Rain Gardens: The “Natural” Way to Remove Storm Water Pollution . . .continued


looking at a combination of trees, shrubs, ornamental grasses and herbaceous flowering perennials. Te plants that we are studying would grow anywhere from northern Florida all the way up into upper New York and westward until the environment becomes real dry. Tere might be a problem with some of these plants tolerating the drought conditions occurring in the Midwest.”


Kraus said many of the plants produced by the nursery industry are going to be found to be very effective rain garden plants.


“Just as we have been able to promote plants that attract pollinators, many of those plants were already being grown by the nursery industry,” she said. “We only had to identify them as good pollinator plants. I think a similar situation exists for rain garden plants. Te ones that will work well, the industry is already growing.”


Although Kraus said some nurseries may specialize in producing rain garden plants, the biggest issue is identifying the plants.


“Nurseries want to know that kind of information because they have landscapers asking them all of the time, “What is this plant and where and how can it be used?” Unfortunately, the nurseries don’t have the answers yet for those questions. In some cases, the landscapers may be ahead of the growers because they are the ones installing the rain gardens.”


Kraus said in order for rain gardens to be accepted by consumers in their home landscape, the plants are going to have to look good.


“Te plants are going to have to beautify and add value to the landscape,” she said. “Te only way that can happen is if there is a diverse collection of plant material so there is interest to meet garden customers’ needs. Tat is what I am hoping to develop.”


Increasing the demand for rain gardens


Kraus said government agencies are currently driving the demand for rain gardens.


“Te demand is not necessarily generated because people want rain gardens as much as having to comply with some kind of enforcement such as a government ordinance,” she said. “What we have to work on is educating home consumers of the potential danger to water sources from home landscapes so they want to build rain gardens


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regardless of some government requirement. Rain gardens are most effective when everybody does a little bit of the process and there are a lot of rain gardens instead of having one rain garden in a 50-square-mile radius.”


Kraus said more consumer education about rain gardens needs to be occurring at the retail level.


“Consumers need to know that by putting in a rain garden, they can have a drought-tolerant garden and they can remove water pollution from the environment,” she said.


Kraus said there is a fair amount of training going on around the country in regards to the installation of rain gardens. She said the extension service is a very good resource for rain garden information. Another informational source is a state’s water quality division.


“You can’t build a rain garden like you build a normal garden. It’s a different concept,” she said. “You have to learn about rain garden components to really make them work.”


For more: Helen Kraus, North Carolina State University, Department of Horticultural Science; helen_kraus@ ncsu.edu. Horticultural Research Institute, (202) 789-2900; www.hriresearch.org.


© Horticultural Research Institute, www.hriresearch.org


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