Many prefer dry, sunny sites and adapt well to perennial borders, cottage gardens or meadows. Some prefer wet conditions and are best used in bog gardens or on the edges of ponds or streams. Some wildflowers are “generalists” and grow well in a variety of habitats, while others require very specific growing conditions. To grow wildflowers successfully, one must carefully simulate their native growing environments, giving special consideration to sunlight requirements, soil types and moisture levels. In the book Armitage’s Native Plants for North American Gardens, Allan Armitage humorously refers to these plants as “nativars.” In this publication, cultivars of native plants will be mentioned when they have qualities different from those of the native species and when they are widely available in the nursery trade. Many native plant enthusiasts question whether improved cultivars of native wildflowers resulting from hybrid crosses of two native species are still native plants. Although native grasses and sedges are included in this definition, they are described separately in Part IV of this native plant publication series. The term “wildflower” in this publication is a general term used to define both annual and perennial native herbaceous plants with showy flowers that have evolved with an ecosystem and grow naturally without either direct or indirect human intervention. The loss or decline of native plant populations through urban development and habitat destruction or by encroachment from invasive exotic species changes the whole biology and balance of an ecosystem. “When native plants disappear or are replaced by exotic species, native insects disappear, thereby impoverishing the food sources for birds and other animals,” he says. Some native plants provide food or shelter for wildlife and create “watchable wildlife habitats.” In his book Bringing Nature Home, Douglas Tallamy explains “the unbreakable link between native plant species and native wildlife,” especially the native insect populations that form the broad base of the food chain. Furthermore, regionally-adapted native plants have developed a natural resistance to pests and a tolerance to drought, ice storms and other environmental extremes common to the area. Planting a native plant lends a historical sense of pride to a gardener who grows a plant that early pioneers or even Native American Indians may have planted. The reasons for this are many and varied. Today, there is renewed interest in “going native” and restoring diversity to our landscapes by planting native plants. As a result, approximately 80 percent of the plants in the nursery trade today are non-native exotics. The buying public generally became more interested in the dazzling qualities of new plants than in whether plants were native or imported from another country. Soon native plants became diluted with exotic plants in the product mix. Those that were proven performers and adapted well to domestication became “pass along” plants that were shared with friends, relatives and neighbors.Īs the nursery industry evolved in the 1800s, exotic plants were imported from foreign lands. Many of these plants were valued not only for their ornamental qualities but also for their culinary or medicinal uses. They harvested seeds, cuttings and plants from the wild, experimented with various propagation techniques and incorporated their favorite plants into their landscapes. For generations, long before there was a nursery industry, people planted and enjoyed wildflowers.
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