Where I grew up, we revered our native plants. We grew them for beauty, fascination, food, and shade, knowing that our plants captured the imagination of the rest of the world. Our native plants appear in literature, paintings, movies, and even comic books. Native plants of the Deep South have inspired emotion and provided nursery income for centuries—they even played pivotal roles in the country's founding.
It was fun -- not professional polling or anything! And granted my friends are skewed toward the plant loving....It would be interesting if I could take over say my high school intern's tiktok and do the same thing.
Native plants have their place in the garden. They typically are drought tolerant and pest free., which eliminates the use of pesticides and saves on water. Native plants are foundational and provide structure in the landscape. Thanks for your thoughts on natives.
I think there's a distinct difference, though, in thinking that southern nurseries are filled to the brim with native plants and then polling people about iconic southern, native plants. Yes, I can walk into any of the so-called native nurseries around Houston and find a decent selection of native plants but they are not filled to the brim and they are generally the same selections whether I'm shopping in NW Houston or down in Seabrook, with exceptions when they get some oddball natives in stock. Stephen F. Austin State University has two plants sales every year from their SFA Gardens/hort and forestry department and while the overwhelming majority are native plants being sold, they of course have a selection of vegetables and non-native typical horticulture selections you can find at any nursery across east Texas (and the south). My husband and I always pour over their offerings in the weeks before, planning which we want and because we are not newbie gardeners we don't want the things we've seen for the last 25 years. The sale is almost a race, you line up at the start and wait for it to open and then you rush with your cart over to the plants you want to get them before they are taken. I don't know why we worry because all of the cool (to us) natives are never picked over. And yet those run of the mill ornamentals you can buy just about anywhere are in everyone's carts. So, no, I really don't think people generally revere native plants. They know an oak tree, bonus points for a live oak, and plant that and end there. I see it in my own community with our local park board (I'm basically in an HOA that operates as a city) and there is no reverence for native plants or leaving yaupon for wildlife, or native pond vegetation for fish cover and bird foraging. I've fought them to keep so much and I lose a lot of the time. Getting them to realize they are cutting down a native hawthorn is a huge struggle---there is no value there. So, no, I really do not think there is an overwhelming reverence for native plants. Most people simply do not care.
I recently drove across a lot of the south on a spring break road trip to the Smokies. In many places, whether it was Birmingham or Lafayette, I could just pick up the local suburban home landscaping and place it in DFW, Tyler, Beaumont, or Houston. It's the same non-native landscaping there as it is here, with maybe a Little Gem magnolia thrown in for good measure. A few pine trees and oaks, and yes, sure, the showier natives that people "care" about.
But that's not reverence for native plants.
Editing to add: A lot of your references, while important, are all monetary and symbolic. They aren't ecological. Which is what typically gets left out of the conversation when native plants are discussed. Sure, the palmettos are important to South Carolina as bluebonnets are to Texas but very few know there are more than one species of bluebonnets, which do well in what habitat, and that there are other equally important native wildflowers in the spring. There's a disconnect there.
that’s why I was very clear to write this from my own perspective. And my own region, which is the deep south.
No, I may be wrong in that definition, but I don’t think is Dallas as being part of the deep south. It’s a little more arid, then the coastal Carolinas, Georgia and Mississippi, Louisiana, etc.
But even most commercial nurseries do have many native plant options if we expand the term of native to include all of the US. any of the plants in my perennials list, would be in any retail nursery. We could add in newer additions, like Guara, echinacea, heuchera, , etc. There’s no place in this essay where I say that nurseries are brimming with native plants. (though there happen to be 4 or 5 near me that are awesome and one if them is sort of the grandaddy of native plants nurseries, Woodlanders. But this essay is intended to pointed out that in certain regions, mine anyway, native plants have been super important and still are super important in commerce and desire.
Misti, are you reading the essay? The title is about money and symbols -- the statement that stimulated the entire essay was about nursery plants -- again, desire and dollars. Yes, there could be an entire article on soil, insect, water or general ecological issues. We have other species of palmetto too and they have since the 1980s been growing in popularity -- I could have included them. But the essay isn't about any of that....
I’m not on FB so I didn’t get to add my 2 cents on southern natives. Live oak with Spanish moss would be top of my list.
When I began gardening in my 20s the plants I knew were natives ( ie the survey results and list of plants you talked about) because they were the ones my parents and grandparents had in their gardens. Most people of their generation didn’t spend a whole lot of money on specialty and exotic plants.
Pass alongs that flourished here and were the backbone of the garden. Some trees were just there and therefore taken into the garden and some were given as gifts to me as a new gardener. I did go hog wild learning about every plant I could get my hands on and learned along the way (45 years and counting) what would thrive and what wouldn’t in the NC Piedmont. I think the real debate is about the industry’s drive to educate people about native plants .
Industry is driven by profit and that doesn’t usually include a passion for ecology or horticulture. That’s why we need people like you Jenks to inform and inspire us to educate ourselves and develop our own sense of commitment and passion to the ecological balance of nature and beauty. Thank you for this article!
Thanks for that -- you reminded me that even though I grew up in a gardening family, we never, ever went to a nursery. I seriously think my first real retail nursery was in late high school -- I went to Nurseries Caroliniana. We bought veggie starts and flowers at the farm supply and all other plants in the garden came from friends, from digging things up in the woods or a few things ordered from the Market Bulletin. Thanks for stimulating that memory.
New garden means a new opportunity to plant more natives! That is my goal in my new garden. We need to talk about what I can use and show my new neighbors how glorious it will look and how much easier to care for too!
I’m glad you mentioned cross vine. I’m hunting for it this year. I’ve read that it makes a great tea for overall good energy. I remember where some bloomed last year and I became obsessed watching it every day. I later realized that it’s on the cover of one of my grandfather’s books.
IMHO, reading your piece, I felt your professional frustration regarding what nurserymen and other pro-horticulturalists see as blatant misrepresentation by mainstream media, even “experts” within the Hort world.
“Native, native, native…only natives, more natives, etc.” As a naturalist, even I see the narrow perspective here and have witnessed the counter-narrative getting louder and louder. “We already love natives. Don’t dismiss non-native and beneficials. Ornamentals need love too.” It’s like watching a protest and counter-protest, each side of the street holding up their posters and shouting at one another. Meanwhile, the average consumer only hears noise, and occasionally, a sound bite or two.
But here’s the thing. In my continued fascination and observations of humanity, I have found the average consumer is still pretty clueless. Even the average gardener remains ignorant, whether by choice or by inundation of too much conflicting information. This response becomes an ingrained, habitually-formed attitude.
Case in point, I gave a lecture last week to people who still refer to butterfly larva as little worms and to cardinals as the red bird. These are people who should know better since they have been exposed to hundreds of lectures, articles, books, brochures, and workshops. When I stated that we have approximately 165 butterfly species in our state, they gasped, but in that gasp, I recognized that years from now they will still only be able to name 3 or 4 if we’re lucky. (Secretly, I made a mental note to start a new marketing campaign to Save the Roadside Skipper.)
Most people choose not to know things, and depend on others to remind them of what to do, think, and ultimately purchase. I use to get pretty frustrated by this and still find myself reacting. But then, I found myself in another arena (crypto) and did the exact same thing. Instead of studying to learn, I called a friend and asked for their recommendations. In that moment I recognized the futility of my own frustration.
So, maybe the native warriors need to keep shouting. Maybe they even need to expand their repertoire of offerings, instead of just touting the benefits of the top ten butterfly-saving plants. Personally, I would love to read more about hawthorns and viburnums, and positive articles promoting beetles and army worms and moles as necessary parts of a landscape. In the absence of such, I will write my own and hope one or two readers feel validated to create people free zones in their space.
And I will continue to garden on my own terms, recognizing that most humans just want to hit the easy button in a very complicated world.
Yeah. It’s been like the abortion debate — one group asking for choice and tolerance and one group trying to impose their personal passion. And it’s nothing new. It’s been like this my whole career.
I try hard to keep my perspective positive and hope you see that in this piece — it’s meant to honor the past and people who have for centuries loved and promoted our native plants. Too often, I feel that history is ignored or that folks are ignorant of it.
I’ve been one of the native warrior promoting new plants and figuring out how to use them for 50 years. But we are not the group that’s bothersome and dangerous. There’s a whole contingent of native natzies who share fake news…ad those who, as you say, like to look only at the surface, only at what seems logical, without critical understanding, that sort of hypocrisy smothers progress and bringing others into the fold.
That’s one thing. But the hypocrisy is there in the movement. Come on, you can’t scream native only while munching on a carrot or planting a gallardia that’s native to Mexico.
Your survey about iconic plants of the south is infinitely fascinating.
It was fun -- not professional polling or anything! And granted my friends are skewed toward the plant loving....It would be interesting if I could take over say my high school intern's tiktok and do the same thing.
God bless our native plants! What an informative post - I'll look at all my plants with new eyes!
Native plants have their place in the garden. They typically are drought tolerant and pest free., which eliminates the use of pesticides and saves on water. Native plants are foundational and provide structure in the landscape. Thanks for your thoughts on natives.
I think there's a distinct difference, though, in thinking that southern nurseries are filled to the brim with native plants and then polling people about iconic southern, native plants. Yes, I can walk into any of the so-called native nurseries around Houston and find a decent selection of native plants but they are not filled to the brim and they are generally the same selections whether I'm shopping in NW Houston or down in Seabrook, with exceptions when they get some oddball natives in stock. Stephen F. Austin State University has two plants sales every year from their SFA Gardens/hort and forestry department and while the overwhelming majority are native plants being sold, they of course have a selection of vegetables and non-native typical horticulture selections you can find at any nursery across east Texas (and the south). My husband and I always pour over their offerings in the weeks before, planning which we want and because we are not newbie gardeners we don't want the things we've seen for the last 25 years. The sale is almost a race, you line up at the start and wait for it to open and then you rush with your cart over to the plants you want to get them before they are taken. I don't know why we worry because all of the cool (to us) natives are never picked over. And yet those run of the mill ornamentals you can buy just about anywhere are in everyone's carts. So, no, I really don't think people generally revere native plants. They know an oak tree, bonus points for a live oak, and plant that and end there. I see it in my own community with our local park board (I'm basically in an HOA that operates as a city) and there is no reverence for native plants or leaving yaupon for wildlife, or native pond vegetation for fish cover and bird foraging. I've fought them to keep so much and I lose a lot of the time. Getting them to realize they are cutting down a native hawthorn is a huge struggle---there is no value there. So, no, I really do not think there is an overwhelming reverence for native plants. Most people simply do not care.
I recently drove across a lot of the south on a spring break road trip to the Smokies. In many places, whether it was Birmingham or Lafayette, I could just pick up the local suburban home landscaping and place it in DFW, Tyler, Beaumont, or Houston. It's the same non-native landscaping there as it is here, with maybe a Little Gem magnolia thrown in for good measure. A few pine trees and oaks, and yes, sure, the showier natives that people "care" about.
But that's not reverence for native plants.
Editing to add: A lot of your references, while important, are all monetary and symbolic. They aren't ecological. Which is what typically gets left out of the conversation when native plants are discussed. Sure, the palmettos are important to South Carolina as bluebonnets are to Texas but very few know there are more than one species of bluebonnets, which do well in what habitat, and that there are other equally important native wildflowers in the spring. There's a disconnect there.
that’s why I was very clear to write this from my own perspective. And my own region, which is the deep south.
No, I may be wrong in that definition, but I don’t think is Dallas as being part of the deep south. It’s a little more arid, then the coastal Carolinas, Georgia and Mississippi, Louisiana, etc.
But even most commercial nurseries do have many native plant options if we expand the term of native to include all of the US. any of the plants in my perennials list, would be in any retail nursery. We could add in newer additions, like Guara, echinacea, heuchera, , etc. There’s no place in this essay where I say that nurseries are brimming with native plants. (though there happen to be 4 or 5 near me that are awesome and one if them is sort of the grandaddy of native plants nurseries, Woodlanders. But this essay is intended to pointed out that in certain regions, mine anyway, native plants have been super important and still are super important in commerce and desire.
acacia should be echinacia. idk how to edit comments on this ap.
Misti, are you reading the essay? The title is about money and symbols -- the statement that stimulated the entire essay was about nursery plants -- again, desire and dollars. Yes, there could be an entire article on soil, insect, water or general ecological issues. We have other species of palmetto too and they have since the 1980s been growing in popularity -- I could have included them. But the essay isn't about any of that....
You go, Jenks!
Chopsticks made from sweetgum trees ... the things you learn in a Jenks Farmer post!
I’m not on FB so I didn’t get to add my 2 cents on southern natives. Live oak with Spanish moss would be top of my list.
When I began gardening in my 20s the plants I knew were natives ( ie the survey results and list of plants you talked about) because they were the ones my parents and grandparents had in their gardens. Most people of their generation didn’t spend a whole lot of money on specialty and exotic plants.
Pass alongs that flourished here and were the backbone of the garden. Some trees were just there and therefore taken into the garden and some were given as gifts to me as a new gardener. I did go hog wild learning about every plant I could get my hands on and learned along the way (45 years and counting) what would thrive and what wouldn’t in the NC Piedmont. I think the real debate is about the industry’s drive to educate people about native plants .
Industry is driven by profit and that doesn’t usually include a passion for ecology or horticulture. That’s why we need people like you Jenks to inform and inspire us to educate ourselves and develop our own sense of commitment and passion to the ecological balance of nature and beauty. Thank you for this article!
Thanks for that -- you reminded me that even though I grew up in a gardening family, we never, ever went to a nursery. I seriously think my first real retail nursery was in late high school -- I went to Nurseries Caroliniana. We bought veggie starts and flowers at the farm supply and all other plants in the garden came from friends, from digging things up in the woods or a few things ordered from the Market Bulletin. Thanks for stimulating that memory.
New garden means a new opportunity to plant more natives! That is my goal in my new garden. We need to talk about what I can use and show my new neighbors how glorious it will look and how much easier to care for too!
I’m glad you mentioned cross vine. I’m hunting for it this year. I’ve read that it makes a great tea for overall good energy. I remember where some bloomed last year and I became obsessed watching it every day. I later realized that it’s on the cover of one of my grandfather’s books.
Such a great plant. My fav. is the very old variety Atrosanguinia and the 90’s variety Tangerine Beauty.
IMHO, reading your piece, I felt your professional frustration regarding what nurserymen and other pro-horticulturalists see as blatant misrepresentation by mainstream media, even “experts” within the Hort world.
“Native, native, native…only natives, more natives, etc.” As a naturalist, even I see the narrow perspective here and have witnessed the counter-narrative getting louder and louder. “We already love natives. Don’t dismiss non-native and beneficials. Ornamentals need love too.” It’s like watching a protest and counter-protest, each side of the street holding up their posters and shouting at one another. Meanwhile, the average consumer only hears noise, and occasionally, a sound bite or two.
But here’s the thing. In my continued fascination and observations of humanity, I have found the average consumer is still pretty clueless. Even the average gardener remains ignorant, whether by choice or by inundation of too much conflicting information. This response becomes an ingrained, habitually-formed attitude.
Case in point, I gave a lecture last week to people who still refer to butterfly larva as little worms and to cardinals as the red bird. These are people who should know better since they have been exposed to hundreds of lectures, articles, books, brochures, and workshops. When I stated that we have approximately 165 butterfly species in our state, they gasped, but in that gasp, I recognized that years from now they will still only be able to name 3 or 4 if we’re lucky. (Secretly, I made a mental note to start a new marketing campaign to Save the Roadside Skipper.)
Most people choose not to know things, and depend on others to remind them of what to do, think, and ultimately purchase. I use to get pretty frustrated by this and still find myself reacting. But then, I found myself in another arena (crypto) and did the exact same thing. Instead of studying to learn, I called a friend and asked for their recommendations. In that moment I recognized the futility of my own frustration.
So, maybe the native warriors need to keep shouting. Maybe they even need to expand their repertoire of offerings, instead of just touting the benefits of the top ten butterfly-saving plants. Personally, I would love to read more about hawthorns and viburnums, and positive articles promoting beetles and army worms and moles as necessary parts of a landscape. In the absence of such, I will write my own and hope one or two readers feel validated to create people free zones in their space.
And I will continue to garden on my own terms, recognizing that most humans just want to hit the easy button in a very complicated world.
Yeah. It’s been like the abortion debate — one group asking for choice and tolerance and one group trying to impose their personal passion. And it’s nothing new. It’s been like this my whole career.
I try hard to keep my perspective positive and hope you see that in this piece — it’s meant to honor the past and people who have for centuries loved and promoted our native plants. Too often, I feel that history is ignored or that folks are ignorant of it.
I’ve been one of the native warrior promoting new plants and figuring out how to use them for 50 years. But we are not the group that’s bothersome and dangerous. There’s a whole contingent of native natzies who share fake news…ad those who, as you say, like to look only at the surface, only at what seems logical, without critical understanding, that sort of hypocrisy smothers progress and bringing others into the fold.
Hypocrisy requires a moral code to start with that is then abandoned for something that goes against itself. Perhaps this is simply laziness.
That’s one thing. But the hypocrisy is there in the movement. Come on, you can’t scream native only while munching on a carrot or planting a gallardia that’s native to Mexico.
Spitting my coffee. That image would make an excellent meme. I really do get it. I am just inserting my Quakerly mindset where it wasn’t invited. 😉
I don’t think of you as a quack at all. oh, wait…yes your mindset is always welcome and thoughtful.
Quaker Jenks, not quacker, although I do raise ducks🥸