Meet the summer intern!
We are proud to have Kaia Finley aboard this summer working as an intern at illahe Rare Plants. Kaia has been with us for the bulk of the spring shipping season working part time in between classes while she is finishing up her transfer degree from Chemeketa Community College. Kaia has an infectious smile and a positive attitude and a willingness to learn about plants that will no doubt translate into a plethora of horticultural acumen as she goes on to continue her studies at Oregon State University next year. Kaia’s interest in plants began during the Covid years when she began collecting houseplants, and that passion continued to grow. In high school, she participated in the Sustainable Plant Science and Technology program at CTEC, which further strengthened her interest in horticulture. The CTEC (Career Technical and Education Center), program is a very unique educational program where students get valuable professional career and technical skills training starting in high school. Through the years we have seen a lot of success’ come out of this program as it gets young students looking at science and practical job training that can be applied right out of the door. Kaia is one of those success’ combining her CTEC knowledge with further education from the Chemeketa Community College horticulture program and now on the job experience at illahe rare plants.
In her free time Kaia enjoys paddle boarding and spending time outdoors. After graduating from Chemeketa, she is headed Oregon State University to pursue a degree in horticulture. She has expressed an interest in plant breeding so some of her work this summer will be making crosses, tracking the work and harvesting the seeds as we work on some new and exciting developments in Collomia, Silene, Calceolaria and a host of other plants in the breeding work here. Kaia has a big heart for her pets, including four dogs, four bunnies, one hamster, and one cat. Her two of the bunnies she loves spending time with are named Honey and Berry. Kaia is a hard worker and we are feeling very lucky to have her with us this summer and we hope her work here translates into a life long love of rock gardens, rare bulbs and alpine plants!
Speaking of summer work, Lindsey and Kaia have been busy wrapping up the spring shipping season. They both did an amazing job as we packed and shipped more orders this year than ever before! As we head into summer we will wind down the shipping, keeping our mixed boxes of alpines and rock garden plants that we select up for shipping. We have some exciting projects on tap now that we are catching our breath after the madness of spring. The shade (lath) house will be our June priority as well as some raised beds for bulbs and also getting some of the rock into place for our new shady rock garden addition.
Silene salmonacea
Look at that color, looks like a freshly caught coho from the pacific!
A lovely pale pink form of Silene hookeri
I spent a good bit of time crossing our native Silene hookeri with the rarely seen high elevation Wasatch Mountains, Silene petersonii and am happy to see the progeny looking wonderfully intermediate while we await the flowers.
Upcoming events:
As mentioned with the summer temperatures already cranking up, (it’s headed for the 80’s while I’m writing this) we will wind down the plant shipping for the season.
Saturday July 11th, Cistus Design Nursery Summer Extravaganza.
More information will be coming on this sale coming soon, but we had such a great time at this summer event last year that we will be there again, if you are looking for some summer color or rarities to fill out the garden, this will be a premier event to find those, tons of great vendors, music, food and the affectious hosting of some of Portlands best plants people at an amazing nursery, what else could you ask for?
Summer bulb catalog:
It’s never to late to start thinking about the bulbs, keep an eye out for our online bulb catalog coming mid summer!
Cheers,
Mark and the Illahe crew