GARDENING IN HARMONY WITH NATURE IN THE NORTHEAST
Resources
Become part of the solution!
The importance of native plants in local ecosystems is now abundantly clear. A healthy ecosystem with lots of different native species that fill every available ecological niche can withstand the onslaught of invasive species much better than already stressed ecosystems.
As backyard gardeners, we have the opportunity to
- resist the urge of planting showy exotics that may become invasive.
- actively seek out native plants that are adapted to our local environments.
Native Plant Nurseries
Unfortunately the New York metro area is a wasteland in terms of native plant nurseries. We have to travel about one hour to get to the nearest one. But the occasional trips are well worth it. We try to combine them with hiking trips and come back fully loaded every time.
- Earth Tones Native Plants is a fantastic native plant nursery in Woodbury, Connecticut. This is the place where we get most of our plants from.
- Catskill Native Nursery also has a great selection of native plants. As a bonus we can combine a trip with a visit to the beautiful Shawangunk Mountains.
- Edge of the Woods Native Plant Nursery in Orefield, Pennsylvania is another one of those rare gems. However, due to its further distance from the tri-state area, we only make the trip there about once a year. It can be combined with a visit to the Delaware Water Gap or Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve.
Native Plant Sales
These can be found within the NY metro area and offer nice selections of native plants with the occasional native rarities as well.
- The Native Plant Center at Westchester Community College organizes a native plant sale every spring, which always contains a great selection of native plant to choose from. They also offer memberships that allow you to pre-order plants and get a head-start of an hour or so on the day of the sale.
- Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve in Pennsylvania just across the Delaware River is worth a trip even without a sale going on, but if you can time it, choose one of the native plant sale days in spring or fall. New Hope, PA, an artsy town in the vicinity is worth stopping for at dinner time.
Great resources on the web
The internet offers great resources for education about any native plant species you can think of. When googling a plant’s name (scientific or common) one learns pretty fast that some websites provide much more valuable content from a gardener’s perspective than others.
- The Plant Finder of the Missouri Botanical Garden is likely the best resource for gardeners located in the north-east. It provides all the noteworthy characteristics and offers insights into site preferences and uses.
- When trying to figure out the exact native range of a species, the USDA Plants Database can help.
- The Mt. Cuba Center maintains a webpage with fantastic summaries on native plant species. Very engaging.
- Try the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center or the Wildflowers of Illinois in Woodlands for even more information.
- If you want to know what other gardeners think about a species (e.g. its tendency to take over a garden) try Dave’s Garden. Note that this webpage is not exclusively about native plants, so go there with a specific native plant in mind.
- One of the best general resources about home and garden on the web is The Spruce. They cover a lot of native plants and have very well-written articles about them. Again this is a general resource, not exclusively native.
Online Nurseries
There are also a few reputable Native Online Nurseries to order plugs or seed in larger quantities from.
- Prairie Nursery offers flats of 32 plugs. These are great to cover larger areas without breaking the bank. In addition, their webpage has good summaries and a county-level map of the native range is also right there.
- When it comes to seed in larger quantities, we prefer Prairie Moon Nursery. Their prices are often the most competitive.
- Izel Native Plants seems to be a consumer-facing outlet for wholesale nurseries. Sometimes it’s possible to find hard to get plants here. We were quite lucky with the quality of bare-root plants from them so far.
Botanical Gardens
There are few botanical gardens that specialize in native plants exclusively, but more and more of them at least offer a native plant section.
- The Native Plant Garden at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx is a great example that showcases the beauty of our native plants. Dedicated in 2013, it combines a wonderfully restored native woodland with an artificial pond and sunny meadow area.
- The Missouri Botanical Garden not only has one of the best Native Plant Databases, their Native Woodland is also one of the best I have encountered to date. If you happen to travel through St. Louis you simply have to stop by there.
Native gardening pages with great photos
- If we had to name a single blog that really got us interested in native plant gardening in the shade it would surely be Your Native Woodland: If You Build It They Will Come, Part 2 from Carolyn’s Shade Gardens. We have never been able to make the trip to Carolyn’s Nursery in Bryn Mawr, PA, but the images of combinations of native plants that work well together are simply stunning.
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