Native plants a good choice

This week has been declared Native Plant Appreciation Week by Washington Gov. Gary Locke to celebrate our native plant heritage.

Lori Rambo’s outdoor living classes at Lewis and Clark High School celebrated a week early, though. They were busy last week planting several dozen new plants in their Unity Garden, located on the southwest corner of the LC campus. Here, sandwiched between medical buildings, the freeway and the school, the students maintain a garden of native trees, shrubs and grasses that represent the ecosystems found in Eastern Washington. The garden even includes a small wetland and pond.

According to Rambo, the purpose of the garden is to give her 70 students hands-on experience and knowledge of different habitats and ecosystems. Each class is responsible for the upkeep of a plot in the garden, and the students become experts about the plants that grow there. The garden was started three years ago by then-teacher Mike Greenwood. The students named it the Unity Garden and dedicated it to the memory of Sept. 11.

“The kids love getting outdoors and working with the plants and learning things they didn’t know,” says Rambo. “Someday we hope to be able to propagate our own plants.”

Rambo’s students aren’t the only people in our region interested in learning to grow native plants. Gardeners all across the Inland Northwest are starting to realize that including some native plants in our landscapes can save on water, work and pesticide use.

So just what is a native plant? In the Inland Northwest, the technical definition is a plant living in a place prior to the introduction of European or eastern American influence or plants. For our region this means any plant found here prior to the first explorations by Lewis and Clark and early British and French traders. They brought seeds and other plant-related materials and traded them with the native people they met.

Over the next 200 years, a number of these introductions and those of the settlers that followed found their way from agricultural plantings to the forests and grasslands and essentially became naturalized. So the definition has broadened out to include any plant that grows naturally here or has adapted itself to grow naturally here.

So how can native plants improve a landscape? First and foremost, they are already growing in our climate. They are surviving on whatever moisture is provided by rain and snow. They can take the heat and cold. For the most part, they have developed natural mechanisms to thwart bug and disease problems. An added benefit is that they provide food and shelter to wildlife of all kinds. It’s a win-win for the gardener and the environment.

So why aren’t our local nurseries brimming with native plants?

First, many of our natives aren’t particularly showy, like the rhododendrons and the other plants found in west side forests. Our plants have a much tougher environment to survive in, and showiness doesn’t always lend itself to survival. Our shrubs and small plants generally have smaller leaves and tend to be a bit scrubby and brushy. Some, like serviceberry, put out beautiful spring flowers but then spend the rest of the year as an unassuming plant. It’s survival of the most energy thrifty here. However, give them some good garden dirt and a steadier moisture supply and they can become quite handsome.

Because many of the plants don’t jump out at us as we drive or walk past them, we literally don’t see them. We therefore don’t have a point of reference when we go looking for them in the nursery.

On the other side of the dilemma are the nursery owners who know how valuable native plants can be in the landscape but can’t afford to stock a lot of plants hoping people will recognize them and buy.

Such is the dilemma and the reason for Native Plant Appreciation Week.

Education and observation are the keys to bridging this gap. On June 5 and 6 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Firwood Wholesale Nursery near Deer Park is joining forces with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and WSU Spokane County Master Gardeners to sponsor their annual Backyard Bird and Plant Fair.

Firwood specializes in native and drought-tolerant plants. The nursery has an extensive display garden that demonstrates how to use native plants in naturalized landscapes to provide a beautiful garden and food and shelter for wildlife. The Department of Fish and Wildlife will have information on their Backyard Wildlife Sanctuary Program. The Master Gardeners will be giving tours of the display garden. If you can’t make the event, the nursery will be open Saturdays for the month of June from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Firwood is located at 8403 W. Burroughs Road, three miles west of Highway 395.

Two other nurseries in the region specialize in native plants. Plants of the Wild in Tekoa, Wash., is in its 25th year of providing a wide range of native and drought-tolerant plants to land restoration and reclamation organizations. The nursery is expanding its retail business and now has its catalog online, at www.plantsofthewild.com. For hours of operation and information, call (509) 284-2848.

In Spokane, Rimrock Nursery offers an ever expanding list of native and adapted plants. A plant list can be found at www.rimrocknursery.com. Call (509) 455-7405 to determine availability. The nursery is located at 5511 S. Dorset.

In Sandpoint, The Kinnikinnick Chapter of the Idaho Native Plant Society has been developing a Native Plant Arboretum at Lakeview Park. In its sixth year of development, the arboretum has grown to include examples of a wide range of trees, shrubs and ecosystems typical of North Idaho.

If you really want to learn about native plants, contact the respective native plant societies in Washington and Idaho. The Washington Native Plant Society can be found at www.wnps.org. The Idaho Native Plant Society can be reached at www.idahonativeplants.org. Look for the chapter in your area.