Karrie Reid in the News

Karrie has co-authored an article about a California native plant trial in
California Agriculture, a University of California magazine.  Here's the
link to the pdf (1.5 MB) file with pictures.  I've posted the beginning text
below.  The article is 8 pages long with photos and charts of their trials.

http://calag.ucop.edu/0803JAS/pdfs/ca6203p97.pdf

Cheers,
Bracey
San Jose

Field trials identify more native plants suited to urban landscaping by S.
Karrie Reid and Lorence R. Oki

There is a growing need in the state of California for landscape plants that
require fewer inputs of water and chemicals. To address this issue, a
program was initiated at UC Davis to test the landscape potential of
California native plants not currently in widespread horticultural use. Ten
unused or underused California native plants were screened in open-field
conditions for low water tolerance during summer 2006. In all cases,
there were no significant differences in the summer growth or physical
appearance between four irrigation levels. Six species maintained a
favorable appearance throughout the season and were advanced to
demonstration gardens in seven climate zones throughout the state, where
Master Gardeners are performing
further assessments on their performance.

These irrigation and climate zone trials are part of an ongoing program
coordinated by UC Cooperative Extension, the UC Davis Arboretum and the
California Center for Urban Horticulture to introduce more low water-use and
low chemical-use plants through partnerships with the commercial
horticultural industry. For gardeners, California's climate both charms and
challenges. Its charms include rainless summers with warm, sunny days and
mild nights, and brief, mild winters. But most of these charms are also
challenges. The long, hot summers with no precipitation require frequent
irrigation, and the low humidity can further increase the water demand and
pest susceptibility of humidity-loving plants. The brief, mild winters can
render plants that require a long seasonal chill unsatisfactory in either
fall color or fruit production, and allow many pests that would be killed
elsewhere by winter freezing to survive and multiply from one year to the
next. Because so many commonly used landscape plants are ill-adapted to
these climatic conditions, large inputs of water, pesticides
and fertilizers are needed to keep them looking their best.

With constantly increasing population pressures in the state, there is an
increasing demand for water (Hanak
and Davis 2006). Due to overwatering and the frequent use of pesticides and
artificial fertilizers, an increase in undesirable chemicals in urban runoff
is a growing and serious problem (Bailey et al. 2000; Weston et al. 2005;
Wilen et al. 2001). In addition to all this, whereas other large states such
as Texas have only four U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) plant
hardiness zones (USNA 2006), California is home to at least seven USDA zones
and 24 climate zones as described in Sunset Western Garden Book (Brenzel
2007). Nonetheless, large chain nurseries in particular often sell the same
plants from one end of the state to the other, ensuring that many customers
who bought something that was lovely in the garden center will eventually be
disappointed with a plant unsuitable to their part of the state. So how does
one create a lovely landscape with such difficult
challenges? The obvious answer is simply to garden with plants that have
greater drought-tolerance, fewer pest problems and an adaptation to milder
winters. 

In fact, in recent years there has been a trend in both public landscapes
and home gardens to use more plants with these characteristics. These
plants, usually native to California or other areas of the world with
Mediterranean-type climates, are sometimes referred to as "low-input"
because they require little supplemental water and no chemicals to look
their best. Their proper maintenance leaves no negative impact on
the environment. The horticulture industry, however, thrives on a constant
input of new and beautiful plants to
tantalize its customers year to year, and despite the growing demand, plants
in the "low-input" category have been relatively few and slow in coming to
the mainstream nursery market.

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