Going Native

There are few things I love more than wandering around garden shops, and I consider it one of my major mom achievements that my children seem to love them almost as much as me. 

They collect spent blooms from the ground to make bouquets, play hide and seek among the trees and stare transfixed into garden ponds.  

So, it astounds me that I've lived in Del Ray six years now and never once went to until this week. It's a magical spot at the end of a concrete stretch of warehouses off Route 1, an urban oasis chock-a-block with native plants, trees and shrubs, marked by muddy pathways and peopled with fantastical sculptures. But unless you're part of the niche market for native plants, it's possible you've never visited either. 

I had certainly heard of the store before. A couple of friends and fellow gardeners had mentioned it casually in conversations. "You should check it out," they would say. Then they'd give me vague directions: "It's off Route 1" or "Turn near the Afghan restaurant." Because it wasn't easy to find, I guess I never sought it out. 

I started thinking about it again recently, though, when my butterfly bush showed signs of blight and sickness. For the second year, the leaves turned rusty and the blossoms never opened. I went online to search for solutions and stumbled across an article with the provocative headline: "Ban the Butterfly Bush!" 

The story goes on to explain that the butterfly bush, originally from Asia, is an invasive plant that crowds out native plants. What's more, while it attracts butterflies with its nectar, it doesn't provide butterfly larvae with food, so butterflies have to spend time and energy searching for other host plants to lay their eggs. Their search is made more difficult as invasive species continue to supplant native ones.

Here's where I confess to having only a vague notion of the importance of native plants in my garden. I knew they were ideal; I guess I didn't realize there were garden experts who consider them critical.

And that's how one day this week, I turned right onto Calvert Street, just beyond the Afghan Restaurant, and made my way past a Dead End sign to a small lot at the edge of the trees. 

Randee Wilson and his wife, Carla Thomas, opened the full service nursery and garden center in the spring of 2006 after remaking their careers. Thomas worked as a software engineer and Wilson worked as finance director of a federal labor union, among other jobs. 

"Basically, how we got into it was we got hooked by plants," Wilson said. The couple's hobby turned into their passion and finally became their profession once they realized they were no longer getting information from staff at local nurseries, but giving it to them. 

In addition to the retail and wholesale business, Nature By Design offers garden design and installation. Also, for $150, a staff member will come to your house for a basic consultation to review your garden and put together a report that identifies the non-native plants and suggests alternatives. What I found especially intriguing is the store grows most of its own plants. About 95 percent of the perennials it sells are grown from seeds and cuttings, Wilson said. The store also mixes its own soil with a cement mixer that's stored in the office. 

"We are completely different," Wilson said. "We're into the environment... the local nurseries are not. That's not they're business. They supply a plant that will fit a two-by-three spot that has a blue bloom in April."

Wilson argues that while plant aesthetics matter, the ecology of the plant is more important. "To me, there are no plants more beautiful than the birds and butterflies it attracts," he said. "The beauty of the plant is just part of the equation."

Wilson isn't the kind to mince words. When I mentioned my butterfly bush, he dubbed it "a piece of garbage" and likened its nectar to giving candy to a kid. "It's not feeding them good food and therefore not supporting the whole cycle of life," he said. "We're basically wiping out a species of butterflies which we've been doing at an alarming rate."

The term "invasive" doesn't just mean a plant that spreads aggressively in your yard, Wilson said. Birds can take the seeds to the woods where the plants spread undisturbed by natural predators. Common invasive plants used in many gardens, besides the butterfly bush, include Bradford pears, the kousa dogwood, Asian wisteria, sweet autumn clematis and non-native honeysuckle, Wilson said. 

"Most of what people have planted, they're just going on other people's advice," he said. 

He gave me a list of 65 butterfly host plants and the butterflies they attract. As someone often frustrated by the lack of helpful or knowledgeable staff at some local nurseries, I'm deeply appreciative of this type of information. 

Despite his harsh words for my ailing butterfly bush, Wilson said he's not a native plant purist. If his business is called in to design a garden in a watershed or other environmentally sensitive area, they do stick 100 percent to native, indigenous plants. But in other, less fragile areas, they won't recommend homeowners get rid of a beloved, non-native plant. 

"You have to strike a balance," he said. "My business is to inform people so they can make their own choices."

It's unrealistic to expect people will rip out the landscaped yard they worked hard to build, but he said most are generally very receptive to his message. "I certainly have witnessed people sort of reluctant to make that change who are now very avid native plant growers," he said. "We're just trying to open a door so that people can see."

If you're interested in growing native plants in your own garden, Nature By Design is offering Del Ray residents a 20 percent discount on everything in stock at the store through Labor Day. Just tell them you're from the neighborhood when you check out.