Native Plant Sale

Last weekend I went to a native plant sale. I would like to give you the name and directions, but I am not allowed to endorse any organization if I want a link on the Sustainable Montgomery webpage. Probably if you do an internet search for "native plant sale" or "native plant nursery" and New Jersey you could find a place to buy native plants.

Several years ago I noticed that the literature I got in the mail from environmental organizations recommended native plants. These sources advised that native plants provided food for native animals. I thought that we already provided enough food for deer, mice, rabbits, raccoons and woodchucks, so I didn't pay any attention. Eventually I learned that it is primarily insects, especially butterflies and moths, and birds who need native plants. Butterflies are beautiful, but you don't get butterflies without caterpillars, and most caterpillars can eat the leaves of only one plant or family of plants. Native caterpillars need native plants. Many birds eat seeds or berries, but they all feed insects to their babies, so birds need native plants, too.

I recommend a very informative book on the subject: "Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens" by Douglas W. Tallamy. The author is an entomologist who explains that we need insects to maintain the balance of nature. He recommends a variety of native plants to support a diversity of insects which will attract birds that will then keep all types of insects under control.

However, even if you don't want to read the book, you can still visit a native plant sale or nursery. If you do, you will probably find someone who can advise you on which native plants will be suited to your property: which are deer-resistant, which like average or wet soils, which like sun or shade. Allow me to recommend Monarda didyma, or scarlet beebalm, which thrives in full or partial sun and average soil, resists deer and attracts hummingbirds. Monarda fistulosa, its lavender relative, likes similar conditions and is just as deer-proof. Butterfly milkweed, Asclepias tuberosa, loves sun and dry soil, resists deer and attracts Monarch butterflies, which must lay their eggs on milkweed. I also recommend Physostegia virginiana, false dragonhead, which is usually deer-resistant and blooms in September (see photo). Bottle gentian (see photo), Gentiana andrewsii, a darker violet flower, is now finished blooming. All are native to New Jersey; look them up on the USDA website:
http://plants.usda.gov/checklist.html

I never saw a maple-leaf viburnum (Viburnum acerfolium) until I went to a native plant sale a few years ago and bought some because it was supposed to grow well in shade with average moisture and it is deer-resistant. It is not a huge shrub, only up to five feet tall, and it has the most beautiful fall color. They also have cream colored clusters of flowers in late spring or early summer. A local naturalist told me recently that maple-leaf viburnum was the most common shrub in New Jersey 30o years ago. Now you often have to go to a native plant sale to buy one.

Native plant sales are also good sources for other native shrubs, as well as native ferns and ornamental grasses, flowers, vines and trees. Some native plant sales have demonstration gardens so you can see the plants in their natural settings. Fall is the best time of year to plant many plants, because they have a chance to get established before the hot, dry summer. So go search out native plant sales and nurseries in New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania.