The wonders of native plants

Sonoma Ecology Center’s Restoration Department is responsible for the restoration of over 4,000 acres of private and public lands. The work includes native plant seed collection and propagation in order to place local watershed-sourced genotypes into their projects, ensuring a better fit for the ecosystems they will inhabit. Much of the work is done at the Native Plant Nursery, located within SEC’s Sonoma Garden Park. We spoke with Hannah Aclufi, manager of the nursery, about the important work being done there.

The retired teacher had taught at Flowery Elementary and Sonoma Valley High schools. She had spent a couple of summers volunteering at the Native Plant Nursery before becoming the manager last year. “I had heard from a friend who works at Sonoma Ecology Center that there was an opening, that the manager of the nursery was leaving,” she said. “That was my fantasy job! I applied and I was just so happy when I got it!”

Aclufi said she’s loved native plants for decades. “I've just always liked going out hiking and wondering what plants were and figuring out how they're related,” she said. “Because I was a language teacher for all those years, the Latin names came really easily to me. Understanding how they're named and how they're related to each other was really helpful.”

Aclufi went on field trips with the California Native Plant Society and Sonoma Ecology Center. She said the SEC has a lot of good activities and field trips. “I learned a lot through them, and I also took the California Naturalist training up at Sugarloaf as well,” she said. “That was a really amazing experience and I made really good connections there with other naturalists.”

She became interested in plants as important members of larger ecosystems. “They exist in the context of insects and bigger biomes and I learned about a lot of other things contextually because of my interest in the plants,” she said.

“Native plants have adapted to our area for tens of thousands of years and they've been co-evolving with each other and with the trees and the insects and the animals that live in our area,” Aclufi said. “They live in balance with each other, whereas non-native plants can often get out of balance or have an ecological advantage. Native plants also require less water.”

Aclufi said she really appreciated all of the opportunities available to her in Sonoma and recommends that people who are interested go online and look at what Sonoma Garden Park and Sonoma Ecology Center have on Instagram, Facebook and its website, sonomaecologycenter.org. “I found a lot of really great learning experiences that way and also through the California Native Plant Society,” she said. “You know, whatever your interests are it's so much easier now to go online and find other like-minded people.”

A big part of Aclufi’s job is coordinating the volunteers at the nursery. The main mission of the nursery is to collect, propagate and grow plants for various restoration projects for the restoration department. Aclufi and her team sterilize pots, mix soils, plant plants, take cuttings, water, prune and trim plants and take care of them until they’re ready to go out to the project.

They also collaborate with the Sonoma Ecology Center’s education programs a lot. “We are partnering with the Education Department to get people more knowledgeable about why to plant native, how to plant native, how it can help with fire resistance and drought abatement and stuff like that,” Aclufi said.

They recently helped local Girl Scout Faline Howard with a project to grow native milkweed for locals to plant. It’s always dependent upon whether they have extra room in the nursery, but they are welcoming to projects like this when they do have the space. “We love it if people are interested in stuff like that,” Aclufi said. “We like to partner with other organizations and people with interests or different projects. That's exciting to us to be able to foster those interests in the community.”

They hold two big plant sales a year. They’re hosting one on Oct. 15 and 16 from 9 a.m. until noon at Sonoma Garden Park. “We're hoping to get a good turnout,” Aclufi said. “It’s the first time we've had the sale for two days.”

Aclufi has also been putting out a cart of about 25 native plants during the seasonal Harvest Market on Saturday mornings, the last one this year was held on Oct. 1. “We’ve also been giving away the small milkweed plants that Faline Howard grew for her Girl Scout project,” Aclufi said.

Aclufi noted that it’s best to wait until the weather starts getting cooler to put your native plants in the ground. “You definitely want to make sure that you're not going to have a bunch of 90 degree days in a row when you've just planted some new tender plants,” she said.

She said that’s always a good idea, no matter what time of year it is, because our climate is so changeable. “Look at the forecast for the next 10 days,” she said. “If you see a bunch of days in the 70s, you know, hovering around there, that's a good time to plant.”

Volunteers at the Native Plant Nursery have an opportunity to learn a great deal about native plants and growing them as well as getting complimentary plants. “We have volunteers of all different abilities,” Aclufi said. “There's no prior knowledge necessary, just an interest in native plants.”

Aclufi said the volunteers all share a commitment to ecology, watching things grow and caring for plants. “People come from all different walks of life, but we shared this one common interest, which is the plants,” she said.

“Growing native plants ties you to the environment in which you're living, and it gives you a context of where you live and what place you've chosen to be,” Aclufi said. “That's one reason I love them.”

Contact Hannah Aclufi at hannah@sonomaecologycenter.org for more information about native plants, purchasing plants, volunteering or touring the Native Plant Nursery.