Native Plants

What are they and why are they important?

What are native plants?  The term “native” refers to plants in New York before Europeans colonized the state.  What it really means is plants that contribute in important ways to our natural ecosystem.  They’re also beautiful!

Native plants provide food and habitat for our songbirds, pollinators and other wildlife.  Non-native plants, that come from Europe or Asia, for example, provide much less benefit to our ecosystem.  For example, many insects are quite choosy about which plants they eat, and many won’t eat non-native plants.  That might seem to be a good thing since we like to have our flowers and shrubs looking nice.  But, our birds feed their young almost exclusively caterpillars – with few native plants we will have few caterpillars and therefore few baby birds.  If we provide a variety of native plants, we will have a variety of kinds of caterpillars but not too many of each, so the injury to our plants will be minimal.  So when you see a few insect chew holes in your plants, celebrate!  You’ve fed a baby bird!

Another type of plant that provides less benefit is called a cultivar.  Cultivar stands for cultivated variety and means that it has been bred for a specific purpose such as large flowers or new colors.  The plant tag will have the variety name in quotation marks, such as “Crimson Beauty.”   While these varieties may seem appealing, unfortunately when one trait is bred into a plant, other traits can be accidently bred out.  These lost traits, such as flower shape or amount of pollen or nectar, may be critically important to insects and birds.  So, consider avoiding plants with names in quotation marks.

Check out our tree and shrub planting program. Seedlings are available for order – If you are a past purchaser, please check your email or visit the website here for the order form!

NYS Grange Flower Bed