From PioneerPress
NATIVE COUNTRY
A RIVER FALLS-AREA NURSERY SPECIALIZES IN SELLING NATIVE PRAIRIE PLANTS, WHICH ARE OF GROWING INTEREST TO GARDENERS AND LANDSCAPERS.
KEVIN HARTER, Pioneer Press
Butterflies and birds love the asters, black-eyed Susans and liatris growing at the nursery southeast of the Kinnickinnic River. And, increasingly, so do landscapers and residents.
The vast majority of the 110 species of plants available at Kinnickinnic Native Plants grow naturally in the St. Croix Valley, but it's unusual to find them growing in flower beds laid out for customers -- and the occasional hummingbird or monarch butterfly.
"It's like that old baseball movie ('Field of Dreams'). You build it, and they will come," said Wayne Huhnke, who operates the 10-acre perennials nursery with his wife, Michelle Bredahl.
And more have been coming every year since the nursery opened six years ago in Kinnickinnic Township, north of River Falls. They're drawn by the ability to buy plants that thrived in the region before European settlers arrived and developed agriculture and urban areas.
Some of the nursery's customers are interested in native plants for the opportunity to grow a bit of history in their back yards, but others buy the plants for environmental and economic reasons, Huhnke said.
Environmentally, such plants are well suited to the area and benefit the soil and groundwater as well as bees, butterflies and birds. And because they're at home in the habitat, they don't require as much maintenance -- resulting in less watering and spraying of chemicals.
Insects and birds may have their favorite plants, but Huhnke is less choosey.
"As I tell the garden clubs when they come out, I like whatever is in bloom at the time," said Huhnke, who received his bachelor's degree in horticulture at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.
A number of Twin Cities and western Wisconsin nurseries sell native perennial flowers, but few focus their operations on native plants. Among others that do are Dragonfly Gardens in Amery and Out Back Nursery in Hastings, Minn.
Kinnickinnic Native Plants has succeeded in propagating a wide variety of plants but still faces a daunting challenge: convincing people to buy a plant called a weed. It's a problem with many of the native plants, from ironweed to Joe Pye weed.
"They are not very marketable names. We'd sell a lot more if we called them something else," Huhnke said.
If it's called a weed, many people think it is one, he said.
"Men will come out with their wives and say, 'Why do I want to buy something that grows in the ditch,' or, 'You're going to have to tell me where it is so I don't mow over it,' " Huhnke said.
Chances are slim that a native perennial actually is growing in a ditch, said Lynn Steiner, author of the recently released "Landscaping with Native Plants of Minnesota."
"Maybe it was true 50 years ago, but mostly what we see along the roadsides are invasive exotics," said Steiner, who is working on a Wisconsin native plants book.
Kinnickinnic Natives has worked with a host of groups on prairie restorations, including the state Department of Natural Resources, and with several cities on establishing native gardens. But the bulk of its business comes from a 60-mile radius stretching from the Twin Cities east metro to Eau Claire.
Steiner said the growth of native plants seems driven in large part by interest among experienced gardeners. As more gardeners inquired about the plants, more nurseries began meeting the need, and the trend has been reflected in gardening and horticulture magazines.
Now, nurseries find they can attract business by touting their native offerings.
"They wouldn't, maybe 10 years ago, have played that up. Now it is a selling point," Steiner said.
Twin Cities residents who shop at Kinnickinnic Natives for the most part buy perennials for their Northwoods cabins. Local landscapers and residents are more interested in hardy, low-maintenance plants.
Ginny Gaynor likes everything about native perennials.
"When I moved to Wisconsin, I fell in love with the prairie" said Gaynor, who lives in rural New Richmond and wanted to restore some of her land to native grasses and perennial flowers.
"Not many people know there were acres and acres of prairie in western Wisconsin, which is why there are names like Erin Prairie and Star Prairie," Gaynor said. "So I like the idea of it. Plus, it is great for the environment and wildlife."
MORE INFORMATION
Kinnickinnic Native Plants, 235 Wisconsin 35, River Falls, 715-425-7605, www.kinninatives.com.
Minnesota Native Plant Society, 952-443-1419, www.mnnps.org.
Botanical Club of Wisconsin-Wisconsin Native Plant Society, 608-267-5037, http:wisplants.uwsp.edu/BCW.
