Native Plants

Native plants are indigenous, adapted or naturalized to the local soils and weather therefore they require less water and maintenance.

The Annual San Juan County Native Plant Sale: A partnership between the WSU Master Gardener Foundation and the San Juan Islands Conservation District.

According to the Washington Native Plant Society the current plant list for San Juan County includes 945 plant species with 328 of those being introduced thus leaving 617 native or seemingly indigenous plants, depending on the time period. The Annual Native Plant Sale is an opportunity to purchase a select few of these native plant species at reasonable cost to encourage conservation of our natural resources and habitat restoration. These plants can be used for restoration of lost plant communities from development, erosion control, wildlife habitat development and agricultural uses such as windbreaks. The plant stock is from the Washington Association of Conservation Districts Plant Materials Center (PMC) wholesale nursery in Bow, Washington. Their mission is to provide high quality conservation grade plants, shrubs and services that benefit natural resources. The 60-acre bare-root nursery is located in Skagit County and produces over 70 species of conservation seedlings and cuttings.

The importance of plant seed sources cannot be underestimated. “Provenance” is the geographical origin of the seed or cutting used in propagation and it is important because it can have a direct effect on plant vigor and survivability. Plants with a provenance that is similar to the planting site will often grow better. Ideally folks can harvest local seed or do plant salvage from areas that are going to be cleared. Truly native plants should be propagated from seeds and cuttings that originate in the same watershed as the planting site. There is ample evidence that maintaining provenance on this level results in increased vigor and decreased mortality, but at increased time and money.

If there are willing seed collectors the Conservation District can work with the Plant Materials Center to propagate local native plant species. A minimum lead time of 3 years is required to acquire the appropriate seeds and grow them to size. The cost of conducting custom seed collections, propagating and growing small site-specific lots result in seedlings that are more expensive. There is currently an organic nursery located on San Juan Island who is propagating native island plants from seed and cuttings.

The San Juan Islands Conservation District uses the ecoregions of the Northwest rather individual watershed to determine provenance and this has allowed us to utilize the plants propagated at the Plant Materials Center for local conservation efforts. “Ecoregions are regions with broad environmental similarities such as temperature and precipitation.” There are 7 recognized ecoregions in Washington and we are located in the Puget Lowland. “Most of the plant material grown at the Plant Materials Center follow the ecoregion concept of provenance” thus providing “plant materials that are suitably adapted to the general climate of the planting site, at a reasonable cost, in substantial quantities.” (PMC Website, http://www.wacd.org/PMC/, 2007)

Most of the seeds, transplants and cuttings used at the Plant Materials Center are source identified, meaning that the origin of that material is identified and tracked through harvest; they are sourced from Western Washington, Eastern Washington, British Columbia and Oregon. The Plant Materials Center does its best to ensure that Conservation Districts and cooperators such as the Master Gardeners Foundation are receiving the most genetically suitable plant material possible.

Our conservation efforts often include working with agricultural lands also and many of the native plants are valuable for creating hedgerows for wildlife habitat and windbreaks from the strong storms that pummel the islands of the Salish Sea. Retaining or adding additional native landscape plants is especially important because documents such as Pasture and Hayland Renovation for Western Washington and Oregon by Steven Fransen (Farming West of the Cascades, WSU Cooperative Extension, 2002) give advice for agricultural planting of forages, yet the forage recommendations do not include a single “native” species. They are all considered “non-native” with selection based on use such as livestock grazing, hay production, livestock confinement area, or temporary cover. The “non-native” species that are recommended include oats, barley, wheat, red and white clover, alfalfa, timothy, ryegrass, fescue, and Kentucky bluegrass. These “non-native” plants currently make up much of our island landscapes and lawns but could be augmented with the native ground covers, shrubs and trees.

According to the book Plants and Animals of the Pacific Northwest by Eugene Kozloff, (Univ. of Washington Press, 1976) our San Juan Archipelago is located in the Puget Trough similar to the Willamette Valley of Oregon. Thus our more common “principle vegetational assemblages are coniferous forests, consisting mostly of Douglas fir, scattered stands of Garry oak, riverbank woods composed mostly of cottonwoods, alder and ash; brushy areas with relatively few trees; and grasslands.” We are known uniquely for the “Lodgepole pine, western white pine, paper birch, quaking aspen and Rocky Mountain juniper.” He notes that we are in the driest portion of the region with much of the land in a rain shadow and soils that are rocky, gravelly, or sandy which requires that plants adapt to limited water during portions of the year and rapidly draining soils. These are some of the reasons why we have partnered with the Master Gardener Foundation to continue to offer select native plants during our annual sale to the residents of San Juan County who need landscape conservation plants that are tolerant of many conditions and can improve habitat and conservation efforts.

(Co-Authored by Kristina Bayas, WSU Cooperative Extension and Dana N. Kinsey, ASLA, San Juan Islands Conservation District. For more information contact the WSU Master Gardeners Foundation at 360.378.4414)

2009 NATIVE PLANT SALE

How to pre-order your trees and plants:
•A minimum purchase of $25 and a $25 deposit is required for all orders. Receipt of your order will be emailed to
you. Make checks payable to MGF of SJC and send to: WSU Extension 221 Weber Way, Suite LL Friday Harbor, WA
98250. Do not mail a check for the total order amount, the balance is due at the time of pickup. •Plants are 1-2 years old and are bare root or plugs sold in bundles of five plants, unless noted. Plants average
from 8” to 36” in height. Plants are conservation stock, not nursery stock and some plant loss should be expected.
•Orders may be picked up on Saturday February 28 between 9-12 in one of three locations: Friday Harbor
Grange, Orcas Island Grange or on Lopez at Sunset Builders. Please note your pickup location below.
•Please call WSU Extension at 378-4414 if you have any questions.
** Quantities Limited! ORDER BY FEBRUARY 13th FOR PICK-UP SATURDAY FEBRUARY 28th, 2009 **

See our Native Plant Sale page.

Resources

King County website covers plants native to western Washington. Native Plant Guide

Trees

Downloadable tree chart