provide food and shelter to the greatest variety of wildlife. So when choosing where you can have the most impact for your local wildlife, shrubs and trees can be a better bet than perennials and small flowers.”3
As someone who likes to walk and look, I often wander around my neighborhood, observing the local landscaping. Large trees have been replaced by new homes and large garages. Eurasian burning bush, saucer magnolia, dwarf Korean lilac, Japanese lilac tree, winter creeper, and common boxwood are ubiquitous, but they don’t attract butterflies, bees, or birds. Butterflies are rare, goldfinches are scarce, and migrating birds have become uncommon. Scientific data substantiate the decrease of these once abundant wild creatures.4 “The songbirds that brighten spring mornings have been in decline since the 1960s, having lost 40 percent of their numbers so far,” writes entomologist and ecologist Douglas Tallamy. These losses are due “to a host of factors but mainly to habitat loss, which includes displacement of native plants by aliens. The worst invaders are Asian and European.”5
“Homeowners and developers alike are beginning to appreciate the environmental, economic and aesthetic benefits of natural landscaping,” according to the US Environmental Protection Agency.6 Horticulturists and naturalists provide an explanation for this trend: “Today, there is renewed interest in ‘going native’ and restoring diversity to our landscapes by choosing native plants. The reasons for this are many and varied. Planting a native plant provides habitat for a variety of native wildlife species such as songbirds and butterflies. Including native species provides a historical sense of pride to a gardener who grows a plant that Native Americans or early pioneers valued. Furthermore, regionally-adapted native plants have developed a natural resistance to regional pests, and a tolerance to drought, ice storms and other environmental extremes common to the area.”7 Midwesterners with questions about native plants can readily find answers. Typing words like “native plant” into an Internet browser produces helpful information. Organizations and books devoted to birds, butterflies, pollinators, gardening with native plants, native plant nursery catalogs, and our own observations provide information and inspiration to advance the trend toward “natural landscaping.” For more information, please see Selected Bibliography and Resources.
“Now is the time to get started because time is not on our side as more of our native habitats disappear.”8 Regardless of the location or the size of our property, native plants create habitats and migration corridors for wildlife. Even small urban patches can be lifesavers for pollinators (butterflies, moths, bees, beetles, bats, ruby-throated hummingbirds), insect-eating migrating warblers, and other birds that fly from place to place.9 Plantings of thoughtfully chosen and responsibly cared-for native woody and herbaceous species help prevent harm and ensure maximum benefits.
“Planting natives in small landscapes will not recreate ancient ecosystems, but it does create biodiversity to support what’s left of our wildlife,” states Douglas Tallamy, who suggests keeping lawn for where we walk or use it for recreation. “The rest of the landscape would consist of bunching grasses, shrubs, understory trees and canopy trees.”10 Simply by replacing portions of our lawns with native trees, shrubs, and herbaceous species, we can greatly improve home and neighborhood ecosystems.11 Sharing information about the importance of natives and how to choose and purchase them helps create change. Whether by small incremental steps or by big landscaping projects, each of us can decide to help ensure a future for butterflies and birds by choosing life-giving native shrubs and trees.
Homeowners, gardeners, and landscapers have the ability and opportunity to make good environmental choices and to create beautiful landscapes and gardens. And that is something to celebrate. We wrote this book to bring wider attention to the age-old connection between native woody plants and native wildlife. We hope the information we share will intrigue and inspire readers to protect this delicate balance by emphasizing native midwestern woody plants when landscaping and gardening.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
THE AUTHORS gratefully acknowledge the many people and organizations that helped make this book possible.
The people and organizations are listed in no particular order:
We thank Gillian Berchowitz, director of Ohio University Press, for her support, counsel, and recognition of the environmental importance of regionally native plants for our gardens and landscapes.
We also thank:
The United States Department of Agriculture—USDA PLANTS Database (http://plants.usda.gov/java/) and all the individuals from the USDA who contributed photographs for this book
Jeffrey S. Pippen (www.duke.edu/~jspippen/nature.htm), who contributed a wondrous supply of butterfly photographs
Rob’s Plants at www.robsplants.com
The Missouri Botanical Garden Plant Finder (http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/plantfinder/plantfindersearch.aspx)
The many photographers who released their photographs into the public domain
Mary Vaux Walcott, North American Wild Flowers (1925)
Alice Lounsberry (author, 1872–1949), Ellis Rowan (artist, 1847–1922)
Harriet L. Keeler (author, 1846–1921)
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
The illustrations by Louis Agassiz Fuertes and the many artists from the books used in this book:
Otto Wilhelm Thomé, Flora von Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz (1885–1905)
Carl Axel Magnus Lindman, Bilder ur Nordens Flora (1901–5)
Franz Köhler, Köhler’s Medizinal-Pflanzen (1887)
Johann Georg Sturm, Deutschlands Flora in Abbildungen (1796)
William Curtis (1746–1799), Curtis’s Botanical Magazine
Forestry Images, http://www.forestryimages.org/
Illustrations by Allan Brooks
Darrell Kromm of Reeseville Ridge Nursery, Reeseville, Wisconsin
Paul L. Redfearn Jr. from the Missouri State University Herbarium
Dr. John Hilty, whose website (http://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/) provides unique data on plants, birds, plant pollinators, butterflies, and other insects
Douglas W. Tallamy (entomologist, ecologist, author) for his vast knowledge and inspiration
We also thank the other authors, illustrators, and photographers who contributed to this book.
Finally, we are grateful to all our friends, native plant enthusiasts, and environmentally minded acquaintances who encouraged us in our endeavors to finish this book.
HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
MIDWESTERN GARDENING and landscaping
