Lavender Northwest’s First President
Well, I suppose it had to happen sooner or later, but we don’t have to be happy about it. Yes, it’s true, our long-time lavender godmother is ready to pass the lavender wand after more than a decade of successful leadership. Not that she plans a clever vanishing act — she will continue her guidance in the past-president’s role for a couple years, and who knows what we can expect thereafter. Christine Mulder has been an inspiring role-model, and the story of her ascendancy in our community is one of hard-work and long-hours.
Chris grew up in NE Portland, but even at an early age, her father (with horticultural credentials from Oregon State) busied her with training in plant propagation and the business of a wholesale nursery. She and her husband Ed purchased bare land in Wilsonville, and by 1981 they had built their home. Chris credits her father for introducing the notion of herbs and lavender as potential landscape elements. Benefitting from Ed’s skillful hardscaping and irrigation work, Chris dove into the long-term landscaping of Barn Owl Nursery, and started selling plants by May 1982. When it came to the lavender components, the available cultivars were sharply limited: L. angustifolias ‘Hidcote’, ‘Munstead’, ‘Gray Lady’, and ‘Jean Davis’. She made the best of what was at hand, and gradually expanded the selection of cultivars. As for other lavender species, a row of spike lavender (L. latifolia) graced the property in the early stages of the nursery. Simultaneously with the development of the nursery, the famous Barn Owl Nursery Shop was constructed, opening by October 1982 (talk about a busy year!)
Also in the early years, Chris joined the Willamette Valley Herb Society where she met Andy and Melissa Van Hevelingen, owners of Van Hevelingen Herb Nursery. That connection evolved into a strong working and friendly relationship of over 40 years that continues to this day. Their shared interest in growing and offering a large variety of lavender plants, propagated by the Van Hevelingens, has had a profound influence on the Pacific NW lavender industry for many years.
Meeting people and building the business in those days was a tough venture. Chris made contacts by teaching classes, distributing loads of paper mailers, and conducting a spring Herb Festival. Eventually, she added a late-June Lavender Festival to showcase the blooming angustifolias.
As Barn Owl Nursery grew, there were nearby stirrings of lavender interest manifesting as the Yamhill Lavender Festival and Paint-out under the direction of another NW lavender luminary, Marilyn Kosel. This very-localized attention to Oregon’s nascent lavender farms expanded into the regional Oregon Lavender Festival that show-cased farms and businesses on a single weekend each July. Barn Owl Nursery appeared as a participant in 2007. Behind the scenes, a strong urge to organize lavender farmers and business owners was stoked by the committed efforts of several others, including Donna Delikat, Nancy Miller, and Cheryl Wilson, who brought the Oregon Lavender Association (OLA) into existence. By 2008, OLA operated as a sponsor of the Oregon Lavender Festival.
Needless to say, Chris Mulder’s active participation in OLA started immediately, and she was quickly involved in planning educational offerings, and developing OLA products for the members to sell (notably, the ever-popular lavender Marionberry preserves, festival tote bags, beautiful postcard sets, lavender chocolate bars, and the set of cards with lavender growing tips). Increasing participation in the annual July festival led to the development of handy printed guides that became a popular marketing tool. During these formative years for OLA, Chris held the vice-president’s role for three years, then stepped up to the president’s job in 2012 for two terms, followed by ongoing Board activity thereafter. What allowed her to take on the main leadership role was her retirement (after 25 years!!) as the principal coordinator and developer for the Breast Cancer Outreach Program based in the Providence health care system in Portland (and you probably thought she was just playing in the dirt all this time.) Through a wider lens, we saw Chris become directly involved in educational activities for the national lavender growers association (USLGA), providing opportunities to represent the Northwest on a larger stage.
Of course, interest in growing lavender continued to spread within our own region, and OLA soon found itself dealing with the divergent needs of farmers from distinctly different cultivation zones, growing assortments of L. angustifolia and L. x intermedia cultivars. There was no single “festival weekend” that could satisfy most members. Add to these logistical issues the ever-growing needs of members who were not particularly interested in public visits to their farms. There was an identity crisis in-the-making, and Chris took it upon herself to look beyond our borders, and see how our neighbors to the north were faring. To no one’s surprise, similar issues were being confronted in Washington. Thanks to Chris’s diplomatic efforts, key figures in OLA and WLA were drawn together to build a bigger, better, broader organization that came into existence on January 1st, 2021. Of course, her efforts necessitated that she assume the job of Lavender Northwest’s transitional and first-elected president (which she shouldered gracefully).
So, here we are, three years later. LNW remains viable and is quickening its stride. The organizational ship seems to have set its rudder, and the vistas ahead are broad. It remains to be seen how much commitment and participation from the membership is available to move projects along, but we are off to a strong start. For that, Chris Mulder deserves our thanks. Many of us are fortunate to call Chris a mentor, a role-model, or a good friend. All of us owe her a great debt of sincere gratitude.
Contact Information:
Website address: barnowlnursery.com
Telephone: 503-638-0387
Email: [email protected]
Contributed and formatted by
Michael Lemmers
RavenCroft
