Native Plants
Q. Who is Mr. Smarty Plants?
A: There are those who suspect Wildflower Center volunteers are the culpable and capable culprits. Yet, others think staff members play some, albeit small, role. You can torture us with your plant questions, but we will never reveal the Green Guru's secret identity.
Did you know you can access the Native Plant Information Network with your web-enabled smartphone?
Ask Mr. Smarty Plants
Ask Mr. Smarty Plants is a free service provided by the staff and volunteers at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
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Wednesday - April 07, 2010
From: Baltimore, MD
Region: Mid-Atlantic
Topic: Non-Natives
Title: Native plants more beneficial for Maryland and Chesapeake Bay?
Answered by: Barbara Medford
QUESTION:
Why are native plant species more beneficial than non native plant species for the state of Maryland and the Chesapeake Bay?ANSWER:
The U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service Chesapeake Field Office has a website, Bay Scapes, that should give you a lot of information on native plants for that area. In general, we can tell you that the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center is dedicated to the use, protection and propagation of plants native not only to North America but to the area in which the plants are being grown. Plants that have evolved in an area over millions of years will have developed tolerance for the prevailing weather, provide food and cover for native wildlife and, in garden situations, require less water, fertilizer and other maintenance.
In our Special Collections, we have a list of plants native to that area, Plants of Chesapeake Bay, provided by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service Chesapeake Field Office, as well. When you look at our webpage on a specific plant on that list, it will often have the benefits of the plant listed, which include butterflies or birds it may attract, wildlife browse or erosion protection.
More Non-Natives Questions
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August 10, 2009 - I live in upstate New York but am a fanatic about tropical plants, palms and banana trees. They're obviously all in pots that I take indoors, and I lose them from time to time. (Had a coconut palm th...
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Could lilacs grow in Georgia?
April 27, 2010 - Hi Mr Smarty Pants,
First off, I want to commend you on your promotion of native plants. I am passionately anti-invasive plants (in fact, it was the subject of my master's thesis). That being said...
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Bulb identification
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Pruning blue potato tree (Lycianthus rantonnei)
July 14, 2008 - I wrote earlier about a blue potato tree(Lycianthus rantonnei) the top appears dead but if you break a branch it is still green, what would happen to it if I cut all the branches forming at the bottom...
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Problems with non-native weeping willow in Greenville NY
September 10, 2009 - We live on the border of Zones 5b and 6a and have a weeping willow that grew so much in only 3 years and did quite well. However, there are aerial roots growing on its bark as well as part of the bark...
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