12/11/07 Using native plants for Idaho landscaping

Steve Love is raising native plants, some of which do well under drought conditions, some are more resistant to fire and some are actually quite beautiful. LOVE "We looked most at wild flowers to begin with perennials like penstomons, lupines, globe mallow, Indian paintbrush. There's a bunch of different things that we've looked at, that we are looking at. In the last year or so we've started concentrating a little bit more on some of the woody plants, the shrubs and trees. Love works at the University of Idaho's Aberdeen Research facility where he spent years working with potato breeding. Love has since moved from the potato fields to two and a half acres where native plants are being raised for seed production. LOVE "We've collected in the desert acres across southern Idaho. We've done major collections in the Owyhee Mountains and in the Pioneer mountains and the Seven Devils country." Love says the seeds that he's collecting from these plants are intended for Idaho landscaping. LOVE "Take those that have the best horticultural characteristics, the nicest appearance, the most disease resistance, the longest flowering period, the best survival in the winter, all of those things that are important to a homeowner and make these available for low maintenance landscape purposes." Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott