Why I am only going to sell native plants on my website

This year I want to sell plants online with free delivery. Last week, I spent a lot of time whittling down the candidates for our inventory. In the process, I have decided to make a very important rule. I am ONLY going to sell native cultivars on my website.

Only selling native plants might seem like I am limiting myself. It may even seem like I am making a conscious decision to neglect beautiful plants that would make for wonderful gardens. However, I believe that I am doing a service to our local environment. Utilizing native cultivars promotes the health of insects and wildlife that are essential to our ecosystem. We already have so many outside forces disrupting our natural environment, and we need to try to fix that. 

Additionally, upon further research, Maryland has some awesome native plants! Before looking very deeply into this topic, I thought that sun gardens were boring and lacking in character. After researching Maryland plants that enjoy the sun, I was flooded with cool ideas for companion plantings and flowerbed designs.

It fundamentally makes sense to use native plants. They are the candidates that are best suited to our habitat. They will be able to tolerate our climate and weather conditions without intruding on other species like invasive plants do. Native perennials also offer a familiar host to our local pollinators. If I haven’t convinced you that native plants are the best idea, they also tend to be more resilient to local diseases and stressors. 

I truly think that promoting native plants is the responsible way to operate. I don’t think that they are the only plants you should choose. There are some really beautiful species that are from far away places. But I think that choosing to plant mostly local plants is being a good steward of your garden.