And how can they benefit your landscape?
In the last five years or so I have become increasingly interested in native plants. Much of the credit for that interest goes to my good friend and an extremely talented designer, Mark Eberhart of MSE Landscape Associates.
I’ve introduced many native grasses and native forbs into the landscape at my home. However, none of the nurseries I sell for specialize in native plants. They do grow and sell many native cultivars or nativars as they have been come to be called.
Over the years, many of the articles I have read are ambivalent about whether or not these antivirus are as good as the native species at supporting the food web or providing food for the pollinators. A pet peeve of mine is that there usually isn’t any science behind that opinion. That’s why I was so happy to see the recent publication of an echinacea trial done by the Mt Cuba Center.
While the pollinator visit frequency was not the main part of the study, I think it was a big step in the direction we need to go. Beautiful flowers that provide no benefit to the insect world isn’t a constructive way for plant breeders to do.
The study concludes that:
I was glad to see that several cultivars that Marjac Nursery grows were in the top half of the study including: Baja Burgundy, Magnus, the Sombrero Serves plants, Pow Wow White, White Swan, and Cheyenne Spirit.,
Hopefully, we will see more studies like this. Anyone know of any monarda, iris, or chethra trials out there?
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