Gazette photographer Brian Ray takes photos of Lucy Hershberger in the rain garden at Forever Green Garden Center near North Liberty (photo, Cindy Hadish)
Our flood anniversary tribute continues with a look at rain gardens. Several people I interviewed for the article in the Sunday, June 14, 2009, Gazette said while rain gardens would not have prevented last year’s devastating floods in Iowa, they could have helped. Lucy Hershberger, co-owner of Forever Green Landscaping & Garden Center in Coralville showed me the well-kept rain garden in front of their site on Forevergreen Road, near North Liberty. Yellow and blue flag iris, native grasses, coneflower, liatris and dwarf arctic blue willow were planted when the rain garden was installed in September. It’s obvious that Hershberger’s enthusiasm goes beyond trying to sell customers on a new fad. She has conducted free seminars on rain gardens for people to learn more and to better take care of their little corner of the environment. Hershberger remembers the interest in rain gardens and rain barrels in the early 1990s, at that time because of costs associated with watering. “Now it’s because of the awareness of stormwater management,” she said. “It’s not cost-driven.”
Blue flag iris
The following list of plants is from Iowa’s Rain Garden Design and Installation Manual Native Plant Favorites for Soils with Good Percolation Rates:
Common Name Height Comments
Blue grama 1-2 ft makes a good border
Bottle gentian 1 ft novel purple flowers
Butterfly milkweed 1-4 ft emerges late spring; no milky sap
Columbine 1-2 ft orange flower stalk may add 1 ft
Culver’s root 3-6 ft can get tall; for moderatley moist soils
Fox sedge 1-3 ft may not tolerate drought
Golden alexander 1-3 ft yellow dill-like flower, mod moist soils
Little bluestem 2 ft nice rusty color all winter
Mountain mint 1-3 ft for moist soils
Nodding onion 1-2 ft for moderately moist soils
Pale purple coneflower 4 ft most overused native; only in S. Iowa
Prairie blazing star 2-5 ft for moist soils
Prairie smoke 1 ft makes a good border
Sideoats grama 2-3 ft red anthers; not as tidy as little bluestem
Silky aster 1-2 ft loved by rabbits
Websites with native plant lists for rain gardens:
• http://prrcd.org/inl/recommended_plants.htm
• http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/runoff/rg/plants/PlantListing.html
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