May 13 Column: Native Plants

For my garden column this week, I wrote about adding native plants to your landscape. Here’s a link to it in today’s edition of The Spokesman-Review: Native plants a natural fit for home landscapes. (or you can read my column lower in this post)

Background on native plants column:

I think a lot of folks are unaware of the wide variety of native plants available to us. We might be unsure about what they add to our gardens. Many draw in pollinators or produce berries that birds love to eat. And native plants are so ideally suited to your growing conditions.

I chose to interview Spokane County Master Gardener Eva Lusk because she is extremely knowledgeable about native plants and gives presentations on them throughout the year.

If you’re curious about the photos in this blog post, the photo at top is a golden currant (Ribes aureum) and the one to the upper left is oceanspray (Holodiscus discolor).

Desert Jewels Native Plants Nursery:

The photo shoot for this column took place at Desert Jewels Nursery, located at 9809 E. Upriver Dr., in Spokane Valley. The nursery owner, Diane Stutzman, graciously allowed the photographer to capture images of some of the beautiful plants in bloom right now.

Diane has been in business for 15 years and uses both seed production and wild collection for her nursery stock. Desert Jewels nursery is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays during the season. You can contact her at (509) 893-3771, email her at info@desertjewelsnursery.com or visit her website.

For this week’s “Everyone Can Grow a Garden” video, I share tips on growing beans. Take a look:

Native Plants garden column:

By Susan Mulvihill

How would you like to have a beautiful landscape that requires less water and is also less work? Master Gardener Eva Lusk knows all of this is possible if you grow native plants.

Because they are indigenous to this area, native plants are ideal for our conditions.

How Eva Lusk uses native plants in her landscape:

 “You are more apt to be successful growing them in your garden instead of something that comes from elsewhere,” Lusk explained. “Native plants are used to the amount of water we get here and the types of winters we have. This means you’ll save yourself money and work.”

She began adding native plants to her landscape many years ago, when she and her husband first moved to their property.

“There were a lot of junipers and Ponderosa pines, along with about 40 rhododendrons,” she said. “I looked at those rhododendrons and knew they are not designed to grow well in our area without a lot of extra care. The soil isn’t good and the amount of water we get isn’t right.”

It wasn’t that she didn’t like rhododendrons. Lusk knew she’d rather grow plants that work well in our climate instead of trying to provide the rhododendrons with the extra attention they need to look good.

Once they’d been removed, she put in a pleasing mix of ninebark, Oregon grape, red twig dogwood, golden and wax currants, oceanspray, serviceberry and mock orange.

Native plants tips:

Lusk recommends observing the plants to make sure they’re in their ideal setting.

“Get to know your garden and figure out which is the right place for a plant. I’ve transplanted a number of things because I thought something wasn’t right,” she said.

Planting natives in the correct soil type is very important, too. If a plant is well-suited to growing in clay soil, don’t put it in sandy soil, and vice versa.

When it comes to watering native plants, there are some considerations to be aware of. After they have been planted, they should be watered for a couple of years until they become established. If the words “native plants” conjure up images of lackluster plants, Lusk has a surprise for you:

“People don’t realize how attractive they are. And if you give them a little more water when it gets really hot in the summer, they will stay green, lush and gorgeous.”

Keep in mind that some plants don’t tolerate being overwatered which could cause the roots to rot.

Are native plants deer-resistant?

It is a common misconception that native plants are deer-resistant.

“There is no single deer-resistant plant,” she said. “If deer are hungry enough, they’ll eat hellebores or lavender if they don’t find anything else. I’ve had good luck with bee balm, buckwheat, fleabane, sage, nodding onions and Oregon grape, though.”

Refer to the information box for an assortment of her favorites.

While it can be tempting to collect your own native plants from the wild, Lusk advises against it.

“You should never dig up plants because there aren’t as many as there used to be,” she explained. “They need to live somewhere they’re accustomed to. Often you don’t know what that plant needs and you can’t duplicate it. But if a bulldozer is coming and the plant is in danger, go ahead and rescue it; just be aware that if you damage the roots of some plants, they’re going to die.”

Whenever you add native plants to your landscape, Lusk suggests being patient with them.

“Give them a chance to become established,” she said. “Gardening isn’t something where you just put the plants in the ground and then that’s it. I like to make my morning rounds of the garden to see which plants are doing well or if there’s a problem I can address. I like being able to enjoy plants that are happy in their situation, and help them out when they’re not. Patience is good.”

Eva Lusk’s Native Plant Picks

Shrubs

• Currant, golden (Ribes aureum)
• Currant, wax (Ribes cerium)
• Dogwood, Red Osier (Cornus stolonifera)
• False box/Mountain-lover (Paxistima myrsinites)
• Mock orange (Philadelphus lewisii)
• Mountain ash Western (Sorbus scopulina)
• Ninebark (Physocarpus malvaceus)
• Oceanspray (Holodiscus discolor)
• Serviceberry, Western (Amelanchier alnifolia)
• Snowberry, common (Symphoricarpos albus)
• Spirea, birch-leaf (Spiraea betulifolia)

Wildflowers

• Blanket flower (Gaillardia aristata)
• Buckwheat, sulphur (Eriogonum umbellatum)
• Camas (Camassia quamash)
• Columbine, Western (Aquilegia formosa)
• Fleabane/Cut-leaf daisy (Erigeron compositus)
• Hooker’s Fairybells (Prosartes/Disporum trachycarpum)
• Nodding onion (Allium cernuum)
• Penstemon, Rocky Mountain (Penstemon strictus)
• Prairie smoke (Geum triflorum)
• Rosy Pussytoes (Antennaria microphylla)
• Shooting star (Dodecatheon pulchellum)
• Trillium, Western (Trillium ovatum)

Vines

• Clematis, Western blue (C. occidentalis)
• Clematis, Western white (Clematis ligusticifolia)
• Honeysuckle, orange (Lonicera ciliosa)