Phlox phlyer 201610c by CBNPS

Volume 22, Number 1 October 2016

the

Phlox Phlyer

Columbia Basin Chapter, Washington Native Plant Society

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c/o Cheryl Smith, 1926 Hetrick, Richland, WA 99354

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www.cbwnps.org

New Meeting Location: Columbia Basin College - Building S - Room 229 Our monthly meetings now will be held in Building S, Room 229 on the CBC Campus in Pasco. Check out the map in this newsletter or on our website (http://www.cbwnps.org/calendar/ ).

ELECTION OF OFFICERS The following slate of officers was elected by acclimation at our June meeting: Co-Presidents - Janelle Downs/Mickie Chamness Secretary – Marilyn Lemar

Vice-President – Rik Smith Treasurer – Cheryl Smith

All of our chapter’s activities occur because of our wonderful committees. Below is the list of our committees and the people who have expressed an interest in serving on them. Please contact them with questions and ideas, we’d love to hear from you. Restoration/Salvage: Joe Roop, Bill Mast Heritage Garden Program: Donna Lucas Education: Kim Hamblin-Hart, Pauline Schafer Books: Carmen Wooten Field Trips: Ernie Crediford, Steve Link Programs: Kim Hamblin-Hart Communication: Mary Ann Simmons (Phlox Phlyer, webpage), Donna Lucas (webpage, Facebook), Carol Coker (Facebook), Gretchen Graber (Facebook)

COLUMBIA BASIN PHOTO CONTEST The 1st category is biotic crust: you could take close-ups of lichens, mosses, mushrooms, club mosses etc. or step back and take a photo of a mini-landscape of the textures and colors that occur together. The 2 nd category is wildlife (birds, animals, insects) and native plants. Contact Mickie Chamness at mickiec@charter.net if you have any questions. Entries are due by November 6, and a 2017 WNPS calendar will be awarded to the winner in each category.

Purple Hearts On July 13th the Benton Conservation District Board expanded the Heritage Garden program to incorporate the CBNPS’ Purple Heart concept as a component that can be included in certified gardens. Purple Hearts are a great way for public entities as well as private gardeners to honor our country's veterans. Purple Heart planting plans will be developed and/or reviewed by CBNPS member Ernie Crediford who created the concept and planted the first Purple Heart located near the primitive boat launch at Wye Park in the Richland Y. The original Purple Heart garden at Wye Park found some new champions this year. After vandals pulled out most of the native purple sage in the garden’s heart, Beaver Bark and anonymous donors donated and planted lovely purple blooming salvias and verbenas just before Memorial Day. While beautiful, these beautiful plants needed to be watered. Volunteers carried buckets of water from the Yakima River almost daily until 1

our next champion stepped forward. Howard Ruiz and his dog Binky figured out a way to keep the Purple Heart alive all through the heat of summer by watering from a tank in his truck. MANY THANKS to Howard Ruiz and Beaver Bark

MEETINGS/WORKSHOPS

The Phlox Phlyer is the newsletter of the Columbia Basin Chapter, Tri-Cities and Walla Walla, Washington Native Plant Society. Chapter Officers

Wednesday, October 5, 2016, 7:00 p.m. Monthly Meeting Room at Columbia Basin College, Room S229 (http://www.cbwnps.org/calendar/ ) – “Trifles will not stop me.” Presentation on David Douglas by Gary Lentz. David Douglas explored the Pacific Northwest in the early 1800’s and described many of our northwest trees, shrubs, and forbs. His careful notes give us an insight into our world 200 years ago, Gary Lentz will tell us about his journeys and plants he found. At 6:30 pm, we will continue with our “Plant Talk” feature. We will be making sagebrush seed balls to use in restoration. This is also an opportunity to socialize before our meeting. Saturday, October 15, 2016, 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. NATIVE PLANT SALE!!! C&M Nursery located near the corner of Van Giesen and Highway 240 (Bypass Highway) in Richland. The nursery is allowing us to use part of their parking lot for our plant sale. We’ll have some native flowering plants as well as a few shrubs and grasses, plus we’ll have our own wildflower seed packets for plants native in our area instead of California. Saturday, November 12, 2016, 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Heritage Garden Fall Workshop (Free!) at the Richland Public Library (955 Northgate Drive, Richland WA 99352). Featuring: 

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Dr. James, PhD, Associate Professor of Entomology WSU, Prosser, will discuss his new book, Life Histories of Cascadia Butterflies. Kelsey Prickett, Forb Production Manager, BFI Native Seeds, Moses Lake, will present information on native forbs for drought tolerant landscaping in the Columbia Basin. Heritage Garden Roundtable - Panel of local experts share tips and tricks for creating beautiful low water-use landscaping. Bring your questions.

Co-Presidents — Mickie Chamness, mickiec@charter.net & Janelle Downs, sagejld@aol.com Vice-President — Rik Smith,

rsmith@columbiabasin.edu Secretary — Marilyn Lemar, dwlemar@hotmail.com Treasurer — Cheryl Smith

cyankee@charter.net Chapter Committees Programs — Kim Hamblin-Hart,

kimhamblinhart@gmail.com Field Trips — Ernie Crediford, ernest_crediford@live.com / Steve Link

stevenlink@me.com Restoration/Salvage — Joe Roop jmroop@frontier.com/ Bill Mast, bmast1@live.com Heritage Garden Program — Donna Lucas, donna_lucas@hotmail.com Education — Kim Hamblin-Hart

khamblinhart@gmail.com / Pauline Schafer pauschafer@hotmail.com Communications — Mary Ann Simmons, msimmons_1@charter.net (newsletter)/ Donna Lucas, donna_lucas@hotmail.com (webpage and Facebook) Publicity — Mickie Chamness, mickiec@charter.net

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES

Books — Carmen Wooten, canoecarmen@yahoo.com

Walla Walla Subchapter

Saturday, October 22, 2016, 10:00a.m. SEED BALL TOSS!! What’s that?? We hope you’ve had the chance to help make small balls of clay containing local sagebrush seed. Whether you’ve made any or not, you’re welcome to join us “toss” the seed balls. We’re spreading them in the burned area around the McBee Grade because sagebrush is killed by wildfires and after multiple fires over the years there are few sagebrush seeds left in the soil. Dress for the weather and wear sturdy shoes or boots. Estimate 1 hour outdoors. Meet at the new park and ride lot behind the gas station at the Benton City/I-82 interchange to car pool. 2

Darcy Dauble, Walla Walla, dadauble@gmail.com

This issue reproduced by

THE DIGITAL IMAGE Richland Washington 509-375-6001

PHOTOGRAPHS NEEDED FOR NATIVE PLANT ID CARDS – Fall Do you have photos of the following plants for use in our Plant ID cards – big sagebrush, gray rabbitbrush, golden currant, snow buckwheat, Indian ricegrass, bluebunch wheatgrass, Carey’s balsamroot, long-leaf phlox, Munro’s globemallow, or Turpentine desert parsley? In the March and May newsletters we listed spring and summer characteristics of these plants that are particularly useful in helping ID these plants. The fall characteristics we still need are of close-ups of sagebrush flowers and seed heads. Send all photos you have on these or the earlier characteristics to Mickie Chamness at mickiec@charter.net.

Benton Conservation District (BCD) /Columbia Basin Native Plant Society (CBNPS) 5 Year Heritage Garden Anniversary October 5th marks the 5 Year Anniversary of the CBNPS and BCD’s partnership in creating and implementing the Heritage Garden Program. The program has assisted countless homeowners with the implementation of low water-use native plant gardens. The program has also hosted 8 workshops, 2 tours, and 1 practicum in addition to launching a standalone website dedicated to Heritage Gardens: http://www.hgcd.info/. Heather Wendt, Heritage Garden Program Coordinator for the Benton and Franklin CD’s, said “People ask me all of the time what it means to truly partner with another organization. I always think about the partnership that we share with the CBNPS when I answer that question. The opportunity to learn from people who are passionate, smart, funny and dedicated to a vision that compliments your organization is truly amazing. Partnerships last because they have boundaries and sideboards that allow each entity to operate autonomously while working cooperatively toward shared goals. So if I haven’t said it lately or loud enough THANK YOU CBNPS for being a great partner in the creation and implementation of Heritage Gardens!” The CBNPS thanks Heather and the Benton and Franklin Conservation Districts. Without her leadership and their resources, this vision could not have materialized.

Snow Buckwheat (Eriogonum niveum) by Sarah Gage (Botanical Rambles / Washington Native Plant Society blog) Native to the dryer areas of the Pacific Northwest, this plant is blooming now alongside the showier green and grey rabbitbrushes (i.e., those with the bright yellow flowers).

Why Choose It? With frosty-green leaves and long-lasting sprays of tiny white to pink flowers, Snow buckwheat cools the eye in late summer and early fall. Happy on little water, this sub-shrub is well adapted for dry sites and gravelly or sandy soils.

In the Garden As a ground cover or an accent plant in a rockery or sunny bed, Snow buckwheat’s woody taproot will seek out water, anchor the plant in wind, and provide erosion control. The airy flower stalks will start in June and continue through the summer, when its late nectar is important to bees. White-lined sphinx moths may also sip at its flowers, and butterfly caterpillars find food and shelter among the leaves.

The Facts Snow buckwheat grows as a mat or mound, to about six inches tall, with flower stalks rising eight inches or more. Plant it in full sun and in a gritty to sandy soil with excellent drainage. Water well at planting, give it some water the first year or two, and it should be off and running.

Where to See It Present throughout the Columbia Basin, snow buckwheat grows in sagebrush communities and mixed grasslands, and sometimes among ponderosa pine. Look for it on rocky roadsides. 3

And, hey, is this the buckwheat in my pancakes? Nope, that’s a Eurasian crop plant, in the genus Fagopyrum. The genus Eriogonum, with more than 250 species—many of them here in the west—can make a life-long study. Numerous other garden-worthy buckwheats, often sporting lollipop-like clusters of yellow or brick-red flowers, grow throughout the Columbia Plateau and into the mountains. Photos by Clay Antieau – Methow Valley / For more information about buckwheats, check out The Eriogonum Society (http://www.eriogonum.org/ ).

INPUT NEEDED BY STATE CHAPTER In the fall Douglasia issue the WNPS president, Clay Antieau, wrote about the possibility of changes to both state and chapter newsletters (see President’s Message, page 3) to improve communication, save money and reduce volunteer workloads. Some ideas under consideration, for example, are providing a monthly state newsletter that incorporates local chapter news and/or providing Douglasia once a year electronically. Clay welcomes input from all WNPS members. If you have any suggestions or comments, please provide them to Clay at clay39@netzero.net or send your comments to the WNPS office at wnps@wnps.org. All board members are volunteers and make every effort to provide good and sensible leadership for an organization that they feel strongly about. We should all try to let them know we are listening to them, appreciate their effort, and provide positive and negative feedback. The next state board meet ing is October 22, and your feedback by October 10 will give the state board members the opportunity to review all the comments and consider actions at that meeting.

Columbia Basin Chapter Washington Native Plant Society c/o Cheryl Smith 1926 Hetrick Avenue Richland, Washington 99354

To receive the newsletter electronically – email msimmons_1@charter.net 4

DIRECTIONS: Take the 20th St exit off I-182, turn left on Argent then turn left onto Saraceno Way at the next stoplight. The meeting is in the S building which is on the left side of the parking lot if your back is to Argent. Meeting is in Room S-229 (see next page).