By Nikki Belmonte
Did you hear? The newest trend in home gardening and DIY (do-it-yourself) projects is planting native. While native pollinator gardens and wildlife habitat gardens are not new, they have gained widespread popularity due to the combined efforts of local, state and national level organizations widely promoting them. And we are here for it!
The fact is that living with nature is a necessity and we need to figure out how to be better at it. Dr. Doug Tallamy, an entomologist at the University of Delaware, has been the leading voice for this message, backed by research that demonstrates the critical relationship between native insects and native plants. If these relationships continue to be disrupted and disappear, humans are in real trouble. I was lucky to catch a recent presentation by Dr. Tallamy. He impressed upon the audience that we have to “find ways for nature to thrive, not just survive, in human-dominated landscapes” for this life as we know it to work. “We can’t afford any more lousy stewardship,” he stated. Bottom line – we have to plant native, now.
Climbing aster (Ampelaster carolinianus) is a critical resource for late fall pollinators and that last gasp of color in a Georgia garden or fencerow.
Dr. Tallamy’s message is starting to get through, and more and more people are turning to conservation organizations to learn how to be a better steward. Researching appropriate native plants and choosing to incorporate a majority of native plants in our properties and projects makes a difference to the other inhabitants of our ecosystems. Specialist butterflies, moths, and bees need native plants. Native plants are the first trophic layer to convert sunlight into food for insects, helping to ensure that those insects thrive. Bird populations rely on abundant insect life to sustain their populations, specifically caterpillars. Caterpillars are a top source of carotenoids, an essential part of birds’ diets that are produced by plants. Birds rely on caterpillars to consume plant material and pass the carotenoids on to them. There are other necessary nutrients that birds gain from eating caterpillars. We can play a role in ensuring these relationships rebound with the purposeful selection of native plants.
There are many resources out there to get you started, but it can be overwhelming. Each year, Georgia Native Plant Society (GNPS) hosts a symposium with a variety of speakers on all things native plants. The theme for this year is DIY Native Habitats – Building Your Stewardship Toolkit. Our suite of talks will focus on getting the right plants into your garden to support your local ecosystem.
The idea of empowering the individual is the key driver for this event on February 24 and 25. The presentations will include guidance on how to research native plants, how to identify what you already have on your property, understanding your plant community, and considerations for local habitat restoration. This information will help each individual build a toolkit of purposeful choices and tools for projects at home, in designed landscapes, and when restoring habitat in the wild.
We are excited for our lineup of expert speakers. The symposium kicks off with Alan Weakley, plant taxonomist and community ecologist specializing in the Southeastern United States. He is the author of the Flora of the Southeastern United States and its app, FloraQuest, and will discuss the newest tools to use for finding floristic information. Following will be presentations on how to actually get the right plants by GNPS’s board chair Ellen Honeycutt and considerations for native habitat restoration by Georgia Department of Natural Resource’s Eamonn Leonard. Tying these topics together will be Leslie Edwards, co-author of the Natural Communities of Georgia, who will present ways to approach your gardening as guided by natural plant communities. I hope you will consider joining us. The Symposium is all virtual and split between two days. All registrants receive a recording of the sessions, so if you cannot be there for the live presentation you can enjoy it at another time. The event is co-hosted with our friends and partners, Birds Georgia. For more information, visit the GNPS Symposium webpage.
Blue mistflower (Conoclinium coelestinum), the 2024 GNPS Plant of the Year.
I would like to offer a couple of resources to get you started with your DIY toolkit. The GNPS Plant of the Year program webpage is a great place to start building your plant list. The purpose of this program is to recognize native plants that are underutilized in commercial and residential landscapes or which are vital components of Georgia’s ecology. The 2024 Plant of the Year is blue mistflower (Conoclinium coelestinum), a vivacious native perennial that brightens up the landscape in late summer into fall with blue to purple blossoms. I highly recommend adding it to your garden, as it supports a variety of painted lady butterflies, skippers and bees. Another resource to keep in your toolkit is the State Botanical Garden of Georgia’s Pollinator Plants of the Year Program. Each year four outstanding plants are recognized in the categories of spring bloomer, summer bloomer, fall bloomer, and Georgia native. This year all of the selections are native species and would be excellent additions to any pollinator garden.
However you decide to join in the DIY native plant movement, know you will be rewarded. That satisfaction of figuring out what to plant where and observing the seasonal highlights throughout the year will be yours to cherish and learn from.
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