Skip to content
Elisabeth C. Miller Library

Keyword: Rosa nutkana

Hardy plants for near the shore

Do you have some suggestions for hardy, lower growing plants that would do well near the water? Our house is on the south side of Whidbey Island. The main plantings will be behind the house, thus roughly 75-100 yards from the shore. This part of the yard has early morning sun and then some shade in the afternoon. And, since we have a large yard at home we are working toward very low maintenance at the beach.

The following plants are mentioned in April Pettinger’s book, Native Plants in the Coastal Garden (Whitecap, 2002):

SHRUBS

Arctostaphylos uva-ursi (Kinnikinnick)
Gaultheria shallon (Salal)
Vaccinium ovatum (Evergreen huckleberry)
Rosa nutkana (Nootka rose)
Holodiscus discolor (Oceanspray)
Symphoricarpos albus (Snowberry)
Mahonia aquifolium (Oregon grape)

NATIVE GRASSES

Festuca idahoensis (Idaho fescue)
Festuca idahoensis spp. roemeri (Roemer’s fescue)
Leymus mollis or Elymus mollis (Dunegrass)
Deschampsia cespitosa (Tufted hairgrass)
Festuca rubra (Red fescue)
Glyceria grandis (Reed mannagrass)
Muhlenbergia glomerata (Marsh muhly)

There are many other ideas in this book, which I highly recommend.

, , , , , , , , , ,

pruning native roses

What do the experts recommend regarding time(s) to prune the native roses, Rosa nutkana and Rosa gymnocarpa? I am interested in controlling their growth without losing bloom and/or rose hips. Do either or both of them bloom on second year wood?

 

Peter McHoy’s A Practical Guide to Pruning says that the pruning method would follow that of vigorous species roses, which produce flowers on old wood. He says to remove any dead wood in early spring (similar to ‘late winter’).

The Royal Horticultural Society A to Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants (edited by Christopher Brickell, Dorling Kindersley, 1996) says to prune species roses as needed only, cutting out one fifth to one fourth of the oldest stems. A Pacific Northwest native wildlife gardening source on the web recommends only pruning out dead wood, and otherwise leaving it be.

Since Rosa gymnocarpa is also once-flowering, it should be pruned–if you need to prune it at all–just after flowering.
The following are general guides on rose pruning in the Northwest, from the Seattle Rose Society and Roses for the Pacific Northwest.

rose gall and the scotch broom gall mite

I work on a restoration site and this fall I have been noticing weird fuzzy growths on many of the Nootka roses (Rosa nutkana) growing there. Do you know what is causing this? And is it related to similar strange growths on all of the Scotch broom? In the case of the broom, it actually kills them completely—they turn brown or black, and their roots are pretty much non-existent, which makes them very easy to uproot (which is what we are trying to do). I just don’t want to lose the roses or other desirable plants on the site.

 

What you are describing on the roses sounds like mossy rose gall (Diplolepis rosae). Washington State University Extension’s HortSense page says that these galls which are caused by cynipid wasps will not harm the host plants. You could picky them off the roses, but that seems impractical in a restoration site, and besides they are fairly benign and attractive curiosities. The particular species of cynipid wasps which cause it are unlikely to affect plants which are outside the rose family.

Your other question about dying Cytisus scoparius (Scotch broom) is especially interesting. I think what you are seeing on those browned and blackened plants is also a gall, caused by the Scotch broom gall mite (Aceria genistae). This insect is apparently on the cutting edge of controlling invasive broom. According to this informational page from University of California Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program, the mite was first seen on broom plants in Tacoma, WA and Portland, OR in 2005. It has since spread through the Pacific Northwest. An abstract of an article entitled “The Scotch Broom Gall Mite: Accidental Introduction
to Classical Biological Control Agent?” (J. Andreas et al.) appeared in the 2011 XIII International Symposium on Biological Control of Weeds. Studies are underway to see if the mite affects non-target plants such as lupine. For now, you can rejoice in the fact that the mites are curbing the growth and reproduction of the broom, and making your work a little bit easier!

plants for attracting birds

I am planning a garden in Seattle and my highest priority is to attract birds. Do you have a list of plants I can use as a reference?

 

This is a more difficult question than one might imagine. According to Landscaping for Wildlife in the Pacific Northwest, “almost 300 species of birds are native to the Pacific Northwest. Many of them could call your yard home for at least part of the year, depending on what you provide for them. So it depends on what species of birds you want to attract and what environments they need.”

Source: Landscaping for Wildlife in the Pacific Northwest, by Russell Link (University of Washington Press, 1999, p. 48).

There is a lot of good advice on planning your garden with birds (and other creatures) in mind.

Washington Native Plant Society has a resource page devoted to native plants for wildlife.

The Miller Library has a booklist featuring titles on attracting wildlife to the garden: Information Resources for Gardening with Wildlife.

Another good source for this information is Native Plants of the Northwest, by Wallace W. Hansen.
The site has a page of wildlife habitat plant recommendations.

Following is an annotated list of plants that attract birds for western Washington: the oaks, chinquapin, Oregon myrtle, western hazelnut, cascara, and all trees in the Rose family (hawthorn, bitter cherry, chokecherry and Pacific crabapple). Native shrubs include: serviceberry, salal, all Oregon grapes, Indian plum, bittercherry, roses, blackcap, thimbleberry, salmonberry, Pacific blackberry, red and blue elderberries, russet buffaloberry, mountain ash, snowberry, and all huckleberries.

Seattle Audubon’s book and online resource, Audubon at Home in Seattle: Gardening for Life has a chapter on designing a garden to attract birds, and it includes a plant list.