a love of gardens and plants, and working the earth, raising your own food and caring for all. I never heard her utter a harsh or unkind word to or about anyone, I think she may have been as close to the definition of kind and caring as you can get in this lifetime.

I will miss you grandma,
love
Mark

All the Trilliums

Trillium albidum

I'm feeling very fortunate this week, I said in an earlier post that I inteded to get back to the roots a bit and get out and see more of the wild things. Well this week was pretty special, finding Trillium kurabayashii well outside of it's known range, then seeing T. ovatum and now T. albidum it's felt a little like a fun little botanical easter egg hunt. Of course here in the valley there is nothing rare or unusual about T. albidum or T. ovatum. but's been a nice little refreshing taste of the good ole' botanical exploration days I got a bit busy for the last oh.....say ten years or so.

Not too bad of a day weather wise, it called for rain but it didn't. It said it was 44 but it felt like 55 to me. 

Cheers, 

Mark

Where the Wild Things are 2018 edition

"I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man's reasoning powers are not above the monkey's."   Mark Twain

.....................I think Mr. Twain may gave greatly insulted the monkey in this case. 

So I ran this by some very knowledgeable folks and according to some university folks in research with the Oregon Flora project, this may very well be the northern most known wild population of Trillium kurabayashii ever recorded. I thought that was pretty cool, and it comes from a gem of a natural area park that is somewhat of a local secret. There is some debate I suppose whether this could have washed in from a cultivated source, as this is in the flood plain of the Willamette River, which is of course our main water arterial that flows north through the Willamette Valley. It's entirely possible that someone in the Eugene, Corvallis, Albany, Harrisburg or other riverside town could have been growing it and seed could have ridden a spring time flood to find it's way here. Or again, maybe it's just a disjunct Northern Population that has been hiding here for millenia. Either way, it's a plant and it seems to be expanding it's range, finding it's way north as the climate changes, maybe it's running from the baking heat that it senses coming as the polar ice caps melt and the sea levels rise, the hole in the ozone increases the mean temperature over the globe and plants find ways to move.

Trillium ovatum
Our much more common species of wake robin is in bloom now and indeed the robins are out and about now.

It was frosty this morning and the thermometer read 31 as I scrapped the ice off the windsheild. Par for the course as I'm usually never frost free until after tax day.

Cheers,
Mark

Showed up Late to All Fools Day

"My mom used to say that Greek Easter was later because then you get stuff cheaper." 

Amy Sedaris

Gladiolus tristis
The Marsh Afrikaner goes down as one of my favorites. I don't know that I have seen it bloom this early before, but this year it showed up like a champ right on easter. No forcing or nothing, this is a quart pot that was in the unheated greenhouse, and while this year was fairly mild, this was in full bloom right on Easter Sunday.

I meant to post a happy easter with this one, but Saturday was a beautiful spring day with highs in the 60's and Easter Sunday was a chilly, rainy, damp, cool....generally pretty ugly day for April fools. Looks like the forecast calls for off and on crap all week. I'm ready for a week with no rain, so I can get some ground work done in the veg garden.

Kind regards,

Mark