Native Plants

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.

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

Other Perspectives

Some great native plants for the garden

Perennials

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 technically 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.