Why Native Plants?
Native plants are essential food sources for birds, insects, mammals, and other animals, thereby creating a healthy and robust local ecosystem.
By planting native plants in your garden, you are providing crucially needed habitat for such species, not to mention adding great beauty and resilience to the landscape.
Read more about some of our favorite native plants in the section below, and be sure to visit the Native Plant Trust website for more information and resources.
Common Milkweed
Asclepias syriaca
Milkweed - the ultimate monarch butterfly host plant, and a must for every pollinator garden.
Buttonbush
Cephalanthus occidentalis
One of our favorite native shrubs to plant in the garden! The pincushion blossoms are highly fragrant and are magnets for butterflies and many other beneficial insects.
Black Cohosh
Actaea racemosa
Black cohosh is native to North America and can be found growing from Eastern Canada all the way down to Georgia in the United States. An elegant plant for your shade garden.
Mist Flower
Conoclinium coelestinum
Mistflower is covered with fuzzy tufts of blue-violet flowers for at least five weeks from late summer until frost.
Wild Columbine
Aquilegia canadensis
Wild Columbine, also called Red or American Columbine, is one of the first plants to provide nectar in the spring for bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds.
Spotted Bee Balm
Monarda punctata
Spotted Bee Balm attracts an abundance of pollinators to the summer garden or meadow.
“If half of American lawns were replaced with native plants, we would create the equivalent of a 20-million-acre national park — nine times bigger than Yellowstone, or 100 times bigger than Shenandoah National Park.”
— Doug Tallamy