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Redvein crabapple blossoms |
Greetings from Ettersburg…… Greenmantle Nursery originated in 1983
as an offshoot of |
Rosa rugosa hips |
| The Fruit Collection | " First in spring to
gather the rose,
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The Rose Collection |
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Ram specializes in diverse fruit for the home orchard, with varieties ranging from the commonplace to the rare. Over the years, we have grown and offered more than 300 varieties of apples - plus numerous pears, Asian pears, plums, cherries, peaches, quinces, & figs. Emphasis has always been primarily on eating quality as well as such factors as historical significance and disease-resistance.
Now we have refined our apple listing down to around 75 of our personal favorites. Moreover, we will be propagating and offering only BENCHGRAFTS of the varieties in our Apple Master List. The foundation of our Apple Collection rests on the old homestead varieties of our bio-region, and features the legacy of Albert Etter (1872-1950) the plant breeder whose private experiment station was located a few miles from here. Many other varieties have been collected from pomological colleagues, both amateur and professional, throughout the United States.
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Marissa cultivates over 300 different roses, and these form the main motif of the Greenmantle landscape gardens. The focus of the Rose Collection is on the great classics - all of the older types are represented - along with the finest species and a selection of choice modern varieties. Superior merit has been the standard for every rose - a quality measured by beauty, history, health, fragrance, and rarity.
Our mother plants were assembled over 3 decades of intense collecting from many sources in half a dozen countries. When we began to gather roses in 1976, there were still only limited possibilities in the United States - and importation was the way to assemble a wide-ranging collection that would include what might be considered the highlights of the genus. The inherent charm of the Genus Rosa is its astonishing floral diversity. The Rose offers a plant for every time, place and taste... Choose well for your garden - and enjoy the pleasure of their lasting beauty.
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Greenmantle does not maintain a regular
retail facility at our nursery grounds
Our Climate......and Organic Culture
"The climate of Ettersburg is just like paradise, only you have to work." - Albert Etter (1872 - 1950) Greenmantle Nursery is situated on 32 acres at an elevation of 1500' in a remote area adjacent to the Kings Range National Wilderness. Weather varies from extremely hot and dry in the summer, to cool and very wet during the winter rainy season. Despite our proximity to the Pacific Ocean, the Kings Range blocks the moderating effect of marine air. While we see fog billowing in waves over distant ridgelines, our own relative humidity remains quite low. Consequently, our summer daytime temperatures frequently reach into the 90's, then drop into the 40's at night. Highs of 115 degrees F have been recorded and any rainfall between May and October must be considered exceptional. "To those of us who are gardeners and therefore also interested in landscapes - the earth's green mantle as it affords a home for man - these regions of winter rainfall have a significance that immediately separates them in our minds from other parts of the earth........ The traveler always knows when he is in a Mediterranean land." - Lester Hawkins (1915-1985), "A Gardener's
Guide to the Mediterranean Climate" The rainy season usually commences by November and continues through April. During this period, we can receive 100" of rainfall, and in some years upwards of 150" has been recorded. Precipitation in these amounts makes us one of the wettest climates in North America, with virtually all the moisture falling during one-half of the year. While snow is an occasional phenomenon and extended freezes have occurred, temperatures below 25 degrees F are uncommon; our historic low was 9 degrees F in 1990. We do get our share of light frost during the dormant season, hence winter chill requirements have never been an issue for us in the garden, orchards, or nursery.
Etter believed that the climate of the Ettersburg area was unusually felicitous to a broad range of plant life, promoting vigor, size, and longevity - especially for trees. Our region is notable for its venerable and giant specimens of Douglas Fir, Coast Redwood, and Madrones. For domestic plantings, the lack of summer rainfall mandates frequent deep irrigation. This offers a significant boon to plant health; diseases like fireblight, apple scab, and rose black spot are much less prevalent than they are in more humid places. This makes organic culture a more viable option for gardener, orchardist, and nurseryman. "Water, soil, and the earth's green mantle of plants make up the world that supports the animal life of the earth. Although modern man seldom remembers the fact, he could not exist without the plants that harness the sun's energy and manufacture the basic foodstuffs he depends upon for life....The earth's vegetation is part of a web of life in which there are intimate and essential relations between plants and the earth, between plants and other plants, between plants and animals. Sometimes we have no choice but to disturb the relationships, but we should do so thoughtfully - with full awareness that what we do may have consequences remote in time and place." - Rachel Carson ( 1907-1964 ) Silent Spring 1962 Since our inception, Greenmantle Nursery has adhered to a strictly organic approach to plant cultivation. We use no chemical fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides, or herbicides. To counteract the constant leaching of nutrients caused by our heavy winter rains, we are always working to build up the soil's organic matter. Composted horse manure is our main reliance, occasionally supplemented with natural amendments like fish and kelp meal. Bins of redworms digest kitchen waste and produce a first-rate soil dressing. Plants do respond to timely attention, especially where it comes to water and nutrients. Pests and predator animals always impose a challenge that requires constant vigilance. In the end, the old Chinese proverb rings true: The best fertilizer is the footsteps of the farmer. "Put your ego
in your compost heap"
Our Duchess of Oldenberg Apple Tree (1895-2003)
"Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic
dust - we all dance to - Albert Einstein (1879 -1955)
All Original Text and |
