Go native: 9 plants for WNY
By Elizabeth Licata
Planting a twenty-foot-deep swath of native perennials—or better yet, a native tree—will do much to provide habitat for birds, bees, butterflies, and other creatures essential to maintaining biodiversity in our region. There are so many great choices, but some of my current favorites are:
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Photos from Native Plants of the Northeast.
Photos by Donald Leaopold, Timber Press. |
Milkweed (Asclepias)
There are many varieties of this plant. The ones available in Western New York, as well as through such excellent mail order companies as Bluestone Perennials (www.bluestoneperennials.com), are great for providing structure in the garden, flowers, interesting seed pods, and, most important, habitat for monarch butterflies.
Trout lily (erythronium)
This spring bulb provides beautiful foliage as well as flowers in April. It is small and easy to plant among tree roots, shady spots, and other difficult places. The foliage eventually dies back, so it’s best to plant this among ground cover and other perennials, where its summer absence will not be noticed.
Joe Pye weed (eupatorium)
If you’ve ever been to Reinstein Woods or Tifft, you have seen a species form of this in abundance. It has lightly scented flowers and now comes in lots of hybridized versions including a dark-stemmed “chocolate” version. This is a bee and butterfly magnet, and will grow in partial shade.
Lobelia (lobelia siphilitica)
No, not the pretty blue annual, but the perennial native lobelia which has spikes of blue flowers on a plant of medium height. This is great for shade and damp spots.
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Planting a single native tree is probably the best thing you can do for local biodiversity. Unfortunately, current nursery fads often stress non-native varieties, and once established, a tree is a big pain to replace. If you’ve yet to replace a tree downed by the 2006 storm, choose a native, like the fast-growing red maple (acer rubrum). Sadly, we have a lot of alien Norway maples; this is a much better choice for habitat and looks. Instead of the alien Kouza dogwood, how about the equally attractive flowering dogwood (cornus Florida)? Look for strains that are disease resistant. Other great American trees to choose are the majestic bur oak (quercus macrocarpa) and the spectacular paper birch (betula papyrifera) with its peeling bark. I am also a big fan of the Amercan mountain ash (sorbus Americana), which has berries in the fall.
I’ve never thought of myself as a particularly patriotic type, but native plants are where I get on the America-first bandwagon. You should too, if you want a garden that’s easier to maintain and provides good habitat for the wildlife—birds, bees, and butterflies—we actually want to see in the yard.
Elizabeth Licata is editor of Buffalo Spree.
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