26,740 plants sold to 582 Pre-Sale (169 more than last year), and Numerous Walk-Up Sale Customers


A hearty thank you to native plant enthusiasts who care about enhancing our area’s landscape for the benefit of its citizens and wildlife. And a heartfelt thank you to the 32 wonderful volunteers who helped make the plant sale possible- we couldn’t do it without you! A big thank you to: Sharon Remagen, Sam Nohra, Rocky Hauge, Chris Murphy, Allison Baur, Mary Taylor, Dale Thompson, Jim Anderson, Hermine Soler, Joyce and Dennis Anderson, Brian Sullivan, Becky Dow and Family, Steve Kastama, John Hilsendeger, Keith Chadd, Bill Brookreson, Julie and Ron Nyborg, Terry Knight, Paul Chromey, Sharon Jaimis-Graeme, Terry Robbins, Mike Viafore, Terry Maves, Patrick Ryan, Sue Leland, Chuck Natsuhara, Taylor and Avery Skaggs.

Many thanks to Woodbrook Nursery who was on hand both days providing potted native plants species unavailable through this year’s sale. Also back again this year was Dan Borba from Natural Rainwater, educating folks on the benefits of capturing and using rain water in his rain barrels repurposed from food grade plastic containers. Through funding provided by the Puyallup Watershed Initiative’s Forest Resources Roundtable Community of Interest, 7- gallon potted street trees and accompanying watering bags were available for sale at a very low cost on the pick-up days. Long-time plant sale customer Quahlee Lassila of Chehalis was the lucky winner of the drawing held for customers who placed their orders early. Along with her plant order, she took home a 60 gallon rain barrel assembled by Dan Borba of Natural Rainwater, to help her keep her new plants watered throughout their critical first summer.

A Plant Sale customer
happily picking out plants from our
partners at Woodbrook Nursery.
Orders not picked up and approximately 100 plants leftover from the walk-up sale were given to: Foothills Rails to Trails, Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Tacoma for their annual plant exchange, Tahoma Audubon, and City of Tacoma/ Metro Parks/Friends of Ryan’s Park.

We strive to bring you quality native plant stock at low prices, and hope your plants are doing well and are beginning to put on new growth. Please let us know if you have had any plants that died immediately in spite of your best efforts. A note on evergreen shrubs such as snowbrush, redstem ceanothus, and tall Oregon grape- they may be withered and brown and look dead, but don’t give up on them yet! Here is some information from the nursery we purchased them from:
 
“The best thing to do is to scratch the stems and see if they are still green. Some plants, especially evergreen ones, do go into a kind of shock and can have their leaves turn brown, but usually will come out of it fine and push new leaves. I checked our stock and they look pretty terrible- the leaves are all brown, but the stems are still green when I scratched them. It can take them almost a year to fully develop its new leaves, so don't give up yet. Hopefully it won't take that long but your plants may be using their energy to grow roots now, not new leaves yet. Even though it seems like spring to us, it may take some plants more time to start growing. If you can, be patient for a while longer, as it could take them a couple months to really start looking better.”

Give your plants until the next plant sale to make an improvement. If they do not come around by then, we will be happy to give you a coupon for plants of the same value for the 2017 plant sale. Remember to make sure and water your plants at least once a week to help get them through their first summer.

We look forward to seeing you at the plant sale next year and always look forward to hearing about how your plants are doing from previous years. Look for the 2017 pre-order form in the fall edition of the Tahoma View, and as with last year, you can also order on-line at www.piercenativeplantsale.com starting in October.