Plants bought for the CBWNPS plant sale are almost all grown from seeds of plants growing in eastern Washington or eastern Oregon. We want to make sure plants are adapted to climate and soil conditions found here. We also strive to prevent introduction of plant strains that are not part of the local gene pool. To provide gardeners with greater variety, a number of plants are chosen that grow in areas near streams, or at higher elevations or that receive more rain and snow than we do here. So you may have to provide additional water during the growing season for plants that don’t normally grow near the Tri-Cities.
To determine whether you need to add water to your new native plant in the future, read through the description provided with the plant online and on the plant tag with your plant, or look at the Heritage Garden website for plant resources.
If you need or want to add water either in the winter or during the year, the best way to do that is to put a 6-8” long piece of tubing (pvc pipe, old piece of hose, etc.) in the plant’s hole before starting to back fill. Leave an inch or two of pipe extending above ground and the bottom of the pipe nestled near the plant roots and back fill dirt in around the roots and tube. When you water the plant, do so through the tube to put water down where it will help the plant grow it’s roots deep, below the zone of soil that dries out quickly near the surface. You can pull the tube out after your plant is established, unless you plan to run a drip line to it because it needs more water than we normally get.
Native plants don’t normally need much in the way of fertilizer, and in fact giving a plant too much water or fertilizer can be bad for them because they aren’t adapted to those excesses.