Native Plants

Q. Who is Mr. Smarty Plants?

A: There are those who suspect Wildflower Center volunteers are the culpable and capable culprits. Yet, others think staff members play some, albeit small, role. You can torture us with your plant questions, but we will never reveal the Green Guru's secret identity.

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Ask Mr. Smarty Plants is a free service provided by the staff and volunteers at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

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Please forgive us, but Mr. Smarty Plants has been overwhelmed by a flood of mail and must take a break for awhile to catch up. We hope to be accepting new questions again soon. Thank you!

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Wednesday - April 21, 2010

From: Margaretville, NY
Region: Northeast
Topic: Seed and Plant Sources
Title: Recommendations for a slope in Margaretville, NY
Answered by: Barbara Medford

QUESTION:

Mr. Smarty Plants, We really love all of your ideas on our 60 degree bank needing plants to keep the topsoil in place. The grasses you suggested are beautiful!!!! They will look incredible against the native bluestone. You are right, the grasses are a much better idea than the creeping vines!!!!! I sent a question in earlier this week asking where you buy these kinds of plants, but I just wanted to say how beautiful each of the choices are that you have recommended!!! We will send you pictures once we figure out how to download them. We are really happy with all of your suggestions, now its a matter of finding them all! Thank you again!! :)

ANSWER:

Thank you again for your kind words. We hope you got our earlier reply about accessing our Suppliers site to find native plant nurseries, seed companies and landscape consultants in your general area. The biggest problem we native plant advocates face is the difficulty gardeners sometimes experience in locating plants we have recommended. Staff members and volunteers at the Lady Bird Wildflower Center are constantly doing research, locating suppliers and finding plants suitable to every area. All the plants we recommend are considered "commercially available" and all the suppliers on our lists must have a certain percentage of native plants in stock to be on those lists. We hope that you and any others who go looking for native plants we have recommended will mention this to the retailers they contact, and urge them to stock more natives to the area. Native plants are attractive, thrive in their native environments, and are good for our ecosystem because they require less fertilizer, water and maintenance. We will look forward to the pictures of your garden.

Native Plants

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Wednesday - April 21, 2010

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