Native Plants for Sale in Regular Stores

 

You can find native plants for sale in regular stores if you know how to recognize them. All you really need is a scientific name and a smartphone to identify them. I have often said both of those statements. This week I decided to see if they are still valid statements. I visited 4 places in my area to get a sense of what stock is out there: a large nursery that specializes in shrubs and trees (Buck Jones Nursery); a large all-purpose nursery (Pike); Home Depot; and Lowe’s.

The best of the 4 places was Buck Jones. I found a good selection of native shrubs and trees. It is consistently one of the only places that I have found mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia) in the spring, plus sweetshrub (Calycanthus floridus), Virginia sweetspire (Itea virginica), summersweet (Clethra alnifolia), oakleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia), Florida hobblebush (Agarista populifolia), blueberry (Vaccinium), Rhododendron and native azaleas, and even buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis).  They also have a small selection of perennials (lots of Phlox this time of year), but the native ferns selection is poor (one species only but none of the other places had even one). Many of these are cultivars associated with a dwarf form for smaller landscapes. The following photos are from Buck Jones.

Pike Nursery has native plants to be found, like Buck Jones, tucked among the much bigger selection of non-native plants. They have a better selection of native perennials than Buck Jones (plus two native grasses and even one native annual, Salvia coccinea), but they are all cultivars and many are hybrids. I could not find native Juniper virginiana here (or anywhere), but they had weeping forms of white pine (Pinus strobus) and Eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis). A real surprise was finding something as unusual as Magnolia acuminata 'Yellow Bird' in bloom there.

I was disappointed that when I said I was looking for native plants, the Pike employee showed me a Vitex agnus-castus. I said that is not native, and he replied that “Plants that have been here a while are considered native.” I immediately replied that is absolutely not true! To his credit, he asked what is considered to be the proper definition of nativity after I said that. The following photos are from Pike.

I was especially disappointed with Home Depot and Lowe’s. Their tree and shrub selection has almost exclusively gone to non-native selections, perhaps because they are buying from a list that features few natives. I feel like they have changed for the worse over the last 10 years. At both places, much of their inventory is the ‘Southern Living’ collection, an ill-named suite of plants that has nothing to do with Southern ecosystems. Where they once carried the evergreen Ilex vomitoria ‘Nana’ for foundation plantings, now Home Depot only has Japanese holly (Ilex crenata); Lowe’s did have a few Ilex vomitoria among the sea of I. crenata. The following photos are from Home Depot.

The following photos are from Lowes.

At best, these big box stores offer a seasonal selection of perennials that include a few native species: Phlox, black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia), Coreopsis, as well as shrubs like blueberries (Vaccinium), and evergreen Rhododendron and  native trees like red maple (Acer rubrum), flowering dogwood (Benthamidia florida, formerly Cornus florida), and redbud (Cercis canadensis is the native redbud). Vines may include Carolina jessamine (Gelsemium sempervirens) and native wisteria (Wisteria frutescens ‘Amethyst Falls’). Many of their plants are cultivars or hybrids.  

A word about recognizing hybrids (examples below): If the name on the tag has an ‘x’ in the middle then it’s a hybrid (Rhododendron x aromi ‘Tipsey Tangerine’ – note it is wrong to call this a native azalea as its genes include more than just native ones). If the name on the tag lists only the genus name (Paparazzi Jagger Phlox), it is most likely a hybrid. If the name of the tag includes both genus and species (Cephalanthus occidentalis 'Bailoptics') then it is a selection of a species (in this case, for dwarf form).

The downsides of shopping in big box stores include: seasonal inventory (once spring stock is gone at Home Depot and Lowe’s, they move onto summer color); the potential that plants are raised with pesticides (Home Depot is good about labeling for that); poor signage (‘native’ is usually not indicated or the name provided may be insufficient to do research); and employees are there for stocking not plant knowledge.

Please know that I absolutely recommend that you first shop at dedicated native plant nurseries. They offer a reliable and dedicated selection of native plants year-round, many grown without pesticides, and are run by families who are dedicated to the cause of native ecosystems. 

If those nurseries are not available to you, these other stores may be your only option. I would encourage you to get to know the staff, ask them to order specific plants that you want, and get the selection improved by demand for more native choices. Education is key and some people just don’t know; tell them why having native plants in their selection matters. These places do stock invasive plants: English ivy, privet, nandina, mahonia, butterfly bush. Ask them to consider reducing their stock of known problem plants and adding native plants (and signage) instead. Change won’t happen without our input.

March 2023 Moment in Nature

This post is a bit of a follow-up to last week's crazy spring post. Folks all over the internet were worried about the temperature dips we had last week. There were several nights when the temperature went below 32 just before sunrise. Native plant enthusiasts know that native plants are well-adapted to a little spring fluctuation.

So I didn't obsess over the forecast and watched as my budding blackhaw viburnum (Viburnum prunifolium) opened into full bloom this week without any issue. This large shrub/small tree is one of my favorite plants to recommend for small spaces where it provides much value to the local ecosystem and much beauty for the homeowner (it has fabulous fall color too). It has a nice upright form that doubles as a small tree.

Viburnum prunifolium this week

More low temps are coming this week so we get to watch and learn some more. It all depends on how long the blooms/leaves have been unfurled (have they hardened off), how low the temperatures go, and how many hours the temps are below freezing.

Whose Spring Is This?

 

It’s been a crazy spring even before it’s officially spring. Georgians are used to having some early flowers in February, particularly in South Georgia and especially true for some of our spring ephemerals that depend on sunlight in deciduous forests. This February went too far!

I’ve been watching on Facebook the reports of blooms from around the state (plant groups are a great place to see what others are finding) and the woody blooms (trees and shrubs) have been particularly startling. Most people agree that some blooms are 3-4 weeks ahead of usual.

In my own yard, the blooms of Chickasaw plum and blueberries are about 3 weeks ahead of previous years. I wondered if the native bees would wake up in time and yes, they have. The azaleas appear to be on their normal schedule (still in bud) but the blackhaw viburnum (Viburnum prunifolium) is two weeks early.

While my azaleas are ‘normal,’ a friend just 10 minutes south of me sent me photos of his Piedmont azalea (Rhododendron canescens) in full bloom the last week of FEBRUARY. Normally mine bloom the first of April. I’ve seen reports of blooming serviceberry (Amelanchier sp.) in Atlanta while my plants are just barely opening their first buds. My previous photos showed serviceberry blooming the 3^rd week of March.

A friend found her first Eastern tiger swallowtail the last week of February. I saw two myself this week. Those are early as well.

Tiger swallowtails love native azaleas like this Piedmont one (R. canescens)

Columnist Margaret Renkl posted in the New York Times (link to the article here) this week about “The Beautiful and Terrifying Arrival of an Early Spring.” She shared some of her early blooms in Nashville: “Everywhere spring was unfurling its annual magnificence weeks ahead of the norm, even the recent norm. Last year I found the first spring beauty in our yard on March 10. This year it was Feb. 16. Last year the first buds on our redbud showed up on March 24. This year it was Feb. 23. Same story with the early buttercups: Last year they bloomed on March 23. This year it was Feb. 25.”

Two concerns with early blooms are the insect aspect as I mentioned (will early flowers get pollinated?) and the fear of late freeze damage. In the time I’ve lived here, we’ve had snow (12 inches!) on March 13 (1993) and a late freeze in early April 2007 that severely damaged fruit crops. That freeze introduced many of us to the concept that trees and shrubs can sprout new leaves from dormant buds. All my woody plants recovered and sprouted new leaves eventually.

In addition to the concern about insect pollination is the potential decline in wind pollination; both of which leads to reduced fruits. I saw only one oak blooming; without others blooming, will it get sufficient pollination? Plants that rely on cross pollination (blueberries, paw paws) need at least two plants blooming at the same time; with this weird spring, will that happen? We’ll have to wait and see across all these factors how pollination fared this year. Everything has a ripple effect: reduced pollination equals reduced populations of critters (small mammals and birds) that rely on those fruits and nuts and the critters (larger birds, larger mammals) that rely on those critters. Reduced fruits also mean fewer new plants as well.

It’s too soon to say this is the new normal. This year might just be an odd one and spring will return to its usual schedule next year. For now, it’s sufficient to say this is not our usual spring. We’ll have to see what comes of it.

Cutting Back

 

It’s that time of year when warm temperatures and spring growth inspire us to cut back or tidy up the perennial and annual plant stems that we deliberately let remain over winter. We left them there so that overwintering insects could finish out their lifecycle (or be eaten by winter birds, whichever). Need a refresher? Read my blog entry from March 2017.

This year, as I eyed the jungle of dried stems, I found yet another reason to support having those old stems. I spied a small blob of bright green: a young green tree frog (the Georgia State Amphibian) was clinging to a dead fern frond. As I looked more in that area, I found 3 more frogs doing exactly the same thing

Clearly the thick growth felt like a safe place to them. Each evening they would disappear, emerging the next day in the sunshine, sometimes clinging to a different stem. I’ve had tadpoles growing in a container on the driveway nearby for several years in a row. I wonder if these little guys came from there. I can’t wait to grow some more this year!