Go Native

When I speak with homeowners about plans for installing a new landscape, a good 70 percent of them state that “low maintenance” is a priority. Upon hearing this, I no longer grit my teeth, stare at my feet, and ruefully shake my head. I’ve grown old enough to see their point. Free time is in increasingly short supply, and not everyone who wants their home to be surrounded by a fairly involved, attractive collection of trees, shrubs, and perennials wants to make gardening their weekend passion. Today, for every homeowner who wants a knot garden, there must be 100 who would prefer a “not-garden,” as in, “I’d like some cool plants, but would prefer to not garden.”

Which makes me wonder why native plants—far and away the easiest and least time-consuming category of plants we can grow in Minnesota—are so poorly promoted by nurseries, so sparingly used by landscape designers, and so utterly dismissed by consumers. After all, native trees, shrubs, and perennials (including a whole new world of native wildflowers that spread and thrive in shady, “grass won’t grow there” parts of the yard) are plants that chose Minnesota as their home long before settlers—or even Native Americans—did. Cold winters? These plants require them. Our state’s wide range of soil types? Preferred. Resistance to pests and fungi? These plants evolved by shrugging off such attacks long before chemists invented chemical sprays and hardware stores sold tank sprayers. Perhaps most important from a maintenance standpoint, natives are the only plants that have hung around for the thousands of years prior to the invention of the garden hose and watering wand. 

Despite these benefits, when I propose native plants to most homeowners, their eyes light up—for about a second. Then their thought process rapidly goes down a hill sculpted something like this: ecologically correct, that’s no doubt a good thing; could be cutting edge, possibly even hip, I like that; easy to grow, because they’re, well, native—but do I really want to pocket my suburban yard with the same drab, weedy plants that we hack away on the first weekend we open up the cabin.

What we have here is a failure to illuminate. Go native, and you’ll discover that this large, diverse category of extremely hardy, easy-to-grow, naturally pest- and disease-resistant plants offers all the attractive form, alluring foliage, and vivacious bloom color your yard and garden can handle.

You may already be growing natives and not realize it. Popular purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) Minnesota native—as are oxeye (Heliopsis helianthoides), Joe-pye weed (Eupatorium maculatum), blazing star (Liatris), and that metro-area-mainstay black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta). I bet the nursery that sold you these long-blooming, supremely colorful perennials never breathed a word about them being natives (if they knew); native, after all, means drab!

Few small trees are as elegantly attractive as the exotic-looking pagoda dogwood (Cornus alternifolia). You guessed it: a Minnesota native. Of course, so is the red maple (Acer rubrum), river birch (Betula nigra), Kentucky coffeetree (Gymnocladus dioica), ironwood (Ostrya virginiana), white oak (Quercus alba), white pine (Pinus strobus), and mountain ash (Sorbus americana).

That natives are somehow less desirable in the modern Minnesota landscape is a myth partially due to a nursery industry that has always recognized that new hybridized varieties of native (and non-native) plants are easy to promote and ensure sales at the retail level. Never mind that these hybridized cultivars sometimes require more watering and fertilizing, and, most often in the case of perennial flowers, may lack the disease resistance and winter hardiness of the original.

Stillwater garden writer Lynn Steiner, author of Landscaping with Native Plants of Minnesota (Voyageur Press), is a longtime native plant grower and lover who believes too many local nurseries ignore Minnesota’s first family of plants. “Maybe if the nurseries wouldn’t hide the natives, and have such limited varieties, people would begin to realize their value,” says Steiner. “You never see a beautiful display of a native collection of perennials at the end of a row. By not featuring and promoting natives, nurseries tend to imply that, hey, these are yucky plants.”

So what exactly defines a native plant? Steiner is quick to point out that there are two camps. “People interested in doing a restoration project often prefer to use only ‘true’ natives, which means this is the original tree, or shrub, or flower, as nature evolved it,” says Steiner. “My philosophy is if the native is too wild-looking or would grow too large, then cultivars [new varieties genetically generated from the original] are OK.”

A good example would be native ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius), an attractive shrub featuring foliage that can range from shades of yellow to purple. It has a propensity, however, to grow nine feet tall by nine feet wide, so if a smaller ninebark is desired, cultivars such as ‘Dart’s Gold’ or ‘Diabolo’ should fit the bill.

One final definition of natives might be plants that have never gone out of style. For homeowners bent on creating a low-maintenance native landscape, or just interested in adding some natives to their existing landscape, these area nurseries take great pride in showcasing and selling Minnesota native plants: Out Back Nursery & Landscaping, Hastings, 651-438-2771; Prairie Moon Nursery, Winona, 507-452-1362; Landscape Alternatives, Highway 95 south of Taylors Falls, 651-257-4460.  

 

Call of the Wild Wild Ones is a national nonprofit organization existing to promote native plants and natural landscapes. This summer, it has launched a campaign promoting “11 garden friendly native plants that you can grow,” which are listed below. For more plant information, visit for-wild.org; for Twin Cities Wild Ones chapter information, contact rmschommer@hotmail.com. Sun-Loving Plants Shrub 1. Black chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa) Grass 2.  Prairie dropseed (Sporobolus heterolepis) Perennial 3.  Butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) 4.  Prairie smoke (Geum triflorum) 5.  Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) Shade-Tolerant Plants Shrub 6.  Serviceberry (Amelanchier alnifolia) Fern 7.  Maidenhair fern (Adiantum pedatum) Perennial 8.  Wild ginger (Asarum canadense) 9.  Cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis) 10.  Joe-pye weed (Eupatorium maculatum) Tree (sun or shade) 11.  Pagoda dogwood (Cornus alternifolia)

Garden editor Don Engebretson, AKA The Renegade Gardener, can be contacted via his website, renegadegardener.com.