Native Plants Just The Ticket For Your Yard

Here’s a wild idea for homeowners replanting areas damaged by the November ice storm.

Go native.

Landscaping with native plants is especially appealing to people who live on the outskirts of town. Most families with rural lots were attracted by the beauty of natural landscape.

So why do so many of them plant arborvitae?

The bennies of native plants are too good to be overlooked. Wake up, soccer moms! Natives need little maintenance.

Because they are adapted to this region, native plants don’t need additional irrigation once they’re established.

Plants that grow naturally in this area evolved without pesticides. This should be a major consideration if you enjoy attracting birds to your yard with feeders.

Indeed, some wildlife lovers abhor the thought of a hunter luring a bear with bait. But people who feed birds in yards that reek of fertilizers and pesticides - not to mention cats and unclean feeders - are responsible for inestimable carnage.

Hungry deer will destroy ornamental roses and junipers by chewing on them in winter. If you want to feed deer, it’s cheaper to put out alfalfa pellets.

On the other hand, many mature native plants thrive when “pruned” by wildlife.

Serviceberry, for instance. This is the shrub that brought the region’s wild hillsides alive with white blossoms last month. Deer love serviceberry - and serviceberry survives just fine with deer.

Going native initially takes a little more effort because the plants are not readily available in commercial nurseries. But the people at Plants of the Wild in Tekoa, Wash., are experts at taking the mystery out of indigenous flora.

Plants of the Wild started in 1978 to produce trees and shrubs farmers used to re-establish wildlife habitat through the federal Conservation Reserve Program.

The nursery has become popular with homeowners who find the 40-mile drive a refreshing horticultural experience.

“By the time they get here, most of our customers already know they want to work native plants into their landscaping or acreage,” said Kathy Hutton, nursery manager. “Our role is mostly helping them know which plants are best for different situations.”

With planning, you can have native shrubs that blossom from April well into June, she said. The leaves and berries produce vibrant color in summer and fall.

Golden currant, which blooms in early May, is a good substitute for the ornamental forsythia.

Ninebark was blooming throughout much of the area last week.

Chokecherry is beginning to flower in profusion this week, bearing the next flash of white on area hillsides. Next to take charge will be Idaho’s state flower, syringa (also known as mock orange).

Snowberry started blooming a few weeks ago, and will produce pink blossoms and white berries into the fall.

The woods rose, with its delicate pink flower, can make a gorgeous passive barrier that would substitute for the traditional and boring green hedge.

In their early stages, even native plants need to be watered and protected from deer and other wildlife. Once established, however, they have a rugged beauty.

Aspen are lovely in every season, especially if you have room to let them naturally multiply into an aspen grove.

The Rocky Mountain maple will splash color in fall; the mountain ash provides color and berries for birds.

Native ground covers include kinnikinick, twinflower and bunchberry.

Penstemon or wild geraniums are natives well-suited to dry areas or rock gardens. Mix in sagebrush or one of several lupine varieties.

If your builder didn’t lay havoc to the landscape with a bulldozer, you probably enjoyed the recent yellow explosion of arrowleaf balsamroot.

If you’re not so lucky, Plants of the Wild can sell you balsamroot starts. With a taproot that goes to China, these perennials need NO extra irrigation.

A yard of any size can have a natural balance. My kids love to run barefoot in our patches of traditional green lawn. But the house wrens nesting in two boxes on our lot are always found in the wild areas where the sticky geraniums, pasqueflowers and kinnikinick grow.

, DataTimes MEMO: You can contact Rich Landers by voice mail at 459-5577, extension 5508.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review