Cultivars and Native Plants: A Grower's Guide
- AlexANTra
- 15 minutes ago
- 6 min read
Creating a paradise for wildlife in your yard can be tough. It’s hard to know what plants are native, where they will grow, and when to plant. Luckily, Flocking Around is here to help. Here’s our Flocking Guide to cultivars and native plants.
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Garden Showdown: Cultivars vs Natives
If you’ve read recent Flocking Around articles, you know that we at Flocking Around have a lot to say about yards, gardens, and native plants. As I have begun tending to my yard, it has become apparent that too few reliable resources exist to figure out what the heck to do with all this space.
That’s where Flocking Around comes in. At the Roost, we research and test the best ways to create amazing areas for wildlife. Then, we write it up and let you know how to do it, too!
Recently, as I have become more familiar with gardens for wildlife, I encountered the term “cultivar.” What does this mean? And what does it do for the wildlife I love in my backyard?
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Curious about Cultivars?
“Cultivar” stands for cultivated variety. This refers to plants that have been curated by humans. For most of human history, this meant selectively breeding plants. That is, finding plants with desirable characteristics and then pollinating them with other plants with similar good qualities. After several generations of this process, the result is plants that consistently have the desired trait. However, with new 21st-century technologies and sciences, cultivars can now also be made by in labs by scientists.
All of the crops that exist today have been selectively bred. They are all cultivars. Without human modifications, the plants we eat would be small, sad, and much less flavorful.
Cultivars are fantastic for increasing the production of food crops or modifying plants to withstand diseases. But what about native plants?
Since humans have not changed most native wildflowers you see out in nature, they are not cultivars. However, many people keep cultivars of native plants in their yards. Plant nurseries sell cultivars with different colors, that grow smaller or larger, or are more tolerant of drought, disease, and pests than unmodified native plants. There can be advantages to these cultivars. Otherwise, humans wouldn’t have created them. However, it is vital to remember that what humans want from a plant differs significantly from what the bugs, birds, and other animals in your yard need.
Grow with the flow
Cultivars are popular because they can be modified to have different colors, tolerate different moisture levels, grow taller or shorter, etc. Many cultivars of native plants are selected to have a wide variety of colors. For example, wild yarrow has white flowers, but cultivars can be yellow, pink, red, or a mix of all these colors. This changes the native plant but may make it more appealing for garden composition.
The real question is not why cultivars are popular in gardens but what impact they have.
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Humans have created more cultivars of native plants than feathers on a bird’s behind, and each variety has its own set of problems and benefits. Because there are so many cultivars, it can be challenging to determine precisely how each one benefits or harms the ecosystems it is placed in. However, it is safe to say that cultivars generally perform worse than wild native plants in their ability to feed and house wildlife.
Doug Talamy, an entomologist at the University of Delaware, found that the only genetic difference between true natives and cultivars that had an impact on leaf-eating insects (mostly just caterpillars) was leaf color. Butterflies, moths, and other adult insects are often attracted only to certain types of plants, and caterpillars have evolved to eat those certain plants. Plants and bugs have grown and evolved together. For example, the monarch butterfly lays eggs exclusively on milkweed plants. They also visit the milkweed flowers, thus pollinating them before flying off. Plants that attract a lot of monarchs have a better chance of reproducing. In return, the caterpillars eat the plant and absorb its toxins, making them poisonous to predators. The butterfly helps the plant, and the plant helps the butterfly. They exist in symbiosis. However, if the leaf suddenly changed color, the butterflies may no longer be attracted to the plant, and the caterpillars would not receive the same nutrients from the leaves. The system of symbiosis falls apart when even small changes are made.
Similar research by Annie White with the University of Vermont reveals that pollinators almost always preferred native plants over cultivars. Her study found that natives attracted more pollinators than cultivars and provided a more robust nectar load. Cultivars that experience changes in flower color no longer have the signature characteristic that attracts pollinators to their flowers, so they are visited less. Pollinators transport pollen from plant to plant as they forage for nectar. Nectar, essentially sugar water, provides pollinators the energy they need to survive. When plants have small nectar loads, pollinators get the short end of the stick.
Don't Sour the Flower
Cultivars perform worse at attracting and feeding insects, which means there are fewer bugs for birds and other animals to eat. Changing the plants at the base of a food web negatively impacts other animals in an ecosystem.
However, it can be challenging to find true native plants. Cultivars are often the only option when you go to a plant nursery. One way to tell a cultivar from a native when at a nursery is to look at the tag; cultivars will have a scientific name followed by their common cultivar name in quotes (for example, a coneflower might be labeled "Echinacea purpurea Sensation Pink"). While keeping things native is fantastic, evidence suggests that a cultivar of a native plant is nearly always better than a non-native or invasive plant.
Also, avoid cultivars that change the plant's color- leaves or flowers. However, cultivars that make the plant grow shorter, bushier, taller, slimmer, or otherwise change its shape have less negative impact on the wildlife that relies on it.
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The best places to get true native flowers will often be small, local seed sellers. In the Rocky Mountain region, where the Flocking Around Roost is located, we enjoy buying seeds from Western Native Seed OR Wind River Seed. If you are struggling to find seeds for your area, there are many fantastic resources that can help. Here are a few of my favorites:
Homegrown National Park. You can find many great resources on this site, from where to get seeds to help install a garden.
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. This robust database can help you find wildflowers that suit your yard, with filters for light, water needs, and habitat type.
The National Audubon Society. This site has a specific and helpful database for finding seeds. This database is derived from the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, but it may be more user-friendly, depending on what you are looking for in your plant selection. Just type in your email and postal code, and they will recommend plants for your area and list what birds the plants are likely to attract.
High Country Gardens. This website has a section specifically for finding native seeds for your region.
This Broad-billed Hummingbird's pollen covered face is a testament to its love of native flowers.
For the Birds and the Bees
Planting native (or as close to it as possible) helps local wildlife. Supporting a thriving community of plants also creates ample food and shelter for the animals that live in your yard or neighborhood. Cultivars can serve as a piece of the habitat puzzle in your yard, so long as the pros and cons are considered. So go forth and plant with confidence!
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Photo Credits
Yarrow Photo: Achillea millefolium (red beauty common yarrow) 2 by James St. John | CC-BY 2.0 | Flickr
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