Dan's Papers - April 25, 2008 -

Native plants are in high demand now as people want to lower their landscape maintenance costs and town planning regulations and building codes require more natural buffers, conservation easements and re-vegetation areas. But few people understand what a native plant is, and others wonder, after having done all their research based on lists they got from the town, where they can buy these materials.

A plant is native if it grows in the forests, fields or wetlands in the region. Over the years, through horticultural hybridization, many native plants have been selected for their good qualities which include beautiful flowers, strong root structures, rapid growth habit, or shade or drought tolerance. Those plants have been improved, giving us so many wonderful cultivars of maples and dogwoods. Other native plants have simply been introduced into the rich and well cared for landscape environment and have proliferated way beyond the point that they could have achieved in their natural locations.

So clearly choosing native plants that are well suited to your landscape - be it beach, pond side, old farm field or oak woods - means doing a little research into what will thrive versus merely survive.

Brooklyn Botanic Gardens (BBG) has a wonderful book, Native Alternatives to Invasive Plants, that quickly and concisely explains the importance of native plants and the issues surrounding popular trees, shrubs and perennial introductions that we have all invited into the garden over the years, but that have become problem plants. Some of them, like the notorious purple loosestrife, are natives that have simply been overused and have escaped the bounds of the watery environment that they need, thanks to rich soil and irrigation in flower gardens. Autumn olive and some large maple varieties, on the other hand, were planted for their salt tolerance or growth, both qualities that have allowed these trees to spread explosively. They have in effect become invasive weeds that you spend time pulling out of the garden and that crowd out other plants.

Native Alternatives offers wonderful choices in plant material that you may already see if you look around your neighborhood. Paulownia tomentosa is everywhere. The tall racemes of purple flowers are breaking bud now, and the large heart shaped leaves will come out after the flower. There are several old ones on Wykapogue Road that have generously spread their saplings around town. You may have noticed a seedling pop up on your property somewhere. They have enormous leaves, up to 14 inches across, that are fuzzy on the underside. The stems are fuzzy too. Some people like to cut the saplings down every year to keep the bold look of the new leaves. A wonderful old example of this can be seen at Madoo, Bob Dash's garden in Sagaponack. But if they go to flower and then fruit, the Paulownia can spread seeds throughout the neighborhood.

Native Alternatives recommends using a Northern Catalpa instead of the Paulownia, and for good reason. Their description alone will send you running to the nursery, but if you think about it there is probably an old one growing down the block. They describe this native as "a large, commanding shade tree with bold, heart shaped leaves in whorls. Flowers emerge in early summer and the profusion of bloom against the tower of greenery is stupendous." The flowers resemble small white orchids. Many of the book's other recommendations are equally valid and valuable, like Spirea douglassi, a native shrub that has a pink astilbe-like flower. A big bank of them is growing in a fresh water wetland north of East Hampton Airport - you've probably driven by and noticed it, but never knew what it was called. Or where to buy it.

So where can you find native plants? Because of re-vegetation requirements many things are in demand, but not readily available. Local grasses, bayberry, cedars and asters for old fields, or blueberries for oak woods are commonly propagated in nurseries, but you may have to special order that Catalpa. And it may be smaller than what you want to start with. The American holly is another native plant in high demand; large ones are difficult to locate and expensive when found. There are plenty of holly cultivars available that have a better form, glossy leaves, more berries and fewer insect issues, but they won't be accepted by the towns as a substitution for American holly and may not survive the vicissitudes of our weather unless pampered. Oaks are now in production and smaller calipers are easier to find. as are wonderful multi-stemmed red maples, the kind that grow in local swamps and have fantastic fall color.

It is worth the wait and the additional effort to locate native plant material. Most people find that they enjoy the lower maintenance costs. And wildlife attracted to the garden is not such an issue if the animals only stop and browse. In addition, native plants remind many of us of the natural landscapes we fell in love with around the East End.

Turn the irrigation on and watch the lawn grow, but keep kids and dogs off of it if you have used a pre-emergent other than corn gluten. If you need to do spot work on the lawn, cover the grass seed with a dark clean compost and it will practically spring up overnight if you set the irrigation for 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the evening. Once the grass is up 3" you can set the timer back to a more regular weekly schedule.

Bissett Nursery supplies the East End nurseries and landscape companies with all kinds of plant material, but when it comes to jobs that specify native plants they find that there are several trees and shrubs in high demand. However, of the 40 or 50 that might be listed by the East End town environmental departments as suitable, only a handful have been in production for more than a decade, so larger sizes and more varieties have been slow to come on the market and meet demand.

According to a spokesperson at Bissett, Juniper virginiana or eastern red cedar, bayberry, high and low blueberries, Amelanchiers or shadblow, bear berry and Aronia are the most asked for plants when it comes to revegetation projects. But not everyone sees native plants as beautiful. Often they're not as manicured as hybridized nursery stock, particularly American hollies which can grow in a less uniform way. But the one native shrub everyone loves is Mountain laurel, Kalmia latifolia.