Hi Folks,
Yep, it’s hot. We hit 101 on Friday, 104 yesterday, and we just hit 100 today. Gotta love it! My crop of Himalayan blackberries that I have been tending behind the farmhouse is literally getting broiled on the vines. So depressing..
But the Viburnum out front that hasn’t had anything appreciable to drink since mid-June is a rock star. It hasn’t missed a beat here, so if you’re looking for something native that will stand the heat in this kitchen, order some up. We still have plenty to sell – at least 12,000 of them.
Just a quick nod and thanks to our friends at Exxon, including former CEO Rex Tillerson, for the sweltering heat. Think of it as a free sauna, the cost of which was not rung up for you at the gas pump. Way to go guys! I can’t wait to see what you dish up for us next, Rex. You promised us an engineering solution to climate change back in 2011. How’s that going? I’m hanging onto my down parka just in case it goes too well and y’all plunge us into the next glacial. That’s no joke. It could happen. I would not want to be the one doing the math to decide just how much SO2 we need to squirt into the stratosphere to cool things off just right, whatever y’all think just right is. Seeing as none of the rest of us get a say in the matter.
Speaking of CLIMATE-ADAPTED PLANTS, let’s talk about native lilies! These delicate blooms are actually one of the toughest contenders we have. They do most of their business in the spring when there’s water a-plenty. They grow blades, sequester a lot of sugar below ground, push out a gorgeous display of flowers, then simultaneously set seed and a bulb just as soils are drying out. Then they sit there and wait. And wait and wait as long as it takes for the fall rains to finally come. And whenever the rains arrive, the bulbs sprout a profusion of fine roots that spread out, establish subterranean territory and suck up as much N and other goodies as they can get their root hairs into so the bulbs are flush with carbs and nutrients, and prepared for the next go-round.
It’s a great model, and the general plan has been adopted not just by lilies, but many other bulb, tuber and rhizome-forming plants, both monocots and dicots. It’s such a great model that lilies in particular have come to populate Willamette Valley prairies with estimated bulb counts of 10 to 25 million or more per acre.
We are currently managing the most spectacular wet prairie in Washington County, maybe the whole Willamette Valley. Portions of this prairie have never been plowed, and the spring display here is second to none. And while the camas is stunning, it’s far from the only show. There are countless millions of Brodiaea coronaria, Brodiaea elegans, Triteleia hyacinthina and many many other rare and interesting native prairie plants here. We will be scheduling tours next spring, so watch out for announcements. You won’t be disappointed.
Any plant that can be as durable and prolific as the lilies deserves our attention, but these species have not been available at a scale and cost that make restoring them possible on large projects – until now. Starting with tiny handfuls of seed painstakingly collected from this site and others around the Valley, Scholls has managed to build a huge stock of seed and bulbs of several prairie lily species, and now we are selling them by the quart and the gallon. This is a game-changer for anyone that wants to restore and manage wet prairie systems. We have now planted millions of these bulbs to begin the process of restoring three large prairie sites with great success so far, and whether you are restoring a 200-acre prairie or a backyard bee habitat, we hope you will make use of them as well. Here is the flyer for this year’s crop. We have over 600,000 bulbs available for you all to use. PLEASE BUY SOME and get these gardens growing!
