ORDER FORM - NATIVE PLANT LIST FOR THE SHUSWAP
Violet Creek Nursery
Barbara Westerman
Box 35, Grindrod. BC
Box 35, Grindrod. BC
V0E 1Y0
(250) 838-6101
Send an e-mail to shuswapnativeplants@yahoo.ca for a copy of this list or just copy and paste it onto a word document.
All plants are grown from seed taken mainly from my property, in dirt with some bark mulch, no fertilizers in one gallon pots. Cost is $8.00 per pot. Free replacement within one year on the condition that I have the plant you need.
Order by the summer of this year (so I can get the seed) for planting the following fall (2012). Remember, you are buying roots not tall tops. Everything is grown from seed for genetic diversity and ecological suitability.
Amount | Common name (scientific name) |
TREES | |
Paper Birch (betula papyrifera) | |
Trembling | |
Black Cottonwood (populus balsamifera, trichocarpa) | |
Bitter cherry (prunus emarginata) | |
Cascara (Rhamnus purshiana) | |
Mountain alder (alnus incana) | |
SHRUBS | |
Redstem ceanothus (ceanothus sanguineus) | |
Red-osier dogwood (cornus stolonifera) | |
Hazelnut (corylus cornuta) | |
Columbian (red) hawthorn (crataegus Columbiana) | |
Black hawthorn (crataegus douglasii) | |
Oceanspray (holodiscus discolor) | |
Oregon grape (mahonia aquifolium) | |
Mock-orange (philadelphus lewisii) | |
Chokecherry (prunus virgiana) | |
Baldhip rose ( | |
Nootka rose ( | |
Wood rose ( | |
Prickly rose ( | |
Red raspberry (rubus idaeus) | |
Black raspberry /blackcap (rubus leucodermis) | |
Thimbleberry (rubus parviflorus) | |
Blue elderberry (sambucus caerulea) | |
Red elderberry (sambucus racemosa) | |
Black elderberry (sambucus Canadensis) | |
Soapberry/soopolallie (shepherdia anadensis) | |
Mountain ash (sorbus sitchensis) | |
Snowberry (symphoricarpos albus) | |
Highbush cranberry (viburnum opulus) | |
Red twinberry (lonicera utahensis) | |
False Box (pachistima/paxistima myrsinites) | |
Black twinberry (lonicera involucrate) | |
FLOWERS | |
Showy aster (aster conspicus) | |
Columbine (aquilegia | |
Pearly everlasting (anaphalis margaritacea) | |
Fireweed (epilobium angustifolium) | |
Lupine (lupinus sericeus) | |
False solomon’s seal (simlacina racemosa) | |
Yarrow (achillea millefolium) | |
Heart leafed arnica (arnica cordifolia) | |
GROUNDCOVERS | |
Kinnikinnick (arctostaphylos uva-ursi) | |
umber pussytoes (antennaria umbrinella) | |
Field pussytoes (antennaria neglecta) | |
Wood strawberry (fragaria vessca) | |
Blue leaf strawberry (fragaria virginiana) | |
VINES | |
Scarlet trumpet honeysuckle (lonicera ciliosa) | |
Blue clematis (clematis occindentalis) | |
White clematis/virgin’s bower/traveller’s joy (clematis ligusticifolia) | |
Violet Creek Nursery – what is it and where?
History of Violet Creek Nursery
I started Violet Creek Nursery a few years after I moved here (20 years ago). It began because I wanted shade along the driveway because it was very open there. At first I bought birch trees but only one survived. So, I decided to grow them myself. It would be cheaper but, also, they would belong here because I could use local seed. The seed germinated and I had more than I needed. I started going to farmer’s markets – Salmon Arm and Enderby with the birch trees. Then I tried to grow other things. I experimented with seeding in small pots and in big trays. I spent a lot of time transplanting and repotting using different systems. I was thrilled when I was able to grow many different species – mock orange, ocean spray, columbine, roses and even pussy toes! – a total of 18 different species. I wanted others to know about using native plants so I entered the parades in Salmon Arm and Enderby for a few years.
The Name – Violet Creek Nursery
Violet Creek runs through the property. It starts in the Larch Hills in a bog somewhere close to what the ski people call the “north hub”. It is fed by other bogs called Frodo’s bog and Bilbo’s bog. It runs down the hill into the Mara Meadows Ecological Reserve. It then runs south, through my place and then on to the Shuswap River
This creek has run my life. I have spent a lot of time trying to protect it and the waters that feed it.
At first, it was from Salmon Arm who was trying to put a dam in the Larch Hills. It would have flooded many of the ski trails, mainly in the area of Cottonwood Cut-Off. It would also have interrupted the natural water flow to the Mara Meadows Ecological Reserve. This area is a wetland and home to many special species of plants and bugs. It is so special that it is the only reserve in the province that is closed, legally. You need a permit to go in. It is very vulnerable to damage.
Because I had a water licence on the creek I could participate in the process of the hearings between Water Management (Ministry of Environment) and the city of Salmon Arm.
Request for costs report http://www.eab.gov.bc.ca/water/98wat10b.htm
I found out, as part of this process, that the top end of Violet Creek had been diverted. So the creek was being starved of its water. It was diverted in 1963 into the Canoe Creek drainage. When I looked at the minutes of the meetings of the water board (at the Museum) for that year I read about a discussion of the need for more water and in a mention of Violet Creek, it read “a day with a bulldozer”. Interestingly, when I read these minutes one month was missing. I wonder what this September meeting said? Without this evidence, I guess someone thought there was no liability to Salmon Arm.
In the report from the Deputy Comptroller of Water Rights she required that this illegal diversion be removed and the creek restored and that Salmon Arm take the lead on this. Salmon Arm did nothing. In fact, they asked for a stay of this order from the Environmental Appeal Board. I decided to free the creek. I initiated a tour in order to make a plan to get this creek restored to its natural flow. I called Salmon Arm but they declined to come. I called BC Parks. They are responsible for the ecological reserve and had participated in the 2 day oral hearing. They sent two people. I also contacted Connie Harris from Shuswap Outdoors who participated in the hearings as my witness. We walked the area to the diversion in the creek. It was a pile of dirt and a trench that went at a 90 degree angle from the creek, along the brow of the slope, through a culvert, and dropped over the slope to Canoe Creek below. Connie and I found this blockage during the winter went we went looking on snowshoes and marked it with a red ribbon. After this tour and discussion of what was needed I made a sketch on a blank piece of paper. I labelled the dirt pile and the need for ‘water bars’ ,gouges in the ditch, so that the water that was in the watershed up the hill remained and was not still diverted to Canoe Creek. I mailed it to the Water Manager in Penticton
I then discovered, to my horror, that there was a woodlot planned (logging) for the area right next to the ecological reserve. Trees would be cut, roads cut into the hillside and messing up the natural water flows. I then found a creek that had been dug up very close to Violet Creek where it goes into the ecological reserve. I reported this. After many trips to the Ministry of Forests office after work (driving from Vernon Vernon
Summary of Forest Practices Board complaint http://www.fpb.gov.bc.ca/publications.aspx?id=2956&terms=mara+meadows
Full report Forest Practices Board complaint http://www.fpb.gov.bc.ca/IRC96_Approval_of_Harvesting_near_Mara_Meadows_Ecological_Reserve_near_Salmon_Arm.pdf
Then there was the fish rescue in the drought year of 1998. The creek was drying up as it went through my property. Only pools were left and there were fish in them. I called for help from Turtle Island Earth Stewards who had a group of summer students. I also called the radio station and told them about the fish rescue. This was during the time that Salmon Arm was trying to get the dam in the Larch Hills so people knew about the importance of Violet Creek. The next door neighbour offered to let us come on his property to rescue the fish in the creek there, too. Yet, he was removing huge amounts of water above this and drying up the creek because he was irrigating his pasture as he had a water licence!
There are other things but these are the main ones. So, you can see that the creek has truly run my life
Wonderful work, Barb! I had no idea that you were involved in all of these initiatives, thank you for all the work that you have done.
ReplyDeleteSincerely, Val Janzen. Earth Steward.