Starting native plants

During our first year on our property David purchased bare-root, native plants from an annual offering from Pierce Conservation District.

His intent was to populate the wetland buffer on the southeast corner with well-adapted plants that would grow well, provide shade over the grasses and attraction for polinators, and, hopefully, seasonal color from flowers. The area was heavily overgrown with reed canary grass, an invasive plants common near wetlands.  

These plants included, nootka rose, blue elderberry, Pacific ninebark, red flowering currant, red-osier dogwood, oceanspray, red-stem ceanothus, pacific willow and western serviceberry.

The soil was as unsuitable for planting as it was unattractive.  The grass had extensive networks of rhizomes, (thick growth-generating organs) and the soil was incredibly rocky, making it very difficult to dig holes for the transplants.

With careful watering throughout the following summer, 30 of the original 45 plants survived - some simply disappeared. This is typical of planting bare-root plants. I saw only one flower from a nootka rose during the first season.