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8 CapitalPress.com August 21, 2015 Nursery grows its own natural, edible plants By LACEY JARRELL For the Capital Press BONANZA, Ore. — Edible native plants can be an attrac- tive option for residential land- scaping, according to Southern Oregon growers. Owners of Rock Bottom Ranch Koi & Nursery in Bo- nanza, Ore., focus on hardy native plants for rugged Great Basin, high-desert conditions. “The Great Basin extends throughout all the sand states. We’re dealing with low precip- itation, high elevation and tem- perature extremes,” said former nursery owner Annie Sedlacek. Earlier this year, Sedlacek, and her husband Leslie, sold the native plant nursery to Bob and Pat Clickener, but the cou- ple is staying on to help the Clickeners acclimate to the nursery setting. Rock Bottom features a wide array of native and drought-tolerant plants. Elder- berries, golden currants and serviceberry are just a few of the decorative native Oregon edibles customers can pick up there. “They are beautiful land- scape plants, and they are really useful for wildlife and birds,” Sedlacek said. According to Sedlacek, in addition to providing a nu- tritious return on investment, native edibles tempered to spe- FL¿F UHJLRQDO PLFURFOLPDWHV don’t require added fertilizers or maintenance. “If you can have a beautiful native plant that can feed your family and shelter wildlife — plus keep your landscape less expensive to maintain — why Lacey Jarrell/For the Capital Press 3DW&OLFNHQHUOHIWDQG$QQLH6HGODFHNVRUWZRROO\VXQÀRZHUDSODQWQDWLYH to Southern Oregon, at Rock Bottom Ranch Koi & Nursery. The Bonanza, 2UHQXUVHU\VSHFLDOL]HVLQQDWLYHVDQGGURXJKWWROHUDQWVSHFLHV would you select a different plant?” She said nearly every Rock Bottom plant is propagated outdoors to ensure it has the moxie it needs to survive the region’s hot dry summers and bone-chilling winters. “We don’t believe our cus- tomers have the time or re- sources to fool with plants that DUHGLI¿FXOWWRJURZ´6HGODFHN said. “It’s get tough or die in this environment.” Buyers should think about what they want their plants to do, such as provide shade or stabilize the soil, and how much time they want to spend maintaining the landscape, Pat said. She noted that landown- ers should also consider how much landscape they want to ¿OOZKHQGHWHUPLQLQJDSODQW¶V suitability. “It looks much more attrac- tive to cluster plants,” Pat said. She offered yellow or purple ninebark and red twig and yel- low dogwood bushes as exam- ples of non-edible, native Rock Bottom plants that can spruce up landscapes. “I love the structure of them,” she said. “Not just how beautiful they are during the summer, but how much they add to your landscape during the winter. When it’s barren ev- erywhere else, they add color to a neutral landscape.” Rock Bottom’s plants are propagated from cuttings or from seed and few, if any, are greenhouse-grown, according to Sedlacek. “The goal is to grow things outside in as natural a form as possible,” she said. Most plants native to Southern Oregon need to be planted in fall and go through D FROG VWUDWL¿FDWLRQ ZKLFK LV a natural treatment that weak- ens the seed coat and promotes germination. August 21, 2015 CapitalPress.com 9 Secretary transitions from hobbyist to nursery owner By ERICK PETERSON For the Capital Press COWICHE, Wash. — Cowiche Creek Nursery is a hobby that grew out of con- trol, according to Jeannie Stephens, who owns the busi- ness with her husband, Mark. “We’ve been around for awhile; things started and they just kept going,” she said. In the late 1980s, she was working as a school secre- tary and gardening in her free WLPH6KHOLNHGPDNLQJÀRZ- er baskets, she said, and she was doing it more and more. It became an increasingly large part of her life, and she would research new ideas by traveling to nurseries out of town and poring over garden- ing magazines. She made baskets and be- came so productive that she KDGPRUHÀRZHUEDVNHWVWKDQ she had space. So she gave several away to friends. A buzz started growing about her baskets, and people started offering her money for them. Friends, acquain- tances and strangers were placing orders, she said. “There were people who were coming to my front door,” she said. They had no idea whether she had a busi- ness, only that they admired WKH ÀRZHUDQGPRVV EDVNHWV displayed in front of her home. They asked her where they could buy these baskets. By 1989, with the help of her husband, a profession- al agricultural advisor who built her a greenhouse and offered his expertise in soils, VKH RSHQHG D IXOOÀHGJHG Erick Peterson/For the Capital Press Serena Gillespie and Jeannie Stephens, of Cowiche Creek 1XUVHU\LQ&RZLFKH:DVKVWDQGZLWKWKHLUVXQÀRZHUV6WHSKHQV business. $W ¿UVW RQO\ D SDUWWLPH job with limited hours, her nursery took off immedi- ately. As her customer base grew, she was able to devote more hours to the nursery. In time, this job became her main employment, and then it garnered so much business that she could quit her secre- tary job. This was a big moment for her, she said, as being able to leave secretary work was a sign that she had “made it” as a nursery professional. Further, she was able to look over her inventory, which includes annuals, geraniums and roses, and she could ap- preciate her own work. She has done well, she said. Other people agree; cus- tomers keep returning. Nowadays, she busies herself with sales, tending WR KHU ÀRZHUV DQG PDQDJ- ing the business. Business is still, good, she said, and she has been able to deal with the increasing prices of materials by growing nearly all of her inventory. More than simply suc- cessful, nursery ownership is pleasant and rewarding, she said. At the same time, how- ever, it is demanding. She complains about the physical toll on her body, and she says that she is already growing too old to continue much lon- ger. Fortunate for her, and her loyal customers, she said, she has a succession plan. Daughter Serena Gilles- pie is already working at Cowiche Creek Nursery as manager. She said that she is learning much from her mother, and, she is accept- ing more and more respon- sibilities at the nursery. In time, she will be running the place, which will leave her mom free to retire. N15-4/#5