Tag: native plants
Planting a Therapeutic Native Meadow
Even in slushy conditions, volunteers showed up to Bybee Lakes Hope Center with inspiring attitudes
On Saturday February 15th, an inch of snow still covered the VetREST Victory Garden at the Bybee Lakes Hope Center. When it started raining, it seemed like one of those mornings when folks might decide to stay home, and who could blame them. Luckily the roads were clean and volunteers slowly but surely arrived, proving their commitment to planting native plants in a meadow once intended to be a prison yard.
The Bybee Lakes Hope Center building was originally meant to be a correctional facility, but that never came to be. Now it serves as a transitional housing facility in North Portland supporting people experiencing homelessness. Outside, there’s a five-acre Victory Garden run by VetREST. VetRESt helps military veterans address their challenges with a goal of finding peace from their hidden battles, providing farming and gardening opportunities and mentorship.
The five-acre Victory Garden has a young fruit orchard, a thriving vegetable garden, and a walking path with trees planted by Friends of Trees in 2021. On that Saturday in February, dozens and dozens of volunteers showed up to plant more than 800 native pollinator plants among the trees planted three years ago.
“Without that planting three years ago, we might not have this garden,” says Ron White of VetREST.
Volunteers spread compost on the sandy soil to give the plants nutrients. Steaming wheelbarrows crisscrossed the meadow, weaving between pods of plants and snowpeople constructed by some of the younger volunteers. The rain let up by midmorning and volunteers shed layers. Spirits were high and smiles abounded as the meadow gained plants one by one.
By the time we finished, enough snow had melted to reveal the mulch path that weaves through the meadow to the orchard, and it became easy to imagine taking a peaceful spring stroll among the milkweed, goldenrod, and Oregon grape.
“It’s a testament to the volunteers. The actions of folks like this are really making a difference to transform this into an amazing space,” Ron says. “This is the essence of a community garden.”
We are Friends of Bulbs!
The Eugene Branch is giving away thousands of native bulbs!
Bulbs are amazing when you think about them. In the fall, you bury a little pod in your garden, and come spring it’s a beautiful flower.
“Bulbs are an underground storage organ,” says Eugene Director Erik Burke. “We’re really excited to give away thousands of them.”
On December 7th, Friends of Trees Eugene-Springfield will have a Native Bulb Giveaway event, giving away more than 10,000 native geophytes. Each person will be able to select up to 10 bulbs from a variety of native species including great camas, common camas, common milkweed, tiger lily, Wapato, Oregon checker mallow and more. Planting and care guides will be available for all attendees to take home with their new plants.
“We’re hoping people will have a lot of success with these,” Erik says.
“After they’re properly planted, they won’t need any watering, although a little the first year may help them establish.”
All of the species are native plants and culturally important plants, and most of them are edible! They’re great for pollinators and all have beautiful flowers, so anyone would be happy with them in their yard. We’ll be giving away mainly 3 year-old bulbs, which means they should all bloom in their first year, with the exception of camas, which may take another year.
“I like to call it a ‘geophyte giveaway,’” Erik says.
Bulbs, corms, tubers and rhizomes are all geophytes, which means they overwinter underground, using that underground storage system. A potato is an example of a root food or geophyte we are familiar with.
After seeding, these plants push all their energy into their bulbs (or corms or rhizomes) and shut down. They won’t rot in wet conditions, and can survive with little or no oxygen, making them a resilient capsule for the plant through winter. They often emerge from the ground relatively early, sometimes as early as the winter solstice or early January in the case of camas.
These plants spread really well, especially with the help of people, leading to the theory that they co-evolved with indigenous harvesting practices.
“These native plants evolved with human harvest and spread much better with human handling,” Erik says. For example, camas harvest increases camas patches by breaking off bulblets and knocking seeds into freshly disturbing soil. Harvesting also keeps the bulbs from pulling themselves too deep and the patch dying out. Camas patches really benefit from careful harvesting.
Thanks to our partners: Upper Willamette Soil and Water Conservation District and International Paper.
Our favorite late bloomers!
The Eugene team shares some of their favorite August-blooming trees and plants
By late August, most of our trees have gone to seed. But we have a few favorite late summer bloomers for you to sniff around for!
“It’s important to have flowers available to native pollinators,” says Eugene Director Erik Burke. “There’s not a lot of forage for pollinators this time of year. Having trees flower at different times gives them their best chance of getting the nectar they need.”
An especially charismatic tree this time of year is the Harlequin glorybower. It’s a cool name for a cool tree. Its pink and blue flowers look like something out of a Tim Burton movie, and they have a delicious smell. Speaking of delicious, the leaves smell like peanut butter!
While the Harlequin glorybower is appealing in many ways, this ornamental tree is not particularly climate resilient.
“We love some trees for their toughness,” Erik says. “We appreciate others just because they’re really cool. And that’s okay.”
A tree that’s flowering right now and is a great drought tolerant option: the Japanese pagoda tree. This medium-sized tree has beautiful white flowers, and because it does well in poorly drained soils, it’s a good choice for Eugene.
The Chaste tree, named for its historic use as an anaphrodisiac, is blooming this time of year, too. It has really charismatic flowers that pollinators really love! Pollinator advocates are always encouraging people to plant more of this one.
Trees aren’t the only ones with some flowers popping this time of year. There are some amazing native plants like goldenrod and milkweed that are feeding the pollinators. Asters, too, are starting to bloom, and they’ll stay in bloom for several months!
“Some consider Douglas’ aster the absolute best pollinator plant in this area,” Erik says.
Even if we’re not planting right now, there’s never a bad time to consider what you might want to plant in the future. So take note of what trees are flowering in August, so that you might do your part to help our native pollinators!
Friends of Trees, Friends of Bees
How we can plant to promote native pollinators
Next time you see a bee buzzing around your garden, take a closer look. It’s cute, right? And on top of that, it’s performing a very important ecological process—pollination!
Last month we hosted two pollinator workshops in Washington county during National Pollinator Week, thanks to funding from the Tualatin Soil and Water Conservation District. Folks gathered at the PCC Rock Creek Learning Garden and at Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge to take a tour of pollinator-friendly plants, learn what makes for good pollinator habitat, and to spot some native bees along the way. Friends of Trees staff shared their knowledge on the topic and led activities to guide people in designing their own pollinator gardens.
What is a pollinator? Pollinators are animals (mostly insects) that move pollen from a flower’s male part to its female part in their search for sustenance, making that plant’s reproduction possible. This process makes pollinators a really key part of both agricultural and ecological systems. 35% of our food sources and 75% of flowering plants depend on pollinators.
“Unfortunately, we’re seeing a massive, unprecedented decline in native bees and other pollinators,” says Thomas Meinzen, a Neighborhood Trees Specialist at Friend of Trees who studied pollinator ecology and conservation in graduate school. In some countries, studies have shown more than 75% decline in insect biomass in 30 years. Because pollinators are relatively understudied, the impacts and ramifications of this decline are not fully understood.
“There are a lot of contributing factors, including pesticide and herbicide use, grazing practices, agricultural monocultures, habitat loss and climate change,” Thomas says. “It’s scary, but there are still things we can do.”
IN OUR OWN BACKYARDS
We can create habitat in our own backyards and parks. Luckily, we don’t need entire wilderness areas for pollinators to live in. You can help by planting a variety of flowering plants to provide food for pollinators from spring all the way into fall.
“Trees are particularly helpful here because they flower earlier in the year than most smaller flowering plants, providing food for early-season pollinators like bumble bees,” Thomas says. “Trees like California buckeye, cascara, hawthorns, willows, and fruit trees are all great options for native pollinators.”
It’s also best to cultivate a diversity of flower shapes, colors, and types to attract a diverse array of pollinators. Bees, butterflies, and flies are all pollinating insects looking for different types of food.
NATIVE PLANTS FOR NATIVE POLLINATORS
It makes sense that native pollinators are attracted to native plants. Our Green Space program enhances natural areas by planting many thousands of native shrubs and plants each planting season, improving air and water quality and creating habitat for wildlife, including pollinators.
“A lot of our Green Space plantings are designed to improve water quality in particular,” says Kaitie, a Green Space specialist. “But these plants are great for pollinators, which is more than just an added bonus.”
Plants like red-flowering currant and Oregon grape are common at our Green Space plantings and favorites for pollinators. Our Green Space plantings also leave open ground where bees can nest.
Many people express concern for honeybees, not realizing that honeybees come from Europe and can potentially outcompete native bee species. There are over 4,000 native bee species in the United States and over 650 in Oregon.
“There’s a lot of growing interest in pollinators,” Thomas says. “It was exciting to see that at our pollinator workshops with great turnout, in-depth conversations, and the chance to send folks home with pollinator plants.”
The best things we can do to protect and promote native pollinators are to avoid using pesticides and herbicides on our properties, plant flowers and native plants, and leave things a little messy so that pollinators can make themselves at home in our gardens.
Spring is coming! Or is it already here?
The Eugene Team shares their favorite signs of springtime
“Many buds are starting to swell,” Erik Burke says when asked when spring will arrive. “Witch-hazel, Persian ironwood and osoberry are all insect-pollinated woody plants that are blooming. Spring is here.”
The Eugene Director has always noted that the seasons aren’t evenly distributed in Western Oregon and Southwest Washington. “We have a short autumn, a relatively short winter, and long springs and summers. November is our wettest month on average, January is our coldest month, and while February can be cold, spring typically begins early in the month.”
Meteorologists observe March 1st as the first day of spring. Our calendars say March 19, the vernal equinox, when the days finally begin to be longer than the nights. But plants are on their own schedule.
“It’s a gradual roll out,” Erik says. We’ll see camas come out of the ground in December or early January as the incense cedar starts blooming. Filberts pollinate in January, and in February, we’re seeing willows leafing out, and daffodils and cottonwoods blooming.
“When the cottonwood buds drop on the bike path, it’s the best smell ever,” Erik says. “And in March, our native wildflowers are just beautiful.”
Some ecologists point to osoberry blooming as the first sign of spring, because it’s the first native insect-pollinated woody plant to bloom, and blooms with or just after the introduced witch-hazel and Persian ironwood.
“I love when the forest edges are covered in osoberry blooms,” says Taylor, our Eugene-Springfield Program Manager “I love that the days are getting longer faster. I love seeing the native bulbs lush and thriving.”
Spring is when we see the most pollen from the wind-pollinated trees that cause allergies. But luckily, it’s during the rainy season, and rain will knock a lot of those allergens out of the air. Incense cedar is the first to put out its pollen, followed by filbert, cottonwood, alder, birch, and hornbeam. Ash and oak follow in April.
Our early spring allows for most trees and plants to wrap up their reproductive processes by May, ahead of our annual summer drought. Until then, we get to enjoy the kaleidoscope of blooms in our canopy, across our hillsides, and in our own yards and gardens.