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Since 1988 anyone wanting to learn how to begin using native plants in a Texas landscape has been able to find help as close as the nearest library or bookstore, and that’s thanks to the efforts of one couple.
Back in 1980, a social worker named Sally Wasowski attended a meeting put on by two men who were in the process of founding an organization they called the Native Plant Society of Texas. These men—Texas native plant pioneers Carroll Abbott and Benny Simpson—extolled the virtues of native plants and said if anyone was interested in joining their new organization they should go to the back and sign up.
“And I did,” Sally said. Thus Sally Wasowski became a charter member of the Native Plant Society of Texas.
Still knowing very little about native plants, Sally heard about a course on natives that Abbott—assisted by Simpson—was going to teach at Texas Woman’s University in Denton.
“I got permission to take off every Friday and attend the course,“ Sally said. “For our final exam, we had to create a landscape plan for our house.”
She decided to implement her landscape plan at the Dallas home she owned with her husband Andy. It worked so well that she was soon designing native landscapes in the yards of friends and relatives.
“I had so much fun installing yards that Andy wrote an ad for me,” which he placed in a small newspaper, she said. “And I got clients.” So Sally’s career as a social worker ended and that as a landscape designer began.
But the idea of using native plants in a landscape was still new and people didn’t know what to expect, Andy said.
“We realized early on she needed a book to show clients, not just what the plants looked like but how to use them in a garden setting,” he said. While some books were available, “there weren’t any books like she needed,” he said, so Sally decided to write the book she needed.
That book began another career phase for Sally—one that would soon involve Andy, too—as an author of books about landscaping with native plants.
Sally co-wrote her first book, Landscaping with Native Plants in 1985 with another author and with photography and writing help from Andy.
“One Memorial Day weekend,” Andy said, “we sat there all weekend typing to get the manuscript ready for the publisher.”
That first book, Andy said, had a limited range, dealing only with the growing conditions found in the central portion of the state, so the couple embarked on creating a book that would cover the vast vegetative zones of Texas.
In 1988, Native Texas Plants; Landscaping Region by Region, hit the bookshelves and quickly became the couple’s signature publication. Now in its second edition, the book has sold nearly 100,000 copies.
Other books followed, including Gardening with Native Plants of the South, Native Texas Gardens: Maximum Beauty, Minimum Upkeep, and Requiem for a Lawnmower which was revised in 2004.
Through the years the Wasowskis have become popular speakers across the country, educating the public about the importance of using natives in the landscape. They’ve also helped recruit innumerable members into the Native Plant Society of Texas and helped several chapters get started across the state.
In 1996, Sally and Andy sold their Dallas home and purchased their dream property in Taos, New Mexico. But the move merely broadened Sally’s writing scope, leading the way to such books as Native Landscaping from El Paso to L.A and Gardening with Prairie Plants: How to Create Beautiful Native Landscapes along with several others.
Andy has led the team with Landscaping Revolution: Gardening with Mother Nature, Not against Her and Building Inside Nature’s Envelope: How New Construction and Land Preservation Can Work Together.
In all, Sally and Andy have authored 10 books encouraging readers to garden with native plants. Now settled in Taos, the Wasowskis recently decided it was time to retire and donated some 16,000 photographic slides to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, along with most of their library.
In July 2005 the State Board voted to nominate the Wasowskis for an Award of Appreciation with Honorary Life Membership for their contribution to the Native Plant Society of Texas and the use of native plants in the landscape. Find out more about the Wasowskis and their books at their website, www.botanicalmissionaries.com.
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**ARCHIVED POST AUTHOR: belindamclaughlin
