Happy Fall
“I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house." Nathaniel Hawthorne
………And yet here I am, working on the fall alpine and rock garden plant catalog and making a quick point of celebrating the autumnal equinox. At 11:19 this morning the sun slipped quietly into the southern celestial hemisphere. For us in the northern latitudes it means we have some equal day length to night with which to get those long put off summer chores done before the rain arrives. I took a brief moment and ran out to the garden and bulb house to capture a few of the glories of this season cloaked in that saturated light that the low angle sun gives as it’s setting further to the south now. Click on the gallery to see what I saw today.
The fall shipping catalog is almost together, I’m kind of excited to see what folks think of the selection. I was busy writing quite a few new catalog entries today as this fall we have a number of choice Pulsatilla’s that I haven’t seen offered anywhere in quite some time (if ever really) and Campanulas going out the door, as well as some of our fantastic seed grown collections from the alps of Oregon, the far out East Wallowa’s among some of the standards. As always order quickly, the treasures won’t last long.
To capture and enjoy the essence of this slower season a little bit better for myself, I’m not going to do some fancy countdown timer and too much hyping it up. I’ll just post it up some time this week, most likely Thursday morning. Orders will be shipping out through October, that should give you plenty of time to get these treasures in the ground and rooting in nicely before winter hits. Less hullabaloo this time of year with plants really, as compared to the madness of spring. I think my own emotions and body are sort of ready for the rest of winter and so I’m going to pace this offering a bit more to that crowd that can appreciate some chill, I’ve been on the road or on the run, or madly juggling the culture of three greenhouses and all the landscapes all summer and honestly I’m ready for some chill myself. As always a huge thanks to Joleen for keeping me at least moving in some sort of a straight line, when my compass is usually just spinning around like a broken clock hitting a magnetic anomaly and to Lindsey who has been stalwart at the helm when we are away, and as good of first mate as one could ask for in this business when we are here. The damn gopher that had to be directly descended from the caddie shack gene pool, set about wrecking the hardwork those two put into the cutting garden this year and it only took me all summer, but I finally got him in the trap, or at least one of the pesky bastards. Despite the constant harrasement of a 3 lb Camas pocket gopher with a serious appetite for Zinnia’s, they managed to crank out some of the best bouquets I have ever seen!
To those of you in the southern hemisphere kicking off spring, we hope this one brings you heaps of flowers, at least a little rain every night and sunshine during the day. For those in the north may this turning season bring you some closure to the summer projects and time to catch up on whatever you didn’t get to before the darkness and rain set in. I know I for one have absolutely been loving these cool nights and mild, sunny days.
Happy Autumnal Equinox from illahe Rare Plants.