Re: Question About Natives

**C* U* <c*@sbcglobal.net>**

I think it varies. I remember several years ago at the GWA symposium  
in Minneapolis that we visited the private garden of a local designer  
and he said he had noticed that the butterflies didn't flock to a  
shorter cultivar of Joe Pye weed the way they did to species. I  
forget the name of the cultivar but it was about 3-4 feet tall. I  
grow Eupatorium maculatum which gets about 5 feet tall and it is a  
great magnet for butterfies, both monarchs and swallowtails. On that  
same trip I saw the truly giant E.purpureum (8 feet?) in many gardens  
and I had never seen so many monarchs on one plant in my life. The  
downside of this plant, other than its height, is that the flower  
heads were more loosely formed, with a paler pink color and hence not  
as showy.

  The prairie plant culver's root (Veronicastrum virginicum) is  
terrific for attracting bumblebees in my garden.

As to other cultivars, I notice in the AAS promotional materials that  
they often claim a plant as a magnet for butterflies or hummingbirds  
or whatever. Presume it depends on what has been bred out (or not). I  
see butterflies going to my 'Magnus' confeflowers and phlox  
cultivars. Don't notice much activity around roses or clematis, however.
Carolyn Ulrich

On Aug 11, 2007, at 2:11 AM, Jeff Ball wrote:

> A question occurred to me as I was working on an article for Mother
> Earth News.  I understand that the tightest definition of a "native"
> is that it grew in some area of the country before 1600.  Now I also
> know there has been considerable research to identify the ecological
> benefits of many natives in terms of hardiness, toughness, value to
> beneficial insects and songbirds, etc.
> There have been a large number of cultivars bred using a true native
> as at least one parent.  The question is whether those plants bred in
> the past fifty years to improve on various native characteristics
> have the same contribution to the ecology as the parent natives.  Has
> there been any research on this issue?
>
> Jeff Ball
> jeffball@usol.com
> 810-724-8581
> Check out my daily blog at www.gardeneryardener.blogspot.com
> Check out my extensive web site at www.yardener.com
>
>
>
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