Frost on the cushions
“All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost.” J.R.R. Tolkien
Bidens ferulifolia- one of the finest annuals I have found for the rock garden, still blooming after an early snow storm and finally the first frost of the season.
The weather here has been getting harder and harder to predict. As I’ve gotten older, I thought I had a better handle on it, the proverbial, “I can feel the rain coming in my bones” type of intuition. This has proven to be not the case this year as the weather has thrown more curveballs, changeups, sliders, and fastballs than Nolan Ryan (not trying to show my age with that obviously dated reference). This fall has been exceptional in that regard, In the last several weeks it went from the low 80’s of late summer to record setting rainfall delivered via an atmospheric river, to a snow storm and all of this before we even got a killing frost!
Frost on the Cotula. The cushion plants in the rock garden are certainly proving to be tolerant of whatever nature throws at them.
Those that followed the old blog at illahe rare bulbs blog, know that I used this forum as something of a soapbox as well as a garden journal where I tracked the weather. In all the years that I wrote that garden blog I don’t recall a weather pattern where we had measurable snowfall before we had a killing frost. This year’s frost was certainly late, as on the average we fall around October 15th. With more years than not a killing frost has been delivered well before Halloween. This year the growing season went from early April until the second week of November, longer than most that I can recall by a long shot.
As the weather settles into the more typical patterns of winter, I’m happy to say I haven’t seen a yellow jacket in a few weeks, so the requirement for sweaters and stocking caps comes with some benefits. The work on the new alpine house at Illahe continues and I’ve been busy sticking cuttings and getting the seed flats ready for sowing. With some luck and a warm afternoon the plastic should be going on the alpine house this week, just in time to tuck some flats of Anderson 2” rose pots filled with all sorts of great alpine and rock garden plants. I was hoping to have a fall availability list out but with the way that orders for garden trugs and the alpine house construction have gone that wasn’t in the cards. Stay tuned for late winter list! If you haven’t ordered a garden trug for a Christmas gift yet, you only have a few weeks as I’ll be done taking orders by Thanksgiving to ensure that I can get them out before Christmas.
Nerine sarmiensis-The Guernsey Lily blooming in Mid November. I was asked why this isn’t more widely grown in Oregon, and I didn’t really have an answer, it’s a wonderful gap filler between the fall bulbs, and the Amaryllis of winter. I grow them out on the patio and then bring them in when they are budded up to be enjoyed as a houseplant where the flowers last a good bit longer than the Hippeastrums which will be starting in December.
Looks like a blustery, but clear week with low temperatures in the 30’s and highs in the 50’s. I hope everyone is gearing up for a wonderful holiday season!
Cheers,
Mark Akimoff