For landscape success, incorporate native plants

By KARY SHIVELY

OSU Ext. master gardener volunteer

The interest in natural landscaping and gardening with native plants is growing.

This is due in part to the effort to save the honeybee population, our essential pollinators, and our native animals, which require Ohio native plants to subsist and thrive.

A plant is considered native if it was here before the European settlement about 350 years ago.

Naturally adapted to the soil and climate of the area, they grow and thrive without human intervention and are openly pollinated, self-seeding or perennial plants, including trees and shrubs.

Most thrive under adverse conditions.

If a “wild” look is your desire, try doing a native wildflower garden instead of planting an annual flower bed.

This is best done in the fall so stratification of the seeds can occur during fall and winter. Put down 10 layers of newspaper and apply 2-3 inches of hardwood mulch.

Scatter your seeds in the proper light requirements for the seeds you have chosen.

Then just wait.

Ohio Prairie Nursery is a good source for seeds and information.

If you want to keep your current landscape feel, there are numerous options for native plants. They can match the look and feel of your current landscape, while inviting native pollinators.

Little bluestem (beard grass), Schizachyrium scoparium is a great ornamental grass. The bluish blades and purple plumes in late summer and early fall provide all season interest. Plant it in full sun. At maturity, it will be about 3 feet tall and 15 to 18 inches wide.

Replace Amur honeysuckle, Lonicera maackii, with the shrub summersweet, Clethra alnifolia (sweet pepperbush). Clethra has a very sweet-smelling intense scent on white racemes in summer. This is a great plant to bring in beneficial pollinators. Your location can be sun to partial shade, with a moist to wet acidic, organically enriched soil. This shrub will generally reach 4-10 feet in height and 4-6 feet in width.

Remove your Japanese barberry, Berberis spp., and replace it with blue indigo, Baptisia. The very name of this plant describes its glorious color. These substantial plants are normally very long-lived and vigorous, although a bit slow to establish. Being a member of the pea family, they have lupine-like flowers ideal for cutting. Plant in a full sun location and they grow 3 to 4 feet tall and wide. Blue indigo is generally pest- and disease-free.

Try the gray-twigged dogwood in a moist location with full sun to light shade. It will rarely exceed 6 feet in height. This is a lovely shrub when used as a low-growing wild hedge. You should transplant in early spring for the best results. It produces white flowers in June and July, then white fruits on bright red stalks in September and October. Birds love the fruit.

Native plants are best sourced from a local nursery or a native plant society. It is illegal to remove native plants from parks or private property without permission.

To view a list and get started on selecting plants for your garden, go to http://go.osu.edu/nativelist.