Susan is also blogging at GardenRant.Native Plants in the Garden
Sustainable gardeners everywhere are looking for native plants to incorporate into their gardens. Why? To help preserve our botanical heritage, to evoke a sense of place, because so many of them are sustainable or nearly so, and because they're so good at providing for wildlife. With natural habitats being lost to development at a rapid clip all over the world, our backyards, however small, are more important than ever as safe havens and food sources for our beloved critters. My garden is wildlife-habitat-certified and I'm working with other enviro-activists in my town to win the coveted certification as a Wildlife Habitat Community (we're almost there and we'll be the first community in Maryland to do it!)
For years now I've written in my town paper about the need to provide for wildlife and I'm always on the look-out for native plants that work well in my garden. Still, I take an inclusive approach to plants because there are so many great, sustainable ones from other parts of the world. Our highly disturbed, decidedly unnatural urban and suburban gardens offer challenges of all sorts that plants never knew in the wild — erosion and water pollution caused by overdevelopment come to mind. So landscape plants have all sorts of practical jobs to do, and gardeners need all the good choices they can get.
When my coaching clients ask for native plants I help them find the ones that have proven successful in sites similar to their gardens, often the ones listed below. But if you live in a different region, you might start with some general tips for finding the right ones: How to Choose Native Plants for Your Garden.
Some good landscape plants that are native somewhere in North America
Perennials
- New England asters, indigenous to the Northeast.
- Baptisia australis, indigenous to the Eastern and Southeastern U.S.
- Bignonia capreolata or "crossvine" is a gorgeous fast-growing vine, evergreen or semi-evergreen.
- Chelone glabra or Turtlehead is indigenous to the East and Midwest (of the U.S.)
- Chrysogonum virginiana or Green and Gold are indigenous to the Eastern U. S.
- Echinacea purpurea or Purple Coneflower is indigenous to the prairies of the Plains states
- There are several American native St. John's Wort or Hypericums
- Rudbeckias are indigenous to much of Eastern and Midwestern North America.
- Solidago or Goldenrod is indigenous to much of North America.
- Tradescantia virginiana or spiderwort is native in Eastern N. America from Maine to Alabama.
Trees and shrubs
- Aesculus parviflora or Bottlebrush buckeye is indigenous from the Carolinas south
- Amelanchier or Serviceberry trees are indigenous to most of the Eastern and Midwestern North America
- Hydrangea quercifolia or Oakleaf Hydrangea are indigenous from Georgia south
- Ilex glabra or Inkberry holly is native to Eastern North America.
- Itea virginica or Virginia Sweetspire is indigenous from New Jersey south
- Kalmia latifolia or Mountain laurel
- Pieris floribunda is native from Virginia south to Georgia. Scroll down on this page (through P. japonica) to find floribunda.
- Pinus strobus or white pine is native from Canada south into Georgia.
- Tsuga canadensis or Canadian hemlocks are native from Georgia to New Brunswick and west to Wisconsin.
- Wisteria frutescens is native to most of the Eastern U.S. and THE alternative to the even more vigorous Asian wisterias.
- Viburnum nudum is native to most of the Eastern U.S., though the popular cultivated variety 'Winterthur' isn't techically native anywhere.
Know of others? If you've had success with other native plants in your garden, let me know and this list will grow. And to find out how well native plants perform in gardens all over the U.S., Daves Garden can't be beat. Just put a plant name in the "Search Plants" function you see on the right.
The Controversy
THE hottest controversy in the gardening world today is over the question: Should we plant ONLY natives in our gardens, or is it okay to also grow nonnatives? It gets heated, I tell ya! So for more on all that, check these links. (In natural areas the consensus is definitely in favor of native plants exclusively.)
Advocates of Growing Natives Exclusively
- National Wildlife Federation
- Some Native Plant Societies
- Writer Sara Stein
- U. Delaware professor and writer Doug Tallamy
Other Perspectives
- Native plant enthusiasts Rick Darke, Ken Druse and Colston Burrell.
- Nature Conservancy
- From Harvard's Arnold Arboretum:
- Brave New Ecology by Peter Del Tredici.
- Natives: Another View. [pdf]
- The Illusion of Ecological Restoration
- And Del Tredici's case for choosing sustainable trees.
- Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
- Linda Chalker-Scott of Washington State University on "The Myth of Native Plant Superiority" [pdf]
- Paul James on Native Plants.
- Michael Pollan's 1994 piece in the New York Times "Against Nativism" will shock his fans. When asked recenlty if his position has changed, he instead reaffirmed it.
- Horticulturist Allan Armitage
Stories from the Garden
- At GardenRant we've had lots of meaty discussions of the controversy. Here they all are.