Early Risers
Natives are Showing Signs of Life.
By Rachel Foster 2/9/06

To gardeners familiar with more precocious shrubs from other parts of the world, our woody natives can seem a little slow to get going. Chinese witch hazel, viburnum, and winter jasmine are just a few of the foreigners already brightening gardens around the New Year. Even our native hazelnut lags behind the similar Turkish filbert, planted in nut orchards and now naturalized, which produces a cascade of pollen-laden catkins before the old year is out.
By late January, however, natives show definite signs of life. The bare twigs of osoberry sprout a new green in every woodland understory, and yellow buds are swelling on Oregon grape. By early February there are even intimations of color in the buds of red-flowering currant, although they won't be fully open for business much before mid-March. All these early natives deserve a place in our gardens. They provide cover and valuable food for wildlife and all are at least modestly ornamental, though they do have rather different uses in the landscape.
The familiar osoberry (Oemleria cerasiformis) is endearing for its early awakening and the sense of place it imparts. It is a tall shrub (up to 15 feet), and in the months between the pale spring flowering and yellow fall color it isn't especially handsome. Make it a home in a shaded corner, or a big mixed hedge. Osoberry is dioecious, meaning there are separate male and female plants. If you want berries for the birds you need at least one female plant and, unless a close neighbor has one, a male plant as well. Prune out old stems at the base occasionally to keep it below eight feet. Osoberry adapts to dry or moist soils in shade.
Garden designers the world over love mahonias for their bold compound foliage and the contrast it makes with grasses, deciduous shrubs and coniferous evergreens. Gardeners themselves often seem to dislike them, but these barberry relatives are not as prickly as they look and they benefit enormously from occasional pruning. Tall Oregon grape (Mahonia aquifolium) can grow to a straggly 10 feet or more in the wild, but a compact four to five feet is more appropriate in most garden settings. Just cut out the longest stems near the ground, or shorten them to two or three feet right after bloom.
Want a permanently shorter Oregon grape? Mahonia aquifolium 'Compacta' makes an admirable drought resistant ground cover in sun or light shade, and it takes years to reach four feet. So does the beautiful long leaf Oregon grape (M. nervosa). Its leaves are particularly shapely, and the light yellow flowers are displayed in elegant sprays. This one is happiest in shade, and like all mahonias it needs good drainage.
The decorative qualities of red-flowering currant (Ribes sanguineum) are easy to appreciate, and it has long been admired in European gardens. It was introduced to Britain by David Douglas in 1826, and the British selected the older cultivars. Personally, I don't see the vivid crimson of 'King Edward VII' as an improvement over the gentler native shades, perhaps because so many English gardeners plant it right next to forsythia, which blooms at the same time. Early spring is a bit soon for such an insult to the optic nerves.
On the other hand, I like the white flowered currants very much, especially in shade. My favorite is 'White Icicle', a vigorous, rangy plant with large trusses of clean white flowers that emerge before the red varieties and thus extend the season. Besides the native, unselected form, which is usually pink to light red, locally available cultivars include 'Spring Snow', 'Pokey's Pink' and 'Elk River Red.' Ribes sanguineum will grow in sun or light shade, but flowering will be more intense in bright locations. The plant prefers soils that are somewhat dry but usually does fine in reasonably irrigated gardens if the soil drains well.
In the wild, this is a plant of the foothills. Since I've lost a couple of specimens myself, I called on the native plant experts. Bruce Newhouse commented, "The lower and closer to Eugene a red-flowering current is propagated from, the better it will do here ... The only real problem we have had is planting too late in the spring. I would recommend planting in late fall, on a forest edge where it won't get full sun all day. Definitely, watering the first spring and early summer might help, especially if the weather is dry." If you lose a well established plant, it may not be your fault. Whitey Lueck pointed out that Ribes sanguineum is an "early successional," meaning it comes in quickly after fire or other disturbance, develops fast and doesn't live long.