Restore balance- understand climate and dry summers and work with it.
There is a perception among the population in the Pacific Northwest west of the Cascades that our climate is wet year round. No doubt its a very green place. Made mostly green by drought adapted conifers and when you consider our reputation- six months of light rain and drizzle that image can overwhelm the details. The truth is that we have an annual dry season during summer that lasts from June to September. This, RELIABLE, annual period of dry weather coincides with our growing season. It is our most pleasant time of the year because there is little or no rain. In order to grow plants from summer rainfall areas we spend our time and water resources keeping many plants alive. We believe that rather than working against the climate and wasting water with supplemental irrigation we should work with these cycles of rainfall and offer a broad selection of plants that are adapted to little or no supplemental irrigation but stil make outstanding garden plants. This kind of natural approach to gardening can help in other ways as well.
We reduce water use. Water in the west is an important commodity. It’s a resource that we should cherish. As the population increases it becomes more and more important. Combine increasing demand with a warming climate- higher snow levels in the Cascades and this system becomes even more stressed. There is NO DOUBT that this is our future. WE CAN PLAN FOR THIS by changing our attitudes about gardening, the environment and our use of the most BASIC resource. WATER.
Save Money! If you sit down and think about it in financial terms the most expensive thing that you will ever plant is a lawn. Mowing, water, and fertilizer. That’s a lot of money to toss around for what is essentially a green carpet. If you include supplemental water for landscapes even more money (and time) is lost. Low water gardening can
save both time and money. It also allows you to direct where water goes. Vegetable gardens, small lawns, containers.
You can save money and have a great garden by choices that you make.
Reduce runoff. It rains for six months in this climate. Why add to water run-off when fertilizers and pesticides are being used the most- during the growing season? In essence we are using a precious resource to flush extra chemicals
and effluents into our eco-system. It doesn’t really make sense. Even organic fertilizers are a concentrated source of
certain elements that are NOT GOOD FOR RIVERS. Phophorus is an example. Less supplemental water means that
less of these effluents will be flushed into the system.
We want to make a viable alternative to the water-intensive gardening aesthetic. Organic methods are FANTASTIC, but they don’t mean much if you are wasting the MOST PRECIOUS COMPONENT which is WATER. The paradigm in the Pacific Northwest has been to copy other areas that are lush and green all summer, such as England and New England. In order to achieve this lush look you MUST irrigate in summer. Instead we offer plants that are adapted to dry conditions during the growing season and will actually thrive on little or no irrigation and still provide the components to make a fantastic garden.
Thank you!
Xera Plants Inc.
Paul Bonine
Greg Shepherd
Dan Young
Brandon Stevens
Adinah Lieberman
Larry Oakes
Welcome,
Xera Plants is a wholesale nursery dedicated to bringing the best quality and most interesting plants to independent garden retailers and designers. We’ve decided that the plants that we produce should be both good garden plants and of a higher quality that retailers and gardeners demand. Our mission is to not only set apart nurseries and garden designers with which we do business but to inspire gardeners and contribute to the great tradition of horticulture in the Pacific Northwest. Our choice of plants is broad and constantly expanding. If there is something that you are looking for please give us a call or email with a suggestion. That having been said we are a small nursery and we choose what we grow very carefully.
We are adamant about selling to independent retail nurseries only. We believe that neighborhood nurseries are the most legitimate sources for interesting plants combined with the truly excellent knowledge and experience that they offer. This is another way of saying that we will not do business with big box retailers and that what we offer is geared toward a more sophisticated consumer. By offering vendors an unusual palate of plants of high quality we hope to make the independent nurseries that we supply more competitive. Above all we want gardeners to expand their knowledge of plants and all that is possible in this rich climate.
Eryngium maritimum (center), Geranium ‘Rozanne’ (ppaf) on the left. Erica cinerea ‘Velvet Night’ in the background. All three bloom midsummer and revel in rich, irrigated soil in full sun.
Arctostaphylos canescens ssp. sonomaensis in front of Cupressus macrocarpa ‘Wilma’.
Hesperaloe parviflora (center) Melianthus major (back left) Agropyron magellanica (bottom left), Corokia x virgata ‘Frosted Chocolate’ (center left). Hebe ochracea ‘James Stirling’ is on the far right.
Two excellent and vastly underused shrubs. Ceanothus x ‘Blue Jeans’ (left) is cold hardy and blooms in March along side Arctostaphylos x ‘Greensphere’ one of the best and slowest growing manzanitas.
Dierama pulcherrimum ‘Magenta Giant’ very cold hardy and HUGE, to 8’. Xera Plants Introduction.
All contents copyright 2007 Xera TM Plants Inc. All rights reserved. No content or images may be reproduced in any form (including electronically) without prior written permission. All photographs and graphics are copyright Xera TM Plants Inc.
