Sunday, March 1, 2020

Power Plantlists on Request

From the Colorado Natives in Landscaping conference, hosted by the Colorado Native Plant Society. It was a lovely event with a great crowd of 400; I learned a lot yesterday about green roofs, insects, and seed biology.

As requested by someone in the room, here are the handful of short plant lists from species that were in the slides as they responded to specific locations.

Julie’s Yard: 
Galleta grass (Pleuraphis jamesii)
(grow direct from seed, not plants)
Yucca faxoniana x rostrata
Artemisia cf. frigida (asian form?)
Atraphaxis sp.
Ptelia trifoliata, Quercus turbinella
(all unirrigated)
Shaeralcea monroana

Only surviver from windy weed disaster:
Giant Sacatongrass (Sporobolus wrightii)
Ephedra equisetina


Happy in Gravel garden: 
Zinnia grandiflora,
Rhus trilobata ‘Autumn Ember’
Opuntia phaecantha
Stanleya pinnata
Cylindropuntia spp.
Berlandiera lyrata


A nice dry, reliable, colorful, long-lived simple palette:
Prairie Zinnia (Z. grandiflora)
Jones’ Bluestar (Amsonia jonesii)
Alkali dropseed (Sporobolus airoides)
Woodward Juniper (PlantSelect)
Butterflyweed (Asclepias tuberosa)

Use bareroot planting and temporary irrigation…


My pet fav Unirrigated shade tree: 
Western Soapberry (Sapindus drumondii)
Also: hackberry, netleaf hackberry,

Meadows:
Blue Grama (Bouteloua gracilis)

A full landscape with very very very salty soil:
Fourwing (Atriplex canescens)
Winterfat (K. lanata)
Babby rabbitbrush, Ephedras x3,
Amelanchier utahensis
Cylindroputnia kleniii
No big sagebrush!
Artemisia filifolia (sand sage)
Cupressus arizonica


Great to fill in by seed in bare dirt/gravel:
Penstemon eatonii, P. palmeri
Baileya multiradiata
Gaillardia aristata
Sphaeralcea monroana (best /reliable sp)
Berlandieria lyrata (Chocolat daisy)

Superdry southfacing slope in GJ:
Nolina microcarpa
Babby rabbitbrush
Sand sage
Coyote Gourd (Cucurbita foetidissam)
Grusonia clavata
Alkali dropseed

Specialties from seed for gravel and rock gardens:
Hymenoxys scaposa and caespitosa,
Castilleja integra

Dry (unwatered shade)
Nolina greenei, N. microcarpa
Ephedra viridis, teorreaya, equisentina, nebrodensis, major.
Mahonia repens (best with a little water/snow/shade/North)
Yucca baccata, harrimaniae (yes really)
Alkali dropseed (S. airoides)

More Great plants get introduced over time:
Baby/Miniature  Rabbitbrush (Ericameria nauseosa v nauseosa)
Letterman’s Ironweed (Vernonia lettermanii)
future: Manfreda maculosa

Plant/Seed Sources:
Harlequin Gardens, Boulder
High Plains Environmental Center, Fort Collins
Chelsea Nursery, Grand Junction
Southwest Seed, Dolores, CO
Western Native Seed, CO
High Country Gardens (.com)
Granite Seed (.com)
Prairie Nursery (.com), WI

Wholesale:
Wildthings: Pueblo, CO
Fort Collins Wholesale CO
Bluebird Nursery, NE

3 comments:

Heidi from DenverDryGarden said...

That was quick! I appreciate you posting this!

Unknown said...

Hey Kenton, in your presentation you recommended planting bare root, are you just washing the material off of nursery stock plants to do this or are you buying dormant bare root plants?

Thanks. Loved the presentation by the way, highlight of the conference for me.

Kenton J. Seth said...

Glad you enjoyed it; glad we all got to before the virus happened.

We rinse nursery soil off of containerized plants. Some things come willingly, but heavy-rooted pot bound plant and those in heavy peat mixes must be more carefully cleaned and a person can't get all soil off, so getting 1/3 or 1/2 as well as breaking up the shape of the "root ball" seems enough.

The very few plants that hate being bare-rooted are cucurbits and poppy family. Mustard family sometimes, too. I think their roots are just incredibly brittle, so I'm just super careful with them and they seem to get through it. Other stuff like rabbitbrush or other shrubs, you can shake and violently smash the roots with zero issue.