As of November 2009, General Manager Sean Currans has taken on a 13-month assignment with the USDA. He'll be serving as an Agricultural Advisor to the people of Basra, in southeastern Iraq.

The stateside portion of the RCP team anticipates an exciting and challenging year as we carry on without Sean's day-to-day involvement. Each of us here at the nursery is shouldering a few more responsibilities, and we're looking forward to continuing and developing Rugged Country Plants as a high-quality grower and supplier of Intermountain West native plants. 

On a cold day in January 2009, we started an ambitious project to liven up the hottest, driest spot on our property here in Oregon. Our goal was to spotlight some species recommended by Utah's Choice (a native plant tagging and education program), including species like Blue Gamma Grass and Purple Sage. After some careful planning, we got started with our planting in February and March.

As you can see from the photos, what started out as a pretty barren area ended up being a beautiful new addition to our landscaping. If you'd like to learn more about our goals for the project, as well as the restrictions we were working under, click here.

Are you an Intermountain West gardener challenged by temperature extremes and arid conditions? Would you like to know more about the native plants that flourish in our rugged terrain? If so, welcome to the first edition of our brand new e-newsletter!

plant recommendations, and news from the Rugged Country Plants nursery. We'll do our level best to bring you the information you need to make your own native landscape bloom. At the moment, we're readying seeds for about 25 new species for 2010. Among the introductory offerings are Barrett's Penstemon, Giant Sacaton Grass, Desert Peach, Crispleaf Buckwheat, and Blue Sage.

In other news, our Rugged Country Plants User Guide is now available for sale. Although we consider the RCP website our catalog, we've printed a very useful reference book of our plants, grouped by communities -- a water-needs concept we've adopted to categorize the specific needs of the flora native to our diverse region. The 2010 edition is a high quality, 142-page, spiral-bound, full-color reference guide that comes complete with several helpful indexes for locating plants.

Happy New Year, and welcome aboard!

Rebecca Currans
Seed Specialist
Rugged Country Plants

At Rugged Country Plants, we categorize Intermountain West plants by community, depending upon where they naturally grow and thrive. In general, the communities described below are based on available precipitation and/or ground water, with temperature differences taking on a secondary role.

The Desert Community includes plants that require less than 10 inches of precipitation per year. Examples include Sagebrush, Bitterbrush, Snow Buckwheat, and Indian Ricegrass. These are ideal if you live in an especially arid region. Needless to say, you can grow plants from other communities in a desert environment, but you'll have to provide for the shortfall in moisture. For example, if you want to grow riparian plants, you'll need to provide more than 20 inches of additional water a year -- not a particularly affordable process in an area where water's already scarce.

The Semi-Desert Community is comprised of plants requiring 10-15 inches of precipitation per year, such as Sandberg's Bluegrass, Rabbitbrush, Sulfur Buckwheat, and Firecracker Penstemon. In addition, you'll find that most Desert Community plants will do just fine in a semi-desert region, and in fact will relish the extra water.

Plants that require 15-20 inches of annual precipitation fall into the Foothill Community. These include Black Hawthorn, Oceanspray, Woods Rose, and Indian Blanket. These plants are very hardy during drought conditions, in some cases because they use mechanisms like deep root growth to maximize their access to water. Often, they simply go dormant -- thatt is, they stop growing until there's enough moisture available.

Plants belonging to the Mountain Community require a range of 20-30 inches of annual moisture, though the zone itself may receive up to 30-50 inches per year. Rocky Mountain Penstemon, Blue Wildrye, Fir, and Ponderosa Pine are all typical Mountain Community plants.

The Riparian and Wetland Community includes all plants that require at least 30 inches of precipitation each year. This Community actually consists of two basic environments: the riparian or river-based, which is comprised of species such as Water Birch, White Alder, and Willow; and the Wetland (swampy or marshy), which supports Willow, Bog Birch, rushes, sedges, and similar water-loving plants. While some riparian plants can handle some dry spells in the summer, wetland plants need wet or moist soil and are not drought tolerant.

Choosing plants from the communities that work best in your specific location is a simple way to conserve precious water and save money. It's our goal to help you do both, which is why we're constantly on the lookout for attractive new plants in all our communities. Keep an eye on this space to learn more!

The Sundancer Daisy (also known as the Stemless Four-Nerve Daisy) is a desert native, ideal for the rocky, poor soils of arid regions. These petite, cheerful yellow flowers grow atop long, leafless stems, giving them the appearance, from a distance, of floating in midair. They're showy yet compact, and won't spread to take over your garden like the Shasta Daisy can.

This attractive native hollyhock, variously known as the Maple Mallow, Mountain Hollyhock, and Streambank Wild Hollyhock, thrives on the plentiful water in Mountain communities. Its delicate blooms, varying in color from the palest rose to deep pink, appear early in the summer, leaving behind striking maple-like leaves to age to a golden hue in autumn.