Arctic Gardens: Adding native plants to your garden

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - From vegetables to flowers, trees, and shrubs, Alaska has an abundance of native plants you might want in your garden.

For Anne Billman, a volunteer ecologist with the Anchorage Soil and Water Conservation District, one of her favorites is one with a prickly reputation.

“I love Devil’s club,” Billman said. “Devil’s club has this beautiful leaf shape that I really enjoy. The stems...they’re very thorny and they’re very interesting in the winter and the summer.”

Many gardeners plant and cultivate flowers and vegetables that don’t typically grow in Alaska, but plants native to Alaska are already adapted to the environment.

“They have evolved over the millennia with the moose and the birds and the frogs and the insects and the things that live in the soil, the bacteria and fungi and little critters that live in the soil,” Billman said. “They’ve evolved together.”

Though it seems counterintuitive, it can be challenging to get native plants in your personal space. They often grow slowly from seed and need certain conditions to germinate, and no, if you come across a beautiful flower or shrub while on a hike, you can’t dig it up and take it home.

“It’s not ethical to go out and just dig them from the tundra. It’s illegal to do it in a number of places,” Billman said.

Billman recommends asking friends to share, either by dividing plants or taking seeds at the end of summer.

“You can ask at your local nursery and they may have a few things, and I think the more that we, that homeowners, ask for them, the more their local nurseries will learn that there is a demand for them and they’ll start to grow them, which is what we’re trying to encourage, to get lots of different people to grow these plants,” Billman explained.

From Jacob’s ladder to lichen, these plants have adapted to Alaska’s unique ecosystem and they might work in your garden. Even the prickly ones.

“In the late summer, we see the black bears come through and eat the red berries from the devil’s club and that’s really exciting,” Billman said. “They’re just a cool plant and they’re just so emblematic of coastal Alaska.”

May is Alaska Native Plant Month. The Alaska Native Plant Society and the Wildflower Garden Club will have a native plant sales, and there are activities throughout the month.

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