Native Plants

Native plants and native insects co-evolved over thousands of years. Their relationships are specific, deep, and largely irreplaceable. A native white oak supports more than 500 species of caterpillar. Most of those caterpillars cannot feed on any other tree. A non-native ornamental planted in the same spot may support none at all - it is biologically invisible to the insects that evolved without it.

This matters profoundly for birds. North American chickadees, for example, require 6,000 to 9,000 caterpillars to raise a single clutch of chicks. Those caterpillars come almost entirely from native plants. Remove the native plants from a suburban landscape and you remove the base of the food chain that birds depend on - regardless of how many bird feeders you install.

Entomologist Doug Tallamy has spent decades documenting these relationships and articulating what he calls the “homegrown national park” concept: that the collective private gardens of North America represent a vast, distributed nature reserve with the potential to restore ecological function if planted thoughtfully. The garden is not separate from the wild. It is the wild, or it can be.

The honeybee gets the attention - in culture, in beekeeping, in headlines about pollinator decline. But honeybees are not native to North America or the United Kingdom. They are managed livestock, introduced from Europe. The native bees - the bumblebees, mason bees, mining bees, sweat bees, and leafcutter bees - are the ones that did the pollination work for millions of years before beekeeping existed, and the ones most at risk.

Many of these native bees are specialists. A squash bee pollinates almost exclusively cucurbits. Certain bees depend on native goldenrod, or native asters, or native willows. Without these specific plant hosts, the specialist bee populations collapse, and with them goes the reliability of pollination for a surprising range of crops.

Planting native flowering species - goldenrod, asters, native coneflowers, wild bergamot, Joe Pye weed, native violets - directly sustains these specialist species. A garden with a reliable succession of native flowers from early spring through late autumn provides continuous forage for dozens of native bee species and rewards every food crop grown nearby.

Natives and vegetables make natural companions. Native flowering plants planted along the borders of a kitchen garden attract and sustain the predatory insects - parasitic wasps, hoverflies, lacewings - that keep pest populations in check. They provide alternative nectar sources that keep pollinators present even when food crops are not in flower.

Native groundcovers planted between beds suppress weeds without plastic mulch and provide low-level habitat for ground beetles, which are among the most effective slug predators available. Native shrubs at the garden boundary create windbreaks, nesting sites, and food sources that anchor beneficial bird and insect populations throughout the year.

The distinction between the “productive” garden and the “native” garden is a false one. The more native the landscape surrounding and interwoven with your food growing, the more life it sustains, and the more productive and resilient the whole system becomes.

Not all native plants sold in nurseries are what they seem. “Nativars” - cultivated varieties of native species bred for unusual flower colour, double blooms, compact habit, or ornamental foliage - are increasingly common and widely sold as “natives.” Many are not meaningfully native from the perspective of wildlife. Double blooms may be inaccessible to bees. Altered flower colour can signal differently to pollinators. Reduced pollen production is sometimes an intentional breeding goal.

Seek out straight species from reputable native plant nurseries - growers who propagate from locally sourced seed stock where possible. Local provenance matters: a plant grown from seed collected ten miles from your garden is more closely adapted to your specific conditions than the same species grown from seed sourced across the country.

Never take plants from wild populations. Collection pressure has already reduced many native species in accessible areas. Buy responsibly propagated plants and support the nurseries that grow them.

The resources below will help you identify which plants are native to your specific region and where to source them responsibly.

• Your state or county native plant society - most run plant sales, maintain lists of reputable nurseries, and can advise on plants native to your specific county or watershed.
• The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center Native Plant Database - searchable by state and growing conditions. A comprehensive, free resource for North American gardeners.
• The Xerces Society - their planting guides are regionally specific and focused on pollinator habitat. Downloadable free from their website.
• Audubon Society Native Plant Finder - enter your zip code and see the plants with the highest wildlife value in your area, based on Doug Tallamy and Audubon's research data.
• Plantlife (UK) and The Wildlife Trusts for UK-based gardeners seeking native wildflower guidance.