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Plenty To Please

Among the natives, we have plants to suit nearly any site

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ILLUSTRATED BY JULIE NOTARIANNI Vine maple (Acer circinatum) ILLUSTRATED BY JULIE NOTARIANNI Pacific Coast iris ILLUSTRATED BY JULIE NOTARIANNI Evergreen huckleberry (Vaccinium ovatum) ILLUSTRATED BY JULIE NOTARIANNI Oregon grape (Mahonia aquifolium)

WHY DO WE always think of native plants as practical answers to garden problems? While natives aren't the bimbos of the plant world, relying solely on their looks, they deserve more credit for their great and subtle beauty.

It's true that many native plants are drought-tolerant and low-maintenance, but this is just part of their garden value. Perhaps their greatest virtue is how these unassuming plants offset environmental degradation. Because they've evolved along with our native fauna, natives enhance garden ecology by offering sustenance and safe haven for creatures from the tiniest insects to mammals.

We'd find it easier to mix natives into our gardens if we'd stop idealizing them and simply assess them for their ornamental qualities as we do any other plant. Most natives stand up well to such scrutiny because many are long-blooming, evergreen, fragrant, colorful or pleasantly shaped. Others offer bright berries, curious pods and blazes of autumn color. They can be crisply architectural like Oregon grape (Mahonia aquifolium), or warmly inviting like Ribes sanguineum with its hot-pink flowers. Few plants are more appealing than our native trillium (Trillium ovatum) or have a more elegant line than vine maple (Acer circinatum). Pacific Coast iris bloom briefly but gloriously, and how many small evergreen shrubs offer flower, fruit, autumn color and hardiness like our native huckleberry (Vaccinium ovatum)?

To realize how many different conditions suit native plants you need think only of the Northwest's varied topography. Our native plants are ideal for many more situations than the conifer forests we tend to picture as our heritage. Rocky cliffs. Windswept seaside bluffs. Boggy lowlands. We've got them all. Even in the deep, dark green of the woods, there are areas where sunlight pierces through, damp collects or dry soil prevails, and each spot is grown thick with plants naturally suited to their microclimates.

Readers often ask where to find native plants, as if they're one monolithic thing. Look for natives in all-purpose nurseries, scattered on tables devoted to plants for dry shade, bogs, ponds or full sun. But beware, because once you start appreciating the understated grace of these plants, you'll slide down the slippery slope of specialty nurseries. Many of these little establishments collect native plants from logged-off land and construction sites. You'll hear tales of plants being snatched from the path of bulldozers to be propagated and sold.

As you can imagine, specialty nursery owners are in it for the love of the plants, and are full of knowledge they're eager to share. Many of their Web sites are an education on native plants as well as restoration ecology (see "Where to look").

You won't believe the expertise and commitment to be found at gatherings of the Washington Native Plant Society. To attend a meeting, or find sources for seed, plants or landscape professionals specializing in natives, see www.wnps.org or call 206-527-3210. And check out the Central Puget Sound Chapter Fall Plant Sale, Oct. 14 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Magnuson Park in Seattle. (See the Web page for details.)

Valerie Easton is a Seattle freelance writer and contributing editor for Horticulture magazine. Her e-mail address is valeaston@comcast.net.