Spoken much too soon.

"I like the cold weather, it means you get work done" 

Noam Chomsky

I think I spoke about the return of the sun much too soon, This so far one of the most consistently cold starts to march I've seen in awhile. I'll be monitoring for frost damage as this is the most vulnerable time. Things are in growth and pushing hard, but we have had some really low temps. 

Queens own Gardener John Anderson was in Salem, and drew a great crowd. The talk was wonderful, covering a fair bit of ground, but with a fairly intense focus, on some of the more unusual trees and woody species he has grown throughout his career. Props to the Salem HPS for getting such a great speaker to come free of charge. Wish that I would have had some flats of flower bulbs for sale at this one!

The JJA Crassifolia group I grow are starting in well despite the incessant cold

These have been shown on here for years, but I do need to point out that if you give space to the single bulbs to grow on to large mature size, the size of the blossoms definitely increase and they can produce up to 5 flowers per single bulbs, maybe more?

The cold has stuck around as evidenced by the snow still lining the greenhouse.

Oregon Myrtle wood on Oregon Ash, I think one would be hard pressed to
find a better combination to create a stunning guitar then those two woods. 

It's my take on a Garry Oak Leaf, Seems fitting with my home environment, Predominately oak woodlands
can be found in any direction you walk from illahe. It fit nicely onto the Gabon Ebony truss rod cover. Boy if I had a penny for everyone of those leaves I've raked up in my life, I'd be richer then Kylie Jenner. 

The guitar project continues despite the cold, I thought the warm sun eluded to earlier was going to stick around, instead we had the lowest temperatures of the entire winter hit the first week of March. That's never good for a gardener. Had quite a few flower heads bending over with the 22 degree temps in the greenhouse, despite a solid covering of frost blankets. Most things look to be on the bounce back, but it's been awful chilly at night and it snowed most of today.

Cheers ,
Mark

Whats blooming in the Middle of February?

"We are all born ignorant but you must work hard to remain stupid"

Ben Franklin

This edition of a walk around the garden is dedicated to those who work hard to remain stupid, like so many folks I know in local government and unfortunately now days that plethora of stupidity seems to go all the way to the top. Really, a state of emergency? To build a giant wall? That may be the most ignorant thing I've heard in my life and apparently the leadership of this nation is working over time to remain stupid. 

Colchicum hungaricum 'Valentines'
It's been cold and rainy with most of the early species in the garden staying somewhat closed up.

Fritillaria obliqua
The stuff in the greenhouse is a fairing a little bit better with the weather, mostly on account of the drier but cool conditions these early bloomers seem to love. 

Crocus x leonidii 'Early Gold'
The potted specimens in the greenhouse are about a week ahead of the material in the rock garden.

 

Fritillaria crassifolia
These are my mixed pots of the JJA collections from Iran

Just some roguish hellebore seedlings foiling the rock garden.

That's what quick walk around the gardens at illahe showed on a mid Febuary day with temps staying in the 30's most nights and copious amounts of rain falling, it seems like winter decided to condense itself quite readily into the last few weeks. If you have been following this seasons weather reports we were so mild for all November through well into January. It will be interesting to see if Spring comes raging in sooner than expected. But for now welcome is the heavy snow fall in the cascades and to those that take comfort in the grey and damp, it just plain feels like an Oregon winter again.

Cheers,

Mark