Why it’s nearly impossible to grow Okanagan sunflowers on your own

If you’ve been out and about in the Okanagan you might have seen yellow flowers growing strong and wanted some for your garden, but you can’t just take one and put it in a pot.

The arrowleaf balsamroot is a native plant that does well in the valley’s warm, dry climate, but it’s tricky to transplant and challenging to grow from a seed.

“It’s absolutely impossible,” Okanagan Xeriscape’s executive director Sigrie Kendrick told iNFOnews.ca.

“The roots of the arrowleaf balsamroot go down like six feet. You can never dig them out. That’s why people try and they are unsuccessful at doing so.”

Joshua Smith from Xen Xeriscape Endemic Nursery is one of the few people who has figured out how to grow and sell the flowers for people’s gardens.

“It’s highly secretive, he’s figured out how to propagate the arrowleaf balsamroot so you can purchase them from him, but I’ve heard of no one having any success in terms of harvesting,” Kendrick said.

Smith from Xen Xeriscape shared some of his secrets with iNFOnews.ca.

“You can try to collect seed seed at the end of spring. You just have to collect quite a bit of seed because it’s a very low germination rate. It’s about two to five percent,” Smith said. “In our nursery. We’ve spent quite a bit of time figuring out how to grow and sell it in a pot.”

Arrowleaf balsamroot has historically been used for medicinal purposes and it’s edible.

Gathering wildflower seeds on your own is difficult but there are websites where they are available online.

However, Smith said it’s important to check whether a mixed bag of seeds has any plants invasive to the Okanagan in it.

Okanagan Xeriscape is having its annual xeriscape plant sale event this weekend from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on May 9 at Wild Bloom Nursery at 840 Old Vernon Rd. in Kelowna where Smith will have a selection of native plants.

All hope isn’t lost for scavenging gardeners who want to transplant a wild, local sunflower.

Smith said the brown-eyed susan is a flower that looks similar but it’s easier to grow in your yard. There is also a master list of native plants on Xen Nursery’s site.

With the region’s drought persisting with a low snowpack and low precipitation this year, Smith said native plants are becoming more and more popular.

“I’d say every year we get a little bit more busy on the residential side,” he said.

Kendrick said people in the Okanagan are going to end up turning to native, water smart plants whether they’d like to or not because of drought conditions and water restrictions.

“We use more water per person than anywhere else in Canada,” she said. “I gave a presentation in Peachland on the weekend and they’re already limited to only watering one day a week.”