Spring Miscellany

 "One of the truest tests of integrity is its blunt refusal to be compromised."

Chinua Achebe

It's starting to feel like a legit Oregon Spring, 57 degrees and sunny with shorts and sundresses everywhere and 42 degrees, raining and marmot precip's the next day. The season does feel like it's advancing though as this time of year the bulbs are coming into bloom at the rate of several different selections a day. 

Ipheion 'Jessie' 
Has been turning a lot of heads of visitors to the illahe greenhouse this season. Must be the blues.

Diana Reeck who you know from her recent Eyrthronium introductions offered to teach us how to grow shitake mushrooms in exchange for a dry place to do it. So on a recent sunday we masked up, opened the shop doors and starting drilling a million holes in some ice storm plunder. 

It's an interesting process growing mushrooms, one that I've recently been a bit enraptured by. As a long time advocate of mychorrhizae inoculation for growing difficult to establish plants. I've found the process of growing and fruiting edible fungi to be a fascinating one. It's kind of like growing plants except instead of soil you are using a log. Simple right?

Joleen and Anya filling shitake mushroom spawn holes in Oak Logs

Diana Reeck of Collectors Nursery fame, and also the keeper of the newest and coolest Erythronium's gave us a workshop on inoculating oak logs with shitake mushroom spawn. If it all works out we should have loads of mushrooms for years to come. 

Iris bucharica

The Juno Iris are are about to steal the show, Iris bucharica from one of the Halda expeditions was the the second to open behind Aucheri 'Indigo'. Many more pics to come!

Rainy, wet and I'm headed for the mountains on a ski expedition. 

Cheers, 

Mark