Our affection for native plants is growing.

Our affection for native plants is growing. Nature lovers and friends of the environment are slowly ditching the likes of geraniums and gerbera daisies in favour of native wildflowers such as coneflowers and asters.

The variety of native Ontario wildflowers is immense, which bodes well for those looking to add native plants in their perennial gardens. Native plants suited for foundation plantings and ornamental gardens are harder to find.

Moving to native trees is relatively easy, because there are several good choices that grow just as well in the forest as they would in a backyard.

Tree nurseries are giving renewed attention to native trees. For the last few decades, tree growers who were on a continuing quest to create new and better varieties, are now focusing on growing more native trees. Not long ago, trees such as Kentucky coffeetree and hackberry tree were hardly recognized, but are now in high demand.

Kentucky coffeetree (Gymnocladus dioicus) is a rather rare tree that can be found growing in Michigan, toward New York, then south and west to Kentucky, Arkansas and Nebraska. In Canada, it’s found only in a few pockets in Southwestern Ontario.

Kentucky coffeetree is large and stately, growing up to 25 metres. Its leaves are more than 60 centimetres long, divided twice into smaller leaflets that are only a few cenyimetre long. Its fist-sized seed pods that remain on the tree through most of winter. It likes to be planted in full sun, with rich, well-drained soil.

Northern hackberry (Celtis occidentalis) is a fine-looking tree without striking characteristics. In the wild, it’s found in Southwestern Ontario, north to Owen Sound and east to Ottawa. Tough as nails, hackberry grows in full sun to partial shade. It likes rich soil, as you would find in the forest, but is also very drought-tolerant.

Hackberry produces fruit that can persist through winter, making it available for songbirds and robins till spring. Hackberry is a well-behaved variety favoured by municipalities as a street tree.

American basswood (Tilia americana) is another tree enjoying a comeback. Related to the recently popular linden, basswood has large, heart-shaped true green, leaves that provide dense shade. It produces light brown seeds attached to a bract that some complain are difficult to clean up. Basswood likes water and is easily found deep in any Ontario forest where a thick layer of mulch retains soil moisture.

Other Ontario native trees suited to home landscapes include many varieties of oak, Canadian birch, American beech, hickory, tulip tree, sycamore and sugar maple. Native trees that may not be suited for our non-native environments include Manitoba maple, aspen, silver maple and willow.

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