D e s e r t E x p o s u r e
June 2008
Sojourning for New Plants
Three places where experts can help you pick plants that will thrive.
Hurrah! It's almost officially summer. Surely the plantings in your garden are now taller, fuller and more colorful. Are the silver-gray leaves of the lambs' ears creeping over the gravel path and the thyme softening the otherwise drab walkway? Are the vines and roses clambering upward to achieve the horticultural equivalent of conquering Everest — a vertical exclamation point as jolting and eye-gripping as an exploding Roman candle?
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Tricia Hurley (right) works with
volunteers at Jose Barrios Elementary School on the four-year-old Butterfly Garden designed by her husband Mark Cantrell, co-proprietor of Lone Mountain Natives. (Photo by Vivian Savitt) |
If by a grim twist of fate this has not occurred on your hallowed plot, let me make two suggestions: Plan how to accomplish this feat next year, or else set your inner capitalist free and go buy some tantalizing new plants.
By "new," I mean a species or cultivar that has not been previously available. A new plant holds the prospect of being a rewarding addition to your garden, and it's always fun to be the first kid on the block.
Fortunately, our area offers several licensed nursery owners who are dedicated to plantsmanship and to your success at growing their new offerings. As an extra bonus, the "plantocrats" featured here are bright, cheerful, multidimensional folks.
A power couple, Mark Cantrell and Tricia Hurley are native-plant activists who are growing a nursery business called Lone Mountain Natives in Arenas Valley. Each also holds another job and parents their two children. With academic backgrounds in wildlife biology (Tricia) and natural-resource management (Mark), they capably lead workshops on topics ranging from cultivating cacti to mulch-based water harvesting.
Recently, Tricia helped arrange for Ace Hardware to carry a wide selection of natives at the Silver City store. "Ace is interested in supporting local vendors," she says. "This venue is an amazing opportunity to get natives out to a wider public."
Mark, a third-grade teacher, also instructs a large following of plantophiles at the Silver City Farmers' Market. He describes his customers as "native-plant enthusiasts and people who just want plants that are more resource efficient and use less water.
"I can't always recall our customers' names, but I do remember what plants they bought," he goes on. "The Farmers' Market gives Tricia and me a chance to really talk to people and help them make good plant choices based on where they live."
On the occasion of this interview, Mark relaxes on the two acres comprising the couple's homestead. Black-chinned hummingbirds, canyon towhees and Bullock's orioles fly close overhead as if hoping to eavesdrop. Before Tricia dashes off to tend greenhouses, she shows off her Mother's Day present, a woolly butterfly bush (Buddleia marrubifolia) native to the Chihuahuan Desert.
Among the plants on Mark's A-list are a dozen types of penstemon, including the unusual Mexican blue (a long bloomer), and the canyon penstemon that "thrive here and are fairly deer resistant." Most of them are available at the nursery, Ace Hardware and the Farmers' Market.
Mark is fond of creamy-white antelope horn, an Asclepias species edged with a ball of green and purple sepals. He urges pond keepers to get to know the moisture-loving cardinal lobelia, with its sprightly pink and yellow flowers.
For shrubs, Mark suggests the aromatic fernbush with its tansy-like leaves and midsummer spikes of waxy white blooms. The species grows naturally near Mogollon.
He calls the western soapberry tree "ideal for here — a fast grower that can reach 24 feet in height. Best of all," Mark continues, "the tree displays ornamental seeds encased in translucent amber globes that catch the light in winter."
The couple's future plans include "creating a good native plant soil for potted plants," since they are "experimenting with native plants that can grow here in pots or else be ornamental annuals. "And who knows?," quips Marks. "This could end up being the future Silver City Botanical Garden."
If you'd like to visit Lone Mountain Natives, call for an appointment first (538-4345).
Mark and Tricia's counterpart in Las Cruces is their colleague Jackye Meinecke, owner of Enchanted Gardens for a dozen years. As Las Cruces has boomed, so has her nursery, known for its large selection of native plants.
Both Angelita daisy (Hymenoxys acaulis) and Rosa de Castilla count among Jackye's current favorite perennials. The bright-yellow daisy grows to one foot in height and width. Of possibly Spanish ancestry, the hardy, fragrant rose was brought in by a customer who requested that Jackye propagate it for all to enjoy.
A recent change at Enchanted Gardens has Jackye feeling both excited and better organized. Trees are now grouped in quadrants labeled as either shade, evergreen, patio or natives.
"Native trees," explains Jackye, "take longer to leaf out because they seem to know about late freezes. Once the mesquite starts turning green, the risk of a freeze is over."
Jackye grew up on the "only pecan orchard in the Texas Panhandle," studied technical writing at Texas Tech in Lubbock, and earned a PhD in communications and rhetoric at NMSU. Seeking a job with "three months off to garden," she joined the faculty at NMSU.
These days, Jackye is very much a public figure. She delivers a monthly gardening essay on KRWG-FM, writes a column for the Sun-News, and takes an active stand on protecting the Organ Mountains.
Another one of her major concerns is how little time today's children spend in uncontrolled activities. Influenced by Richard Louv's book, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, Jackye wants Enchanted Gardens to become a place where kids can linger and experience the natural world.
(Enchanted Gardens, 270 Avenida de Mesilla, 524-3334.)
Another veteran nursery woman, Kristi Dunn, believes that 14 years in the business have taught her "who in the industry practices what they preach." Consequently, she chooses to stock plants from Monrovia, Hines and Sunland (for natives).
After working in management for garden centers and greenhouses in Arizona, Kristi started Dunn's Nursery in Silver City with her husband Rick, a former software engineer who was born here. In business now for two and a half years, Rick handles the finances as well as the "pond area." "Rick's the Director of Wetlands," laughs Kristi, who is head plant honcho.
"We try to shop for all area residents, filling requests for Native Plant Society members as well as the folks who want dwarf citrus trees as patio plants," she adds. Similarly, the nursery carries organic compost and both organic and non-organic fertilizers.
"We also try to be a reliable provider," she continues, "ordering plants for three growing zones within one and a half hours of each other. If my customers aren't successful with their gardening projects, we wouldn't be successful."
At Dunn's Nursery you can find plants as basic as pansies plus drought-tolerant varieties like salvias, lavender and rosemary.
Her favorite new plants include a chartreuse, soft-leaf yucca (Yucca pendula) named "Banana Split," for the red blush that appears on new growth — like the cherry on the banana split. Kristi says the species is hardy here, grows rapidly and reaches a height of four to six feet. Another plant with an unusual form is spiral aloe (Aloe polyphylla), with its short, fat twisted leaves. Kristi thinks that this zone 7-9 species may be easiest to grow in a container.
With rock gardens experiencing a resurgence, Dunn's carries a new stonecrop sedum, "coral carpet," that turns bronze in winter.
More-traditional gardeners will be pleased to find two new types of lovely, airy cranesbill geranium (g. pratense). Kristi says cranesbill is deer resistant and the flowers last all summer.
And don't miss the lavender twist redbud trees with their poetic, weeping form and hand-sized, bright-green leaves. Not fond of wind, this tree may be happiest in a courtyard. (Dunn's Nursery and Garden Center, 2115 Pinos Altos Road, 388-2883.)
Sound tantalizing enough? Have fun scouting out new plants.