POWELL, Mo. - When you talk to Gwen Schroder of Shine Hollow Ranch, located near Powell, it will most likely be about the native plants she is so fond of and sells from her outdoor greenhouse.
Her background is in California and Florida. Gwen and husband, Jerry, arrived here in 2006. They have four children between them.
“When I moved here I got interested in what grew here,”Gwen said. That interest led to completion of the University Extension master gardener course and further study into native plants through grownative.org, a non-profit group that trains people in the art of growing native.
“I got so excited about this, but there was no place to buy them here,” Gwen remembered.
An idea came forth. Gwen decided to grow the plants herself.
Thus the Shine Hollow Ranch was born. Shortly, orders were in for starter plants that she grows to maturity then markets. Her supplier actually travels into the woodlands and fields and collects the seeds himself. He then replicates the natural germination process by applying cold and heat and the wet of winter. There are literally hundreds of types of native plants and the process of growing them is different in every variety. Some transplants are easier to grow than others.
Names like butterfly milkweed, coneflowers, passion flower, witch hazel, bloodroot, mayapple,trout lily, jack-in-the-pulpit, blue false indigo and scores more easily roll from Gwen’s tongue. But she knows her native horticultural vocabulary is still a small one. Gwen says she learns something every day.
“I’ve got a lot to learn,” she said. “I’m a student of the plants. Almost all of them have stories.” One thing she wants to learn is how to propagate the plants from the seeds herself.
Medicinal and other values
Native plants not only provide natural food sources for animals and birds, they have also been used historically for medicinal purposes and for making natural dye. For example, the popular Witch Hazel astringent sold in stores comes from an extract of the witch hazel plant.
“A lot of these plants are medicinal plants that pioneers and Indians used in thepast,” Gwen said. Several of those varieties are stocked in the open-air greenhouse at Shine Hollow Ranch. “They all serve different things in nature.”
Food source values are also high in native plants. For example, there are 500 insects that feed on oak and its not only local wildlife that is supported by native plants.
“Our plants not only feed the birds that are here all thetime, they feed the migrating birds,” Gwen said. The butterfly milkweed is an example. “It’s not just the Monarchs; there are a lot of other butterflies and insects that feed on milkweed,” she said.
Another myth exposed
Gwen said that goldenrod gets a bad rap for causing allergic reactions because it isn’t so. What goldenrod does, however, is provide the best source of nectar for the honeybees that are so vital to the survival of the human race.
Before you run out and buy some native plants to dress up your bungalow, you should heed Gwen’s advice.
She says that before anyone places native plants in their own landscape, they should first study them, learn what animals, birds or insects frequent their property and what they feed on and when the plants bloom or if they have edible fruit.
While most people are used to only seeing them in the wild where the ground is sort of messy and things look unorganized, native plants offer a strong aesthetic value. Many of them display unusually bright, colored blooms and a nice blend of greens, tans and browns that can enhance the beauty of any area.
“People are not used to seeing them in a garden,”Gwen said.
Native plants are not anything new. Numerous varieties that can be seen on area farms and running through their normal growing cycles for years. “A lot of these are natural versions of cultivars you can get in a nursery,” Gwen stressed. And they are easy to care for. Native plants require no watering and no fertilizing. Some even do best when in shaded areas.
Good start
Gwen has been nurturing her native plants for about 18 months. She specializes in perennials, shrubs and ground cover plants that are wetland, prairies and glade plants, but has started stocking some trees. Business was good the first year, but even better her second summer at farmer’s markets and from her greenhouse. The sale of shiitake mushrooms and free-range eggs also add to the Schroder household pot.
Display - the way itemsfor sale are presented - is always important to retail marketing. Gwen is aware of that fact. She intends to plant several of the plants around her property “because they look so different in the pots.”
Gwen has been speaking to other master gardeners. She has also set up at the Prairie Days celebration at the George Washington Carver National Monument in Diamond, Mo. Retail expansion is a possibility.
“As it catches on, that would be fine,” Gwen said.
Keeping regular retail hours instead of selling by appointment only as she does now would probably be a necessity. So would be hiring some help.
Gwen and Jerry are both retired. They read Mother Earth News. He has started raising honeybees. She wants to get into organic gardening. They have built a high-tunnel greenhouse to extend their vegetable growing season.
Gwen would like to add more trees and more plant varieties to her native plant lineup.
Shine Hollow Ranch Is a licensed greenhouse facility.
Gwen is also a licensed egg retailer. She puts in a lot of time at her open-air greenhouse - getting her hands dirty and messing with her plants. But Gwen would have it no other way.
“I probably put in 40 to 50 hours a week over here,” Gwen said. “Partly because it’s my passion - I love it over here !”
News, Pages 1 on 10/05/2011