The role of Utah garden centers in furthering public knowledge about waterwise plants and landscaping

Water conservation is increasingly important in many arid regions of the United States due to increased population and limited water supplies. One of the best known approaches for achieving water conservation in urban landscapes is through the implementation of waterwise landscaping, which is being promoted in many western states and is currently in its beginning stages in Utah. We thought that retail garden centers would be an effective target group for investigating the status of waterwise landscaping in Utah since garden centers appear to be a primary source of plant and landscaping information for the general public. The research was conducted utilizing indepth interviews with a random sample of retail nursery owners and managers throughout Utah. The research results yielded important insights about the image of xeriscape (waterwise landscaping) in Utah and the complexity of plant categorization methods and how waterwise and native plants are included as categories. Important differences between independent garden centers and box store garden centers and their potential to be effective waterwise landscaping educators were also revealed.