Transcript:

Seeds, Weeds, Natives and Nurseries Planting native local species is good for the environment, but what's the best way to find them? I'm Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet. Mizejewski: Native plants are becoming more and more available in regular nurseries. So the first thing you should do is contact your favorite nursery and ask them what native plants they carry. And hopefully they'll have a selection. If not, I would recommend contacting your states Native Plant Society. They usually keep lists of nurseries in the state that carry natives. David Mizejewski is a naturalist with the National Wildlife Federation and the author of the book, "Attracting Birds, Butterflies and Other Backyard Wildlife." Mizejewski: Pretty much every state has a Native Planet Society. These are groups that are working on conservation of native plants in the wild, though a lot of them also help encourage this whole idea of gardening for wildlife with native plants. If you can't find native plants at your nursery, you can always go out and get a seedpod from a native plant growing in the wild. Obviously you want to leave some of those out there in nature so the plants can reproduce and the wildlife will have food out in nature. But, if you take one or two seedpods, you can cultivate those at home, and plant them in your own yard. And then you'll have the native local eco-type which is even better. If you're going to go collect seeds in nature, you really want to make sure that you know what plant you're getting. Because what you don't want to do is be propagating invasive non-native species. They're basically ecological weeds. And unless you know what you're collecting, I would probably avoid doing the seed collection and just go to your nursery. Unfortunately there are many different non-native invasive plant species, some of which you can still buy in the nursery. I would avoid things like Burning Bush. I would avoid things like Barberry. Even a tried and true butterfly planet, Butterfly Bush, is actually a non-native plant that is really invasive in certain parts of this country. Don't plant it. Plant something native that also feeds the butterflies but fits into the ecosystem. We'll hear more about planting native species in future programs. I'm Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet.