Native Plants ~ indigenous to where WE live
My personal and professional focus is on educating and helping clients obtain native plants for their landscape. Why?? Quite simply, our gardens NEED native plants. Without them, life suffers. This sounds dramatic, but it’s true.
Plants that were already here before the arrival of European settlers co-evolved over thousands of years with indigenous insects, bees, birds and mammals. They developed symbiotic relationships, each helping the other to survive. Each evolved to play an important role in our local food web, and the presence of non-native plants disrupt this process.
sounds like science…how does this work exactly?
Plants capture energy from the sun in the form of carbohydrates and transfer it to humans by way of food crops. They direct this same energy to birds and animals by way of caterpillars. Specifically, native plants photosynthesize the sun’s energy, producing leaves upon which moths and butterflies lay eggs ~ eggs that soon hatch into caterpillars. Caterpillars begin consuming the host leaf and may soon become food themselves as the primary meal for newly hatched birds. (We’ve all seen the photos of birds dutifully stuffing caterpillars down their youngsters’ throats!) Caterpillars may also be eaten by adult birds and mammals, including possums and skunks (which is why you may see lots of little holes dug into your lawn in the spring and summer). If the caterpillars survive long enough, they will become the next generation of moths and butterflies and hopefully will live long enough to lay their own eggs…before being eating by other predators!
It’s the Circle of Life playing out in your garden. Call the kids & grab the popcorn! It’s a great show, if you care enough to stop and watch.
Yes, moths and butterflies will sip nectar and help pollinate both native and non-native plants, but they ONLY reproduce on native plants with which they share evolutionary history. The Painted Lady, shown to the left, sips nectar from verbena bonariensis (native to South America), but she reproduced on our native Joe Pye Weed only inches away. Simply speaking, no native plants = no beneficial insects to pollinate our gardens and to feed our song birds.
so you’re saying it’s more than just offering pollen and nectar?
Yes, providing pollen and nectar sources are vital to insects’ diets. But those same insects need native host plants in order to reproduce. Specifically the regional plants with which they have evolved over thousands of years. These are the plants upon which eggs are laid, larvae are fed, and new generations emerge.
Most of us are now familiar with the Monarch butterfly’s dependence upon its only host plant, milkweed. Did you also know that our beautiful Swallowtail butterflies have specific hosts including native northern spicebush, tulip and cherry trees? I have northern spicebush (lindera benzoin), but I also plant dill, fennel and parsley in the garden upon which they will also reproduce! All of these herbs are easy to grow from seed and look beautiful emerging up through perennials and grasses in the border. They are lovely to look at, but most importantly, offer pollen, nectar and delectable leaves for the swallowtail larvae to eat.
Before you condemn the violets in your lawn, consider this: our native violets are the only host plant for many fritillary butterflies! No violets = no fritillaries!
Oak trees are the granddaddy of ‘Keystone’ host plants (more on that later), supporting up to 500 different species of insects. If oak trees aren’t your cup of tea, consider the smaller stature Eastern Redbud with heart-shaped leaves that hosts a variety of butterflies and moths. Bonus points for the redbud: our native leaf-cutter bees cut little semi-circles out of the foliage to wrap their precious bee larvae! OMG, so cute!
what about the bees?
Our native bees also evolved with indigenous plants, with many ‘specializing’ in a particular species of grass, perennial or groundcover. When the native plant species disappear, the bees disappear. Simple as that.
how do we define ‘native’?
For our gardens, the best way to think about ‘native’ plants are those that existed in our part of the country before European settlement. There are trees, shrubs and plants that are native across the entire USA, and there are trees, shrubs and plants that are native to New England. The more we can do to increase our plantings of regional ecotypes, the more productive our gardens will become for local wildlife.
the non-native problem
Many of our gardens contain more non-native trees, shrubs and plants than they do native species. If your property is bereft of wildlife, it could be the result of low populations of indigenous plants. Non-native plants are simply not recognized as a food source for insects. Perhaps a bird will build a nest in a non-native tree, but they will have to find their food elsewhere.
serving of dung anyone?
To drive home my point (finally!), imagine being served a plate of dung. You (hopefully) won’t recognize this as a yummy meal. But to the amazing dung beetle, it’s his Nectar from the Gods!
When we serve non-native plants in our gardens, our native wildlife aren’t much interested. They may take a sip, but they won’t hang around to reproduce. Make sense?
this sounds criminal to me!
Yes, we humans have created a ‘mell of a hess’ (exact quote from my husband’s late grandmother). The landscape and horticulture industries are largely to blame for the introduction of non-native plant material, mostly arriving from Europe and Asia. Over the last 100 years, ‘exotic’ plants became desirable and a symbol of wealth and status for many. They have been imported with abandon and continue to dominate garden center and nursery inventories across North America.
Unsuspecting homeowners in search of the next new plant or the prettiest plant fuel this practice. Again, a failure of the landscape industry to educate consumers about the consequences of their actions.
it gets worse
Non-native plants not only offer little to no value to native wildlife, they frequently become invasive, escaping our gardens and pushing out beneficial indigenous species. It’s easy to find examples in your own neighborhood. I see non-native invasives every day during my walks through our southern NH neighborhood, including:
callery pear, aka Bradford pear (pyrus calleriana, native to Asia) ~ dominates many developed neighborhoods in New England and along the east coast and is highly invasive, damaging many natural ecosystems. Yes, it’s beautiful in the spring when in bloom and it produces red berries which is probably why it became so popular 30 years ago. As with other non-native invasives, the birds eat the berries and disperse them far and wide, disrupting native plant communities and the beneficial wildlife found therein. Renowned conservationist and entomologist, Doug Tallamy, reports that the callery pear hosts almost NO beneficial insects as compared to 400+ hosted by a native oak tree. Fortunately, callery pear trees have weak bark and frequently fall down after storm damage (yay for the storms!) and present the perfect opportunity to be replaced with a lovely sugar maple, oak, birch, cherry or other. While being recognized as ‘a problem’ tree in New Hampshire, they have not yet been banned. My home state of Ohio banned them last month. Yay for Ohio!
burning bush (native to Asia) ~ planted in almost every property by developers when our homes were built back in the 1980’s. Sure, it’s pretty in the fall. Sure, the birds like it’s fruit. But, those same birds distribute the seeds when they poop in the woods. As a result, our woods and forest are being overtaken by burning bush. Since it is not palatable to deer nor other wildlife it has no natural checks and balances.. In addition, the fruit of burning bush is high in carbohydrates and is less beneficial to birds. What birds really need in the fall are berries high in fat and protein to help them prepare for winter, like those on my viburnum to the right. Burning bush has been banned for sale in New Hampshire for a while. It’s now up to us to remove those already in the landscape. Native alternatives include viburnum, serviceberry and chokeberry which are just as beautiful, dare I say, MORE beautiful, and more beneficial to wildlife.
i could go on
The list of non-native and worse, non-native invasives, is significant and is linked to the decline in insect and bird populations. In our neighborhood the list includes the highly invasive Japanese barberry, the European Norway Maple, and the Asian autumn olive. These plants dominate the landscape and create wildlife dead zones. Just because they might produce berries for the birds doesn’t mean they are ‘beneficial’ to the overall ecosystem. In fact, the invasive Japanese barberry (berberis thunbergii) readily reseeds throughout out woodlands, and its dense, thorny structure disrupts migration paths for small mammals.
Remember ~ birds need insects to survive. Native plants = native insects = more songbirds.
ok,enough said ~ how ‘native’ does my garden need to be?
To quote experts in ecological horticulture like Uli Lorimer of Native Plant Trust, aiming for 70% native plant biomass in our landscape will help immeasurably toward restoring natural ecosystems. Does this mean that 70% of the new plant material that you purchase needs to be native to your region? Not necessarily. First take stock of what you already have in terms of native trees and shrubs, particularly, because they represent the largest percentage of biomass.
In The Big Little Garden, for instance, we have the following native biomass just in trees that were here when the property was developed in the late 1980’s:
two very large and very mature native birch trees
six very large eastern white pine trees
two mature sugar maple trees
The wildlife activity in the native tree canopies and along the bark is immense! Over time, I have added native conifers and a number of native ornamental trees and shrubs with known wildlife value including:
two ornamental eastern redbud trees
one Franklinia tree (native to southeastern US, but the bumblebees lose their minds over the nectar-rich blooms)
five aronia ‘Chokeberry’ bushes
two witch hazel shrubs
one large ninebark shrub
one large oakleaf hydrangea shrub
one viburnum shrub
one large serviceberry shrub
one lindera benzoin (northern spicebush)
three fothergilla shrubs, and more
In addition to dozens of native grasses, groundcovers, vines and perennials, I plant herbs and annuals that are known to support beneficial insect reproduction. You can review my list of preferred native perennials under the ‘Perennials’ link at the top of this page.
striking a balance between native and non-native
So, does The Big Little Garden have at least 70% native biomass? Probably. Should I strive for more? Probably. My goal moving forward is to carefully evaluate every new introduction to the garden. I can tell you right now that they won’t ALL be native. But NONE will be invasive, and MOST will provide pollen and nectar or some form of habitat or shelter.
so where should you begin?
There are many resources and great books (I have a list here on my website) to help you identify native plants suitable for your property. You can explore these terrific consumer-oriented resources to expand your understanding of ecological gardening and the value of ‘going native’:
Native Plant Trust ~ explore New England native plants and visit them in Framingham, MA
Homegrown National Park ~ conservation begins in our own backyards
Xerces Society ~ supporting the ‘little creatures that run the world’
National Audubon Society ~ protecting birds and the places they need
National Wildlife Foundation ~ certify your garden as a wildlife habitat!