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April 8, 2009 · 4 Comments

Getting Excited about Native Plants

Plants

Timber Press photo

Native plant guru Lynn Steiner spoke to  a packed room at the Friends of the Northfield Library annual meeting last night and I’m pretty sure everyone who attended left the event very excited about planting more native plants.  Lynn has a real passion for native plants and she makes a persuasive case for using them: Native plants create environments that encourage birds, wildlife and insects that are native to our region, they offer a “sense of place,” they are well-adapted to our vicious climate, and they are beautiful!

Lynn offered several suggestions for using natives in home landscapes, including using stone and other hardscapes, planting natives following the same design principles that are used in traditional garden design, even opting for more formal design elements, such as using straight lines in your native plant beds. I have two gardens that I’m planning to expand (in one case) or create (in the other) this year and natives will be part of both of them.  Here are three plants Lynn mentioned last night that I am considering:

Butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) — I have seeds that I’m using to start this lovely perennial, which is one of very few plants that monarch butterflies need in the caterpillar stage. These plants like good drainage and full sun and offer broad clusters of flowers through most of the summer.

wild ginger plants

Wild ginger is a great native groundcover for shady spots.

Wild ginger (Asarum canadense) — This groundcover is a native of deciduous forest floors and will be perfect in an expanded bed I’m planning under an ash tree in my backyard. Lynn recommends planting spring ephemerals (plants that go dormant after spring bloom) near wild ginger, which will fill in after the ephemerals.

Harebells (Campanula rotundifolia) — An airy plant with delicate violet, bell-shaped blooms, harebell does well in rock gardens and other dry sites.

If you are interested in planting more natives, check out Lynn’s book — it’s available at the library! Also, the handouts from last night, which include more plant recommendations as well as a list of garden plants that are becoming invasive, are available at the circulation desk, too.

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Comments

  1. sikantis says

    April 16, 2009 at 10:47 am

    You’re right, planting native plants has numerous benefits. It’s a win-win situation for us and for nature. Great post!

Trackbacks

  1. Mexican Hat and Black-eyed Susan Vine « My Northern Garden says:
    July 2, 2009 at 11:07 am

    […] the July/August issue of Northern Gardener, native plants columnist Lynn Steiner recommends Mexican hat (Ratibida columnifera) for its diminutive size, attractive foliage and […]

  2. My Northern Garden » Blog Archive » Urban Yard, Prairie Plants says:
    September 15, 2010 at 11:11 am

    […] Lynn Steiner, former editor of Northern Gardener and an expert on using native plants in all kinds of […]

  3. Holiday Events for Gardeners | My Northern Garden says:
    December 2, 2010 at 11:20 am

    […] I’ll be heading up to Bachman’s in Richfield to hear Lynn Steiner talk about her new book, Prairie-Style Gardens: Capturing the Essence of the American Prairie […]

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