Going Native

By Susannah Wood

After a long cold winter and a reluctant spring, many of us relish the thought of warm dirt and blooming flowers. Nurseries and garden centers burst with an array of enticing choices, but few of them are native to our part of the world. Choosing native species for your garden will not only attract birds and butterflies, but will also support beneficial insects like honey bees and a variety of native bees. Once established, native plants require little care having adapted over thousands of years to local soils and weather. Although we may think about replacing invasive species in our gardens, we love our burning bush, our privet hedge, our periwinkle. It can be a daunting prospect, but help is available. Local garden and landscaping experts Mary Ann McGourty, Nash Pradhan, and Marc Tonan are all interested in working with clients to find good alternatives to invasive species. McGourty, who for many years ran Hillside Gardens with her late husband, Fred, finds that hedges are the one garden feature most likely to incorporate invasives. Common invasive picks include Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii), burning bush or winged euonymous (E. alata), and privet (Ligustrum sps.). Unfortunately, many nurseries still sell these plants as suitable garden shrubs. McGourty, Pradhan and Tonan all agree that one of the best replacements for burning bush is our native high bush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum), which develops deep red leaves in the fall. Silky dogwood (Cornus glabrata), native to Oregon, and red twig dogwood (Cornus sericea) also add interesting fall color. Winterberry (Ilex verticillata) keeps its beautiful red fruits all winter. To create a focal point in the garden, you might choose to plant native high bush cranberry (Viburnam trilobum), fothergilla (F. gardenii), summersweet (Clethra alnifolia), various sumacs (Rhus sps.), or arrowood (Viburnum dentatum). These would also work well in small groupings and provide bright foliage and/or berries in the fall. Forsythia, which we welcome for early color, is not native, while witchhazel (Hamamalis virginiana) and spicebush (Lindera benzoin), which are, both produce sweet fragrant yellow blossoms in early spring. Spicebush hosts the caterpillar of the spicebush swallowtail, a particularly lovely butterfly. If you plant it, they will come, as this author discovered last year. Most of us are aware of the damage that Asiatic bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus) inflicts on our trees, yet it still turns up twined into autumn wreaths. Native bittersweet (C. scandens), which is not invasive, looks very similar to the Asiatic variety, but the orange and yellow berries are clustered at the ends of the vines rather than spaced along the tendrils. It should be grown along a fence or trellis as it will also eventually kill the tree or shrub it grows on. Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquifolia), which turns deep red in fall, and native wisteria (W. frutescens) are good substitutes for the highly invasive Chinese wisteria (W. sinensis). Marc Tonan has been advising people not to plant purple loosestrife (Litherum salicaria), one of the worst invasives in wetland soils, and masterwort (Astrantia major). Good wetland alternatives include Joe Pye weed (Eupatorium maculatum) or New York ironweed (Veronica noveboracensis), both tall plants with late summer blooms, ostrich fern (Matteuccia), cinnamon fern (Osmunda cinnamomea), royal fern (Osmunda regalis) and marsh marigold (Caltha palustris). Tonan has been working on developing a safe method for composting garlic mustard and other invasives. Garden centers often advertise a plant as “good groundcover” and “easy to grow”, but these can be code words for “all-devouring monster”. Japanese pachysandra (P. terminalis) and even lovely little periwinkle (Vinca minor) can pose problems but, according to Nash Pradhan of Ginger Creek Nursery, there are many good substitutes. Native pachysandra (P. procumbens), bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi), partridgeberry (Mitchella repens) and bunchberry (Cornus Canadensis) are all excellent alternatives. If you feel ambitious enough to create a whole meadow of native species, or if you have a significant invasives problem to address, you might want to contact Phil Lovett who has recently acquired a forestry mower with rubber tracks. This machine is designed to remove large quantities of material with minimal damage to the soil, clearing the way for new plantings. Project Native (www.projectnative.org, 413-274-3433), a nonprofit organization in Housatonic, MA is devoted to the promotion of plants native to the Berkshires. They have demonstration gardens, as well as a nursery, and specialize in truly native seed mixes. The New England Wildflower Society in Framingham, MA, has a spectacular garden, as well as plants for sale in the spring (www.newenlgandwild.org, 508-877-7630). In Woodbury, Earthtones Native Plant Nursery also has display gardens open to the public (www.earthtonesnatives.com, 203-263-6626). Many other nurseries in our area have at least some natives for sale and someone who can advise you. When selecting plants, it’s important to know where they came from. If you are using a new source, ask them what propagation methods have been used. Plants should be raised from seeds or bought from a source that does. Gathering plants from the wild is not a good idea. If you are interested in contacting a local consultant, the following people are available: Phil Lovett, 542-0146 (landscape construction only), Mary Ann McGourty, 542-5345 (garden and landscape design), Marc Tonan, 542-5864 (garden and landscape design, planting and garden care) and Nash Pradhan, 542-5143 (garden and landscape design, planting and garden care).