Native plants are a virtue
22.05.12
These days, I can't imagine why I planted that bank of hydrangeas along a sunny back wall, except that their puffy blue flowers are gorgeous and they remind me of my grandmother.
After hearing a talk by Doug Tallamy - and realizing how little my nonnative hydrangeas do for the insects and birds in my yard - I regret the ample real estate I gave them.
Tallamy, a University of Delaware entomologist, has become almost a phenomenon, a poster prof, if you will, for the ecovirtues of native plants. Sure, a specimen from China, or even California, might grow nicely here, but if it isn't from here, it matters.
Tallamy gave a talk recently hosted by the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, and 130 people showed up. Mike Weilbacher, executive director of the center, wasn't surprised at the interest. Word's been going around. "Once you see his lecture, you can't garden the same way again," Weilbacher said.
Tallamy starts out with a grim picture - the rampant loss of biodiversity. Many think of extinctions as involving exotic and faraway species like pandas and rhinos, but we miss the declines in our midst. Localized losses can happen quickly - as when Tallamy was a boy in New Jersey and, in a single day, a bulldozer covered up a nearby pond that had been filled with toads. No more toads in the neighborhood. Instead, the new neighbors planted a lawn.
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer