Episode 23

Native Plant Horticulture in Nebraska with Jim Locklear

Published on: 28th June, 2024

Native Plant Horticulture in Nebraska

Episode Introduction

In today’s episode, Native Plant Horticulture in Nebraska, we chat with director of conservation at Lauritzen Gardens, Jim Locklear, about the decision-making behind choosing plants for botanic gardens, the crossroads between aesthetic spaces and conservation, and why the preservation of native plant communities is still important.

Host Stephanie Barelman

Stephanie Barelman is the founder of the Bellevue Native Plant Society, a midwest motivational speaker surrounding the native plants dialogue, and host of the Plant Native Nebraska Podcast.

Guest Jim Locklear

Jim Locklear has been the director of conservation at Lauritzen Gardens since 2010. He has a bachelor's degree in biology from the University of Central Missouri and a master's in plant and soil science from Southern Illinois University. He formerly served as director of the Dyck Arboretum of the Plains in Kansas and the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum. He recently published a new book titled, In the Country of the Kaw, about the midwestern watershed of the Kaw River and its history.

Episode Sponsors

Today's episode is sponsored by Lauritzen Gardens:

laurtizengardens.org

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Episode Content

Native Plant Horticulture in Nebraska

Native plant horticulture is characterized by using native plants in the region...but native gardens don't have to be prairie. There are many types of garden styles that can utilize native plants and there are many different ecosystems in Nebraska including wetlands, oak hickory forest, shortgrass tall grass and mixed grass prairies, and others that correspondingly have varied native plants native to those environments.
Using non-natives is not forbidden, but native plants are emphasized for their habitat value.
Some of the challenges being faced by the industry and horticulturalists are obtaining seed/stock, propagation issues, and appealing to traditional consumers. Mulhall's (https://mulhalls.com/) is helping to change the game on native plants in the mainstream and take it out of a strictly niche market.

Studying Rare Ecosystems, Different Habitats, and Wildlife Activity at Lauritzen

Oak trees support lots of caterpillars, and therefore, warblers, who love to eat their little juicy bodies. Morbid right?
Butterfly deserts form around exotic chrysanthemum, but for some reason they seem to like yellow chrysanthemum, so if your mother-in-law insists on using them, buy her some yellow ones.
Jim has studied sandsage prairie and one of his takeaways is that far-flung plant communities can be a hidden reserve of diversity and that diversity can affect overall diversity in the Great Plains region. Even the hyper-local can have a greater affect on the bigger picture, which is comforting to us with our little home gardens.

Stewards of the Environment

Lauritzen Gardens (www. lauritzen.org) has received an accreditation from Botanic Garden Conservation International for its conservation practices, which only 30ish botanic gardens in the WORLD have been awarded.
On site, this may look like butterfly, bird, and bee and moth surveys; looking for diversity hotspots and deserts; and making changes that better support wildlife over its 100 acres(like switching out purple non-native mums for yellow ones...who knew?)
Off site, this may be in-the-field conservation; conducting/ supporting studies of rare plants; publishing academic papers in scientific, peer-reviewed journals; seed- banking (as is the case with federally-endangered blowout penstemon;) and conducting plant surveys in the wild.

Plants We Could See More Of...

milkweeds
asters
sunflowers
showy goldenrod
liatris
monardas
mountain mint

Hope is a Four-Letter Word

Native plant production has come a long way. For instance, Mulhall's transition to be more native plant-forward means a lot to the industry.
People seem to be more interested as long as we don't scare them away... I'm looking at you, Barb-ar-ah.

Jewels of the Prairie

Claude Barr was a Black Hills cattle rancher and a historic supplier of native plants. He opened a mail-order nursery in the 30's. Read a little about Barr here. Jewels of the Prairie is Barr's life's work of observations. Romantic garden writing didn't just happen in Europe.
Jim recently revised Jewels of the Prairie to update outdated scientific names. You can find a copy here.
Fendler's Aster and Fremont's clematis and many other plants are in the trade due to Barr's writings

YOU Can Get Involved

Look into the Nature Conservancy
Local plant society groups for example the Bellevue Native Plant Society and Nebraska Native Plant Society

Jim's New Book: In the Country of the Kaw

Jim's book describes plant communities both woodland and prairie types and their wildflowers
It also talks about restoration ecology and plant-insect interactions.
You can find Jim's book, In the Country of the Kaw, here.

Thoughts of Importance

Fight to preserve natural ecosystems. Work to prevent destruction of more natural areas.
Connect with places like the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum.
Add native plants to your garden.
Support native plant suppliers.
Give Stephanie all your money. (Just kidding.)
Be artful but also, be mindful. Respect plants, respect ecosystems, and respect people.

Local Plant Suppliers

Midwest Natives Nursery

Great Plains Nursery

Nebraska Statewide Arboretum

Prairie Legacy Nursery

Mulhall's

Online Plant Suppliers

Prairie Moon Nursery

Prairie Nursery

Stock Seed

Thanks for listening!

Additional Content Related to This Episode

What Makes a Plant Native?

http://bonap.net/fieldmaps Biota of North America North American Plant Atlas database-select Nebraska

https://bellevuenativeplants.org Bellevue Native Plant Society

native (wild type) vs. nativar/native cultivar (native plant cultivated by humans for desirable characteristics)

On the Web

BONAP aforementioned

Bellevue Native Plant Society on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/groups/bellevuenativeplantsociety

Books & Authors

Rick Darke- The Living Landscape

Douglas Tallamy- Professor and Chair of the Department of Wildlife Ecology and Entomology at the University of Delaware, author of The Living Landscape, Nature's Best Hope, naturalist, and curator of "Homegrown National Park".

Enrique Salmon- Iwigara

Daniel Moerman -Native American Ethnobotany

Heather Holm- https://www.pollinatorsnativeplants.com

Native Plants of the Midwest

Planting in a Post-Wild World

Jon Farrar's Field Guide to Wildflowers of Nebraska