Why is it that I can find all manner of exotic plants at my local nursery--tree peonies and bamboo from Asia, Australian eucalyptus, tulip bulbs from the Netherlands and dozens of varieties of gladiolus from South Africa--but none of my local plant outlets carry the native plants I want?
I've recently begun working with a municipality near my own upstate New York town in an effort to use native plantings around a pond to deter Canada geese from taking over. My choices for this project were based on the zone requirements, size, aggressiveness, maintenance, cost and availability of the native plantings--and who would have thought that I was good on all counts except the "availability" issue? I mean, honestly, how can that be? But my trek through half a dozen local nurseries in my area turned up nothing! These plants grow here, like, in nature Can they really be that hard to find? Apparently, yes. Why? Nobody I asked could answer that.
Fortunately we live in a technical world, and if I can't find the American Sweet flag that is supposed to thrive in my local ponds anywhere within a three-county area (though I could find the similar Japanese Iris ensata in every single place I looked), I can always find it on the web. My search, in fact, turned up a number of great resources. Two were particularly good: nichegardens.com and Americannativeplants.com. These sites had the plants I needed, readily available and able to ship within a day or so, as well as a wealth of knowledge about the habits, needs, costs, etc. of native plantings. To order these "exotic" native plants, or to just find out more about them, check out the sites!
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