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The Natives 

 Are Here to Stay 



BRUCE BEHAN 



Perhaps the greatest controversy to shake the 

 horticultural world in recent times is the use 

 of native plantings in our landscapes. The de- 

 bate, which is inextricably enmeshed in the sticky 

 webs of "sustainability," land ethic-versus-property 

 rights, and conforming to time-honored rules, re- 

 volves less around the actual use of native material, 

 but rather around which plants are appropriate for 

 inclusion, how they should be worked into new and 

 established schemes, and indeed, what actually con- 

 stitutes a "native" plant. These are questions without 

 hard and fast answers. Suffice it to say, there are as 

 many opinions on these subjects as there are people 

 who take the time to ponder them. 



To the casual eye, it would appear that the topic 

 of "going native" has thoroughly polarized the gar- 

 dening community. On the one side are the ultra-tra- 

 ditionalists — the folks who must have impeccably 

 manicured lawns and well-defined borders filled 

 with exotic, often gaudily colored species. They are 

 the ones who make a drive through suburban 

 America feel like a trip through Munchkin Land. 

 They view the trend towards native gardening as 

 nothing less than a threat to what they consider the 

 traditional American landscape and advocates of 

 "natural" landscaping as lunatics and fanatics. 

 Armed with outdated and often times difficult-to-de- 

 fend "weed laws," the ultra-traditionalists keep a 

 vigilant watch over their communities, ready to 

 pounce if they see any planting that departs from 

 the "norm." 



On the other side are the ultra-purists: "native" 

 gardeners who, among themselves even, are surer of 

 what constitutes "non-native" than of what the term 

 "native plant" actually defines. The most ardent 

 among them advocate not only a strict adherence to 

 native material, but insist on landscape designs that 

 mimic nature's ostensibly haphazard hand. They 

 have become more and more organized in recent 

 years, and increasingly adept at successfully chal- 

 lenging local "weed laws." As a result of their grow- 

 ing influence, many communities have been forced to 



scrap such laws or modify them to accommodate this 

 new style of gardening. In some instances, communi- 

 ties have reversed their weed ordinances to favor — 

 or even require — the use of native plant material and 

 naturalistic landscape designs. 



Admittedly, this is an over-simplified view. But 

 the purpose of this article is not to dissect the two 

 extremes. Rather, it is intended to explore that vast 

 no-man's-land that exists between these two armed 

 camps. It is a land inhabited by people living in the 

 shadow of the "great horticultural debate," people 

 who are unwilling to continue to pollute the envi- 

 ronment with misused pesticides and fertilizers that 

 traditional gardening implies, yet not quite con- 

 vinced that they must uproot their lilacs and dig up 

 their tulips. They range from the guy on the corner 

 who works butterfly weed and coneflower into a bed 

 of exotics to the woman next door who uses natives 

 almost exclusively (but in formal plantings) to the 

 couple up the block who, faced with a large area to 

 landscape, opt for a "naturalistic" look, using natives 

 and non-natives in an attempt to imitate Mother Na- 

 ture in one of her gentler moods. These people, the 

 "great compromisers," are obviously not ready to 

 buy into either of the extreme factions. And so, we 

 may ask, what motivates them to use native plant 

 material? There are a number of answers. However, 

 based on my conversations with folks over the years, 

 I think they can be summed up as follows: 



ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS: There are many 

 facets to this answer, but generally they fall along 

 the lines of adopting a kinder attitude towards the 

 earth. To adherents of the philosophy of sus- 

 tainability, a concept that requires conducting our 

 horticultural endeavors without relying on chemicals 

 and copious amounts of water, natives fill the bill 

 quite handily. They have evolved to deal with local 

 conditions and, once established, often perform well 

 by making do with available nutrients and moisture. 

 Generally speaking, they tend to be free of diseases 

 and pests that can wreck a bed of exotic species un- 



OCTOBER. NOVEMBER. 1998 



