Annual plant sale features noted conservationist

THREE RIVERS — When Porterville resident Cathy Capone isn’t helping special education students at Vandalia Elementary School, she spends her time cultivating something else local.

Capone runs a native plant nursery out of her own backyard, which is filled with examples of local flora and fauna thriving in the Tulare County climate.

Plants from the nursery were featured as part of the annual native plant sale hosted by the Alta Peak chapter of the California Native Plant Society at the Three Rivers Art Center on Saturday.

“I have plants for all gardens — dry gardens, normal gardens (once a week watering), even marshes and swamps,” she said.

Capone, who opens her nursery only by appointment, collects all her seeds and cuttings in Tulare County.

At the plant sale, Exeter resident Mary Ontiveros picked up one of Capone’s potted purple sage plants for her home garden.

The plant has medium drought resistance, an important factor in an area with minimal summer precipitation.

“A lot of people are coming to think about native plants for the purpose of water conservation,” CNPS president Joan Stewart said.

Stewart, sporting a “California’s Native Plants Do It Naturally” T-shirt, was adamant about the importance of choosing the proper plant for the proper climate.

“If you want pansies and petunias, you won’t find them native,” she said.

Capone said the day’s biggest seller was deer grass, a tall green rush she propagated from seeds collected in the Springville area.

Other offerings included two species of the plant genus Atriplex; one, called a quail bush, was covered in silverly green foliage Capone said is “almost iridescent” when viewed in the moonlight.

“If you go out at night, they almost glow,” she said.

The quail bush is able to survive long, hot summers with no additional watering, Capone said.

The variety of plants in the county was expounded upon by the day’s guest speaker: noted environmentalist Jack Laws.

Laws recently published “The Laws Field Guide to the Sierra Nevada” and was hailed as a celebrity by the crowd at the art center.

More than 50 attendees stuffed themselves into the crowded building to hear Laws trace the route from animal to plant and back again in an effort to illustrate the interconnected nature of the Sierra Nevada.

“There’s an infinite amount of wonder and amazement in looking at even the most common species around us,” he said.

Laws said native plants play a key role in each and every ecosystem.

“They are the foundation of all of these beautiful and complex and sacred interactions in nature. An understanding of what is going on in our backyard, in the mountains around us, starts with them and then flows out to other species,” he said.

Laws addressed the connection between nature and the human species as well as between plant and animal life.

The naturalist, who has given illustrated presentations in locations including San Francisco and San Diego, said he welcomed the appreciative audience and shared their love for the area.

“Coming up here where people live so close to nature, we’re in a community where people have a deep and profound appreciation of it. I was sharing my thoughts with people who see things in the same way [as I do],” he said.

He said native plants are the ones best adapted to survive in the area.

“As harsh as the environment can be at times, they are adapted to withstand and survive that and at the same time have intricate and delicate beauty,” he said.

Elsah Cort, vice president of the Alta Peak chapter, said plants brought from coastal land are “in shock” when transplanted in the warmer, drier Valley.

“The whole point of our plant sale is to encourage people to use native plants...they really grow better here because they’re propagated in the foothills,” she said.

-- Contact Sarah de Crescenzo at 784-5000, Ext. 1045 or sdecrescenzo@portervillerecorder.com.