Happy New Year from illahe Rare Plants
What a year it was for us at illahe rare plants, a whirlwind of plant propagation, sales, travels, hard work, the heat and dust of the bulb harvest, many new gardens visited, three new states and one new Canadian Province I had never been to. Some epic rock garden plants, and the usual trials and tribulations that come with nursery work and owning a small business, but all in all more success than defeat. I was listening to a podcast the other day and it was talking about how time seems to speed up as we age, our brains process fewer novel experiences and old traditions are not treated as distinct memories. As our neural clock slows down, the outside events happening around us tend to take on a warp speed effect. The young brain full of novel experiences takes in information at a faster rate, cataloging all the “newness” as novel experiences that tends to make time stretch out. This year was a mix of new experiences and time worn traditions and routines, maybe making time seem to accelerate and slow down at the same time. I thought I would take a moment of the last day of two thousand and twenty five to wish all a happy new year and share a bit of recap on the amazing year that seemed to fly by and also crawl at the same time. Please enjoy the gallery of our year in memorandum click on the photos to open each one and then hover on the photo to read about our 2025 adventures:
What an incredible year, we owe thank you’s to so many people that made it what it was. The customer comes first, so thank you to all of you who bought plants and bulbs from us. We hope to see you back next year either in person or online. While this isn’t a lucrative business it is a rewarding one because we make people happy with flowers! Thank you to Jane McGary for inspiring this nursery and making it all possible. Thank you to Bonnie Ion for organizing the Upper Midwest speaker tour. Thank you to all the folks that hosted us along the way. Thank you to Janice Currie and Paul Spriggs for organizing the Vancouver Island trip. Thank you to Panayoti for having us to Denver and introducing us to Mike Bone and Mike Kintgen and all the other fantastic Denver folks. Thank you to the truck for not breaking down on the many miles we spent covering backroads and mountain passes in search of cool plants. Thank you to this computer for making it another year, despite a flickering screen, and worn out keyboard. Thank you to Joleen for being a rock solid companion amid the tests and hardships of running a small business. Thank you to Anya for making me the proudest Dad in the world. When I get bogged down with the darkness and diminishing hope that this world and especially our country has been facing this past year, she is always there with aspirations and ambitions, and so full of joy and cheer. Thanks for all the fish, while I didn’t get to fish as much as I had hoped I would have gotten to, we have salmon in the freezer and fish tales from Mexico to Ontario, Canada. Thank you to the NARGS chapters that hosted us, and the Vancouver Island Rock Garden and Alpine Society for having us and all the garden clubs we visited this year. Thank you to my guitar for keeping me sane amid the chaos of this year. I’m not big on new years resolutions but I hope I can make even more plants next year, meet more fantastic gardeners, maybe a catch a few more fish and make more music next year, one last will wish for the new year and I’ll leave you with this holiday greeting that the band puts out each year. This is traditional Catalan Christmas tune called ‘El Noi De La Mare’ . Happy New Year! See you in 2026
“New Year's Day--Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual. Yesterday, everybody smoked his last cigar, took his last drink, and swore his last oath. Today, we are a pious and exemplary community. Thirty days from now, we shall have cast our reformation to the winds and gone to cutting our ancient shortcomings considerably shorter than ever. We shall also reflect pleasantly upon how we did the same old thing last year about this time. However, go in, community. New Year's is a harmless annual institution, of no particular use to anybody save as a scapegoat for promiscuous drunks, and friendly calls, and humbug resolutions, and we wish you to enjoy it with a looseness suited to the greatness of the occasion.” Mark Twain wrote that in a letter to the Virginia City Enterprise Newspaper on New Years Day, 1863.