Native Plants Archives - Nature Center at Greenburgh

November 26, 2025December 3, 2025 Cathy Ludden Around the Grounds, Native Plants

The Berry Best!

Would you like your yard to be the neighborhood hot-spot for birds? Just serve up some delicious native berries and your place will be hopping!

Watch birds flock to Winterberry!

It’s so much fun to see big crowds of robins, mockingbirds, blue jays, cardinals, and catbirds decide that your yard is the place to be. In late fall, the berries on native trees and shrubs are where the action is!

See robins feasting on Eastern Red-cedar berries!

Summer berries are popular, too, and native plants like blueberry, elderberry, shad bush (Amelanchier), black cherry, plums, and dogwoods see plenty of action from June through September.

But as the weather turns cold and insect populations decline, the fruit of late-producing native trees and shrubs becomes critical for many birds. Birds preparing for long migrations need to fuel up for the journey, and winter resident birds need the most durable berries to get them through to spring. Small song-birds like finches, warblers, chickadees and sparrows can fill up on the seeds of perennials and grasses, but raucous gangs of bigger birds will go where the berries are.

How about them Crabapples?!

While it’s true that birds will eat berries from some species of non-native trees and shrubs, that’s not a good thing. The berries of Oriental bittersweet, Japanese barberry, English ivy, Korean dogwood, and burning bush are not as nutritious for local birds as berries of North American native plants. It makes sense that over millennia, birds and plants co-evolved to give birds what they need when they need it. The fruits of native trees and shrubs supply the correct balance of fats and carbohydrates to fuel migration and winter survival.

But, if adequate North American berry plants are not available, birds are forced to scavenge non-native berries to survive. Not only will they suffer from poor nutrition in that case, they end up spreading the non-native seeds through their droppings into natural areas where the resulting plants become invasive, replacing essential native plants in the environment, and further reducing quality food supplies for winter birds.

That’s why it’s so important to plant native trees and shrubs in your yard!

And why wouldn’t you? There are so many choices that offer beautiful seasonal interest for your landscape while also feeding the birds. Here are some of the berry best:

Green Hawthorn (Crataegus viridis)
In the wild, Green Hawthorn is a tough, thorny, small tree native to forest edges from Delaware to Florida, and in the Midwest along the Mississippi River valley. A modern cultivar called ‘Winter King’ is nearly thornless, disease-resistant, and produces very ornamental fruit, making it an excellent choice for even small suburban yards.

Hawthorn in spring bloom.
*Photo: Mt. Cuba Center*

Typically no more than 20 to 30 feet tall and wide, with an attractive vase shape and interesting exfoliating bark, ‘Winter King’ Hawthorn blooms with small white flowers in spring. In summer, its dark green leaves are an important host to numerous species of butterflies. The tree has an open habit that will not shade out underplanting or lawn. In fall, the berry-like fruit turns bright red and adds a great touch to the autumn landscape. If birds are very hungry, they will start working on the berries in fall, but Hawthorn fruit is known to be long-lasting and will likely provide for birds well into winter.

American Holly (Ilex opaca)
The festive winter look of American Holly, with its bright red berries and deep green leaves, appeals both to humans and birds.

Cardinals, mockingbirds, catbirds, and blue jays are all fans of Holly berries. If the birds don’t completely devour them by the end of the year, the berries can hang on until spring when robins come back to finish them off.

Even rain can’t stop the Holly berry feast!

American Holly is one of our finest evergreen trees, and is native all along the Atlantic coast from southeastern Maine to Maryland and even in parts of Florida. In suburban New York, Hollies will slowly reach 30 to 40 feet tall and 10 to 15 feet wide. They are ideal for adding depth and variety to otherwise monotonous property-line rows of Arborvitae. A mixed border of Holly, Arborvitae, Eastern Red-cedar, and Rhododendron is a great privacy screen and supplies both food and shelter for a wide variety of birds. Because Hollies are dioecious (separate male and female plants), it’s a good idea to include a male Holly within 50 feet or so of the female to get a good berry crop. For more on American Holly, click here.

Eastern Red-cedar (Juniperus virginiana)
Some associations between birds and their favorite plants are so strong they even find their way into the bird’s name! The magnificent “cedar waxwing” is such a case. More accurately called juniper berries, the fragrant fruit of the Eastern Red-cedar is favored by robins (see the second video above), as well as cardinals and mockingbirds. But the possibility of attracting a late-winter flock of cedar waxwings is reason enough to plant this tree in your yard.

With a large flock of friends, this cedar waxwing descended on a Red-cedar during a March snowstorm

For a more detailed description of Eastern Red-cedar as a landscape tree, click here.

Crabapples (Malus spp.)
Certainly, one of the most popular small flowering trees in residential landscapes is the Crabapple. It’s a good choice for many reasons. Although there are only a few species of native Crabapples, the Malus genus, including non-natives and hybrids, seems to be one of the few trees found all around the world that is as well-accepted by North American insects and birds as our native species. Crabapple leaves are known to host over 300 species of butterflies, and the fruit is enjoyed by birds, squirrels, deer, and other wildlife. (See the third video above for the Crabapple feast.)

There are so many Crabapple varieties available in such a wide range of tree size, flower color, and fruit size and color, that there is bound to be one that will become a favorite in your yard. These lovely trees provide year-round interest and wildlife watching: bumblebees in spring, butterflies in summer, and flocks of birds in fall and winter.

While the birds in my yard seem to go for other berries first, that just means Crabapples stay on the tree longer, looking great even in the depth of winter. By spring, returning migrating birds will clean up the remaining fruit long before the tree starts blooming again.

In addition to the trees described above, several native shrubs are also outstanding late-season berry producers.

My favorite is Winterberry (Ilex verticillata). The feeding frenzy in the first video above explains why. An easy-care shrub with cultivars available in a range of ultimate sizes, Winterberry really belongs in every garden. See a full description here.

Northern Bayberry (Myrica or Morella pensylvanica) is another good shrub for winter bird food. The berries are sturdy and can stay on the plant for as long as two years. Small enough to be attractive even to warblers, the berries also appeal to larger birds. As a landscape plant, Bayberry is durable, attractive, and a great choice for hedges. See the blog post here for more information.

Viburnum nudum, commonly called Possumhaw or Smooth Witherod, is my all-around favorite shrub, and its berries are just part of the reason why. The berries change color from pink to blue to black as they mature, and in their final stage, they look almost like raisins.

Birds will eat them at every stage, but the berries somehow last for months until they are finally picked clean just as winter really sets in. With its big white flowers in spring, shiny leaves in summer, and spectacular fall color, this is a shrub for all seasons – as well as for the birds! For more info, click here.

So, berry-up! Adding a few of these handsome native trees and shrubs to your yard will turn it into the ultimate bird hang-out. And you’ll love having the whole gang stop by!

July 2, 2025July 31, 2025 Cathy Ludden Around the Grounds, Lawn Care, Native Plants

The All-American Yard

Summertime, and it’s the 4^th of July! American Independence Day!

We love celebrating the Stars & Stripes — flying the flag, draping patriotic bunting on the porch, and decorating everything with red, white, and blue.

But wait! Is your landscape part of the theme? Is it proudly American? Or is it decorated with English Ivy, Norway maple, Chinese silver grass, New Guinea impatiens, Korean dogwood, and Japanese honeysuckle? It’s a shame that so many suburban landscapes today are decidedly…. un-American!

Look around your neighborhood.

Do you see big open lawns extending right up to the house? That’s 19^th Century British style!

In the 1800’s, British aristocracy used cheap manual labor to maintain expansive lawns in a display of wealth and power.

Are there yards in your neighborhood with tightly-clipped evergreen shrubs arranged in rows? That style goes all the way back to 17^th Century France!

French royalty favored shrubs clipped into artificial shapes

Should we really be trying to copy that?

American history is closely tied to wilder, natural landscapes and a vast bounty of beautiful and useful plants. Those plants tell our American story!

For example, if you have an Eastern Red-cedar (Juniperis virginiana) in your yard, you should know that in 1584, English explorers were so awed by the incredible beauty and fragrance of Roanoke Island’s Eastern Red-cedars, they decided to make Roanoke the very first colonial settlement in America.

Many of our best native landscape plants today were critical to the life and survival of early American settlers. They used Witch-hazel (read more here & here), Arborvitae, Bee Ba l m, and hundreds of other plants for medicine. They learned which native plants were good for food and which were useful as building materials. They used native plants to improve their lives — native junipers made good pest repellents, and Bayberry scented their candles and removed odors in their homes.

The common names of many native plants still tell us so much about our past. In New England, colonists relied on the bloom time of Amalanchier shrubs to alert them to the beginning of the shad run as fish started migrating up-river from the sea, so they called the plant “Shadbush.” In other towns, settlers called the same plant “Serviceberry” because its bloom time marked the season when traveling ministers who performed wedding and funeral services could begin using local roads again as the snow melted. Those uses may be gone, but the names still link us to our history.

*Amelanchier*, “Serviceberry” or “Shadbush”

You could show your patriotism on Independence Day by planting a White Pine in your yard. Before the Revolution, the English Crown claimed exclusive use of all American White Pines for the British Royal Navy for ship masts. The Crown’s over-reach triggered the first violent protest by Americans against the British, which likely served as inspiration for the Boston Tea Party. In another practical act of rebellion, colonists started making their own ink and cloth dyes from Pokeweed, an American plant, thereby avoiding British taxes on imports.

Indigenous people introduced colonists to Joe Pye weed as an effective treatment for typhus, and so it was named for a highly-respected indigenous leader. Amsonia or Eastern Blue Star was named for a physician who once treated George Washington, and two early American botanists named their discoveries of indigenous woodland plants, Jeffersonia diphylla and Franklinia alatamaha, after our founding fathers. Both Thomas Jefferson and George Washington were hobby botanists, and when Washington lost interest in European plants, he began collecting and growing native American Redbud trees, among others, for his own estate.

From the first Thanksgiving through the War of Independence, America’s native plants supported settlers and, quite literally, built America. But today, as more Americans have moved to suburban areas, landscapes composed mostly of lawn grass, with a few tightly-clipped, non-native shrubs, have become standard.

The resulting loss of insects, birds, and wildlife is well-documented and tragic. By eliminating pesticides, reducing lawn, and planting native trees, shrubs, grasses, and perennials, homeowners and gardeners can help save and rebuild American biodiversity.

But we can also reclaim American history! Learning about native plants teaches us about our past. The best landscapes give us a sense of place and connect us to what is truly American.

Let’s celebrate the 4^th of July by planting a few great American plants! Many have been featured in this blog over the past several years. Maybe the Goldenrod called ‘Fireworks’ would be appropriate?

So, buy American! Plant American! Go USA!

June 10, 2025June 10, 2025 Cathy Ludden Around the Grounds, Native Plants

Baptisia: It Will Return!

“Perennials” are plants that come back every year… at least in theory. In reality, some perennials are short-lived and only come back for a few years. Others may come back every year, but not necessarily where you planted them – they pop up in other places, or dramatically expand their territory. Some perennials need to be divided (split at the roots) to stay vigorous, or they will languish and stop blooming.

Baptisia (“Wild Indigo” or “False Indigo”), on the other hand, is truly perennial. There are documented cases of gardens, abandoned and neglected for over 30 years, where the only remaining original plant was Baptisia – still growing right where it was first planted, and still blooming.

*Baptisia australis* (Blue Wild Indigo) in spring

Baptisia is as beautiful as it is durable. It sends up vertical stalks loaded with flowers in May and June. All summer long, it acts like a shrub, 3 to 4 feet tall and wide, with blue-green foliage that remains fresh even in the hottest weather. In the fall, it produces attractive pods that add seasonal interest. The whole plant dies back to the ground after a few hard frosts, remaining unharmed by snow mounds or road salt throughout the winter. In spring, this reliable perennial definitely returns.

Baptisia evolved growing in open meadows and prairies. It is in the legume family, which explains the sweet-pea shape of the flowers. Like other legumes, Baptisia is nitrogen-fixing. Essentially, the plant manufactures its own nitrogen fertilizer, so it can live in very poor soil. Baptisia roots can extend 7 feet deep, even into hard-packed prairie, so it is drought tolerant.

Though Baptisia is easy to find in plant nurseries, you may be inclined to give it a pass when you first see it. It looks a bit like purple asparagus coming up in early spring. Because of its deep roots, nurseries can offer only very young plants, but a small plant will fill out dramatically after two or three years in the ground.

**A one-year old *Baptisia australis* in the Pollinator Garden at the Nature Center**

Baptisia is very low maintenance. It never needs dividing. In fact, once its deep roots are established, it really should not be moved or divided. The best bet is to buy container plants and give them enough room to mature undisturbed. Note, however, that the one non-negotiable for Baptisia is sun – 8 to 10 hours a day. Even very long-established plants will begin to fade if they become shaded by trees and shrubs. So, plan ahead when deciding where to site Baptisia.

**A 15-year-old stand of Baptisia plants in mid-June**

There is a lot to choose from in the Baptisia family these days – at least 3 garden-worthy species, plus hybrids and cultivars. Here are a few favorites:

Baptisia australis, or Wild Blue Indigo, is a species native to New York and always our first choice. Its natural habitat varies from moist woodland edges to open prairie. Its original native range extends south as far as Georgia and west from Nebraska to Texas. It likes our acidic soil, and is hardy in Zones 4-9. It is not generally attractive to deer, and it is the host plant for the Wild Indigo Duskywing butterfly.

Baptisia sphaerocarpa (Yellow Wild Indigo) is not native to New York, but is native farther west and south from Missouri and Oklahoma to Texas. Baptisia alba (White Wild Indigo) is native in the Southeast from Virginia to Florida. Both of these Baptisia species are winter hardy to Zone 5, and do well in New York gardens.

Interestingly, these three Baptisia species have yielded natural hybrids resulting in some very beautiful flower color variations. Hybrids called ‘Purple Smoke’ and ‘Twilight Prairie Blues’ are often available and seem to perform as well as the species.

**Hybrid Baptisia ‘Twilight Prairie Blues’**

New cultivars have been developed by growers and are sold under various names such as ‘Lemon Meringue,’ ‘Dutch Chocolate,’ and ‘Cherries Jubilee.’ Whether these cultivars provide the same benefits to wildlife as the species is unknown.

So, if you want a true perennial that will come back every year, never need dividing, never need fertilizing, and will be beautiful for many years to come, try Baptisia!

**Wild Yellow and Wild Blue Baptisia in the garden**

THIS BLOG IS AUTHORED WEEKLY BY CATHY LUDDEN, CONSERVATIONIST AND NATIVE PLANT EDUCATOR; AND BOARD MEMBER, GREENBURGH NATURE CENTER. FOLLOW CATHY ON INSTAGRAM FOR MORE PHOTOS AND GARDENING TIPS @CATHYLUDDEN.

May 2, 2025May 2, 2025 Cathy Ludden Around the Grounds, Native Plants

Early Bloomers: Native Perennials For Spring

“April cried and stepped aside, and along come pretty little May”
-Rogers & Hammerstein

April’s daffodils are fading, but May is the best season for flowers! Are you ready for spring planting? Plant sales are happening all around us. Let’s make a shopping list!

This year, consider skipping the big box stores and garden centers selling flats of annuals for flower beds. Who really wants to watch tropical plants (wax begonias, New Guinea impatiens, petunias) wither and die in our very un-tropical weather? If you are going to all the expense and trouble of planting flowers in your yard, why not choose a few of these native perennials that can withstand our variable climate and come back strong next year?

Here are some great early-blooming native perennials that start to shine just as the daffodils fade from view:

In a sunny area, try Golden Alexander (Zizia aurea or aptera). With masses of big yellow flowers, Zizia looks just like sunshine. It is in the carrot family and is the native host plant for Black Swallowtail butterflies. If you plant it, you will definitely see them. The plants spread themselves around where they are happy and are easy to grow. Never more than 2 to 3 feet tall and about 2 feet wide, blooming from late April well into June, Zizia tolerates a little shade, but does best in average garden soil with a mostly-sunny exposure. And it is deer-resistant.

Do you usually plant annuals along your front walk? Try these early-blooming native perennials instead:

Moss Phlox (*Phlox subulata*)
blooming now

Prairie Smoke (*Geum triflorum*)
blooming now

Pussytoes (*Antennaria plantaginifolia*) blooming now

Moss Phlox or Creeping Phlox is widely available and popular –for good reason! It blooms profusely from late April into May and is available in a huge array of colors, from white and pastel or hot pink, to a variety of blues. It needs full sun and sandy or pebbly well-drained soil, so it is perfect for lining a sunny path where the soil tends to be poor. After blooming, it forms a weed-suppressing, green, mossy clump that stays through the winter and reliably blooms again the next spring.

Pussytoes and Prairie Smoke also work along concrete, gravel, or masonry paths, and for the same reasons. They don’t mind the thin rocky soil typically remaining after construction of paved surfaces; they don’t mind reflected heat and cold from pavement; and they tolerate drought and salt better than most garden plants. See our post on these and other great plants for walkways here.

Jacob’s Ladder (*Polemonium reptans*) blooming now

How about an early-bloomer for shade?

For a fabulous front-of-the-border plant in dappled shade, or a great choice for underplanting trees, try Jacob’s Ladder (Polemonium reptans). It is one of the very first plants to break ground in the spring, and within a couple of weeks, it is covered with light blue flowers that are magnets for the first bumblebees emerging from hibernation. The foliage stays green all summer and has interesting leaves spaced evenly along the stem inspiring the name “ladder.” There are some tempting cultivars of Jacob’s Ladder on the market with variegated or multi-color foliage, but they seem to suffer in Northeastern winters. The old-fashioned Jacob’s Ladder species is not only reliable, but spreads slowly to make a lovely ground-cover.

Two other early bloomers for shade are Woodland Phlox and Wild or Spotted Geranium.

Woodland Phlox (*Phlox divericata*) blooming now

Woodland Phlox is a true woodland species, preferring humusy soil where leaves are allowed to stay on the ground and decompose naturally. It loves the even moisture of a shady wooded area, but does well in cultivated shade gardens with rich soil and good drainage. Colors range from nearly white to pale pink or true blue. Grow it under mature trees and shrubs where fallen leaves provide winter cover and summer moisture protection. It blooms early and is a great native replacement for vinca. Rabbits may hit young plants, so a repellant is advisable.

Wild or Spotted Geranium (*Geranium maculatum*)

A favorite early-blooming native for part-shade, Geranium maculatum is a total winner. It blooms on and off for months and the leaves are beautiful all season long. It’s a great edge plant between lawn and taller shade perennials and will form substantial clumps growing slowly from the crown, and even occasionally sending seedlings into nearby areas. The flower colors are soft pastels that seem perfectly at home in dappled shade or morning sun.

Fringed Bleeding Heart (*Dicentra eximia*) blooming now

If there is one early bloomer that will capture your heart, it is this one. Dicentra eximia starts blooming with the daffodils in early April, and will still be blooming in October! The lacy fern-like foliage forms a soft mound about a foot high and wide, though older plants may be 18 to 24 inches tall. The flowers are suspended like charms on slender stalks just over the leaves, each cluster lasting a week or more. Fading flowers still look good as they gradually turn white, so dead-heading is unnecessary to keep the plant looking fresh all summer. Deer and rabbits ignore Fringed Bleeding Heart, but it is not a strong competitor and can be overwhelmed by thugs like ivy and vinca. It is happiest in part sun and very well-drained, even rocky or sandy soil. Too much moisture or heavy soil will shorten its life-span. Unlike the Asian bleeding heart, Dicentra eximia will not disappear after blooming, and it is surprisingly tolerant of drought. For more information click here.

So, check out your local native plant sales, or visit a good nursery that carries a varied selection of perennials. Some of these plants are available at garden centers if you know what you’re looking for – check the Latin names to avoid mistakes and non-native hybrids.

And if you plant these early bloomers now, you will see them again next spring and, hopefully, for many springs to come!

March 18, 2025March 18, 2025 Cathy Ludden Around the Grounds, Native Plants

The All-American Shamrock

Legend tells us that St. Patrick used a shamrock, with its three leaves on a single stem, to teach ancient Celtic peoples about the Christian trinity. There is no agreement among historians, theologians, or botanists, however, as to which specific plant is the legendary Irish shamrock.

Some believe St. Patrick’s shamrock was one of several species of clover (Trifolium spp.) native to Europe and Britain. Others claim that the true Irish shamrock is in the family Oxalis, perhaps due to a report from a 16^th Century Englishman who wrote that the Irish ate “shamrocks,” and plants in the Oxalis family were known to be edible. Adding to the confusion, the Irish word “seamróg” means “little clover.”

Today, in honor of St. Patrick’s Day, several Oxalis species are sold as shamrocks both here and in Europe, which just annoys those who insist the traditional shamrock is a clover. In 1988, someone conducted a public opinion poll in Ireland asking which plant is the true shamrock, and the results split among several plants, including two varieties of clover and at least one Oxalis, with no real majority view.

In any case, St. Patrick’s Day seems an appropriate time to nominate an American native plant as the New World shamrock. Yellow Wood Sorrel (Oxalis stricta) is sometimes called “sourgrass,” “pickle plant,” or adding to the general confusion, “lemon clover.” As a candidate for St. Patrick’s Day shamrock, Yellow Wood Sorrel certainly looks the part.

**Yellow Wood Sorrel in bloom***Photo: Ansel Oomen, Bugwood.org*

Yellow Wood Sorrel is useful, maybe even pretty if you look closely, and it is found absolutely everywhere. Yes, it is a weed! You’ve probably pulled it out of your lawn, your garden, your containers, your driveway or sidewalk — maybe without knowing or caring what it is.

Like many other weeds, Yellow Wood Sorrel grows in a wide variety of habitats – sun or shade, dry or wet, and rich or poor soil. Each of its 3 leaves has a fold down the middle. At dusk, the leaves close up and stay that way until warmed again by the sun.

The little yellow flowers have 5 petals and bloom from spring through late fall. The plant produces lots of seeds in capsules that stand upright above the foliage. When the seeds are ripe, the capsule explodes, throwing seeds up to 3 feet away!

*Oxalis stricta* leaves fold up at night like little pleated skirts
*Photo: Courtesy of Pixabay.com*

Yellow Wood Sorrel is edible, though in very large quantities it may be mildly toxic. You really should try clipping some tender leaves, or the little yellow flowers, and sprinkling them like micro-greens on top of salads, fish, or chicken. The taste is like lemon, sour and a bit bitter, but refreshing. Tender stems and leaves may be steeped in hot water (a handful of leaves per pint of water) to make a lemonade-type drink high in Vitamin C.

Bees, butterflies, and ants make use of the flowers of Yellow Wood Sorrel, and its long season of bloom means the flowers are available throughout the nectaring season. Perhaps we should be grateful that this weed provides some wildlife benefit by stubbornly popping up in even the most manicured suburban landscapes.

**Yellow Wood Sorrel is a small weedy plant that grows everywhere**
*Photo: T. Webster, USDA, Bugwood.org*

So, the next time you find yourself pulling Yellow Wood Sorrel from all the places it doesn’t belong, think of it as shamrock and then save a few leaves for your lunch. Sláinte!

THIS BLOG IS AUTHORED WEEKLY BY CATHY LUDDEN, CONSERVATIONIST AND NATIVE PLANT EDUCATOR; AND BOARD MEMBER, GREENBURGH NATURE CENTER. FOLLOW CATHY ON INSTAGRAM FOR MORE PHOTOS AND GARDENING TIPS @CATHYLUDDEN.