Putting a Spotlight on Locally Sourced Plants

By Jack Monsted, Assitant Curator, Virginia Native Plant Trail, June 2024

When the Nancy Larrick Crosby Native Plant Trail was dedicated in 1998, the benefits of native plants were little known outside the academic world of biology. Most home gardeners didn’t really know or care where their flowers came from, as long as they bloomed beautifully and for a long time. Non-native, occasionally invasive plants were the only offerings on nursery shelves, and many were marketed as blissfully pest-free – their ecological uselessness turned into a virtue.

Happily, this is no longer the case.

Thanks to the efforts of scientists and public outreach institutions like Blandy, the myriad benefits of growing native plants are finally gaining mainstream acceptance. Thousands of visitors walk the Nancy Larrick Crosby Native Plant Trail annually, not just enjoying the beauty of the plants and their flowers, but also learning about how native plants provide critical habitat for wildlife.  Many public gardens around the country have similar spaces dedicated to native plants, and you’d be hard-pressed to pick up a gardening magazine these days without at least one article focusing on natives.

While the native plant trail has always featured plants that are native to Virginia at large, we’re looking forward to sharing a new interpretive space that goes one step further: the recently planted Locally Sourced Garden. In addition to their “native” status, all the plants are sourced from local wild populations. Every plant in the new garden was grown from seed collected in the mountain or piedmont areas surrounding Blandy, rather than being purchased from a nursery. 

Initially, this may sound like a meaningless distinction – a goldenrod is a goldenrod no matter where it’s from, right?

Well, not exactly. A gray goldenrod adapted to Minnesota, and one grown in Virginia, while the same species, may have different adaptations to their local conditions. The Minnesota plant may be less tolerant of our hotter summers. Or it might bloom earlier or later in the year, having adapted to a different set of pollinators. These subtle changes, while not always immediately obvious, can make a big difference in both how well the plants grow, and how useful they are as habitat for wildlife. Given that many sought-after native plants are only commercially available through large, often distant nurseries, going for ‘locally sourced’ plants can improve the success of a garden.

Speaking of availability, this garden will play a secondary role as a source for collecting locally adapted seed in the future. While some of the seed for the plants in this garden was collected near Blandy by arboretum staff, many of the plants were gifted to us by the Virginia Native Seed Project. Blandy is one of many non-profit institutions and local plant growers collaborating on this project, which aims to increase availability of locally-sourced Virginia seed for ecological restoration projects. The seeds we collect from the Locally Sourced Garden will be used to grow plants for our own restoration projects and plant sales, as well as to contribute back to the project.

The garden itself is a simple design. Two beds forming a semi-circle in the large, grassy area just south of the native plant trail woodland. Both beds were planted just this month and will take another year or so to really grow in and start blooming in earnest. There are plans to add a third bed to complete a circular garden design as more locally sourced species become available. Then visitors will be able to walk into the middle of the garden and be surrounded by vibrant blooms and pollinators on all sides.

We hope you’ll take a moment to enjoy this beautiful, sunny space next time you’re at Blandy. You may find a new love for some of the local, wild plants you’ve never noticed before!