April 13, 2003

Going Native

Its finally warm enough out that I can start thinking about planting a few things. I'd like to go native (at least for the mostly non-edible stuff). But I've found that even catalogs that flaunt the fact they're for the Southwestern US with many drought tolerant plants, most of them are anything but native. There's plants from Japan, Russia, England (how often do they have droughts?).... Every once in awhile they list one as being from Arizona... though they've hybridized it. What I want is a web site that will tell me exactly what NATIVE plant to plant in each part of my yard. (And which will go together nicely and which will draw butterflies, etc.) I've looked but haven't found. Well, I'll just have to rely on the local nursery.