Finding Plants

NWF partnered with North Creek Nurseries and Prides Corner Farms to create the American Beauties™ collection of native plants. These are sold at garden centers from New England to the Mid-Atlantic. You can enter your zip code on the site and get a list of nurseries that carry these plants in your area. However, I’ve also found these plants at other nurseries not on the list. These other nurseries might just have a few choices instead of a broad selection. You can also search Google for native plants in your area or actually go to the bookstore or library and flip through books on gardening in your area.

Here are some of my favorites:

Shrubs - I’m a fan of anything in the ilex family (aka hollies). Many varieties are evergreen so they look good year around and also get berries which are great for the birds (I have different varieties that get black, red or yellow berries.)

Perennials – sedums, coneflowers and coreopsis. They are hardy plants and also attract lots of butterflies and bees.

Trees – River Birch. This tree has beautiful paper like bark that peels and flakes away. I just planted it in the backyard and it looks great. It’s a native tree.