Touring Illahe Rare Plants

I've written a bit about Illahe Rare Plants in the past, and a week or so ago I finally had the chance to visit their operation with a small group from the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon. The nursery is located south of Portland, in Salem, OR, on the same piece of property as Mark Akimoff's home ((owner of the nursery). This rain barrel and plant container combo immediately caught my eye.

As did the sweet pea bloom and bumble.

Mark pointed out the bloom on this gloriosa lily. Since I am flower stupid I didn't realize how unusual it was that this plant lived through last winter,.

I spotted this container up against the house, I love the unexpected mash up of a kinda formal container with a mix of rock garden.

The display garden (or maybe more accurately the garden around the home) was fun to explore.

Sempervivum and opuntia adopting the same color scheme.

Acantholimon halophylum in its post-bloom glory (I have one of these purchased a year ago from Illahe, now I'm praying it blooms!).

Mark proudly (tongue-in-cheek) pointed out his crevice garden. We'd been talking about the fact Craig, Kenton, and Chris from the Dairy Creek Crevice Garden build had visited Illahe the week before.

Looking back towards the house, crevice garden in the foreground.

Can you spot the agave? It's at about 11 o'clock.

There was also a nice carnivorous plant planting, in a hidden bog.

Container plantings with edgeworthia.

Berkheya purpurea

Time to look at the greenhouses...

This was a masterpiece! The geothermal house. I wish I was smart enough to explain it to you in detail, but basically we're talking about underground piping and fans. It's cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter with minimal inputs. Happy plants.

This is a wonderful small rock garden showcasing just how many plants one can fit in a very small garden space.

And to the right, a nice selection of potted plants in plunge beds (for growing alpines)...

Dreamy! Viola montagnei, it's so beautiful I'm sure it's difficult as hell.

Cassiope wardii

Arenaria alfacarensis

"rock tight buns of shimmering grey green leaves" (source)

Here Mark is telling us about this custom trough built for growing Darlingtonia californica, he ended up with it...

...and these saracennia after a collector passed away and her family needed to find someone to care for the plants.

Cloudy cabbage! Aka Bukiniczia cabulica.

It was a bit of a shock to walk into a hoop house devoted to pots full of dead plants. Of course that's not really what was going on. They're bulbs and other plants going to seed. Future crops!

Here fish fertilizer is being made.

A COVID project for Mark and his daughter.

So you're probably wondering, was there shopping? Of course there was!

Mark had a nice array of plants for us to chose from.

Here's my haul...

Arenaria acerosa

Dryas drummondii, I swear I've seen this growing in the rock garden at the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden. I was thrilled to find it here.

A couple of Androsace sempervivoides 'Susan Joan', because I love them so!

And what the hell, I thought maybe I'd try another Raoulia hookeri, what have I got to lose but a few dollars?

If you're in the Portland area you will want to attend the HPSO Fall Plantfest where Mark (owner of Illahe) will be selling plants and talking about lesser known and unusual bulbs in a talk called “Pretty Tough Color for your Garden” more info here. You can also make an appointment to visit the nursery, like we did. If you're not in the area you can always order online at Illahe Rare Plants.

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