The story below is from our May/June 2024 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
Explore its history and benefits, and discover five native plants perfect for Roanoke gardens.
You may have come across the term “native gardening” if you’ve been curious about starting a garden for the first time. The concept, while not new to master gardeners and horticulturists, has had a surge of popularity in the last few years for its low maintenance needs and positive environmental impact. But what is native gardening?
What Is Native Gardening? A Brief History
Native gardening is the practice of working with plants that are considered original to the region. In America, a plant is generally considered to be native if it was established before European settlement. According to the state Department of Conservation and Recreation, over 30,000 plant species have been introduced to the country since 1492, fewer than 10% of which have been naturalized into our landscape. In Virginia, 18% of our 3,500 plant species have been introduced since the founding of Jamestown. Many of these nonnative species are listed by the department as invasive.
When a plant causes ecological or economic damage to an area it is considered invasive. Think kudzu, the fast-growing climbing vine you’ve seen covering miles of trees alongside 81. Native to many parts of East Asia, this industrious invasive species does exactly as the term suggests: It invades the environment, disrupting the natural landscape and harming the native plants by creating a canopy that blocks the sun they need to survive. In some places where invasive plants are permitted to grow unchecked, they can not only threaten but actively eliminate all other plant life. This causes a domino effect that can reduce insect varieties dependent on particular plants for their diet; and the loss of insects impacts the birds who feed on them. Some call areas dominated by an invasive species a “green desert.” While such a landscape might appear lush and thriving, it can have dire consequences on the environment by reducing and severely altering a natural habitat and its ecosystem properties.
The Benefits of Native Gardening
There are many reasons to use native plants in your garden, from the fact that they need fewer resources to how they attract pollinators like birds and butterflies. Once established, native plants require very little water, mulch or fertilization. Since they are already adapted to thrive in the local environment, gardeners won’t need to work as hard to coax and manipulate the landscape into helping them to do so. For anyone who has ever watched an exotic species wither and die despite countless hours of attention and resources, the idea of saving all that time, money and heartache with native plants is a dream.
Not only are these plants easier to work with, but they are workhorses themselves: Many native plants can improve soil fertility and reduce erosion. They also support local wildlife by providing essential food and shelter. Pollinators like birds, bees and butterflies benefit in particular; these creatures thrive when the local flora is made up of the specific plants they need to survive. And since native plants require little to no pesticides, they contribute fewer chemical pollutants into our run-offs, which has a broader positive ecological impact on our local environment. Healthy natural landscapes are better able to resist invading species, as well.
Native Plants for Roanoke Gardens
So what are the native plants for our area? There are a huge number of bushes, grasses, trees and flowers that will not only flourish in your garden, but will also have a positive impact on the flora and fauna around you. You do not need to go and overhaul your entire yard –– starting small with a few plants each year can help you establish a sustainable garden both you and the area flora and fauna will love.
Here are the five native plants I’m excited to plant in my own garden this season.
Allegheny Plum:
When we first moved in we enjoyed a backyard cultivated by the former tenant of ten years, who was a landscape architect by trade. It took us about five years of active neglect to finally realize we needed to learn about our plants and how to care for them. While many of the plants were well-established and pretty hardy, our ignorance did cost us a few of the garden stars, including a beautiful Allegheny plum tree that succumbed to a black knot fungus. This small tree or shrub produces small white flowers and a large quantity of small acidic plums that are delicious cooked into a jam (if I can figure out how to get to the fruit before the squirrels do!).
Catawba Rhododendron:
I grew up in Houston, where azalea bushes were ubiquitous to most yards for their ability to thrive in the swampy, urban environment. While I love the lush bushels of color they provide, it wasn’t until I encountered a well-established Catawba rhododendron in my neighborhood in Roanoke that I felt like I came to a true appreciation for this kind of bloom. Frequently able to pass 10 feet in height and to grow as wide as 12 feet, these majestic shrubs can create enormous walls of dense cover for pollinators with beautiful pink and purple blooms.
Common Elderberry:
We have a chain link fence that, while efficient and durable enough for keeping the dogs in and the deer out, is not my favorite feature to look at. So along with my dream rhododendron wall, I’m thinking about the sprawling elderberry shrub. These white flowers have a delicate, lacy look to them with a lightly lemon fragrance. The flowers themselves are edible and can be used in a variety of kitchen projects, including pies, jams and jellies, or distilled into a syrup or liqueur.
Creeping Phlox & Moss Phlox:
I’ve become less and less interested in an endless grass lawn as I’ve started my gardening journey. Looking into ground cover alternatives has put phlox on my radar. Creeping phlox is a mat-forming perennial that blooms in lavender, white and blue. This fragrant ground cover grows to a foot or so in height and creates a romantic look in less sunny areas. Moss phlox is a more colorful, shorter option for full sun areas. Topping out at six inches, these flowers are vibrant pinks, purples and even reddish in some cases, bathing the ground in an almost surreal texture reminiscent of an Impressionist painting. This plant is also less susceptible to the powdery mildew that other phlox varieties can contract.
For More Information: roanokemastergardeners.org/natives-project
The Roanoke Master Gardeners Natives Project has produced a helpful guide for Southwest Virginia, including a full spreadsheet of native plants and a list of places to buy them.
The story above is from our May/June 2024 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!