Congratulations to one of Klamath-Siskiyou Native Seeds’ southern Oregon clients, Mark Newberger, for winning the Lana Edwards Butterfly Garden of the Year Award, featured in the winter 2024 edition of Butterfly Gardener, a publication for members of the North American Butterfly Association (NABA).

Mark’s native plant butterfly garden is located on the Siskiyou Crest, above Ashland, Oregon on the ridgeline that divides the Klamath River watershed from the Rogue River watershed, with both Mt. Shasta and Mt. McLoughlin in view from the garden. The Siskiyou Crest is the only east-west tending transverse mountain range in the Pacific Northwest and is renowned for its botanical diversity and exceptional habitat connectivity.

Sixty different species of butterflies have been documented on Mark’s property by local butterfly experts Dianne Keller and David Lee Myers.

Instead of disrupting the habitat connectivity on the Siskiyou Crest, as private lands within natural settings have the potential to do, Mark’s native plant butterfly garden blends seamlessly into the surrounding ecosystem, with naturescaping that enhances the habitat value of his property for pollinators and other wildlife, keeping the habitat connectivity of the Siskiyou Crest intact in that area.

Here at Klamath-Siskiyou Native Seeds, we are happy to share the joy of this award with Mark, as the seeds used to create this fabulously naturescaped butterfly garden were sourced from Klamath-Siskiyou Native Seeds.

In 2016 Klamath-Siskiyou Native Seeds collected seven pounds of native seed under contract for Mark’s native seeding project. The site had recently been disturbed during hardscaping upgrades, creating the perfect opportunity to seed natives. All of the seed was hand collected in the Siskiyou Mountains, with a good portion collected right on the property in areas where intact habitat and abundant seed was available.

In the fall of 2016, seed from 58 species of native wildflowers and grasses were sown. Eight years have passed since the project began, resulting in a vibrant and showy display of native wildflowers, and a drastic increase in pollinator species diversity. Over eight years regular weeding and light watering has aided the seedling establishment and helped keep the area primarily native plants.

KSNS created this video in 2020 to document the success of the project and highlight how naturescaping with native plants can bring not only beauty to your property, but also an increase in native species diversity that provides important habitat for pollinators and wildlife, including abundant butterflies!

Thanks to Mark Newberger for having the vision to create such an amazing native plant garden, for having the patience to let the garden grow from seed, and for being such a good steward of the project to help keep the garden looking so good!

Mark’s property has 166 documented species of vascular plants overall, from annuals and perennials, to trees and shrubs. Click here to see the list of 63 species that currently grow in the native seeding project area of Mark’s garden that KSNS has collected seeds for.

Buckwheat Bonanza!

Buckwheat seed packets 25% off now!

In honor of Mark Newberger’s Lana Edwards Butterfly Garden of the Year Award, we want to help others create what Mark has created. Mark really loves wild buckwheats, in the genus Eriogonum. So for the next week (January 20-27, 2025), KSNS is giving a discount of 25% off all our buckwheat seed packets that are currently in stock: arrowleaf buckwheat, sulphur flower buckwheat, and tall woolly buckwheat. Learn more about growing wild buckwheat from seed here.

Eriogonum compositum-Arrowleaf buckwheat

Eriogonum elatum-Tall woolly buckwheat

Eriogonum umbellatum-Sulphur flower buckwheat

We are thankful to all our loyal customers and all the kindred spirits that share our love of native plants! To show our gratitude we are bringing back our highly popular holiday sale. Thank you, and thanks to everyone who grows native plants and works to protect intact native plant communities!

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are some of the biggest shopping days of the year. The celebration of consumerism results in a huge environmental impact, as most of the “bargain” products are created in ways that harm the environment, and most will eventually end up in the landfill. Whether you boycott Black Friday and Cyber Monday altogether, or commit to purchasing from only reputable sustainable or eco-friendly businesses, there are ways protect the environment and lessen the impacts to our climate during the holiday gift giving season.

In order to promote an alternative to plastic, electronic, or other unsustainable holiday gifts, we are offering a 20% discount (Enter Coupon Code: NATIVESEEDS4THEHOLIDAYS at checkout) on all our native seed packets for orders $30 and up, from now until 5pm on Giving Tuesday. And on Giving Tuesday we encourage you to donate to your local, grassroots non-profit working to protect native ecosystems. It’s important to support those who protect native plant habitats!

Limited Time Offer!

Enter coupon code: NATIVESEEDS4THEHOLIDAYS at checkout to receive 20% off native seed packets on orders $30 and up.

This offer will end at 5pm on Giving Tuesday, December 3, 2024!

Late fall to early winter is a great time to sow native seeds so they can overwinter outside and germinate in the spring. Right now is a great time to buy native seeds for yourself or as a holiday gift for friends or family. Native seeds are a gift that keeps on giving — for pollinators, for habitat, and for the future of biodiversity!

This year Klamath-Siskiyou Native Seeds has donated to the following non-profit organizations listed below. It’s not enough to just grow native plants in our yards, we also have to protect the intact native plant habitat that still exists in the wild, and educate about them — now more than ever!

ORGANIZATIONS KLAMATH-SISKIYOU NATIVE SEEDS HAS DONATED TO IN 2024:

Center for Biological Diversity, Applegate Siskiyou Alliance, Pacific Crest Trail Association, Pacifica: A Garden in the Siskiyous, Wilderness Watch, Siskiyou Crest Coalition, Pollinator Project Rogue Valley, Siskiyou Field Institute, Great Old Broads for Wilderness, Wellington Wildlands Council, Native Plant Society of Oregon, OregonFlora, Calflora, Oregon Wild, California Native Plant Society, and more!

Happy (Sustainable) Holidays from Klamath-Siskiyou Native Seeds

Troon Talk Podcast

Where Troon Vineyard digs deeply into their Biodynamic Regenerative Organic Farming and Winemaking

Last month Suzie Savoie from Klamath-Siskiyou Native Seeds sat down for an interview with staff from Troon Vineyard to discuss the concepts, creation and maintenance of the Troon Vineyard Native Plant & Pollinator Botanical Garden in southern Oregon’s Applegate Valley.

Troon Vineyard’s motto is: “Farm like the world depends on it.”

We couldn’t agree more. The world depends on us protecting intact, wild native plant communities, and incorporating native plants into our farms, gardens and built landscapes.

The Klamath-Siskiyou region doesn’t have many native vines, but the ones that do grow here include species that are heavenly scented, colorful, vivacious, and they provide a lot of habitat for a wide variety pollinators, including butterflies, bees, moths, hummingbirds, wasps, and flies. Some species of birds and mammals will eat the berries and fruit in late summer to early fall.

Native vines are not only important for pollinators and wildlife, the name honeysuckle comes from the fact that the nectar of some species is very sweet, and the nectar can be sucked from the flowers by humans who enjoy it, as much as pollinators do. Native, wild grapes are important to the wine industry, many of the native vine species have some medicinal uses, and all of them can be grown as landscaping plants or incorporated into habitat restoration projects.

Some native vines like cool, moist shade, while others are happy to grow on a sunbaked rocky ridgeline. If you’ve got a trellis or a fence, or even just a shrub or tree that you’d like to add some habitat complexity to, native vines are a good addition.

Pink honeysuckle (Lonicera hispidula)

Pink honeysuckle is very attractive when grown ornamentally on a trellis or fence in the garden settling. It can climb, scramble or sprawl. It will vine up in trees or sprawl along the forest or woodland floor as a groundcover. When trained to climb, the showy, large, pink honeysuckle flowers stand out and are easier for the many pollinators that love honeysuckles to forage or nectar on. Bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, flies and moths use pink honeysuckle flowers, and in the fall, when the flowers turn to bright red berries, the birds move in to munch on the berries. An important wildlife species, pink honeysuckle deserves more recognition as an adaptable and easy-to-grow native vine that is drought tolerant and deer resistant. It blooms May-June, depending on elevation, and can be grown in full sun to part-shade.

Lonicera hispidula-Pink honeysuckle

Orange honeysuckle (Lonicera ciliosa)

Orange honeysuckle is a colorful deciduous vine that is highly attractive to hummingbirds, butterflies, bees, moths, and other pollinators. The orange, trumpet-shaped flowers are very showy in the spring, and turn into orange-red berries in the fall. With a fence, arbor, shrub or tree as support, orange honeysuckle will grow as a vine, but without something to climb up it will grow as a groundcover or as shrub form. It is a larval host plant for numerous butterfly and moth species. Orange honeysuckle prefers to grow in sun to part shade, with moderately moist soil. In hot, sunny locations at valley bottom, it may be best to grow it in full shade.

Lonicera ciliosa-Orange honeysuckle

Chaparral honeysuckle (Lonicera interrupta)

Don’t let this lovely yellow honeysuckle fool you, this is one tough plant! Chaparral honeysuckle grows in extremely dry and exposed locations throughout its range in southern Oregon, California and southern Arizona. It prefers to grow on rocky ridgelines and dry slopes. As the common name implies, chaparral honeysuckle has a strong association with chaparral plant communities, often using shrubs as support as they vine their way up toward the sun where they flower in early summer. In late summer to early fall the flowers turn to bright red berries. The attractive flowers are loved by hummingbirds, native bees, and butterflies. Chaparral honeysuckle grows from a woody base and can be a stand-alone shrub, but with something to climb up on, it will happily become a vine. Chaparral honeysuckle is very drought resistant.

Western clematis (Clematis ligusticifolia)

Clematis ligusticifolia-Western clematis

Western clematis generally occurs in streamside thickets in riparian areas, along roadside ditches and fencelines, and in moist locations in woodland and coniferous forests at mid to low elevations. Often overlooked in the wild setting, western clematis makes a striking ornamental vine when grown in gardens. The prolific 1″ white flowers bloom in mid to late summer and are attractive to bees, hummingbirds and butterflies. The flowers then turn into showy, fluffy seed heads in the fall. This climbing, spreading vine can clamber 20′ or more up a tree, but will also be found as a sprawling groundcover where there are no trees or shrubs for it to grow on. Western clematis is deciduous in the winter.

California wild grape (Vitis californica)

Vitis californica-California wild grape

California wild grape has significant cultural and ecological value throughout its range in California and southern Oregon. This deciduous native grape can grow as a shrubby groundcover, or if it finds something to climb, it can become a 10-40′ vine, reaching high into the canopy of trees. It is most often found growing along rivers or smaller streams in riparian areas or near seeps, swales or springs. It inhabits riparian forest or woodland, but can also be found along streams in foothill woodland, chaparral or grassland communities as well, in the valley bottom, or in river canyons. Although California wild grape thrives in moist conditions it can tolerate summer drought conditions once established.

California wild grape grows vigorously and is easy to grow. It can be grown like any other grape cultivar, trained on a trellis, fence, or arbor, or allowed to grow up into an open grown tree. If untrained, it will grow as a groundcover. California wild grape’s tenacity also means that it can become aggressive in the garden setting and may require a lot of pruning to keep it under control. If it has a lot of space to grow, it will be happy.

Caliornia wild grape produces somewhat tart, but perfectly edible purple grapes that can be made into jams and jellies — or wine! The grapes are a traditional food for Native American tribes throughout its range, often dried into raisins for long-term storage. California wild grape is very important for the international wine industry. Due to its resistance to leaf and root attacking grape phylloxera aphids, nearly all commercial wine grapes grown anywhere in the world are grafted onto rootstocks of California wild grape.

The grapes are also an important food source for a wide variety animals, birds and insects, and is a staple food for species such as coyote, skunk, wood ducks, quail, mountain bluebirds, and more. Because of its importance as a food source for wildlife, and because it provides valuable cover, California wild grape is an important species for riparian restoration projects.

Although inconspicuous and often hidden beneath leaves, California wild grape has small green or yellow flowers that bloom in May to June and are pollinated by small native wasps and bees such as sweat bees. California wild grape is also a larval host plant for some species of native moths. The foliage puts on a showy display of orange and yellow leaves in the fall.

Here at KSNS we have been getting seeds of a lot of the red-flowering and red-fruited species we carry back in stock. Western columbine, warrior’s plume, western thistle, wavyleaf paintbrush, Brown’s peony, red huckleberry, wax currant and more! For some of these species we have many packets available, while others we were only able to get a limited amount of seed, so they will sell out fast!

RED FLOWERS

The color red has a lot of cultural meaning and is used as a symbol for love, passion, and romance, as well as anger, war, danger, religion, spirituality, luck, good fortune and happiness. It is also the first primary color humans see as babies after black and white, and is one of the most vibrant colors humans see, due to its longer wavelength. Pigments of red have been documented in archeological evidence dating back to prehistoric times, and humans continue to use red to make an impact in many ways.

Most insects, on the other hand, don’t even have the photoreceptors in their eyes to see the color red. Humans see color on a spectrum from red to violet, but bees see on a spectrum of orange to ultraviolet — they have spectral sensitivities clustered near the ultraviolet, blue, and green regions of the spectrum.

Some insects only have two types of visual pigments, one pigment absorbs green and yellow light, and the other absorbs blue and ultraviolet color, and these insects are often unable to discriminate pure colors from mixtures of colors.

However, some insects like bees and many diurnal butterflies, have what is considered “true color vision,” because they have three visual pigments and can perceive a complete spectrum of colors, within their spectral sensitivity range, and can also see the difference between single colors and mixtures of colors, but the perception of ultraviolet color (non-spectral color) is really what sets them apart with their visual acuity. For instance, many flowers have evolved to have rings of ultraviolet color around the reproductive parts of the flower that are not visible to humans, but tell the bees exactly where they need to go. There is a lot more than meets the human eye! We cannot perceive all the color that many flowers display because we can’t see ultraviolet.

So what is the advantage of red flowers if many insects can’t see the color red?

Hummingbird pollination!

Unlike bees, hummingbirds see red even more clearly and vibrantly than humans do, due to a greater concentration of cone cells in the retinas of their eyes. Hummingbird eyes filter other colors (e.g. muting colors such as blue), making red hues brighter, and they can see ultraviolet colors as well. While hummingbirds will visit flowers of other colors with high nectar content, it is more opportunistic.

Meanwhile, flowers that are primarily pollinated by bees are rarely red because bees don’t see the color red; however, bees will still visit what looks simply like a red flower to humans, but it might also have some ultraviolet colors that we can’t perceive, but the bee can.

Conversely, many red flowers that have evolved to be pollinated by hummingbirds have long floral tubes that their long beaks can get into, but bee tongues are not long enough to reach the nectar; however, there are “nectar robber” bees that can chew holes at the base of the tube and get to the nectar that way, primarily without pollinating the flower.

The bottom line: Many pollinators don’t see red, so red flowers are primarily pollinated by hummingbirds that can, but some red flowers have ultraviolet colors that humans can’t see, that bees can see, and that is why we still sometimes observe bees utilizing red flowers. Whew! Insect color perception and flower color is a very fascinating, and complicated subject!

Red Fruit, Berries & Drupes

Fall is the time for collecting fleshy fruited seeds — and many of them are also red! During the end of summer and early fall we have a mad dash to keep up with collecting and cleaning fleshy seeds before they dry out on the plant, get eaten by critters, or get moldy. We prioritize cleaning these perishable seeds first and foremost this time of year, but we’re starting to get caught up as less and less fruit, berries and drupes are available as fall progresses.

It’s been a bumper crop year for Pacific dogwood (Cornus nuttalllii) seeds. This gorgeous spring-blooming shrub or small tree puts on clusters of drupes that have red flesh when the seeds ripen. Sometimes we’re lucky enough to find some seed clusters low enough to the ground that we can pull them directly off and into the collection bucket easily, but many times it requires a ladder to access them. We have a lot of Pacific dogwood on our land, so we don’t need to go very far to access it, as it is abundant in the canyon we live in, but we have to beat the critters to the seed too! We’ve been enjoying watching flickers dart in and out of the dogwoods as they nab some of these ripe, red seeds to eat! Pileated woodpeckers, grosbeaks and cedar waxwings also eat the red dogwood seeds.

Below are some featured red-flowered and red-fruited species currently back in stock. And you can’t forget red fall foliage too! Soon the vine maples will be displaying various shades of yellow to red as fall deepens and the colors grow more vibrant.

HAPPY FALL!

Aquilegia formosa-Western columbine

Castilleja applegatei – Wavy leaf paintbrush

Cercis occidentalis-Western redbud

Cirsium occidentale – Western thistle

Fritillaria recurva-Scarlet fritillary

Paeonia brownii-Brown’s peony

Pedicularis densiflora-Warrior’s plume

Ribes roezlii-Sierra gooseberry

Ribes sanguineum-Red flowering currant

Sanicula bipinnatifida – Purple sanicle

Acer circinatum-Vine maple

Vaccinium parvifolium-Red huckleberry

Actaea rubra-Red baneberry

Streptopus amplexifolius-Claspleaf twistedstalk

Ribes cereum-Wax currant

Solarization, tarping or occultation are good methods for site preparation for native seeding and planting. But what about all that plastic! It’s hard to say you’re doing something to benefit ecological function when you consider the amount of fossil fuels that go into manufacturing the plastic sheeting or tarps needed for solarization, tarping or occultation, not to mention the persistent and growing problem of microplastics in the environment. One solution is to repurpose old vinyl billboards for this purpose. Using old billboards repurposes something that would otherwise end up in the landfill. The following two sites offer used billboards: Billboard vinyls and  Billboard tarps.

Vinyl billboards are made to be used outdoors along roads and highways and to withstand harsh weather conditions. They are made of UV-protected and water resistant vinyl layers, with rip-stop nylon between the layers to prevent tearing. If you live in an area with lots of deer, this can be important. Deer and people can walk on this material and not tear it. It is durable for rural or high traffic areas.

Used billboards come in a wide variety of sizes. You can get white on one side, with the old ad on the other side, or black on one side with the ad on the other side — we prefer to use the used billboards with the black side on the back.

The used billboards are installed for site prep, with the advertisement side down, and the black side up, helping to control weeds over the summer before sowing native seeds in the fall. They must be kept in place for at least six weeks or longer, depending on the tenacity of the underlying vegetation. The longer the billboards are in place, the better.

The repurposed billboard is relatively heavy on its own, but you can use rocks, sandbags, bricks or other heavy objects to weigh down the edges.

Using old billboards is technically a form of occultation. Occultation is similar to solarization, but opaque coverings are used instead of clear. Black plastic actually absorbs light, and takes longer than solarization with clear plastic, which allows light and heat to penetrate. In some situation solarization with clear plastic may be a better option, depending on the current vegetation on site and the what weed seeds are present in the soil seed bank. Billboards can be reused over and over; whereas, clear plastic tends not to last as long and is more prone to tears.

We personally used an old billboard, with a jewelry ad on one side and black on the other side, to tarp an area where we had recently cut out non-native lilacs that had grown on our property since before we bought it. We’ve left the billboard in place over the summer, and without sunlight the lilacs have not been able to grow more than a few, spindly, blanched stems. It’s easier than digging it out, and preps the overall area well for native seeding by eliminating the competition and creating a nice, open area with exposed soil.

When not using old billboards for site preparation for native seeding or planting, they can also be repurposed and used like a tarp for other applications where a waterproof tarp is needed. Ideally vinyl billboards will be replaced by a more eco-friendly product in the future for advertising, but until then, and while there are, unfortunately, lots of them in the world, we might as well put the used ones to use for aiding native seeding and planting projects, and prevent them from immediately entering the landfill after just a few month’s use.

*Note: Tarping, or occultation does not effectively control field bindweed (Convolvulus arvensi). Other techniques must be used to control this specific species — yeah, don’t we know it, bindweed is difficult!

Suzie collecting Klamath plum (Prunus subcordata) fruit in the foothills of the Siskiyou Crest.

We’ve been busy out in the field in far flung places across southwest Oregon and northwest California, collecting seeds, and trying our best to keep up with seed orders, and get out-of-stock species back in stock! You can see a list of back-in-stock species at the bottom of this post. We’re happy to have round headed buckwheat (Eriogonum sphaerocephalum), Siskiyou lewisia (Lewisia cotyledon), heartleaf milkweed (Asclepias cordifolia), Cascade oregon grape (Berberis nervosa), giant trillium (Trillium albidum), Pacific hound’s tongue (Adelinia grandis), Henderson’s shooting star (Dodecatheon hendersonii), and golden currant (Ribes aureum) all back in stock this week, with much more to come as we keep cleaning seeds.

Luke collecting tarweed (Madia elegans) seeds in the Applegate Valley in southwest Oregon.

We aren’t able to stock every species we’ve offered every year, as we are at the whims of nature, and not every year is a good seed production year for every species. Some species only produce seed every few years, some only produce on dry years, some only produce on wet years, and every year is different. Sometimes we drive hours on back roads to collect seeds of a species that has a lot of people on the waiting list, and we might even be lucky enough to find that the species produced seed, and we collect a lot of material, but when we clean it down there’s hardly any good, viable seed. This is where seed collection can be difficult, and we can’t predict exactly what seed we will have every year, especially for some unreliable species. We encourage you to sign up for notifications for out-of-stock species so you will get an email when it is available again.

In this photo on the left, a path lined with the leaves of trail plant leads the way to collecting Cascade Oregon grape (Berberis nervosa) fruit in mixed conifer forest in the Siskiyou Mountains. The seeds in the fruit are separated from the pulp in the seed cleaning process, then dried down and winnowed. Cleaning fleshy fruit is a big part of our late summer seed cleaning schedule.

Sometimes we collect native seeds in brutally hot weather — that’s when many seeds are ready, and we can’t wait or we’ll be too late! We cover up and tough it out, and take a swim in the creek at the end of the day to cool off.

Part of the skill involved in seed collection is species identification after plants have passed their peak bloom time and have begun to senesce. Some small plants can be hard to find when they dry out, and even large plants can look quite different when the seeds are ready to collect. They may be completely dried out, withered, or deteriorated. We spend a lot of time getting to know this stage of plants so we can find them when we need to. It’s also important to keep good records of where we collect seeds so we can return in future years if the timing is right.

We hadn’t had a chance to collect seeds of round headed buckwheat (Eriogonum sphaerocephalum) for a few years, but finally made it back to a spot we’ve collected seeds at before this summer, and we have some limited seeds back in stock. (See below)

Round headed buckwheat (Eriogonum sphaerocephalum)

BACK IN STOCK!

We’re happy to have the following species back in stock as of today.

Eriogonum sphaerocephalum-Round headed buckwheat

Lewisia cotyledon-Siskiyou lewisia

Asclepias cordifolia-Heartleaf milkweed

Berberis (Mahonia) nervosa-Cascade Oregon grape

Trillium albidum-Giant trillium

Adelinia grandis-Pacific hound’s tongue

Ribes aureum-Golden currant

Dodecatheon hendersonii-Henderson’s shooting star

Featured Photo: Suzie Savoie from KSNS was recently featured on the cover of the Grants Pass Daily Courier’s July 2024 edition of their Home and Garden publication, with an accompanying article that highlighted recommendations for growing pollinator friendly gardens.

This summer many of KSNS’ long-term native seeding and planting projects have reached full maturity after years of growth, and some new ones are taking shape. We’d like to highlight some of the native seeding projects we have helped with in this blog to show the variety of applications where native seeds and plants can be used. Each site and project has its own site-specific conditions and situations to be considered: soils, slope, aspect, elevation, shade vs. sun, moist vs. dry, weed pressure, critter impacts (deer, turkey, squirrels, rabbits, gophers, voles etc.), long-term site maintenance, and unexpected issues that are always bound to come up.

It feels good to see some really slow growing species, like balsamroot, mule’s ears, lomatiums, etc., finally start to bloom and set seed in some of the longer term projects. It can easily take 5-7 years for some slow growing species to mature, so patience is a virtue with native seeding projects. Down the road you’ll be very happy you took the time and investment to sow native seeds—and had the patience! It pays off with beautiful blooms and pollinators!

KSNS native seeding project on a conserved private property on Mt. Ashland in its 8th growing season

This is how it looked when we started in 2016

Klamath River Club native seeding and planting project along the Klamath River in its 7th growing season

This is how it looked when we started in 2017

Troon Vineyard Native Plant & Pollinator botanical garden in the Applegate Valley in its 4th growing season

This is how it looked when we started in November 2020

Native seeding habitat restoration of an old cannabis grow site in the Applegate Valley in its 2nd growing season

The Klamath-Siskiyou region is riddled in old, backwoods cannabis grow sites. Many had turned previously wild or natural areas into agricultural zones that left behind invasive weeds and disturbed soils. The cannabis market has dwindled and many people are now wanting to restore these sites to native habitat. The so-called “green rush” left behind a lot of impacted areas, and we are thankful that cannabis can now legally be grown in agricultural zones, where it belongs, and the intact native habitats and backcountry areas can retain and restore their native plant communities. 

This is what the site looked like before we got started in fall 2022, with the old cannabis stalks still in place.

Ashland Mine Road native seeding project on berms, interspersed with planted native shrubs and trees, in its first growing season

This is how it looked when we started in fall 2023

KSNS Burn pile seeding project in the Applegate Valley, in its first growing season

We have been turning burn pile areas into wildflowers for 20 years on our own property, and we like helping others do the same. Many rural people burn debris for various reasons, and each burn pile is an opportunity to grow native plants! Most native plants are adapted to fire and their seeds germinate well in the ash and char left behind after a fire. Some plants have seeds that are triggered by the pH change after fire, and not from the direct heat itself, and a burn pile can help create that pH to aid seed germination. Burn piles also help clear the area of competing weeds, helping provide a nice space for little seedlings to grow without a lot of weed pressure. 

Small burn piles can be spread around and seeded when burning is completed and the area has cooled. Many small burn piles turns into a lot of wildflowers spread all around.

A large, hot burn pile can be turned into a cool and diverse native wildflower habitat.

KSNS will be part of a great lineup of local native plant focused events this summer in southwest Oregon! Come along to learn and have fun!

Tour the Troon Vineyard Native Plant & Pollinator Botanical Garden created by Klamath-Siskiyou Native Seeds

June 20, 2024 10am-Noon

A free event to see up to 94 species of native plants all in one beautiful location! Registration requested.

In December 2020 Klamath-Siskiyou Native Seeds installed a half-acre native plant and pollinator botanical garden at Troon Vineyard in the Applegate Valley. To date, 94+ species of native plants have been established in the garden, primarily from direct seeding, with some native planting from nursery plants. With paths and plant signs to guide you through the botanical garden, and views out towards the Applegate foothills and Grayback Mountain, the Troon Vineyard Native Plant Botanical Garden provides an easy and delightful place to learn about native plants, pollinators, and a demonstration about how to incorporate more native plants into the farm and vineyard setting.

Suzie Savoie of Klamath-Siskiyou Native Seeds will walk tour participants through the paths of the botanical garden, providing detailed information for various species along the way, including:

• Plant identification
• Plant habitat in the wild
• Pollinator ecology
• Plant propagation and establishment methods in the garden
• Plant care and at-home gardening recommendations

This field trip series has been amazing so far! We have led four of the eight trips, and each one has been so full of information and gorgeous flowers, interesting rare conifers, and wild views of the Siskiyous. There are four more trips to go this summer! Come join us! Registration is almost full for most of the remaining dates, so register soon!

This summer Suzie and Luke from Klamath-Siskiyou Native Seeds, along with other amazing local botanists, are helping lead 8 different field trips to visit all 25 conifer species that grow in the Siskiyou Crest region in southwest Oregon and northwest California.

We have coordinated the field trip series as a fundraiser for Applegate Siskiyou Alliance, a local conservation and advocacy organization that Luke is the executive director for.

This summer Suzie and Luke from Klamath-Siskiyou Native Seeds, along with other amazing local botanists, are helping lead 8 different field trips to visit all 25 conifer species that grow in the Siskiyou Crest region in southwest Oregon and northwest California.

We have coordinated the field trip series as a fundraiser for Applegate Siskiyou Alliance, a local conservation and advocacy organization that Luke is the executive director for. Registration is opening just in time for Native Plant Appreciation Month!