This is a story of adaptation, by both plants and their people. It's set in the fire-prone foothills of eastern Butte County, where in 1994 David and Cathy Walther purchased a home on 1.5 acres. The property sits on a gentle slope above the Feather River Canyon and is reached by roads that wind steeply up the hill and then through the undulating topography of Yankee Hill.

Their introduction to wildfire and evacuation occurred the first year when the Raulsen Fire burned within a half mile of their home. They knew when they bought the place they'd be in a fire zone or, as David (a fellow Master Gardener) said during our recent garden tour and interview: “It's not if we will burn, it's when….” Still, when the evacuation order was lifted, they began to build a life there around their shared love of plants.

Two raging infernos (the Poe Fire in 2001 and the Camp Fire in 2018), two terrifying evacuations, and 27 years later, they and their plants continue to adapt to new conditions in the burn scars that show how close these fires came to the walls of their home.

In the deep shade provided by 20 or so immense pines on the west side of their acreage in the early years, they began to amend the thin red clay soils and introduce a large assortment of plant species. They drew from hardy perennials and shrubs native to Mediterranean climates, including Proteus, Hebe, summer-blooming Cyclamen, Hellebore, Calanthe orchid, Podophyllum, and Echium, to name just a few. David is especially interested in plants that have whimsical “Dr. Suess” shapes and uncommon flowers and foliage.

The result was a lush garden spreading just past the green lawn in front of the house, interspersed with geometrically placed rock collections and dotted with garden art. But David's true passion lies in experimentation, finding what can adapt to the conditions there.  For example, he says “I planted lots of proteus, about 50, all over the yard just to see how they would do. I planted them to see how they would hold up in our Northern California weather.”

The plants were also a form of retirement planning.  David figured he could learn what would survive here and then offer other gardeners new choices: a larger palette of colors, textures, and shapes than are normally sold in our area. In fact, some of the species David began to grow are so uncommon that it is difficult to find information on propagating them. Which meant lots of trial and error: taking and planting cuttings at various times of year; trying different types of cuttings.

With the bounty resulting from his trials, David and Cathy started Spring Fever Nursery, selling at first on a small scale (a 20 by 40-foot area on the property), and at the Thursday Night Market in downtown Chico. To fund the commercial nursery operation, David sold his lucrative landscape business.

And then the Poe Fire roared up the hill, forcing the Walthers and their pets to evacuate once again. Returning home to find their gardens, nursery, and home intact while surrounding areas had burned (in fact, fire fighters used their greenbelt as a refuge), the Walthers adapted by turning adversity to advantage. Their neighbor to the east was done with foothill fires and, by acquiring that adjacent property, tearing out burnt stumps (“it looked like a war zone”), and leveling the remaining area, Spring Fever grew to a large, beautifully organized commercial nursery, complete with shade and green houses and metal tables, all sitting atop a bed of pea gravel.

Spring Fever Nursery joined other seasonal booths at the Chico Certified Farmers Market, setting up each Saturday spring through fall. They hauled their plants, almost all in pint-sized pots, in an old milk truck, the back steps of which doubled as their Market Sales Office and official perching place.

Their plants are propagated from cuttings, seeds, or divisions: any way David can create one plant from another. They remain in the nursery through two growing seasons in order to develop an adequate root system and prove their hardiness, experiencing heat, wind, frost (even, occasionally, snow), and sometimes deer. As David says, “If I didn't kill it, you can keep it alive.”

In between the Poe Fire and the Camp Fire, the Walthers continued to play with an astounding variety of plants. Cathy had a special circular garden just behind the house packed with aromatic and unusual herbs. An enormous Royal Paulownia (empress tree) towered beyond that, filling the air with an intoxicating fragrance each spring. One of the most charming aspects of the Walthers' landscape was its rambunctious exuberance; they encouraged all sorts of plants to co-exist. Theirs was not a fussy garden in which one was afraid to step off the path. Their garden invited one to wander, discover, and revel in the sheer wonder of the plant kingdom.

But that changed with the Camp Fire in 2018. After their month-long evacuation, David and Cathy returned to find that 70% of this joyful riot of plants had burned, as had a corner of the nursery, including the green houses. And their environment had changed drastically. Gone were the large pines offering hours of shade on the west-northwest exposure. Gone were Cathy's herb garden, the empress tree, and other favorites. An oak stump left from the Poe Fire burned to the ground in the Camp Fire. Twisted equipment, charred plants, and melted plastic now adorned the formerly neat and tidy nursery grounds.

The Camp Fire watch word is “resilience.” The one that came out of the Covid pandemic is “pivot.” Add them together and you get adaptation. When the ash and dust cleared in late 2018, that is exactly what the Walthers did with their remaining plants. Some wonderful things resulted in the wake of that fire. For instance, in a newly sundrenched patch of yard a forest of foxgloves volunteered. Huge echium (the beloved Dr. Suess plants) are popping back up all over the place. What David calls a “freak hellebore,” a beauty with white flowers, began to thrive in more sun than he thought possible. Other hellebores were basking in the now-open canopy, and David found that they bloom more prolifically now than they did in the deep shade. He estimates that, compared to where they lived the first year, the successive fires have thinned out about three-quarters of the forest.

Of course, events of this magnitude change interior landscapes as well. During our conversation, David noted that he is now free from the illusion of control: he has acquired a sense of acceptance and adopted a “wait and see” attitude. He expressed a sense of hopeful joy, and he continues to explore the property to see what post-fire changes the plants are exhibiting. He is building his nursery inventory, one plant at a time. And he is sure they have not seen the last of the fires on this ridge above the Feather River Canyon.

David is grateful to Magnolia Gift and Garden for their support – you can find Spring Fever Nursery plants there. Spring Fever Nursery is open by appointment and is holding a Comeback Sale on May 9 (Mothers' Day) and May 10! Please check their Facebook Page for more details.

The Master Gardeners Spring 2021 Workshop Series has begun.  Topics include:  Plant Propagation, Native Gardens, Invasive Plants, Honeybees, and a 4-part series on Firewise Landscaping. Visit our website to read about these upcoming free workshops and to register for them.

UC Master Gardeners of Butte County are part of the University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) system. To learn more about us and our upcoming events, and for help with gardening in our area, visit our website. If you have a gardening question or problem, email the Hotline at mgbutte@ucanr.edu (preferred) or call (530) 538-7201.