Highlights of spring include the return of colorful butterflies drinking nectar from blooming flowers, birds serenading each other, chunky caterpillars snacking on leaves—all bringing joy and beauty to the Garden State.
Soon, local nurseries will be full of colorful plants to add to your garden. Read on for reasons you should choose plants that are native to New Jersey to support pollinators like butterflies and birds.
When we moved into our first house a few years ago, our yard was primarily a lawn without any flowering plants. We didn’t see much wildlife that first summer. I had just started managing the native plant nursery for the Princeton non-profit, D&R Greenway Land Trust, while also working on projects to restore the organization’s thousands of acres of preserved open space. I wanted to try some plants at home to support wildlife I was seeing while out on the nature preserves.
I brought home a rose milkweed from the nursery to plant in our yard. Then, an amazing thing happened that summer…Monarch Butterflies arrived! As I added more deer-resistant plants like native milkweeds and mountain mints to our yard, more wildlife arrived. We even saw hummingbirds visiting the wild columbine flowers we planted on the shady part of the yard.
Native Plants for Survival
The adult butterfly needs nectar from flowers for energy. Unfortunately, our lawns, while practical for recreation, don’t provide nectar. Just as we need certain, specific nutrients in our foods to thrive, wildlife has evolved with specific native plants over time.
What is a Host Plant? A Special Relationship.
We are fortunate to live in a state with a great diversity of plants and wildlife, but we are also experiencing a great decline in species because of the loss of proper habitat for wildlife. By habitat I mean the food, water, and shelter needed to survive and reproduce.
Native milkweed provides the right nectar (read: energy) to adult butterflies, and, importantly, the milkweed’s leaves also provide the right food for caterpillars to grow. This special relationship makes native milkweed a host plant for our Monarch Butterflies. In fact, Monarch Caterpillars won’t develop into Monarch Butterflies without native milkweed leaves. The same is true for many of our native pollinators. Butterflies, bees, and other pollinators require specific native plants to thrive. As we reduce our native habitat, we reduce our wildlife populations.
It’s our Civic Duty
State Legislation notes that “… 17 percent of New Jersey’s native plants are currently designated as endangered plant species at the State level, and the future survival of these and other native plants continues to be threatened by ongoing development, urbanization, pollution, and the presence of harmful invasive species in the State…”
To promote the importance of native plants, New Jersey established April as Native Plants Month. This law was enacted thanks to efforts by 11 of the State’s garden clubs, including the Garden Club of Princeton.
Many nurseries now label native plants. It’s also easy to find what is native to NJ by searching online with the keywords ‘NJ Native Plant List.’ You can also stop by a nursery dedicated only to native plants, like the spring sale organized by D&R Greenway Land Trust.
Plant Native Trees and Shrubs
Planting native shrubs has the added benefit of providing important nutrients for birds to survive their migrations. Amazingly, some bird species fly to New Jersey from as far as South and Central America every year. They arrive exhausted and hungry, much like we do after a long trip. Good news: birds eat insects and consume them in large quantities to re-gain their energy and begin looking for mates. I leave the stems and flower heads from last year’s garden through the winter to support insects and seeds for the birds to forage as they return.
Keystone Species
The species of native plants that provide the greatest value to wildlife are referred to as Keystone plants. Without these plants, entire species of wildlife will ultimately collapse without the specific nutrients and shelter/habitat these plants provide for them – and for their babies. You may be familiar with these plants, of which there are many in our region. Keystone trees include oaks, black cherry, birch, maple and more; small trees/shrubs are blueberry and willows; perennials include blue flag iris, cardinal flower, native sunflowers like woodland sunflower, native asters, black-eyed Susan and more. Click here to see a partial list of Keystone species and (of great importance) the number of species they support, from the National Wildlife Foundation.
Maintenance
Spraying lawns and/or gardens with synthetic fertilizers and pesticides reduces the diversity of pollinator species. Native plants don’t want fertilizer. They do benefit from mulching with compost or your fall leaves.
D&R Greenway President and CEO Linda Mead has had the same experience of transforming a lawn into a woodland native garden. She encourages people to, “Stop by our native plant sale to find out from our staff how you can beautify your yard and support wildlife and the protection of land that is critical to their survival. Creating a natural habitat in your yard is a great way to contribute to mitigating climate change, too.”
Steps to Go Native!
Identify an area where you’d like to add native plants. This can be an existing garden bed or a new area that isn’t being utilized.- Assess site conditions. Determine the amount of sun exposure you have. Take note of how many hours a day the area is shaded. Determine if the soil is average moisture, wet, or dry.
- Remove lawn and invasive plants by digging or cutting. To identify native vs. invasive plants, use a plant identification app like iNaturalist to take a photo of the plant and identify if it is native to our region.
- Choose the right plant based on site conditions. New Jersey has over 2,000 native plant species, and that means there are plenty to choose from to suit your yard. Here are some resources:
- The Native Plant Society of New Jersey has several lists for the home gardener to know which plants are best suited to conditions in their yard.
- The National Wildlife Federation has a Native Plant Finder Tool that recommends plants by zip code that support the greatest pollinators.
Visit a Native Plant Nursery
Come on April 10, 11 and 12 to D&R Greenway Land Trust’s native plant sale to learn more and speak with Master Gardeners and staff who will be on hand to help you choose the right plants, or ask the gardeners at your favorite plant store where you can find native plants there. By choosing the right plants, you will not only invite beautiful (welcomed) wildlife to your yard but also help them to continue to live on in our area and throughout NJ.
