Salute to Idaho Agriculture: Plant/flower selection for backyard gardens

JEROME, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) — You may have already started planting you garden or have plans to, but are struggling deciding which flowers to pick. Look no further, as flower choice for your garden is the focus of this week’s Salute to Idaho Agriculture.

Backyard gardens are a great way to use your green thumb and get involved with the environment and according to the Mayo Clinic can help lower stress and anxiety levels. Not to mention the color pop they can add to your yard. But when it comes to picking which plants to grow here, not just anything will sprout.

“There are certain things that really just don’t work in this area, so we make it a point not to have those things at our garden centers. Blueberries, they’re tough, they’re an acid-living plant, azaleas, they’re an acid-living plant those don’t do well here. Hydrangeas, the pink and purple really pretty ones that they have all over the country, those don’t do well here. So what we do instead is we find the varieties that do, do well here and we bring those in and climatize them to our environment,” said Jennifer Moss, CEO and Visionary of Moss Greenhouse in Jerome.

Being aware of which plants and flowers don’t work in this area of the country is a good start and Moss also talked about Southern Idaho’s light levels and the uniqueness of the climate and terrain, which can make gardening different from city to city.

“We know that we have the highest light levels in the country, I mean it’s like Death Valley kind of light levels, and we’re a mountain climate on top of that and a high altitude desert so depending on an hour in every direction the weather is different, so we have to make sure that we grow plants that will work for the gardeners,” said Moss.

Moss’s Greenhouse actually tests each species of plant they interact with to make sure that they grow well in the area’s climate before they place the seeds on sale to consumers and if you have any gardening related questions stop by your local garden center or greenhouse.

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