Sorry meant to say "Native" rather than "Hative". I have fat fingers to go along with my "green thumb".

Welcome rhauser44,

I just have a few minutes tonight, but I can give you a few websites that might help. The link below is from when I tried to find a Michigan Native Plant Society by entering "michigan native plant society homepage" in a Google search. It looks promising.

HereÂs a link to Virginia Tech Dendrology's map of Michigan species. It indicates both what is native and what has escaped from cultivation in your state. I try to avoid what theyÂve marked with an asterisk for "nonnative, planted and a wildland component". They have information for other states, and for Canadian provinces that can be accessed by way of the "back to map" at top. (the link I'm using is older I think, but I prefer the format)

http://www.cnr.vt.edu/dendro/dendrology/map/mi.cfm

Here's the search page on the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center. You can specify a US state or Canadian province towards the middle of the page.

http://www.wildflower2.org/NPIN/Plants/plant.html

This next site is geared to Connecticut, but I think but has information on many trees and shrubs you could probably use. Its search feature is excellent since you can specify type of plant, various growing conditions, whether you want only Connecticut or US native, etc. I trust their information more than anybody elseÂs, and especially appreciate the section on possible liabilities.

http://www.hort.uconn.edu/Plants/index.html

This last link is to a different thread on this forum. I totally agree with the recommendations for the American Woodland Garden (if that's the look you're going for), and the William Cullina books. Actually just re-read it. All the recommendations there seem good to me.

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/natives/msg1207563913225.html?5

Always glad to hear somebody's interested in planting natives!

Here is a link that might be useful: Information on Michigan Natives

Another excellent resource is Voss's 3-volume Michigan Flora. It's $14 per volume on Amazon.com -- a good price for large, hardcover books. The neat thing is that it shows plant ranges by county -- important when you consider the range of environments within the state. Voss also will tell you whether a North American plant is actually "adventive" in Michigan from, say, western states or escaped from cultivation within Michigan. If you don't want to buy it, it should be in larger public libraries in the state.

As a fellow SE Michiganian, I can tell you that we are very lucky to have two great native plant nurseries in the area, who could both be very helpful. Wildtype is in Mason, near Lansing, and the Native Plant Nursery is in Ann Arbor, where I live. They both have websites that will show up if you google their names. You should also consider joining Wild Ones, an association committed to natural landscaping with native plants.

Here is a link that might be useful: Wild Ones

Loris -

Lot's of good links, I'm still exploring them all. Thanks

Niel -

Redford Library has all three volumes in their Reference section. I paged through them last night. LOTS of info, some of it was WAAAY over my head, for the moment anyway.
But I do expect to use them as I investigate my plant options.

Sri-

I did previously find Wildtype on the internet, the have a very informative website.

Native Plants Nursery is new to me. However several of their links aren't working for me. It might be due to firewall issues on my end. I will try their site again from home. Ann Arbor would be closer for me than Mason.

I will also check out Wild Ones.

Thank You All!! Now I just have to develop a plan!! With all the variables this is going to be a challenge. But I will keep you updated.

I personally think that the best part of native plant gardening is finding native plants in your area, figuring out what these plants are, and propagating some for your yard. This will not only help you plant a great garden, but will help you become familiar with the native plants of your area. This is also the best way to make sure you are growing plants that actually occur in your region. I recommend you do this:

Take a careful look at your yard and decide which areas you want to use for native plants.

Identify the characteristics of the areas you want to plant. Look at the exposure (south facing, north facing, all day sun, etc.), the types of trees you have, the type of soil (do you have really rocky or sandy soil, is it a clay soil that seems to be wet much of the time?). You don't need to get too scientific about this step, just be aware of the conditions in your yard.

Go on walks around your neighborhood, woodlands, forests, etc. in your area and look for native plants that interest you. Be aware of the environments your plants are growing in, and try to focus on plants that grow in areas similar to your yard. This is particularly important if your yard leans toward the extreme in one respect or another. For example, if you are looking for a plant to grow in a really wet part of your yard, look for plants growing in really wet places.

Identify the plants that interest you. I think Newcomb's Wildflower Guide is great for identifying flowers. You'll need a different guide to help with trees and shrubs.

Once you have found a plant and want to grow it, you can either find a place to buy it, collect seeds, perhaps collect a division or seedlings if you can obtain permission. Some plants can be grown from cuttings, so you won't actually have to remove a plant from the wild in order to have one. How to propagate the plants you want could fill books, so I won't try to tell you too much here. Once you have decided what you want to grow you can look for information on how to grow it.

At first it will seem like you'll never get your garden planted, but within a year or two I think you'll start worrying about running out of space to grow new things you discover. I know I never have enough space, but keep seeing new native plants I want to try.

One step that you can start as soon as the weather permits is preparing places to plant. The first step is usually removing the non-native plants that are already there. If you have low vegetation (a lawn, for instance) you can start by covering the lawn with a think layer of fallen leaves. This will smother the grass and start building the soil.

Good Luck.