Rush Daffodils
In Greek mythology, Liriope was a beautiful water nymph who lived among quiet rivers and springs. She was loved by the river god Cephissus, and from their union was born a son, Narcissus. Concerned about the child’s fate, Liriope consulted the blind seer Tiresias, asking whether her son would live a long life. Tiresias gave a cryptic answer: Narcissus would live long “if he never came to know himself.”
I have told the story of Narcissus though the bulb blog enough times, that I don’t need to repeat it. After Narcissus fell to the enchantment of his own reflection, for Liriope, the story is often remembered as a quiet tragedy: a mother who sought a prophecy to protect her son, only to learn too late that the warning itself foretold his downfall. I ran across an interesting take on this that I had not heard before. The Romans and the Greeks both looked at this tale differently.
In the Greek tradition, the story tended to function as a moral tale about excess pride and the danger of rejecting social bonds. Greek myths often warned against hubris—an excessive pride that offended the gods or disrupted natural balance. Narcissus’ refusal to return the love of others, including the nymph Echo, was seen as a kind of imbalance in the natural order of affection and reciprocity. His fate—falling in love with his own reflection—served as poetic justice. The prophecy given by Tiresias (“he will live long if he never knows himself”) reflected the Greek fascination with fate and paradox: knowledge that should bring wisdom instead becomes the source of destruction.
Narcissus jonquilla
The Roman interpretation, especially in the famous retelling by Ovid in the Metamorphoses, placed more emphasis on psychological transformation and poetic symbolism. Romans loved stories of metamorphosis, where people literally become plants, animals, or natural features. In Ovid’s version, Narcissus’ story is less about social ethics and more about the tragic nature of self-obsession and illusion. The transformation into the Narcissus flower becomes a symbolic ending—beauty preserved in nature but separated from human life.
So while the Greeks tended to treat the story as a warning about pride and imbalance in relationships, the Romans, through Ovid, turned it into a more introspective tragedy about identity, illusion, and transformation. I was thinking a lot about what is an identity of a nursery, especially the nursery I have been building here at illahe for the past 18 years or so. It has been transforming a lot, especially these past few years as I have expanded into the Alpine and Rock garden world. I like to think back on those simple days when I only sold flower bulbs for a short window in the summer, to a curated list of customers who I could trust to send a check after they received the bulbs. Strange how that seems like a lifetime ago, a simple paper list of flower bulbs has given way to several hundreds of different alpine and rock garden species I have to catalog every year. I don’t want to lose sight of what built this and It was fortunate for me that my friend Diana stopped by this week to ask me about a Narcissus, we got to comparing some blooming specimens in the bulb house and comparing the different fragrances of the mostly jonquil section that are blooming now. Seeing some clearly mislabeled species in the bulb house reminded me I need to slow down and remember a few of my old tricks. Back in the illahe rare bulb days, I would come home from a 7:00-3:30 day job and especially this time of year after the daylight savings change I would excitedly rush to the bulb house with my camera and a note pad in tow to photograph what was blooming. Thanks to Diana’s inquiry into the jonquills I finally made some time to get out and at least photo document a few of what is blooming now. Felt like the old days and while an atmospheric river dumped 2” of rain on the valley, the warmth of the bulb house and the fragrance of the jonquils made it feel all cozy. Check out a few of what I saw:
I certainly have some taxonomic work to do in the bulb house, as you look through the gallery you may think “All nice yellow jonquils” but they are actually all different, from ultimate flowering height, to fragrance, to the ruffles and frilling of the corona or cup. I will get to that taxonomy eventually!
In the mean time I have a super cool experiment going to track the temperatures of the benches that are buffered by PCM tiles. A very cool company in Texas, Fore Energy sent me some of the new Karibou PCM tiles that change phases at 50 degrees. Perfect for the alpines that are springing to life now, I’m tracking the temperature differences on a bench that I outfitted with a checkerboard pattern of these unique energy savings tiles. The thermal panels are easy to install under a bench with a single bolt, and the checkerboard pattern allows drainage. This experiment is ongoing and I will report back the findings when I have more data gathered.
The Phase Change Material tiles under a test bench
I am super excited to see how this experiment plays out, in my initial testing the single tiles worked amazingly well at holding heat long after the rest of the greenhouse had dropped significantly. With more thermal mass of the PCM tiles this could be a huge game changer in passive greenhouse heating. If you are interested in this stuff I would encourage you to check out their website and if you want to experiment with PCM tiles yourself Fore Energy gave me a coupon code to pass along a discount to you, tell them Mark at illahe sent you and enter: ILLAHEPCM at check out for a discount!
A triumph of the last few years of focusing on true alpine cushion plants! Eritrichium aretioides blooming in the geothermal house.
The spring catalog is coming along, It will be out at the end of the month and I won’t be doing a countdown timer this year, that was as one customer put it ‘just too stressful’. You will just see the shop disappear for a few days while I get it updated and then you will know it’s coming. I will also do a preview post before I put it up so stay tuned for that. I know everyone is in a rush to get shopping, but I have a lot of great plants that are finishing up now and I want you to have the best selection possible for this first go around. I will be adding lots of plants through the season and I’m super excited about this years catalog, just be patient for a little bit longer and I think you’ll find it was worth the wait.
Flood watch on the for the valley this week, as the rain poured and the wind blasted us the last few days, fortunately no outages and this one is finally cold enough to dump some snow in the mountains, but unfortunately it may be a story of too little too late.
Mark