Gardening With Wildflowers: A Native Niche
By Sara Michalak
columbine
indigo
Native columbines and false indigo
are two lovely wildflowrs natve
to our region.
Photos by Richard Clifton.
Wildflowers are appearing on gardeners’ lists of must-haves these days. If a new palette of drop-dead gorgeous and environmentally appropriate ornamental possibilities are among your gardening priorities, it’s time to get into the natural landscape thing. Forget any fears about wildflowers causing allergies, attracting mosquitoes, or making yards look like weed patches. If you plant with care, there’s no need to worry.

Gardening with native flora can be as simple as adding some asters to your perennial border, or as comprehensive as transforming your property into a spring-flowering woodland with goldstars, wild bleeding heart, and bluebells. How about turning the yard into a meadow habitat for songbirds and butterflies with a menagerie of coneflowers, liatris, sunflower, and phlox? The ultimate in eye-candy! And consider some of the many rationales to grow these plants: “native” refers to the flora that have evolved for centuries in a given region without the aid of human importation.They’ve adapted to the area’s insects, soil, and climate; pesticides, fertilizers, watering, and other forms of coddling are unnecessary. And they’re generally non-invasive as well as uninteresting to deer and rabbits.

In addition to their undoubted beauty native flora have developed a healthy give-and-take with the environment that can be put to work by gardeners—addressing exceedingly moist or shady areas, for example. Cardinal flower, for one, thrives with its feet wet while hosting all the neighborhood’s hummingbirds. Maidenhair ferns transform a stark, lightless corner into an ethereal Shangri-la.

Easier and cheaper to maintain once established, native plants have gained the attention of budget- and time-conscious homeowners as well as schools, municipalities, and businesses.The environmentally concerned among us will be interested, too, that these flora contribute to the habitat’s well-being by improving air, water, and soil quality—making what’s good for nature good for people, too.

purple coneflower
Purple coneflower.
Photo by Richard Clifton.
The natural landscaping movement has grown exponentially since the 1960s, thanks in large measure to federal legislation. Based on their attractive, non-invasive, maintenance-free, and environmentally suitable qualities, native plants are now designated for restoration and beautification along national and state highways and federally funded landscaping projects. (See Buffalo Spree, April 2005: Sally Jean Cunningham, “Making Buffalo a Better Place One Public Garden at a Time.”) These moves have affected millions of acres and millions of landscaping dollars, and they have had a major impact on the horticultural production of native flora.Growing plants that are a part of the region’s rich floral heritage—along roads, in parks and home gardens—has become a way of growing local pride, too.

So, how to start? Consult the sidebar for just a few easy perennial native wildflowers, by genus (first the common, then the italicized Latin name). Beyond these, the possibilities are near-endless. If you’re unsure what’s appropriate for your site, talk to a pro or use the online resources. Note: plants that are right for our hardiness zone are not necessarily native here.


SUNNY...

DRY SITES:
Butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa), asters (Aster novae-angliae, Aster novae-belgii), false indigo (Baptisia australis), coneflowers (Echinacea purpuria, Rudbeckia fulgida), Joe Pye (Eupatorium fistulosum), snakeroot (Eupatorium rugosum), sunflower (Helianthus), oxeye (Heliopsis helianthoides), blazing star (Liatris spicata), bee balm (Monarda fistulosa, M.punctata), beardtongue (Penstemon digitalis), stokesia (Stokesia laevis), vervain (Verbena hastata), Culver’s root (Veronicastrum virginicum)

MOIST/AVERAGE SITES:
Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata), aster (Aster novae-angliae, Aster novae-belgii), turtlehead (Chelone glabra), coneflower (Echinacea purpuria, Rudbeckia fulgida), Joe Pye (Eupatorium fistulosum), snakeroot (Eupatorium rugosum), wild geranium (Geranium maculatum), rose mallow (Hibiscus moscheutos), iris (Iris cristata, I. versicolor), lobelia (Lobelia cardinalis, L.siphilitica), bee balm (Monarda fistulosa, M. didyma), phlox (Phlox paniculata), Jacob’s ladder (Polemonium reptans), stonecrop (Sedum ternatum), Culver’s root (Veronicastrum spicata), ironweed (Vernonia novaboracensis), golden Alexander (Zizia aptera)
SHADY...

DRY SITES:
Canadian anemone (Anemone canadensis), wild columbine (Aquilegia canadensis), bluestar (Amsonia tabernaemontana), asters (Aster cordifolius, A. divaricatus), ageratum (Eupatorium coelestinum), wild geranium (Geranium maculatum), alumroot (Heuchera americana), iris (Iris cristata), phlox (Phlox divarcatus, P. stoloniferous), stonecrop (Sedum ternatum), blue-eyed grass (Sisyrinchium angustifolium),wreath goldenrod (Solidago caesia),violet (Viola labradorica)

MOIST SITES:
Wild columbine (Aquilegia canadensis), goatsbeard (Aruncus dioicus), asters (Aster cordifolius, A. divaricatus), Jack in the pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum), wild ginger (Asarum canadense), turtlehead (Chelone glabra), goldstar (Chrysogonum virginianum), black cohosh (Cimicifugia racemosa), wild bleeding heart (Dicentra eximia), wild geranium (Geranium maculatum), alumroot (Heuchera americana), iris (Iris cristata), lobelia (Lobelia cardinalis, L.siphilitica), bluebells (Mertensia virginicum), phlox (Phlox divarcatus, P. stoloniferous), Jacob’s ladder (Polemonium reptans), blue-eyed grass (Sisyrinchium angustifolium), foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia), birds foot violets (Viola pendata)



SOURCES FOR NATIVE FLORA AND NATIVE
LANDSCAPE DESIGN SERVICES:

Lockwood’s Greenhouses and Farm 4484 Clark Street, Hamburg; 646-1072;
Murray Brothers Nurseries 4399 Transit Road, Orchard Park; 662-3860
Johnson’s Nursery 11753 Big Tree Road, East Aurora; 652-8969

FOR PLANTS AND EXPERTISE IN THE WNY AREA, CONTACT:
Canadaway Wildflowers.
Dunkirk, 679-4387
Plants, consultation and design services.
Nativescapes.
10361 Bradigan Road, Forestville, 965-9794
Consultation and design services.


MAIL ORDER SOURCES FOR WILDFLOWERS,
FERNS, AND GRASSES:
Amanda’s Garden.
amandasgarden.com. Springwater, NY.;
(585) 669-2275
Wildflower Farm.
wildlfowerfarm.com. Coldwater, Ontario; 1-866-GRO WILD (1-866-476-9453).

GENERAL INFORMATION:
New England Wildflower Society. www.newfs.org
National Wildflower Research Center.
www.wildflower.org

Sara Baker Michalak writes and speaks on environmental topics. She operates Canadaway Wildflowers, a native flora nursery, in Dunkirk, canadawaywildflowers.com.


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