Gardening Sweet Spots
By Donna Hessel
Native Plants Attract Pollinators
Native plants are those that occur naturally in a region in which they evolved. They are the ecological basis upon which life depends, including birds and people. Without them and the insects that co-evolved with them, local birds cannot survive. Plants cannot be pollinated.
Research by the entomologist Doug Tallamy has shown that native oak trees support over 500 species of caterpillars whereas ginkgos, a commonly planted landscape tree from Asia, host only five species of caterpillars. When it takes more than 6,000 caterpillars to raise one brood of chickadees, that is a significant difference. Unfortunately, most of the landscaping plants available in our local nurseries are non-native species from other countries. While colorful and exotic-looking, they not only break the food web, but many have become invasive pests. They out-compete native species and degrade habitat in remaining natural areas.
Native pollinators, including butterflies, bees, hummingbirds, moths and bats, also pollinate food crops as well as more than 75% of the world’s flowering plants. Like the monarchs, reduction in numbers of these pollinators is also being seen. For many pollinators, the plants they rely on are native plants that are facing their own threats from invasive species, development and a changing climate. A key to making native pollinators more abundant is increasing native plant abundance.
That’s where you can help. Even a container or window box with native flowers will help. If you have a lawn, tolerating dandelions provides an early spring pollinator meal before other flowers appear. Consider replacing a patch of manicured grass with a native plant garden.
Benefits of Native Plants
- Low Maintenance: Once established, native plants generally require little maintenance.
- Beauty: Native plants offer beautiful, showy flowers, produce colorful fruits and seeds, and brilliant seasonal color changes.
- Healthy Places for People: Lawns and bark-mulched beds require large amounts of artificial fertilizers, chemical pesticides and herbicides. By replacing some grass with native plants, you are helping wildlife and pollinators and creating a healthier place for your family and community.
- Helping the Climate: Combatting climate change is critical. Native plants, especially long-living trees like oaks and maples, are effective at storing the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. More native plant gardens mean reduced noise and carbon pollution from lawn mower exhaust.
- Conserving Water: Because native plants are adapted to the local environmental conditions, they require less water. This saves time, money and our most valuable natural resource — water.
- Wildlife: Native plants provide habitat for birds and wildlife. Butterflies and moths, including monarchs, swallowtails, tortoiseshells and beautiful blues we love to see, are all dependent on very specific plant species. Native plants provide nectar for pollinators, including hummingbirds, native bees, butterflies and bats. They provide protective shelter for many mammals. The native nuts, seeds and fruits produced offer essential foods for all forms of wildlife.
Native Plants to Choose
Ohio has almost 1900 native plants. You may already have some of these in your gardens or containers. Sunflowers have become very popular recently, but there are just a few that are native to Ohio. If you want to “go native,” try one of these: Giant sunflower (Helianthus giganteus), Sawtooth sunflower (Helianthus grosseserratus), Maximilian sunflower (Helianthus maximilian), Ashy sunflower (Helianthus mollis) and Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus).
Listed below are 26 other flowers and a couple of grasses you might want to try. Enter the common or botanical name in a search engine to find the best growing conditions for each of them.
- Western Yarrow (Achillea millefolium var. occidentalis)
- Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnate)
- Showy Milkweed (Asclepias speciosa)
- Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberose)
- Smooth Aster (Aster laevis)
- Canadian Milkvech (Astragalus canadensis)
- Partridge Pea (Chamaecrista fasciculate)
- Lanceleaf Coreopsis (Coreopsis lanceolata)
- Plains Coreopisis (Coreopsis tinctoria)
- Purple Prairie Clover (Dalea purpurea)
- Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)
- Rattlesnake Master (Eryngium yuccifolium)
- Common Gllardia (Gallardia aristata)
- Indian Blanket (Gallardia pulchella)
- Dense Blazingstar (Liatris spicata)
- Great Lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica)
- Lemon Beebalm (Monarda citriodora)
- Wild Bergamont (Monarda fistulosa)
- Foxglove Beardtongue (Penstemon digitalis)
- White Wand Beardtongue (Penstemon tubaeflorus)
- Narrow Leaved Mountain Mint (Pycnanthemum tenuifolium)
- Virginia Mountain Mint (Pycnanthemum virginianum)
- Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta)
- Dwarf Goldenrod (Solidago nemoralis)
- Ohio Spiderwort (Tradescantia ohiensis)
- Golden Alexanders (Zizia aurea)
- Autumn Bentfrass (Agrostis perennans)
- Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium)
Check this website for a downloadable pdf of native plants: prairiemoon.com/PDF/Prairie-Moon-Holm.Native-Plant-Insect-Interactions.pdf.
Plant a Pollinator Garden this Spring
Choose an area in full sun, a generally flat spot with reasonable soil. Use a hose, rope or string to lay out the shape of your bed. It doesn’t have to be square. Curves are beautiful and will enhance the appearance of your landscape. You can plant seed at any time, but during the month of April is perfect. The only bad time to plant seed is during the hot, dry months of summer. To prepare your site, remove any rocks or debris. If lawn is present, either mow it as low as possible or use a string trimmer to remove grass down to the soil. There is no need to till the soil. Do not use chemicals to kill the plants on your selected site!
Cover the site with cardboard or multiple layers of newspaper. Spray with water to keep papers in place. Wetting this layer assures it makes good contact with the soil and that it forms a barrier that will suppress weeds. Cover the paper layer with three to five inches of aged, clean, mulch. Mulch can be pine straw, very small pine bark nuggets or topsoil mixed with peat moss, leaf mold or compost. Do not use topsoil alone.
If you choose seeds of native plants for your plot, it will help to use a “carrier” to plant them since some are very tiny. Mix the seed with playground sand and then take handfuls and throw them across the garden. The sand will allow you to see where you have seeded and where more seed is needed. When the seed has been dispersed, gently rake the top one-quarter inch. Native seeds prefer to be near the surface of the soil, so your goal is to help the seed make good soil contact with minimal disturbance. If you prefer to plant seedlings, check the list below for local nurseries that carry native plants.
It will take longer to see the results from planting seeds than seedlings. But by the end of summer, a few of your little plants will flower. Typically, seed-planted gardens are very sparse the first year. The second year, you typically see more plants germinate and grow; and it’s not until the third year that your garden will be full of wonderful, flowering native plants. If you would like to see your new garden filled with color and pollinators the first summer, select some non-native annuals. They will fill in and flower all summer and die with the first hard frost in the fall, allowing the native plants to take over the following years.
Low Maintenance is a Benefit
Once seeded or planted, you may need to water occasionally during the first summer if it is very hot or dry for several weeks. Once the plants are established, no water should be needed. Once mature, mowing the plot once a year in the late spring with the mower set at the highest setting is all it will need. Since many native bees live in hollow garden stems over winter, mowing in late spring will make sure they are not harmed.
Local Nurseries Offering Native Plants
- Cahoon Nursery, 27630 Detroit Road, Westlake 44145; 440-871-3761
- Dayton Nurseries, 3459 South Cleveland Massillon Road, Norton, 44203; 330-825-3320
- Graf Growers, 1015 White Pond Drive, Akron 44320; 330-836-2727
- Holden Arboretum, 9550 Sperry Road, Kirtland 44094; 440-046-4400; Check website for announcement of an excellent May Native Plant sale.
- Suncrest Gardens, 5157 Akron Cleveland Road, Peninsula 44264; 330-650-4969
- OPN Seeds (previously Ohio Prairie Nursery), P.O. Box 174, Hiram 44234; 866-569-3380; mail order source; call for a catalog.
- Nodding Onion Gardens, LLC, Columbia Station, Cleveland 44028; seed-grown natives are sold at Frostville Farmer’s Market.
- Bremec Garden Centers, 12265 Chillicothe Road, Chesterland 44026; 440-729-2212. Also at 13410 Cedar Road, Cleveland Heights 44118; 216-932-0039. Good native plant selection.
- Bluestone Perennials, 7211 Middle Ridge Road, Madison 44057; 800-852-5243.
This website lists many additional local nurseries that offer native plants: ohionativeplantmonth.org/native-plant-sources
If you’re a local gardener, visit the Emerald Necklace Garden Club Plant Sale & Garden Faire on Saturday, May 7, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. The sale will be held in the covered picnic pavilion near the splash pad and playground at the Broadview Heights Rec Center located at Oakes and Broadview Roads in Broadview Heights. Find perennials, indoor plants, herbs, flowering patio baskets (just in time for Mother’s Day giving), tomato seedlings including heirlooms, and a selection of garden decor. Sales are cash or check only.
Given the reliance of pollinator insects and birds on native plants, every month should be Native Plant Month. Lawns require mowing, fertilizing, treating for insects and fungi, watering, aerating, over-seeding and more. They provide no nectar or pollen for bees, no food for butterflies, native birds or insects and no shelter for wildlife. Plan now to support pollinators and wildlife by including native plants in your gardens, containers or landscape this spring.
Article resources: ohionativeplantmonth.org/, ohionativeplantmonth.org/plant-a-pollinator-garden, Nature.org/Magazine – “Planting for Pollinators” – (Nature Conservancy, Spring 2020)
Photos courtesy pexels.com
