The Legend of Syrinx and Pan

 So I was chainsawing a 60 year old lilac log that had gone down in one of Salem's historic gardens, a victim of the worst ice storm seen at the 45th parallel since time started recording such storms. The story of Syrinx and Pan jumped to mind as I damn near stalled the chainsaw out on the iron hard wood. If you've never sawed old growth lilac, it's like rock and steel had a baby and they oriented the strands of fiber so that it's really hard to cut with a chainsaw. 

Syrinx was a chaste and pure wood nymph, one day she was spotted by Pan who fell instantly in love with her beauty. Pan pursued the beautiful nymph through the woods, Syrinx fleeing from the lust filled satyr god. As she neared the river Syrinx called out to the Potamides or River Nymphs for help. To hide her from the rampaging Pan, the River Nymphs turned Syrinx into a lilac, Although some tellings say it was cattails' that she was turned into. The story goes on that Pan flustered by the disappearance of the beauty he sought grabbed the lilac (hollow stems of S. vulgaris) or the hollow reed like vegetation of cattails and fashioned them into the Pan flute so she would always be with him as he blew a mournful melody. Syringa, the genus lilac and the Syringe of such modern day fame as a we face today with vaccines derive their names from the chaste wood nymph who was just minding her own business in the woods one day. 

That is the kind of thing that comes to ones mind when they have spent a week solid cutting up 250 year old oak trees and they suddenly encounter a wood that makes that seem like butter. My arms  and back seem unwilling to ever forgive me for cleaning up after this storm that dropped I'm sure a million tons of debris down on the Cherry City. What a mess that was to clean up, I even lost a few of my precious trees at illahe. A devastating loss was the Cupressus arizonica 'Blue Ice' that Don Howse had given me when I was the assistant manager of the gardens at McMennamins Edgefield, it had grown into a magnificent specimen guarding my driveway and offset by the dark green and gold of three Castellwellan Leland Cypress. It couldn't handle the weight of the inch and half of ice that built up over the Valentines day weekend and it toppled over. 

Trumpets of spring

Chinoodoxa sardensis

Psuedomuscari in the fading light

What a storm that was. I went from being a week ahead of the season at work to at least 3 weeks if not more behind in one ice covered night. Some of Salem's historic gardens and parks will never be the same. If anyone still things climate change isn't leading to more and more unpredictable and chaotic weather, it's time for you to take a science and statistics class or two. I've only been alive 44 years but I've seen the weather in Salem change dramatically over the 38 of those I spent in the Willamette valley. 

Anemone in the Rock Garden

Fritillaria obliqua

Thank god for a return to more seasonal weather, and the first few sunny days that tease of spring have been very welcome after a few weeks spent cleaning up after what looked like a hurricane in the gardens. 

Lot's of bulbs coming on now and just a teaser of them above. I'll be posting some more now that evening light hangs on a bit later and I can get home from work and take some photo's and write about what I see.

57 degrees and sunny this week! I'll take it. 

Mark

Winter Projects

"Substitute "damn" every time you are inclined to write the word very, your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should have been"

Mark Twain

Fritillaria obliqua is blooming now in the greenhouse.
What a queen mother of the Chocolate lilies, can you even name the color of those flowers?

Got a few weeks to get some winter projects done, So far I replaced the soil heating cable in the greenhouse. This should make for some good propagation projects this spring. My old heating cables went out 2 years ago and I just winged it for a couple of years. I also started redoing my grandpa's old orchard sprayer. That's been a satisfying project, hopefully by next week things will clean up a bit weather wise and I'll be able to get a dormant oil application on the orchard. No more 20 tank fill ups and getting soaked with a backpack sprayer. Grandpa had a battery operated 20 gallon tank sprayer, Yesterday I got it all cleaned out and the pump running again. 

The snow was actually falling this morning, giant puffy flakes but the temperatures have been in the mid 30's over night. 

Lot's of bulbs are up and growing now, I did a dilute P and K application to the Greenhouse bulbs, but I'm waiting for more warmth before I give any nitrogen. I've been liking my mix lately since I went to a bit of a loamier mix to hold some moisture through our lately very, er Damn warm summers. I think it balances the nutrient distribution a bit from the composted cow manure and I don't see any signs of a lack of nitrogen early in the growth period when temps are so low that nitrogen probably won't get assimilated well.

Chilly as we hit midweek, with a mix of snowshowers and clouds with ample rain.

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