Dogwood and pinkshell azalea (Rhododendron vaseyi) turn Daniel Boone Native Gardens in Boone into a fairyland in spring.
Growing Our Own Western North Carolina natives are growing wild Story and photos by Hannah Miller
W
estern North Carolina wildflowers can be bright bits of color peeking out from under a woodland shrub: They are yellow lady’sslippers. Or a glorious June profusion of purple on a mountain hillside: That would be Catawba rhododendron.
official agency attempts to protect and perpetuate the plants are being joined by determined grassroots efforts, some by members of mountain-area electric cooperatives.
Growing our own “These plants are beautiful,” says Blue Ridge EMC member Or the native plants can be the hold-your-nose-and-swal- Jacky Brown, who with her friend and fellow Blue Ridge low springtime phenomenon that sets strong men gagging member, Dianne Upson, inspected black cohosh at a Boone at firefighters’ fundraisers: Those would be ramps. native-plant sale. Brown grows native plants in her garden, They’re all part of North Carolinians’ distinctive wild she says, because she feels it’s important “to do what you can heritage, says Joe-Ann McCoy, head of to continue it.” the Bent Creek Institute Germplasm Displaying their wares at the plant Repository, a collection of plant reprosale, sponsored by Daniel Boone ductive material at the N.C. Arboretum Native Gardens, were Blue Ridge in Asheville. EMC members Jon and Kim Moretz The glaciers of the last several Ice of Pond Mountain Farm and Forge Ages spared North Carolina, and as a in Creston. Getting into propagating result, the area’s huge variety of plants and selling native plants was strictly survived when much of the plant life a business decision 10 years ago for disappeared elsewhere on the contiJon Moretz and his father, the late Jim nent, she says. As far as plant diversity Moretz, who’d moved to Creston from a is concerned, “This is a very, very speWatauga County farm. cial place.” “Tobacco went out. There’s no Descendants of those hardy Ice Age money in cattle,” they concluded. survivors are facing their own threats So they settled on growing native these days, as 21st century development This rare pinkshell azalea (Rhododendron plants to sell to the landscaping and replaces forestland and cash-strapped home gardening market, despite the fact vaseyi), one of the first mountain plants to residents try to counter a shaky that the blossoms are often what one bloom in spring, was saved and replanted economy by harvesting wild plants at Daniel Boone Native Gardens by Kit Fisher nursery owner calls “small and insignificant, not showy-showy.” Some, like themselves. But as the problems mount, and other volunteers. Carolina Country AUGUST 2011 15