06/04/08 Native plant project

Horticulturists at the University of Idaho's Aberdeen Center will show you their pioneering native plant variety trials. Steve Love says tomorrow afternoon's open house tour includes a look some of the hundreds of different native plant species they've collected LOVE "And evaluating a number of different native species for use in landscapes for homeowners. We've got about three acres of plots out and a lot of them will be in bloom." Love and his colleagues have spent the past three summers collecting desert and mountain seeds for the project to see which plants produce the best flowers or foliage while thriving with far less water than most Idaho landscapes get. Love will ask field day visitors to help him decide which plants advance through the trials. He also has two other areas for visitors to see. LOVE "70 different species and varieties of ornamental grasses and then we also have about 160 varieties of winter hardy roses in a garden." The Idaho Nursery and Landscape Association is supporting the native plant work and Love says some pestomines, buckwheats, columbines and asters are some of the most promising varieties he's studied. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott