Native plants are central to our ecosystems; they evolved here and are deeply interconnected with our shared earth; soils, water, air, microorganisms, insects, amphibians and every creature that depends on our shared space for food and shelter.

Urbanization, and the desert lawns of suburbia, have fragmented and virtually destroyed most of the natural areas throughout our region. In addition, invasive species, pesticides and climate change are also creating pressures on local flora and fauna. A combination of challenges is proving particularly difficult for migrating birds and butterflies and is a contributing factor to population collapses and general ecological degradation.

Each of us can help heal the damage in both large and small ways. Every little green space with native plants is a refuge and together each large and tiny space creates corridors for migration, rest, food, water and shelter. Micro-ecosystems that connect and support wildlife are especially important in our area because we are in a very busy migration corridor. Every green space with native plants helps…

Resources

Planting Guide for the NYC region
Best Plants for Native Bees
Best Plants for Native Birds
Best Plants for Native Butterflies

Small Steps Together

Support local ecosystems, with our window boxes, pots, rooftops and gardens.

Bring local flair and style, a uniqueness that is truly New York, and a personal statement of beauty defined by who and where we are.

Whether you are planting containers of native flowering perennials, a shade garden with local woodland ferns and grasses, or a sun soaked roof garden in the sky with local mountain plants, sustaining green can be gorgeous and environmentally generous.

Widen ideas of gardening. 

Watch as butterflies complete life cycles on native plants, supporting monarch caterpillars feeding on the leaves of our butterfly weed without using pesticides requires a little refocusing on the use of gardens as ecosystems. This can bring a beauty that transcends the perfection of that uneaten leaf. The beauty of being present, here in New York, as a sentient and participating gardener contributing to a healthy ecosystem is reason enough to use native plants wherever possible.

Reduce lawns and hardscaping where possible and replace with native plants. 

Please look at the front of the Brooklyn Museum. They have replaced the lawns and juniper plantings with native herbaceous plants. The result is wonderful, visually and ecologically. On different scales many gardeners can replicate this and create more connecting ecological micro gardens that form corridors of support for native and migrating pollinators and birds.

Eliminate use of ecologically damaging pesticides and herbicides.

Manage our gardens to support wildlife through the seasons. Leave grasses and perennials untrimmed until mid March. Do not remove most leaves from planted areas. This provides overwintering food and shelter for many native creatures, and is great for most native plants and for the soil. Many plants look beautiful through the winter months and choosing native plants with good winter structure is a fun part of all season gardening. Develop our aesthetic and skill to encompass winter gardens unique to New York!

Where possible gardens should use native plants of local provenance. Building little ecosystems that are beautiful and adapted to the unique conditions of our slice of New York is ideal, and supports genetic diversity. But often only small steps are possible, and that is just fine! In many New York gardens chosen forms/named cultivars can provide predictable garden attributes that are necessary in order to fit into our smaller spaces, both visually and practically. Each plant that we grow will help to support our unique New York ecosystems.

Native Plant Examples

Achillea millefolium
Yarrow
Commonly known as yarrow, this hardy perennial is admired for its feathery, fern-like foliage and flat-topped clusters of tiny, bright white flowers. Blooms from late spring to early fall. Drought-tolerant once established. Its aromatic leaves are finely dissected, giving the plant a delicate, lace-like appearance. In addition to its ornamental value, yarrow attracts pollinators such as bees and butterflies, contributing to the ecological health of the garden. The plant's historical use in traditional medicine for its anti-inflammatory and antiseptic properties further enhances its appeal. 

Amsonia hubrectii 
Narrowleaf Blue Star
This long overlooked native perennial deserves a prime stretch of real estate in any landscape with its massive flower show, its fine textured form, and its electric fall foliage color display. It's a plant for all seasons and one that is extremely easy to grow and adaptable to moist soils or dry. Foliage emerges willow-like on a myriad of thick, whip-like stems that form an open, flowing, yet dense mounded presence in the garden. Mid-May is heralded by the appearance of thousands of small, light blue, five petalled stars that group at the top of the stems and put on a show that will draw gasps from your neighbors. The flower show continues throughout June but, once it's done, this plant doesn't just fade away. Its foliage keeps its cool, clean green throughout the summer and, as the weather cools in the fall, explodes into a supernova of yellow color that can be seen from across the yard and beyond. Bluestar loves full sun or light shade and is as carefree in the garden as you can get!

Aristolochia Macrophylla
Dutchman's Pipe Vine
This long time favorite native is grown for its large heart-shaped, glossy green leaves which can quickly cover porches and arbors. The name comes from the flower's resemblance to Dutch smoking pipes. This is the larval host plant for the blue and black pipevine swallowtail butterfly. It is a fast-growing vine that can cover up to 15' in one season. Responds well to generous feeding and watering. This wonderful herbaceous vine grows quickly each summer season, emerging in May and growing up to 15' per year. It is spectacular in form, generous in flowering and tolerant of many of our local conditions. It thrives with sun and part shade, and appreciates good levels of watering and fertile soil. 

Asclepias tuberosa
Butterfly Milkweed
This drought-tolerant perennial boasts small orange flowers that emerge in mid-July and continue into August. As a native plant, it attracts Monarch butterflies and supports their entire life span. This chosen form brings additional fauna to urban gardens–Birds also love this plant for its seed fluff that provides food and nesting material. 

Asclepias tuberosa 'Gay Butterflies’ 
Butterfly Weed
Not only is 'Gay Butterflies' spectacular to look at, with its vivid orange flat-topped flowers with red overtones and yellow centers but it is highly nutritional and attractive to beneficial pollinators. Blooms are bountiful clusters on strong upright stems. Drought resistant once established. 

Bouteloua gracilis 
Blonde Ambition Blue Grama Grass
‘Blond Ambition' has a unique, flag-like flower, unlike any other. A profusion of chartreuse blooms appears in mid-summer attracting butterflies. As the flowers mature, they take on a blond color, quite nice in floral arrangements. Ground feeding birds enjoy the seed in autumn. Easy to grow, and drought tolerant, a low maintenance gem. 

Campanula rotundifolia ‘Bluebell’
This meadow native is a perfect, long-blooming addition to any sunny garden. Upright stems are tipped with buds that open continuously throughout the summer to show off nodding, blue, bell-shaped flowers that are highly sought by native pollinators. 

Chasmanthium latifolium 
Northern Sea Oats
It's amazing how tolerant this grass is without giving up anything in the beauty department. New stems emerge from the soil each spring forming an upright clump with wide, deep green grass blades that curl downward at the end giving a pleasing upright yet flowing texture. Seed stalks rise above the foliage in the summer and flower in August, bearing unique wide, flattened seed heads that are outstanding ornamentally and cherished by colorful birds for late summer and fall feeding. Even this plant's coppery winter foliage color adds to the landscape while its tolerance of any conditions from dry and shaded to sunny and moist make it a garden treasure.

Clethra alnifolia 'Hummingbird'
Hummingbird Summer Sweet
A dense, compact selection with lustrous, deep, dark green foliage and a profusion of long, extremely fragrant flower spikes that will really add spice to any early to mid-summer landscape. Like the species, 'Hummingbird' tolerates shade, and moist soil conditions and lights up the fall landscape with a bright yellow show of fall foliage. Grows in full sun to part shade. 

Coreopsis pubescens 'Sunshine Superman'
Tickseed
This powerhouse bloomer flowers from early summer into October covering its soft green foliage and rounded, spreading form with masses of yellow-orange color. Neither heat or mildew seems to phase this performer that loves to be grouped and always has a flock of butterflies nearby. Blooms all season, attracts pollinators, great in arrangements.

Echinacea purpurea 
Purple Coneflower
Echinacea purpurea is one of the great butterfly magnets of the native perennial garden. Coneflowers are easy to grow in average to dry, well-drained soils. Flowers with large orange-gold spiky centers and strong reflexed rose-pink petals appear in July and August. Very drought tolerant. 

Echinacea purpurea 'Mellow Yellows' 
Mellow Yellows Coneflower
This native plant is a beautiful and long-lasting coneflower, with light yellow and golden petals surrounding an orange eye. It is a vigorous and sturdy plant that makes for an excellent cut flower. It lures pollinators with its nectar. 

Hibiscus moscheutos 
Swamp Rose Mallow
There isn't a plant with bigger, showier flowers in the garden than this plant with its huge summer blooms that attracts a host of colorful garden creatures to help liven up the landscape. It emerges late from the soil in the spring with big, round foliage on upright stems. Buds appear at stem ends in July and open later in the month to reveal huge, 8" diameter pink flowers with red eyes that will put every local hummingbird on alert for its nectar. Flowers continue to open into early September providing an unparalleled garden show on a plant that is so easy to grow with its love of sunny areas and tolerance of lots of soil moisture. This plant provides a great caterpillar food source for some of our favorite butterflies while also providing great cover and nesting material for birds, too.

Hydrangea arborescens ‘Pinky Pollen Ring’™ Smooth Hydrangea
Make your garden come alive with this easy to grow, stunning Hydrangea that features stiff, upright stems, deep green foliage, and clouds of pastel pink, lace cap flower disks that will create a frenzy of pollinator activity in your garden! It is the perfect summer pollinator plant and so easy to grow. Great for container planting. Prefers full to partial sun with well drained soil. A butterfly magnet. 

Itea ‘Fountains of Rouge’™
Virginia Sweetspires
Do you need an aromatic plant that will grow in the sun or shade? This exclusive selection offers compact and deep green, leathery foliage that lights up the fall garden with the best red color show of any of the Itea’s. Long, 6"+ wands of fragrant white bloom appear in late spring attracting pollinators. Past flower wands are loaded with seeds for hungry native birds. Attracts butterflies & bees! 

Lobelia Cardinalis
Cardinal Flower
This plant forms a dense clump of upright stems crowded with almost fleshy, medium green foliage. Buds form at the tops of these stems and give rise to a profuse amount of scarlet-red, two lipped tubular flowers in late July continuing right into September. Hummingbirds find these flowers an irresistible source of nectar as do colorful butterflies and swallowtails, while spent flower heads and stems provide nesting to birds and cover for small native animals and insects. Provide these plants with consistently moist soil and some room in the garden and it will put on a stunning summer show!

Lysimachia ‘Burgundy Mist’
Lance-leaved Loosestrife
Easy to grow and showy, this short, spreading groundcover asks for very little but offers great reward in the garden in the form of a summer-long show of bright yellow flowers above wine-colored, lance-like foliage. Perfect for massing, outstanding in container gardens and pollinators love it.

Monarda ‘Raspberry Wine’ 
Raspberry Wine Beebalm
Wine red flowers open from buds that resemble raspberries. A stunning and long flowering perennial that makes a great cut flower and the petals are edible. The flowers' sweet nectar attracts scores of hummingbirds, butterflies, and bees to the garden. The aromatic foliage smells like mint when crushed and is often used to flavor teas. Attractive, dark green foliage exhibits excellent mildew resistance. Plant in sun to partial shade.

Muhlenbergia capillaris 
Muhly Grass
This native's tidy clumps of very fine blue foliage provide color and texture to the garden, but in late summer or fall they explode into bloom with clouds of airy pink flowers that last for many weeks. Stunningly beautiful, even in heat, humidity or drought! This grass is prized by birds for its seed, cover and nesting attributes. 

Physostegia ‘Miss Manners’
Miss Manners Obedient Plant
For years the Obedient Plant was known as a garden sprawler, but this chosen form holds its place in the garden without flopping, earning its namesake. This plant provides great color while supporting native fauna. 'Miss Manners' is known for its strong stems that emerge from the soil and grow straight up, forming a plant with a tall, narrow profile that is covered in dark green, long, narrow, almost waxy leaves. Elegant flower spikes open with pure white flowers that many butterflies love. 'Miss Manners' prefers a sunny area and will really put on a show planted in groups. It also integrates well with many other herbaceous plants, providing unparalleled structure in addition to their lovely flowers. A wonderful addition to brighten urban gardens!

Scutellaria 'Appalachian Blue'
Appalachian Blues Skullcap
Named by Peter Heus for the mountains where it naturally grows, 'Appalachian Blues' is a wonderful addition to almost any place in the garden since it loves the sun or shade. It has a compact, clumping habit, with serrated leaves and bicolor flowers (blueish-purple and white) that will grow to just 2' tall. One of the best and most easily grown flowers for urban gardens. It should be used by most gardeners for summer flowers; sophisticated and environmentally friendly!

Interested in growing native plants in your urban garden? Click here to see what natives we currently have in-stock.