Highland Orchards Farm Market

Why Native Perennials? 

Let’s talk about why they are important, what they are, and how to incorporate them into our gardens!

Why They Are Important
Native perennials are a subject about which I am very passionate. The garden world has been abuzz in recent years with how to grow better gardens. The answers the experts have come to relies on the need for everyone to get involved. Owning a home and land means having a commitment and responsibility to doing our part to keep our air, water, and soil clean for everyone to live more healthily every day. Plants as a whole are natural environmental stewards. Plants hold soil in place with roots to prevent it from being washed away by rain, and they take chemicals that are toxic to us out of the air, water, and soil and store them in their bodies so that we don’t have to breathe or drink them. Plants have many other important roles, and as humans, we are conscious of those roles and able to put plants into spots where we most need them.

Plants that are native to a region mean that they have originated in that place, in the ecosystem that exists there with other plants, animals, and microscopic organisms. They have a relationship to that place around them. That relationship they have developed allows them to succeed in growing in that place year after year, decade after decade. They don’t need any extra-special care and can successfully make it through tough seasons with weather like soggy flooding, storms, and drought. They also provide ecosystem services like food and shelter to the other organisms around them.

Taking them out of that place leaves them a little lost. They may struggle without the other organisms they are used to pollinating them or exchanging nutrients or providing the same density of shade. Sometimes the conditions are too favorable and the plant spreads and takes over, throwing off the balance of the ecosystem it is suddenly occupying often by starving or crowding out the other plants. Very occasionally a plant is able to be moved from one ecosystem to another and adapt and function in a way that does not disrupt the plant or its new surroundings, such as being a good pollinator plant, having edible seeds and leaves for wildlife, and growing at a reasonable rate even in its new environment. As humans, we are able to understand the way these relationships are affected and take actions in order to maintain balance.

We are offering over 30 types of native perennial plants this year!
Here is some of our selection:

Sun Native Perennials

• Stokesia (Stokesia laevis ‘Peachie’s Pick’): Striking purple asterlike flowers that bloom in a spectacular show in late June. Deadheading the flowers encourages blooming again and again. Also a meadow-type plant. 
• Black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia fulgida var. fulgida): Beautiful yellow daisylike flowers with black centers on a deer-resistant, drought-tolerant plant. Flowers prolifically summer into fall. Great in meadow settings or on their own. Pollinators love it.
• Penstemon (Penstemon digitalis): Elegant plants with a rosette of round leaves at the base and stalks of small white foxglove-like flowers. Adored by bees and pollinators that have long-tongues such as butterflies, hummingbird moths, and hummingbirds.

Shade Native Perennials

• Coral Bells (‘Silver Scrolls’ Heuchera ‘Silver Scrolls’): Purple and silver-leaved shade perennial with eye-catching color grown for its foliage and as a deer-resistant, drought tolerant groundcover. Pairs exquisitely next to ‘Citronelle’ in the garden and in patio pots.
• Coral Bells (‘Citronelle’ Heuchera villosa ‘Citronelle’): Bright chartreuse green shade perennial with eye-catching color grown for its foliage and as a groundcover. Pairs exquisitely next to ‘Silver Scrolls’ in the garden and in patio pots.
• Foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia ‘Brandywine’): Green leaves with a red heart-shaped pattern and cute little flower stalks that have airy, bubbly “fairy-wand”- like flowers. A great flowering shade perennial grown as a groundcover.

Functional Perennials
Not native, but not invasive! Beautiful as indoor potted plants in winter, and hardy perennials once planted outside in spring!

• Cyclamen (Cyclamen coum): Dainty shade-loving flowers that bloom in cool weather. Pink and white orchidlike flowers 4 inches tall, with heart-shaped leaves with a silver heart pattern on each. They grow slowly and do not spread or take over and can potentially provide early-season pollen. 
• English Primrose (Primula sp.): Enjoy part-shade, with absolutely vivid spring flowers in purple, yellow, pink, red, and attractive curly leaves, primroses are planted in naturalistic garden settings. They too do not take over and will provide early-season pollen for pollinators. Winterthur Museum and Gardens has a great example of a primrose garden.

How to Incorporate Them

Although these particular perennials are native to our region and are used to our conditions, putting a fully-grown plant into a new space can be a bit of a shock. Make sure to deeply water in new plants that you plant especially during the first two weeks after planting in order to establish them.

Put the right plants in the right place matching shade-lovers and sun-lovers to the locations in which they do best.
The tall-short rule: If you are creating a border with your plants make sure to put tall plants in the back and short plants in the front so that each plant can be seen for its beauty!

They are gaining more attention in the news and research worldwide. Locally we reside in a horticultural hotspot that is dedicating research and educational programming to native perennial plants. They are a huge focus of gardens such as Mt. Cuba Center, which writes about them on Thursdays in The News Journal.

- Emma

Still have questions? Feel free to ask me when you stop by the farm.