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Native pollinator-pleasing plants for sale Sunday By Morgan Rothborne Oct 08, 2022 01:00 AM A A A native plant sale will be held Sunday in Phoenix.[Photo courtesy www.pollinatorprojectroguevalley.org] Five vendors will offer a plethora of native plants Sunday in Phoenix at the Native Plant Sale for the Pollinators. The event, scheduled to run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., at 312 N. Main St., is a joint project of the Jackson County Master Gardener Association and Pollinator Project Rogue Valley. Klamath Siskiyou Native Seeds, Jackson County Master Gardeners, Klamath Native Plant Nursery and White Oak Farm will be at the event on the site of Pollinator Project Rogue Valley’s nursery. A Facebook post for the event had seen more than 1,000 responses as of Thursday, and it warned that some species may sell out quickly, and crowds should be expected. Parking is limited, so visitors should come ready to walk a few blocks. Some shoppers might want to bring a cart or other method to transport plants, the post advised. “I want to see people planting native from the ground cover to the canopy,” said Lynn Kuntsman, past president of the Jackson County Master Gardener Association. Planting purely nonnative species in yards and gardens has had consequences, she explained. “We’ve spent generations sterilizing yards with lawns and shrubs — not intentionally — but these things do not contribute to the food web,” she said. “We’ve lost 3 billion birds in North America.” Animals native to an area need plants native to that area to survive, she explained. Insects — such as the recently declared endangered monarch butterfly — can lay their eggs only on certain plants because the larvae that hatch have stomachs made to digest only those plants. If those insects have nowhere to lay their eggs, native bird species in turn have no insect larvae to eat. These interconnected species relying on each other to survive make up what Kuntsman called the “food web.” Many people don’t realize that by simply planting the flowers found for sale in the usual places, they are depriving insect and animal species of food rather than providing for them. The bees seen enjoying these nonnative plants also are nonnative — European honeybees, for example. Helping to bring back North America’s birds or save the monarch or Oregon’s bees can be as simple as planting a native oak, willow or elderberry. Native plants can be difficult to find for sale, she said. They’re not grown by many vendors locally, but the five vendors participating in Sunday’s sale will have a wide range of native plants from which to choose. For more information, see Pollinator Project Rogue Valley’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/events/1220625662030565 and website at www.pollinatorprojectroguevalley.org/home Reach Mail Tribune reporter Morgan Rothborne at [email protected] or 541-776-4487. Follow her on Twitter @MRothborne.