Good Plant, Bad Plant, Native and Non-Native. Is it That Simple?

Liatris, Lobelia, Pycnanthemum living happily with Perovskia at The Art Institute in Chicago.

Guest Rant by Roy Diblik 

Every planting situation creates diverse opportunities – not just for how it can be planted, but for how each of us can share our thoughts about it with each other. Whether it is a prairie, an urban vegetable or ornamental garden, a school developing outdoor classrooms, a city park being replanted, or a forest preserve: every open space should be planted thoughtfully, but not necessarily the same way for the same reasons.

We want and need diversity in gardens, parks, schools, businesses, villages, cities – and ourselves. There are so many reasons to plant. We plant to benefit the soil, the insects, the birds, the small creatures, the water, the air. We plant to understand art, theatre, dance, music, and all forms of culture. We plant to live healthier lives and to experience involvement, commitment, satisfaction, cheerfulness, gratification, comfort, and the joy of sharing.

We need to arrive at an understanding regarding not just the cultivation of nature, but also the cultivation of ourselves, our own human nature. Each of us must have an affection for the other: the birder for the delphinium collector, the prairie enthusiast for the perennial gardener, the butterfly observer for the daylily hybridizer, the golf course superintendent for the naturalist, the land developer for the farmer. We are realizing that healthy relationships grow when we come to appreciate one another’s loves and passions.

To support what matters to everyone, we cannot simply say a native plant is better than a non-native or a non-native is better than a native. No answer is that simple, no person or planting can be that limiting or that limited. When we come to know plants in a close, sound way, native and non-native plants can live collectively planted in all situations and conditions. Those plantings will be determined individually by each project’s goals and objectives, and diversity is healthy. Picture prairie dropseed (Sporobolus heterolepis) living with Salvia ‘Wesuwe’ and groupings of bell peppers in a beautiful, sustainable vegetable meadow.

We have to come to know the plants, their infinite relationships to each other from youth to maturity. Not judge and argue with each other concerning what we may not really know enough about.

Veronicastum and Eupatorium sharing a good life with Calamagrostis ‘Karl Foerster.’

I am watching a prairie garden being planted in the Chicago area knowing it will be another bleached-out prairie. In a few years the garden will be filled with the native thugs: goldenrod (Solidago), asters, Indian grass (Sorghastrum nutans), big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii), and prairie coneflower (Ratibida columnifera). There is nothing intrinsically wrong with these plants – I use them myself. Whether in seed or plug form, however, they establish very rapidly and seed themselves early and heavily within their own community. They will out-compete the other native species planted or seeded with them and then dominate the planting.

In many new plantings that attempt to restore and recreate the native prairie, this is the situation that results – what I call the bleached-out commercial prairie. If the designers had known the plants better, they would have not used this group of natives initially, knowing they could be introduced a few years later and would find a home in the established, diverse planting.

Jerry Wilhelm, who wrote Flora of the Chicago Region, always had the thought of planting a young oak and beginning its life and continuing its life with the plants Oaks have always lived with. These are photos of a young Oak planted first with native Carex, some Podophyllum, Geranium and Phlox. He plants only to the drip line of the tree canopy and keeps adding plants as the canopy gets larger every year or two. He also burns the little area.

As I suggested earlier, we all have our loves and passions. But we have to know the plants. There can be no successful way to create gardens with all the qualities and forms of beauty we want. And we will often emotionally critique other people’s plantings, arguing back and forth about what each of us believes is a better way. Yet here’s what can take place with a knowledge of plants and all of us working together:

Each of us who is passionate about native plants and their benefits to all creatures can collaborate with others to help the park districts, cities, corporate campuses, and even golf courses that recognize they have too much turf and would appreciate thoughtful, successful alternatives. At the same time, we should never scold people for the turf they actually need for play, aesthetic continuity, and sports programs.

Working together, we can get diverse prairie plantings – at least 6 to 14 species per square meter – into park districts, cities, villages, and urban spaces where they are useful. If we cannot cooperate to do this in our public spaces, how will we ever get native plants into residential landscapes? Some people still think the prairie is untidy, harbors pests, or causes damage to their homes. We need to convince them of the health and beauty of the prairie.

We can help municipal agencies learn and work together, teaching proper long-term seeding practices to encourage plant diversity that will in the long run provide more habit for insects, birds, and small animals. We can encourage municipalities to get community residents involved in collecting and sowing the seeds and managing their plantings. We can share with them how beauty is not immediate but arrives and stays in many ways and at different times. We can show them how to pass the process on to the next generation of families and residents. As we accomplish this together, thousands of acres of unused, mowed turf will become prairie, connecting one city to the next and inspiring all their residents. Then, as more and more people see the beauty and activity of a genuine developing prairie, they will find ways to bring the activities into their own gardens, and native plants will have a home in all our neighborhoods.

10-year-old seeded prairie, seeded every November to continue adding diversity. Each seeding is nurtured by the previous plants established.  This is the thoughtful, smart practice of Tom Vanderpoel who very sadly passed away two years ago.

With knowledge of plants, vegetables don’t have to be separated into their own areas. They can live well with native and non-native perennials, annuals, shrubs, and trees. With knowledge of plants, perennial gardens will be cared for in a way that responds to every plant’s healthy ability to grow with and into other groups of plants, without requiring constant mulching, dividing, and replacement. When planted thoughtfully, annuals can strengthen and enliven plantings of perennials and shrubs. Annuals can become components of a process and complement the quiet, durable plants that make up the majority of the long-term plantings.

In each planting situation I have mentioned native plants. It is hard to understand why people would not appreciate the value of using native plants in every style of planting. At the same time, assuming all plantings should consist of only native plants seems short-sighted and limiting to the possibilities for expanding the use and joy of natives. I think we can all agree that we are a community of many, living together, working together, and trying to understand how to do it better and smarter. We have to be, for many reasons.

Whatever your personal passions, beliefs, hopes, and necessary dreams, I urge you to leave opportunities for others who may have different thoughts, but who also want to live in beauty, be healthy, and plant the earth in smart ways. We can all probe deeper and pursue truths together, raising the level of beauty, managing time and money effectively, and living enthusiastically with others.

Copyright The Prairie Garden. Used with permission. 

Roy Diblik, co-founder of Northwind Perennial Farm, is a recognized perennial plant expert, grower, designer, speaker and author.

Good Plant, Bad Plant, Native and Non-Native. Is it That Simple? originally appeared on GardenRant on March 13, 2020.

The post Good Plant, Bad Plant, Native and Non-Native. Is it That Simple? appeared first on GardenRant.

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