Landscape with Natives

Why landscape with natives?
In a world where it can feel tough to make an impact, you have the opportunity to change your community right outside your front door! Our home landscapes have become centered upon turf grass and non-native, sometimes invasive plants that provide very little in terms of pollinator food and shelter, clean water, erosion control, water absorption, and more. The good news is, we can make a difference by being stewards of the land around our home and setting an example for our neighbors and communities.

What is a native plant?
“A plant or animal that has evolved in a given place over a period of time sufficient to develop complex and essential relationships with the physical environment and other organisms in a given ecological community.”

Native plants are essential because they are the foundation of our ecosystems. They have unique relationships with local wildlife and pollinators. Without native plants those pollinators cannot exist.

The planting plan and plant list provided here showcases an example residential property in Central Indiana. While this landscape plan is for the entire foundation landscape, don’t feel like native landscaping is all or nothing. Choose one area of your property or one landscape bed and start there. Integrate more natives as time goes on. These plantings can be maintained in a very structured, highly managed way to maintain a formal landscape or allowed to grow into a more natural and diverse planting.

The plan + the plants

The plant list offers plant options separated by planting category that match the planting plan. Download an excel version of the planting list below to use filtering or sorting features.

Guide & Plant List (pdf)

Excel Plant List (filter & sort)

Many people associate “native” with hard to mange or too unruly for a home landscape but that is not true! There are many beautiful natives that fit well in a residential landscape. Native plants are adjusted to our local weather, climate, pests, soils, and conditions making them great choices for our yards.

Benefits of natives in the home landscape

Require less (or no) herbicides and pesticides—healthier for your family and pets.
Reduce runoff from your property! The deep roots of natives increase stormwater absorption and allow the soil to filter the water.
Require less water/irrigation.
Native plants are colorful, unique, interesting—beautiful!
Native plants are an important part of our culture and local heritage.

A note on 'nativars' verses native species

In the planting list you will see both “straight species” and “nativar” listings. Straight species are the naturally occurring species which includes the natural diversity within a stand of a species. These species maintain the relationships our pollinators depend on by providing the same plant characteristics over thousands of years (bloom time, color, shape, seed or pollen production, etc.). The diversity of their genes makes them more adaptable in the face of changing conditions. A cultivar Is a cultivated variety of another plant. Most cultivars are created by cloning and therefore have no genetic diversity. These plants are selected for specific traits such as flower color or shape, plant size, growth habit, longer bloom times, pest resistance, etc. A cultivar of a native plant is often referred to as a “nativar”. Some nativars produce sterile flowers and seeds which gives them no value to birds and other pollinators. Cultivars are often named and trademarked. A cultivar will typically have a name associated and on the plant tag ex. ‘Blue Muffin’ Viburnum, ‘Bradford’ Pear, etc.

There are many opinions on the use of cultivars and nativars. In general, we recommend using the straight species whenever possible. Some nativar species may have as high ecological value as straight species natives but, in many cases, this is not proven. That being said, there are particular planting situations, particularly in a home landscape, where a nativar might be your best choice. Consider setting a percentage goal for your property to be straight species versus nativar versus non-native. 100%/0%/0%? 75/25/0%? 60%/20%/20%? It’s up to you! If you do choose to use nativars, avoid any varieties that have significant changes to bloom color and shape as altering these characteristics typically makes pollen, nectar, or seeds, unavailable to pollinators.

More info:
Grow Native. org
What's the difference between native, nativar, and nativar?
Hamilton County Invasives Partnership- Nativars

Native garden certification & signage

Certify your native garden

Certify Your Native Garden with the Indiana Native Plant Society and become eligible for an awesome natives sign.

Where to purchase native plants

Native plants are increasingly available via seasonal local sales, at select retailers, and via shipping from select, reputable online Midwestern vendors.
See our list of seasonal sales and vendors via the button below. Additionally, the Indiana Native Plant Society (INPS) maintains the Buy Indiana Natives Directory which lists vendors who sell native species and DO NOT sell any invasive species. Patronize their businesses and tell them you found them via the Buy Native Directory.

Where to buy natives page (SWCD)

INPS Buy Indiana Natives Directory

Coming soon : HOA entrance sign native plans
Stop wasting thousands of dollars on expensive annuals - go native to create a beautiful, lower cost, environmentally friendly entrance to your community!

Why have we shifted to turf and non-natives?
Post World War II, a turfgrass lawn increasingly became seen as a status symbol of the “perfect” property. This idea was a construct of savvy marketing, the invention of irrigation and low cost of water, and suburban sprawl of communities with larger parcels. Retailers focused on exotic, non-native plants that were “new” or “different”. In modern times, issues such as water quality, pollinator decline, air pollution, invasive plants, and water availability are driving us to rethink the perfect landscape.

Most retailers have offered non-native plants that have come to dominate the home landscape—some of which have become invasive. These non-native plants do not have the critical relationships with native wildlife or provide the ecological benefits that our ecosystem and communities depend on.

This project was made possible with a Clean Water Indiana grant with in-kind support from Mark M. Holeman Inc.