Reply To: Ornamental vs Native in Retail

[Ami Saunders]

All plants are native to somewhere.

Ignorance is bliss.  To hold onto this perspective you describe that is held by your boss, he/she really has to live, eat, work and shop with his/her eyes completely shut to all new landscape construction these days, especially in California.   Not to mention ignoring increasingly stringent new construction code requirements. 

Try taking your boss to lunch with the office crew somewhere at a little restaurant with a cute outdoor patio in a new shopping center with bioswales, curbcuts in planting areas, perhaps some permeable asphalt or concrete, and tons of new water-saving/native plantings, and see if he/she can sit there with his/her eyes shut and still refuse to listen to him/herself pontificate about the past. 

Old school is a dying breed, as evidenced from observation of recent construction.

Ironically, the projects that have been leading the charge for the “green” perspective are those precise projects your boss claims to not be sustainable — which guarantees that he will (ironically) be overlooked by clients who are seeking solutions for the longest-term horizons of ownership, those projects that first went green such as civic centers, police and fire stations, libraries, hospitals and anyone else with (once again) the longest horizons of ownership.  This evidence flies in the face of the “old-school” perspective.  This type of perspective holding onto high-water, bomb-proof plants, overhead spray and nearly 100% untreated stormwater runoff, I have seen is most pervasive in the shorter-term, quick-profit, under-funded, or less informed owner, resulting in poor quality, cheap commercial projects such as strip malls, etc.  However even the newer malls these days have complete onsite stormwater design including bioswales with drought-tolerant plants such as juncus, that love wet feet once in a while and do a great job of treating and infiltrating the water the civil engineers send to them from the parking surfaces.   

I find that if I look around, there are more and more plants that require less water and more and more natives appearing all around me.  It could be your area; if it is not near a major metropolis there may not be as many plants that are newer to the horticultural trade.  I find that if I look around there are drought-tolerant and native plants to be found in every type of recent project these days. These “dirty” projects are harder and harder to permit nowadays, as municipalities are letting fewer projects “slide”, and require stormwater codes and water budget requirements to be fulfilled. 

Try looking for projects nearer a major metropolis.  Find out who the maintenance company is on the job and ask them about their experience.  You will start to see that there is strong evidence that supports the fact that “times are indeed a-changin’.” 

Good luck.