Selecting Native Plants
Today, people everywhere are discovering the benefits of “going native,” and native plant sources are becoming more numerous. Natives, after all, offer many of the benefits of exotic cultivars without the exhaustive requirements. By establishing native plants in your yard, you will decrease water dependence, reduce the need for fertilizer and pest control, and create a renewed sense of place for birds, other wildlife, and you. There are many benefits to going native, whether practiced in place of or in addition to traditional landscaping.
Compared to lawns, manicured shrubbery or bark-mulch covered beds, naturescapes are tremendously low in maintenance. Native plants grow well together (they evolved growing along side one another) and to predictable sizes. They do not need watering (except during establishment), nor do they require chemical fertilizers or any of the commercial biocides – herbicides, insecticides, fungicides – they are adapted to local conditions and to local “bugs.”
Plants
Acer saccharum (Sugar Maple) T
Aquilegia canadensis (Red Columbine) P
Asarum canadense (Wild Ginger) P
Asclepias tuberosa (Orange Butterfly Weed) P
Betula nigra (River Birch) T
Chelone glabra (White Turtlehead) P
Cimicifuga racemosa (Black Cohosh) P
Clethra alnifolia (Summersweet) S
Cornus alternifolia (Pagoda Dowood) T
Cornus florida (Flowering Dogwood) T
Cornus sericea (Redosier Dogwood) S
Fagus grandiflora (American Beech) T
Geranium maculatum (Wild Geranium) P
Hamamelis virginiana (Common Witchhazel) S
Ilex glabra (Inkberry) S
Ilex opaca (American Holly) T
Ilex verticillata (Common Winterberry) S
Iris versicolor (Blue Flag Iris) P
Itea virginica (Virginia Sweetspire) S
Juniperus virginiana (Eastern Red Cedar) T
Kalmia latifolia (Mountain Laurel) S
Liquidambar styraciflua (Sweetgum) T
Lobelia cardinalis/siphilitica P
Monarda fistulosa (Bee Balm) P
Nyssa sylvatica (Black Tupelo) T
Parthenocissus quinquefolia (Virginia Creeper) S
Penstemon digitalis/hirsutus (Beard Tongue) P
Phlox subulata (Moss Pink) P
Picea mariana (Black Spruce) T
Pinus strobus (White Pine) T
Quercus cossinea (Scarlet Oak) T
Quercus rubra (Red Oak) T
Rhododendron maximum (Rosebay Rhododendron) S
Rudbeckia laciniata (Black Eyed Susan) P
Sisyrinchium angustifolium (Blue Eyed Grass) P
Symphyotrichum novaeagliae (New England Aster) P
Thalictrum dioicum (Meadow Rue) P
Tsuga canadensis (Eastern Hemlock) T
Vaccinium angustifolium (Lowbush Blueberry) S
Vaccinium corymbosum (Highbush Blueberry) S
Viburnum dentatum (Arrowhead Viburnum) S