observe the everchanging scene from a strategically placed bench. I watch goldfinches sip rainwater from little cups formed where cup plant stems meet the leaves. I observe songbirds visiting my yard’s seasonal offering of seeds and fruits. The butterflies, skippers, and bees that ignored my introduced ornamentals now visit my native flowers and grasses for nectar, pollen, and reproduction habitat. Monarch butterfly visits to my oh-so-fragrant common milkweeds actually result in monarch butterfly caterpillars! Tiny oligolege, or specialist, pollinator bees spend sunny hours at my beautiful blue American bellflowers. I remember exclaiming in surprised delight upon seeing a hummingbird hovering at an orange flower on the honeysuckle vine I had planted specifically to attract hummingbirds. Many happy evenings are spent devouring native plant nursery catalogs, as images of native wildflowers dance in my head. The absorbing new world we created just outside our door inspired us to explore the fascinating world of the midwestern prairie, and one result of this was a collaboration between my husband and me on the book Prairie Directory of North America.
Recognition of the problems associated with invasive nonnative plants led me, in consultation with and encouraged by William E. McClain, now-retired Illinois Department of Natural Resources (DNR) naturalist and author, to draft a proposed amendment to the Illinois Exotic Weed Act (525 ILCS 10). Though the effort failed, the experience was illuminating. I presented the local Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) with petitions, signed by hundreds of people, asking the department to stop mowing roadsides planted with native grasses and flowers, and achieved some success. When nonnative purple loosestrife invaded the marshy lake where we have a house, we worked with the Wisconsin DNR to eradicate the “purple plague.” Invasive nonnative garlic mustard degrading a local park inspired me to secure park district permission to create an annual garlic mustard pull. The sight of children playing on pesticide-treated lawns in the village where I live led me to successfully campaign for pesticide-free, village-owned lawns. The village’s publication of a list of proposed plantings for a local development that included invasive nonnative plants prompted me to provide a list of suitable native alternatives, which the trustees adopted. When local mothers creating a middle school prairie garden asked for suggestions on native spring flowers to replace the usual nonnative ones, I shared a similar list with them. Creating a one-acre wetland prairie in my village park district’s retention basin is my most recent project.
We are not instinctively aware of the benefits of gardening with native plants. But reading, joining informative groups, and close observation can teach us that native plants provide native birds and butterflies with vital food and reproductive sites not available from nonnative species. We can discover that choosing native plants helps prevent their extinction. We are not born with the knowledge that nonnative invasive plants damage the environment. It is up to us to learn how many nonnative plants that began life in North America as popular ornamentals became today’s most invasive plants.
We wrote this book to make information and insight that we acquired over time immediately accessible to others. I have derived much joy from observing local birds, bees, and butterflies interacting with midwestern native flowers and plants and from the beauty, fragrance, and reliability of these plants. Learning the importance of native flora and fauna to a healthy ecosystem inspired me to act, and that in turn has given me much satisfaction. Whether we proceed in small incremental steps or with big landscaping projects, each of us can decide to choose native plants as alternatives for nonnative ornamentals. We hope the information that we share will intrigue and inspire you, too.
CHARLOTTE ADELMAN
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors gratefully acknowledge the many people and organizations that helped to make this book possible.
We thank Gillian Berchowitz, editorial director at Ohio University Press, for her support, counsel, and recognition of the environmental importance of choosing regionally native plants for our gardens and landscapes.
We also thank:
Jeffery S. Pippen (http://www.duke.edu/~jspippen/nature.htm), who contributed a wondrous supply of butterfly photographs
David K. Parshall for generously providing butterfly information
MinnesotaSeasons.com for contributing many wonderful photographs
Rob’s Plants at http://www.robsplants.com
The United States Department of Agriculture plant database and all the individuals from the USDA who contributed photographs to this book
The many photographers who released their photographs into the public domain
Mary Vaux Walcott and Louis Agassiz Fuertes and the many artists and photographers listed in “Illustration and Photography Credits”
Throughout this book you will notice references to “Barnes,” which refer to Thomas G. Barnes, Attracting Butterflies with Native Plants (Online Publications) http://www.ca.uky.edu/agc/pubs/for/for98/for98.htm.
We obtained most of the information about mammalian preferences for specific plants from Dr. John Hilty’s website Illinois Wildflowers, http://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/, which, along with other excellent sources, provided much pollinator, butterfly, and other insect data.
And, finally, we are grateful to all our friends for encouraging us in the creation of this book.
HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
Midwest gardening focuses on changing seasons, so this book is divided into chapters covering spring, summer, fall, and winter, with some inevitable overlapping between the seasons. Each section contains a seasonal selection of alphabetically listed introduced (that is, nonnative, alien, exotic) garden flowers and plants that are popular in the Midwest. We list each plant and flower by its common name(s), followed by the family, genus, and species. Then we state its origin, which is frequently Asia or Europe. Next, we present the plant’s height, notable ornamental features (flower color, leaf shape), and cultivation requirements. An invasiveness note is provided if U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) maps or other resources indicate that the plant has naturalized or become invasive in the Midwest. Using “I” for “Introduced,” USDA maps reveal the great extent to which nonnative flowers and plants have moved into our Midwest ecosystems. USDA maps also document the Midwest’s threatened, endangered, rare, and extirpated native plants. Please reference USDA Plants at http://plants.usda.gov/.
Selecting the most popular nonnative plants turned out to be an eye-opener. The choices offered by most national nursery outlets, mail-order catalogs, large local nurseries, supermarkets, and garden centers are usually between one nonnative plant and another nonnative plant. Because mainstream sellers rarely offer native plants, it is no wonder imported plants dominate our gardens and landscapes and that we see fewer butterflies. In response to the increasing interest in native flora, some mainstream plant businesses include a few popular native plants. Though these offerings are usually hybrids or cultivars, popular demand is creating better choices. As customers we should ask sellers to offer native plants.
Following each nonnative entry is the heart of this book: descriptions of regionally native midwestern plants and flowers that resemble the nonnative plant in height, notable ornamental features (flower color, leaf shape), and cultivation requirements. The term “native midwestern plants”
