How many popular garden plants are native?
Only 45 of the 227 most widely sold garden plants (20%) are native to North America, against 30% of all 1400 in the planner.
"Native" here means growing wild somewhere in the United States or Canada, from USDA PLANTS and VASCAN records; a named variety of a native plant is counted with it. "Popular" means the plants most garden centres carry, a list of 227 chosen by hand.
| Native, of all plants | Native, of popular plants | |
|---|---|---|
| Everything | 30% | 20% |
| Perennials | 30% | 26% |
| Ferns | 49% | 38% |
| Grasss | 39% | 33% |
| Shrubs | 34% | 15% |
| Bulbs | 4% | 4% |
Why it matters: native insects are adapted to native plants. 133 of the planner's plants are recorded as host plants, whose leaves feed the caterpillars of particular butterflies and moths, and 85% of those are native.
The popular plants that are native
You do not have to give up the familiar plants to plant natives. These 45 are best-sellers already:
- Arborvitae 'Emerald Green'
- Bee balm
- Bee balm 'Jacob Cline'
- Black-eyed Susan
- Black-eyed Susan 'Goldsturm'
- Blanket flower 'Arizona Sun'
- Blue false indigo
- Butterfly weed
- Canna
- Christmas fern
- Coneflower 'Magnus'
- Coneflower 'PowWow Wild Berry'
- Coneflower 'White Swan'
- Coral bells 'Palace Purple'
- Creeping juniper 'Blue Rug'
- Creeping phlox
- Creeping phlox 'Emerald Blue'
- Dwarf Alberta spruce
- Garden phlox
- Garden phlox 'David'
- Gaura 'Whirling Butterflies'
- Hardy hibiscus
- Little bluestem
- Little bluestem 'Standing Ovation'
- Lupine
- Mexican feather grass
- Mountain laurel
- Ninebark 'Diabolo'
- Ninebark 'Summer Wine'
- Oakleaf hydrangea
- Ostrich fern
- Pink muhly grass
- Purple coneflower
- Red twig dogwood 'Arctic Fire'
- Shrubby cinquefoil 'Goldfinger'
- Smooth hydrangea 'Annabelle'
- Smooth hydrangea 'Incrediball'
- Staghorn sumac 'Tiger Eyes'
- Switchgrass 'Northwind'
- Switchgrass 'Shenandoah'
- Threadleaf coreopsis 'Moonbeam'
- Threadleaf coreopsis 'Zagreb'
- Western sword fern
- Yarrow
- Yucca 'Color Guard'
More: native perennials for pollinators, native plants for shade and garden plants native to Canada.
Counted from the planner's plant files when this page was made. Each plant is checked against NC State Extension, the ASPCA lists and USDA PLANTS; see each plant's page for its sources.