Harvesting Nature’s Wild Blossoms

One of the most unusual harvests in Idaho begins in early May on the northern fringes of the Snake River Plain. A crew of a half dozen workers gathers in freshly blooming stands of chokecherry, equipped with pruning shears and long-sleeved shirts, to begin trimming off slender limbs lined with finely toothed oblong leaves.

For five days the chokecherry harvest continues, filling truckload after truckload of limbs to be dried and preserved and packaged in plastic sleeves for delivery to florists and crafts shops throughout the Northwest.

"We gather native plants exclusively on public and private land in this area," said Carol Shetler, owner of Desert Mountain Supplies, a five-year-old cottage industry in the unincorporated town of Carey.

In addition to chokecherry, Shetler harvests cuttings of Baby's breath (gypsophelia), hound's tongue, aspen, current, fescues and reed grasses, Russian olives, weeping birch, wild mint and a dozen other native plants found in a 20-mile radius of her home.

Picked between May and September, the plants are air dried or preserved with glycerine at a Desert Mountain's warehouse-retail center headquarters on Carey's Main Street and packaged for wholesale orders throughout the year. From 500 to 1,500 eight-ounce packages of some 20 native plant varieties are being packaged and sold each year at wholesale prices ranging from $3 to $7 per package.

Shetler's sister-in-law, a florist, helped inspire the unique business when she explained how popular the wild, native look had become in floral arrangements. But like most florists, she had neither the time nor the inclination to wander through the hills gathering her own supplies.

Being "outdoorsy" people who enjoy being in the field, the Shetlers -- Carol, Mike and their two sons -- started Desert Mountain with family outings.

"For the first three years we did a lot of searching for plants," Carol explained. "In a lot of ways, that was the most fun. Now we know where they're at, pretty much, and don't have to search so hard."

While 80 percent of her business is wholesale to craft shops and professional florists, Shetler's small retail operation attracts many walk-in customers as well. She offers a wide selection of dried floral arrangements, as well as individual packages of native plants.

"Our look is different from most other shops," Shetler pointed out. "We're real picky about what we sell . Our quality and our uniqueness both bring in a unique customer."

Consciously avoiding rare or endangered plant species, and timing her harvests to miss each plant's mature seeds, Shetler said she is forever cautious of diseases, pests or noxious weeds.

"Basically, we pick whatever is profilic in a given year and whatever is marketable," she explained.