The Midwestern Native Garden: Native Alternatives to Nonnative Flowers and Plants

By Ariane Chebel d'Appollonia and Mark Philip Bradley

Midwestern gardeners and landscapers are becoming increasingly attracted to noninvasive regional native wildflowers and plants over popular nonnative species. The Midwestern Native Garden offers viable alternatives to both amateurs and professionals, whether they are considering adding a few native plants or intending to go native all the way. Native plants improve air and water quality, reduce use of pesticides, and provide vital food and reproductive sites to birds and butterflies, that nonnative plants cannot offer, helping bring back a healthy ecosystem.

The authors provide a comprehensive selection of native alternatives that look similar or even identical to a range of nonnative ornamentals. These are native plants that are suitable for all garden styles, bloom during the same season, and have the same cultivation requirements as their nonnative counterparts. Plant entries are accompanied by nature notes setting out the specific birds and butterflies the native plants attract.

The Midwestern Native Garden will be a welcome guide to gardeners whose styles range from formal to naturalistic but who want to create an authentic sense of place, with regional natives. The beauty, hardiness, and easy maintenance of native Midwestern plants will soon make them the new favorites.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ohio University Press
• Release date: Sep 21, 2011
• ISBN: 9780821443569

Ariane Chebel d'Appollonia

Paddy Ladd is a Lecturer and MSc co-ordinator at the Centre for Deaf Studies in the University of Bristol. He completed his PhD in Deaf Culture at Bristol University in 1998 and has written, edited and contributed to numerous publications in the field. Both his writings and his Deaf activism have received international recognition, and in 1998 he was awarded the Deaf Lifetime Achievement Award by the Federation of Deaf People, for activities which have extended the possibilities for Deaf communities both in the UK and worldwide.

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PREFACE

For as long as I can remember, I have loved wildflowers. Having a wonderfully large backyard enabled my husband and me to create large, colorful beds of flowers. Many happy evenings were spent devouring catalogs as ambitious color-coordinated schemes danced in my head. I ordered, and we planted, daffodils, tulips, daylilies, peonies, hostas, and ‘Autumn Joy’ sedum. And because these old favorites decorated the yards of most of our neighbors and constituted the inventory of most local and national nurseries, we assumed these were the right ornamentals to plant. Because we love birds, we lined our borders with berry- and fruit-producing trees and shrubs. Later, to our horror, we discovered that most of our well-meaning plant choices were not native to North America and that some were invasive pests. We realized we had made choices without first getting good information.

While I was walking with my dog one afternoon, I spied a brilliant yellow goldfinch extracting a seed from the iridescent center of a purple coneflower. Belatedly, it dawned on me that flower seeds, not only the fruits, provide birds with food. During another walk in a local park, I noticed that the hostas and daylilies from China did not attract much of anything. In contrast, and to my astonishment, numerous butterflies, skippers, and bees surrounded the native blackeyed Susans, coneflowers, and blazing stars. This produced another epiphany: I could transform my garden of colorful nonnative flowers into a garden of colorful native flowers that welcomes butterflies, other beneficial and beautiful insects, and birds. From these experiences, my gardening ideas evolved. Before long, the backyard lawn was removed, the nonnative ornamentals were put on the compost heap, and a local prairie expert was hired to help me create a backyard urban prairie/savanna.

These days, I stroll on a woodchip path through a fragrant, colorful kaleidoscope of native sedges, grasses, and flowers right in my own backyard or observe the everchanging scene from a strategically placed bench. I watch goldfinches sip rainwater from little cups formed where cup plant stems meet the leaves. I observe songbirds visiting my yard’s seasonal offering of seeds and fruits. The butterflies, skippers, and bees that ignored my introduced ornamentals now visit my native flowers and grasses for nectar, pollen, and reproduction habitat. Monarch butterfly visits to my oh-so-fragrant common milkweeds actually result in monarch butterfly caterpillars! Tiny oligolege, or specialist, pollinator bees spend sunny hours at my beautiful blue American bellflowers. I remember exclaiming in surprised delight upon seeing a hummingbird hovering at an orange flower on the honeysuckle vine I had planted specifically to attract hummingbirds. Many happy evenings are spent devouring native plant nursery catalogs, as images of native wildflowers dance in my head. The absorbing new world we created just outside our door inspired us to explore the fascinating world of the midwestern prairie, and one result of this was a collaboration between my husband and me on the book Prairie Directory of North America.

Recognition of the problems associated with invasive nonnative plants led me, in consultation with and encouraged by William E. McClain, now-retired Illinois Department of Natural Resources (DNR) naturalist and author, to draft a proposed amendment to the Illinois Exotic Weed Act (525 ILCS 10). Though the effort failed, the experience was illuminating. I presented the local Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) with petitions, signed by hundreds of people, asking the department to stop mowing roadsides planted with native grasses and flowers, and achieved some success. When nonnative purple loosestrife invaded the marshy lake where we have a house, we worked with the Wisconsin DNR to eradicate the purple plague. Invasive nonnative garlic mustard degrading a local park inspired me to secure park district permission to create an annual garlic mustard pull. The sight of children playing on pesticide-treated lawns in the village where I live led me to successfully campaign for pesticide-free, village-owned lawns. The village’s publication of a list of proposed plantings for a local development that included invasive nonnative plants prompted me to provide a list of suitable native alternatives, which the trustees adopted. When local mothers creating a middle school prairie garden asked for suggestions on native spring flowers to replace the usual nonnative ones, I shared a similar list with them. Creating a one-acre wetland prairie in my village park district’s retention basin is my most recent project.

We are not instinctively aware of the benefits of gardening with native plants. But reading, joining informative groups, and close observation can teach us that native plants provide native birds and butterflies with vital food and reproductive sites not available from nonnative species. We can discover that choosing native plants helps prevent their extinction. We are not born with the knowledge that nonnative invasive plants damage the environment. It is up to us to learn how many nonnative plants that began life in North America as popular ornamentals became today’s most invasive plants.

We wrote this book to make information and insight that we acquired over time immediately accessible to others. I have derived much joy from observing local birds, bees, and butterflies interacting with midwestern native flowers and plants and from the beauty, fragrance, and reliability of these plants. Learning the importance of native flora and fauna to a healthy ecosystem inspired me to act, and that in turn has given me much satisfaction. Whether we proceed in small incremental steps or with big landscaping projects, each of us can decide to choose native plants as alternatives for nonnative ornamentals. We hope the information that we share will intrigue and inspire you, too.

CHARLOTTE ADELMAN

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors gratefully acknowledge the many people and organizations that helped to make this book possible.

We thank Gillian Berchowitz, editorial director at Ohio University Press, for her support, counsel, and recognition of the environmental importance of choosing regionally native plants for our gardens and landscapes.

We also thank:

Jeffery S. Pippen (http://www.duke.edu/~jspippen/nature.htm), who contributed a wondrous supply of butterfly photographs

David K. Parshall for generously providing butterfly information

MinnesotaSeasons.com for contributing many wonderful photographs

Rob’s Plants at http://www.robsplants.com

The United States Department of Agriculture plant database and all the individuals from the USDA who contributed photographs to this book

The many photographers who released their photographs into the public domain

Mary Vaux Walcott and Louis Agassiz Fuertes and the many artists and photographers listed in Illustration and Photography Credits

Throughout this book you will notice references to Barnes, which refer to Thomas G. Barnes, Attracting Butterflies with Native Plants (Online Publications) http://www.ca.uky.edu/agc/pubs/for/for98/for98.htm.

We obtained most of the information about mammalian preferences for specific plants from Dr. John Hilty’s website Illinois Wildflowers, http://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/, which, along with other excellent sources, provided much pollinator, butterfly, and other insect data.

And, finally, we are grateful to all our friends for encouraging us in the creation of this book.

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

Midwest gardening focuses on changing seasons, so this book is divided into chapters covering spring, summer, fall, and winter, with some inevitable overlapping between the seasons. Each section contains a seasonal selection of alphabetically listed introduced (that is, nonnative, alien, exotic) garden flowers and plants that are popular in the Midwest. We list each plant and flower by its common name(s), followed by the family, genus, and species. Then we state its origin, which is frequently Asia or Europe. Next, we present the plant’s height, notable ornamental features (flower color, leaf shape), and cultivation requirements. An invasiveness note is provided if U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) maps or other resources indicate that the plant has naturalized or become invasive in the Midwest. Using I for Introduced, USDA maps reveal the great extent to which nonnative flowers and plants have moved into our Midwest ecosystems. USDA maps also document the Midwest’s threatened, endangered, rare, and extirpated native plants. Please reference USDA Plants at http://plants.usda.gov/.

Selecting the most popular nonnative plants turned out to be an eye-opener. The choices offered by most national nursery outlets, mail-order catalogs, large local nurseries, supermarkets, and garden centers are usually between one nonnative plant and another nonnative plant. Because mainstream sellers rarely offer native plants, it is no wonder imported plants dominate our gardens and landscapes and that we see fewer butterflies. In response to the increasing interest in native flora, some mainstream plant businesses include a few popular native plants. Though these offerings are usually hybrids or cultivars, popular demand is creating better choices. As customers we should ask sellers to offer native plants.

Following each nonnative entry is the heart of this book: descriptions of regionally native midwestern plants and flowers that resemble the nonnative plant in height, notable ornamental features (flower color, leaf shape), and cultivation requirements. The term native midwestern plants means plants that occur naturally in this region and were not introduced by direct or indirect human actions. These days it is easy to obtain native flowers, shrubs, trees, and grasses from the many native plant nurseries that sprung up in response to the needs of today’s buying public. In addition to native plant mail-order catalogs, Web-based native plant catalogs, local native plant nurseries, and native plant landscapers there are native plant sales run by park districts, forest preserves, community organizations, and native plant associations. Following each native plant entry we present a nature note, referencing some of the connections between a native plant and wildlife, especially butterflies and other native insects, because most native insects lay their eggs on native plants, which they require for successful reproduction.

Some plants in this book may be familiar under other common or botanical names. We often list several common names for nonnative plants and native alternatives (later references to the plant use only the first common name listed). But a plant’s botanical name is its only positive identification. This is why its botanical name should be verified before making a purchase or before incorporating plants provided by a neighbor or a friend. Occasionally even botanical names change, so if one doesn’t ring a bell, check its current status. For example, due to reclassifications of an American genus, Symphyotrichum is increasingly used instead of Aster. For butterflies, common and taxonomic names have changed significantly, and some quite recently, over the past century.

Our focus on native plants in the Midwest, an admittedly broad and imprecise region, is complicated by the existence of varying definitions, categories, and climate zones. We include Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Ontario, Canada, in accordance with the Midwest Invasive Plant Network’s (MIPN) view of the region; here gardening practices are similar. However, our suggestions for native plants apply to most states that are adjacent to those set forth above.

USDA Hardiness Zones Maps show ten different zones, each of which represents an area of winter hardiness for the plants in our natural landscape. However, there are many plants that share hardiness zones but are native to entirely different geographical locations and ecosystems. Hardiness ratings alone are inadequate to guide landscapers in selecting the most successful plants, states the United States National Arboretum.¹ That climate zones are changing is another consideration. For example, the USDA puts Chicago into Zone 5b, with the outlying areas falling into the slightly harsher Zone 5a. The Arbor Day Foundation’s updated hardiness map places the

Chicago lakefront and southern suburbs into the upper reaches of Zone 6.² Another way of analyzing the region to which a plant is native is by its plant province or regional vegetation type. The Midwest states we reference fall into the Eastern Broadleaf Forest Province or vegetation type.³

You can quickly determine whether a plant is native to North America, and to your state, by accessing USDA Plant Information.⁴ Enter the plant’s taxonomic name (or an accepted common name), and this will bring up the plant’s profile, with all its synonyms plus additional Web sites if available. A distribution map depicts the plant’s province, or natural distribution, and, if a nonnative plant, where it has become naturalized or invasive.

The Midwest is home to North America’s most dense monarch butterfly population. But these well-known insects are under threat from dwindling habitat and herbicides that kill the butterflies and the milkweed upon which larvae must feed and upon which the adults depend for food. Gardeners and landscapers who want to benefit the greatest number of butterflies should determine which butterflies are local to their area and garden with these butterflies’ host plants. Generally, regionally native flowers, trees, shrubs, grasses, and sedges are the host plants on which butterflies lay their eggs and that their caterpillars (or larvae) eat. Host plants also supply nectar and pollen to adult butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds. To determine whether a butterfly occurs in your area, Jeffrey S. Pippen of Duke University’s

Nicholas School of the Environment recommends accessing "Map Search," at http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org.

Plant heights, bloom periods, and cultivation requirements can vary with a plant’s geographical location and because of differences in light, soil, and other environmental factors. This can give rise to different information from different sources. For the best results, discuss your garden’s specific requirements with the purveyor before you purchase a plant.

For additional information about native plants and their associated wildlife, check with your state and local bird, native plant, and lepidopterist (butterfly/moth) groups. Also access state departments of natural resources and transportation; natural history museums; botanical gardens; native plant, butterfly, and bird books (see bibliography); national groups; federal agencies; and purveyors of native plants (see Selected Resources in the bibliography).

ABBREVIATIONS USED

THE MIDWESTERN NATIVE GARDEN

INTRODUCTION

Until recently, conventional gardening did not often include growing native flora, but today gardening with regional native plants and wildflowers is gaining popularity. There has been a continued blurring of the distinction between wildflowers and garden plants.¹ Today’s wealth of books and magazine articles on gardening with plants and wildflowers native to one’s particular geographical region demonstrate that native plant gardening is moving into the mainstream. Another indication of this is the abundance of native plant nurseries, mail-order and online native plant catalogs, and local native plant sales. Even large commercial garden centers are beginning to offer limited selections.

So, what happened? The increasing popularity of native plants and wildflowers results from the congruence of a number of circumstances. Historical literature suggests that both gardening and restoration efforts are increasing because of strongly held cultural beliefs, writes Linda McMahan, a horticultural historian. Many of these beliefs reflect strong European cultural history, which is embedded in garden history in North America. These cultural traditions remain strong in the United States and lead to an increase in efforts to restore and cherish nature, especially to save disappearing wild places and species. Gardening with a restoration focus, such as for sustaining wildlife, will most likely continue as wilder areas continue to be converted to homes and managed landscapes.² As the New England Wildflower Society points out, Using native plants is the ultimate environmentally friendly garden practice.³

Concern for the natural balance of habitats inspires ecologically oriented gardeners to grow native plants. As a result of mostly ignoring our native plants and flowers, observes the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, almost 29 percent are at risk of becoming extinct. More than two hundred species have already vanished!⁴ In the United States, the aster, cactus, pea, mustard, mint, mallow, bellflower, pink, snapdragon, and buckwheat families hold native species that are endangered.⁵ We can help turn this around by planting native species in our gardens and landscapes. Doing this also facilitates intimacy with nature, which is one of the positive experiences that explain why nature lovers choose native plants. When it comes to trapping carbon dioxide, native midwestern flora excels. In response to our region’s semiarid climate, prairie flowers and grasses have developed extremely deep moisture-seeking roots that trap, hold, and sequester carbon dioxide and pollutants.

Striking color, fragrance and beauty, a wide diversity of choices, and the availability of native species for every cultivation requirement are additional reasons to choose natives. Gardening with native midwestern plants perpetuates our region’s unique natural heritage and creates a sense of place. Practicality also comes into play, because regional native plants have characteristics that translate into savings of time, energy, and money. When planted in the right place and established, native plants tend to be reliable, disease resistant, long-lived and healthy, and rarely need watering, replacing, or costly pesticides. From the business end, horticulturalists and plant purveyors are increasingly recognizing that natives have tremendous landscape and commercial potential.

Many gardeners would like to grow locally native plants, but some face a dilemma. They really like many characteristics of their beloved nonnative old favorites. The solution is to select native alternatives. This book describes native plants and flowers that look similar to or exactly like many popular nonnative plants and have the same cultivation requirements. These days, purchasing native plants has become convenient, due to the abundance of native plant sellers (see Selected Resources in the bibliography). Still, there are concerns that can make modifying a garden seem daunting.

Despite fears to the contrary, gardening with native plants does not alienate the neighbors. There is concern about producing an unkempt, or weedy, look, but that would depend on one’s garden design. The great variety of plants native to any region give gardeners options that work well in any type of garden design, states the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. This applies to formal structured gardens and informal gardens, as well as to native plant gardens that mimic natural landscapes. The center notes that regional natives provide excellent choices for large commercial landscapes as well as residential gardens.⁶

Yet, flowers associated with natural areas cause some gardeners to hesitate. The idea of replacing a nonnative old favorite, even with a look-alike native plant, sometimes evokes a sense of loss. The impression that imported plants are somehow superior to native plants influences some gardeners, especially when these plants are recommended by mainstream nurseries. Some gardeners enjoy acquiring the latest popular cultivar or overseas discovery and are reluctant to give it up. However, there is a similar satisfaction to be found in cultivating native plant species, some of which might otherwise face extirpation. Habitually gardening with familiar nonnative plants can make it difficult to visualize growing different, but equally beautiful, native plants. But the excellent results—reliability, positive emotions, beauty, fragrance, and butterflies and birds—of planting native replacements generally outweigh lingering apprehensions.

How quickly to proceed is up to the individual gardener. Substituting native plants for nonnative plants need not require a drastic overhaul of a garden; gardeners can proceed gradually, replacing nonnative plants as they decline or die, or they can move at a faster pace. Some people opt to do it all themselves, whereas others employ professional native plant landscapers for all or parts of the transformation. Going at one’s own pace is essential to achieving the most joyful and ultimately successful results.

To make the most of the benefits offered by native midwestern plants, use good landscape design and select plants that suit the site. Even a hardy native plant that is supremely adapted to one’s region will not prosper if it is put in the wrong location. It takes the same effort and resources to establish nonnative plants as native plants, because, when newly planted, all plants require extra care and watering to ensure initial root system development. Once established, though, native plants generally require far less supplemental care than nonnative species.⁷

Attracting birds and butterflies is a good incentive for gardening, but what are the best plants to attract butterflies? Native plants are best because butterflies have adapted to using them over thousands of years,⁸ writes naturalist Thomas G. Barnes, a professor in the Department of Forestry at the University of Kentucky. True native plants don’t include native-plant hybrids and cultivars, which have been bred for showiness and may have lost much of their nectar and pollen characteristics, notes the Canadian Wildlife Federation. Flowers which have been cultivated to have tightly bunched, frilly flowers also make it more difficult for insects to access their nectar.⁹

Some butterfly species, called specialists, use only a single native plant species or a closely related group of species as a host and won’t use plants brought in from other places. Host plants are invariably native plants. The monarch butterfly, a popular specialist, is a good example. She lays her eggs only on native milkweeds, the sole vegetation that the caterpillars or larvae eat and without which they starve. As with most host plants, milkweeds do double duty, enabling monarch butterfly reproduction and providing nectar that attracts many species of adult butterflies, as well as hummingbirds and bees. The fragrant and beautiful common milkweed is known to attract forty-two butterfly species. Twenty species visit swamp or red milkweed; an additional nine are attracted to butterfly weed. This sounds like a lot of butterflies; however, the number-one butterfly-attracting flowers are the native dogbanes. More than 43 species of butterflies have been observed feeding on this plant,¹⁰ observes Barnes. There just aren’t many nonnative plant species that butterflies seek out for nectar or as a host,¹¹ writes Dave Parshall, author, photographer, and longtime president of the Ohio Lepidopterists Society. Native bees need help, too, and research shows native plants are four times more attractive to native bees and butterflies than exotics.¹²

Bird lovers are interested in plants that attract and sustain birds. Native plants, which have co-evolved with native wild birds, are more likely to provide a mix of foods—just the right size and with just the right kind of nutrition—and just when the birds need them,¹³ states the National Audubon Society. This means, as Mariette Nowak put it in the Midwest-based Wild Ones Journal, regardless of the size of your yard, you can help reverse the loss of bird habitat by planting the native plants upon which our birds depend and be rewarded with a bounty of birds and natural beauty just beyond your doorstep.¹⁴ Because birds fly from place to place, even small ‘islands’ of habitat can provide food resources to birds, particularly during migration.¹⁵

When it comes to nesting birds, the importance of native plants cannot be overstated. Almost all North American birds other than seabirds—96 percent—feed their young insects, so if the insects are eliminated, so are future generations of birds. Even nectar-loving hummingbirds feed insects to their offspring, although goldfinches and doves are an exception; they feed their nestlings regurgitated seeds. Ecologist/ entomologist Douglas W. Tallamy compared native plants and alien plants in terms of their production of caterpillar-stage insects eaten by insectivorous birds. The native plants in the study supported a whopping 35 times more caterpillar biomass than the aliens.¹⁶ Growing native plants is a meaningful way to encourage healthy populations of native birds and butterflies.

Garden columns offering advice about avoiding mistakes or attracting butterflies and birds sometimes suggest planting your neighbors’ tried and true old favorites. But, too often, the result is yet another garden or landscape dominated by nonnative plants, thus aggravating the problem of decreasing populations of native plants, butterflies, and birds. Another by-product of choosing nonnative plants that are often found in ornamental plantings and landscapes is that the nonnatives may be naturalized or invasive. In fact, many non-native plants introduced for horticultural and agricultural use now pose a serious ecological threat,¹⁷ according to the Bugwood Network. There are economic implications as well: The economic cost of invasive plants is estimated at more than $34 billion per year, and the costs continue to grow.¹⁸

There are nonnative plants that grew here for decades without becoming invasive, but a federal study determined that the longer nonnative plants are sold commercially, the greater the chance they will become naturalized and potentially invasive.¹⁹ The rate of naturalization is hard to predict. Many decades often pass between the first introduction of a plant and its eventual rapid spread. In other words, species that rarely spread today may turn out to be troublesome 40 years or more from now.²⁰ Dame’s rocket (p. 38) is an instructive example. Many ecologists agree that a foolproof system for predicting invasiveness has proven elusive.²¹ Putting regional native plants into mainstream use in our gardens and landscapes reduces the impact of nonnative invasive plants. The New England Wild Flower Society puts it this way: "By using native plants, we can avoid invasive plant species . . . that harm