Kelly Cassidy wrote:
>Does anyone know if there are any native plant sales in Seattle? I've
>had virtually no luck finding native plants even at the big nurseries
>like Molbak's.

MsK Rare Plants is one of the best local Seattle sources. It's a nursery
owned by Art Kruckeberg's(*) wife, and is open all year on an appointment
basis, and to the public over Mother's Day weekend. Lovely grounds, and
well worth a visit. It's at roughly 200th NW and NW 15th. * Art Kruckeberg
is a UW emeritus botanist, author of _Gardening with Native Plants of the
Pacific Northwest_, and a provider of a wealth of information during the
Mother's Day sale.

There are other nurseries which carry some natives, and also many mail
order sources. Best places to find addresses are a combination of my web
site (shameless plug, address in signature) and Hortus West, a twice-yearly
magazine. The address lists are similar, but Hortus has a cross index by
plant species too, which is helpful when looking for something in
particular. Hortus is aimed primarily at restoration pepole, i.e.
wholesale quantities, but it's clear from the list who does retail. Hortus
also covers the entire west of the rockies region; I'm trying to restrict
my stuff to west of the cascades and north of Eugene, and also catch more
of the retail nurseries, even if they just do it as a sideline.

Hortus West
PO Box 2870
Wilsonville OR, 97070-2870
800-704-7927, 503-570-0859, 503-570-0855 (fax).
$9.00 for two issues per year

One can also volunteer on the King County Surface Water Management plant
rescues. I'm not sure what their rules are about rescuing an extra of
something for yourself, but they're nice people, and have a lot of
experience of which plants can be transplanted successfully and how. They
have a web site at:

http://splash.metrokc.gov/swmdocs/swmhome.htm


And now it's time for another shameless plug. I have a mailing list for
just this topic (pnw native plants + gardens + wildlife) that I set up a
little over a year ago which has finally started to take off. There are
some very good botanists and experienced nursery people on the list, as
well as gardeners of all levels, but we are still rather deficient in
animal people, so do drop by and join in. The back archives and
how-to-subscribe information are on the web site, or write to me if it's
unclear or something doesn't work. Traffic is a managable 3-5 messages a
day lately (in clumps), and for the most part the messages stay well on
topic.


Allyn Weaks
allyn at cornetto.chem.washington.edu aka allyn at u.washington.edu
Pacific Northwest Native Wildlife Gardening:
http://chemwww.chem.washington.edu/natives/