Idaho scientists focus on wild plants for gardens

University of Idaho scientists are well known for their work on new potato varieties.

But consumer horticulture specialist Stephen Love is taking that same scientific rigor and injecting it into research on native plants of the northern Rocky Mountains, in hopes of cultivating progeny that will thrive in a more domestic setting, go easy on the water in a parched climate and help plant retailers aiming to capitalize on interest in sustainable gardening.

Every year, Love heads into the state's rugged backcountry and collects specimens like mountain heather, penstemon, aster and buckwheat.

Their seeds sprout in the greenhouse and are transplanted to a field outside the school's Aberdeen Research Center in southern Idaho.

The best of what grows up is kept and planted again over a series of years, as scientists identify traits like big blooms and robust foliage that will eventually make them suitable for commercial production - and home gardens.