Beautiful Native Plants in 2023

On this shortest day of the year, we take time to look back on one of the bright notes - our native plants were quietly at work every single day of 2023 adding beauty and value to the world we live in. They were feeding the pollinators and the birds. Feeding the mammals, the fish, and reptiles, those that eat plants and those that eat the creatures that feed on plants. Giving them all shelter. Giving us food, too, and oxygen to breathe. Removing carbon dioxide from the air, stopping erosion, and improving the soil. Providing sources of medicine and inspiring inventions through biomimicry. They also looked great in our gardens and brought visitors we enjoyed.

Veined Ctenucha moth, Ctenucha venosa,
feeding on native chokecherry, Prunus virginiana

Providing food for insects is perhaps one of the most important things native plants do. E.O. Wilson said: 

"If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos."

As they co-evolved with the living beings around them, native plants developed specific characteristics that enabled them to thrive. Native bees are important contributors to local ecosystems, pollinating native plants in the exact places and times when they are blooming.

Toothwort - Is That for Dinner?

You may have noticed a certain kind of frenzy that descends on folks in the early spring, a frenzy for wildflowers. And plant people are not the only ones affected, either. People who otherwise never set foot outside of cemented Metro areas make plans to get out of town. The call of bluebells, merrybells, trilliums, and trout lilies is a clarion call that draws whole families to embark on a flower treasure-hunt out in the distant woods and valleys where nature still has the freedom to show her own exuberance for the season.

Ephemerals they are called. These are flowers that emerge and sparkle brightly but briefly, and are gone practically in the blink of an eye. Even their leaves melt away, leaving no trace of their existence by the time the heat of summer arrives. One such ephemeral, native to every state east of the Rocky Mountains, is Cardamine concatenata, aka cut-leaf toothwort. 

Cut-leaf toothwort, Cardamine concatenata

Sounds like something you’d see coming down a dark alley with a grimace and sword, doesn’t it? You would never know from the name that it’s a dainty little thing with bell-shaped blooms, and delicate, deeply serrated leaves.

Native Plant People, It's Up to Us Now

A recent Landscaping with Native Plants conference in Colorado offered a sold-out audience a wide range of topics, but one resounding theme was echoed by every single speaker - it’s up to us now. The need for conservation is critical, the time is now, and we must, all of us, take on the responsibility for thoughtful planting that will slow the loss of species and shore up the functionality of our own local ecosystems. 

Keynote speaker, Scott Hoffman Black, Executive Director of the Xerces Society delivered a powerful talk, ‘Insect Apocalypse? What Is Really Happening; Why it Matters, and How We All Can Help.’ He began by describing the loss of insects worldwide, and emphasized that even if the word ‘apocalypse’ might not yet be applicable, the trends of decline in insect abundance and diversity are distinctly and quantifiably alarming. 

 Native bees like this one are important to maintaining the fabric of the planet.
Insects are undergoing severe declines in abundance and diversity
on every continent except Antartica.

Nature's Best Hope by Doug Tallamy: Book Review

Doug Tallamy's new book:
a wellspring of inspiration

 In his new book, Nature’s Best Hope, Dr. Doug Tallamy has delivered a deep and powerful wellspring of inspiration for the many people craving an opportunity to be part of transformative change for our challenged world. Even more compelling than his first book, Bringing Nature Home, a seminal work in itself, Nature’s Best Hope is a clarion call for the informed appreciation of native plants and the immediate course correction of using them in our own planting spaces to form the connected corridors that will help forestall the loss of species and the loss of ecosystem services that are we currently experiencing. 

Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard, is a richly layered work, providing a contextual look at the evolution of our thinking about conservation, as well as detailed guidelines for getting started with native plants in your own nearby spaces, and, perhaps most importantly, the reasoning that will convince you, your neighbors, and your neighborhoods that now is the time to do so. Far from a dry treatise or an impassioned rant, the writing here reflects Tallamy’s character: cautiously optimistic, and gently but perceptively humorous. This book is an enjoyable read both for his fans, and for those who are new to his ideas about the roles native plants play in our landscapes. One of his stated goals was to write a book that would meet the needs of three groups of people: those who like plants, those who like animals, and those who like neither. He has done so.

Will We all Die if Honey Bees Disappear?

Bumble bees have been pollinating sunflowers, an important crop for Native Americans,
long before the arrival of the honey bee
© Beatriz Moisset

One third of our food needs to be pollinated by insects. Honey bees are responsible for most of it. With 4,000 species of bees in North America plus numerous other pollinators of different stripes, how did we manage to become so dependent on just a single species? We know how important it is to diversify our portfolio, our diet, and our crops and gardens. So, what were we thinking?