my oldish Ibook struggled very much as well, and I could hardly read it, otherwise very interesting and controversive (?) topic or alt least potentially

If you convert to a .pdf file (option included with that website), it is much easier to navigate and read.

But I find the entire article on nativars to have a lot of inaccurate or misleading information. One of the contentions was that only certain pollinators can pollinate certain plants. Simply not true! Also that nativars have been somehow intentionally bred or manipulated to offer whatever specific features they offer. Also not true! Or that nativars or even non-native plants are not attractive to the zillions of local pollinators that inhabit our gardens.

While this is an issue we should all be aware of, this presentation was sorely lacking in the full details and offers a not very well rounded (or properly informed) viewpoint.

The artwork however was pretty amazing!

Thank you for sharing this.

I did not get that out of the article, GardenGal. I didn't read it as don't plant nativars; rather, know what you're buying - you're not buyng a straight species, and that may cause pollinators to not make use of the plant. There's just too much that's unknown.

If you convert to a .pdf file (option included with that website), it is much easier to navigate and read

==>> pretty sure if i did that ... my computer would explode ...

pretty sure its an issue of my base memory. or lack thereof ...

regardless.. thx mx for posting anything ...

ken

Mt Cuba has done limited field trials ( echs were the ones I looked at) where pollinators preferred the straight species but I haven't seen this research corroborated by other sources.

Heres a link to a related lecture (skip the long intro!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5mPp3DJTxQ&list=PLXL0ba4UPZKI7KCME8MJBOaTDdpNk-mlT&index=1

I took a course with Carolyn Summers who ranked the ecological value of native plants, cultivars, hybrids . Her thought was that the closer to species the better but that all were better than exotics. She u derstood that gardeners have needs too.

A lot of the reason native plants aren't used more is because they are hard to find in stores. Hardly any of the plants are straight species, from anywhere.

It all depends with certain cultivars and region. I think Penn State has done some research. Some cultivars like Phlox 'Jeana' and Veronicastrum 'lavender towers' were visited more than the straight species by more pollinators overall. I think there were some studies out of Maine or somewhere in New England as well, maybe by Wild Seed Project or Native Plant Trust that found cultivars of Monarda like 'Claire Grace' that originated in the southeast were not as popular as the locally sourced plants. The article does a good job discussing the potential knock on effects on wild populations by spreading cultivars everywhere. I think it's fair to say some plants can only be pollinated by certain groups of insects, like long tongue bees and flowers with long narrow corollas. Penn State also published some info about pollen quality from different plants being better and worse for bumble bees. There are studies on honey bees showing a compound in dandelions decreased brood success. It's really not possible to say exotic plants and native plants are equivalent for all pollinators, you'd have to compare specific plants and pollinators. There are even native plants that don't offer much compared to other native plants. Your best bet if you get a cultivar of a native plant is to pick one that still has the original foliage color and general flower shape.

It is also important for us to remrmber that the pollinating period of insects is one brief part of their life cycle. Tallamay emphasizes the specificity of plants as hosts for breeding and larval development.

"A lot of the reason native plants aren't used more is because they are hard to find in stores."

Not in my part of the country. Natives are "big business" for garden centers and nurseries around here and they all have prominent displays dedicated to them.

The suitability - and availability - of using native plants will depend a lot on where one lives. In my area, a great many native plants are not very garden worthy. Many are very "wild" looking, have awkward or aggressive growth habits, do not thrive in a cultivated garden setting or have no particular appeal to pollinators, local or otherwise. Many plants native to other parts of the country do not thrive in my part of the country and vice versa.

If it's native to somewhere else, why would you expect it to thrive in your location? If it's native to somewhere else, putting it in your garden doesn't mean that you are now gardening with natives. Hybrids/cultivars notwithstanding, all plants are native to somewhere.

That is good to hear, sah67.

Natives are trendy in garden centers here as well. But when I take a closer look, the plants being offered are nativars.

I try to avoid nativars with double flowers, and ones with different colored foliage may not be as good for larval feeding. Research I have read fairly consistently supports this. But other nativars may simply be selections of wild plants that have been chosen for longer bloom time or disease resistant foliage, so I am fairly flexible about planting nativars, and may look for research on a particular cultivar if I have questions. and I unapologetically plant some plants at aren‘t native mixed in with my natives just because I like them. I do keep informed about invasives, and actively remove invasives on my land.

As NHBabs has brought up an offering of a locally native species having a cultivar name does not automatically indicate any specific characteristics. (Unless the naming includes descriptors like "double" or "yellow"). Including undesirable ones. That said when trying to support local environmental quality with native planting it is desirable to choose local ecotypes. And not stock grown from material collected thousands of miles away, in another part of the species wild range. Also cultivar names being attached impies clonal propagation. So if a mass planting is installed using only the one clone then any genetic diversity a planting of specimens raised from seed might contain is not present.