WITH THE EXPLOSION of interest in native plants in recent years, I know I’m not alone among gardeners who are scouring catalogs and specialty nurseries, looking for the right native to match every garden purpose, from trees on down to groundcovers. A new book by Uli Lorimer, director of horticulture at Native Plant Trust, has added some plants to my wishlist, including some native annuals. And it even has me pondering diversifying my lawn with some violets and hunting down a few more native vines and…oh my goodness.
Uli Lorimer, author of the just-published book “The Northeast Native Plant Primer” (affiliate link) has made a career of working with native plants. He was longtime curator of the native flora garden at Brooklyn Botanic Garden. became director of horticulture at Native Plant Trust, America’s oldest plant conservation organization, which was founded in as New England Wild Flower Society.
Read along as you listen to the May edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on Apple Podcasts (iTunes) or Spotify or Stitcher
native annuals with uli lorimer
Margaret Roach: Welcome back to the show, Uli. Must be beautiful at Garden in the Woods, and Nasami Farm and all your places there.
Uli Lorimer: Yes, spring is definitely happening and there’s so many things coming out of the ground now. I was just remarking that this is one of my most favorite times of year, as there’s that fresh green all over the carpet of the forest and little tinges of fresh green leaves coming in the leaves of the trees. And I always find it’s a time full of promise for the gardening season ahead.
native annuals with uli lorimer
Margaret Roach: Welcome back to the show, Uli. Must be beautiful at Garden in the Woods, and Nasami Farm and all your places there.
Uli Lorimer: Yes, spring is definitely happening and there’s so many things coming out of the ground now. I was just remarking that this is one of my most favorite times of year, as there’s that fresh green all over the carpet of the forest and little tinges of fresh green leaves coming in the leaves of the trees. And I always find it’s a time full of promise for the gardening season ahead.
Margaret: So you’ve been working with native plants since when? And did you ever imagine a moment like this where they’ve really finally become the “it” thing? You know what I mean, where they aren’t an alternative, where they are a mainstay more and more?
Uli: So my interest in native plants professionally goes back to my days at Wave Hill, actually. And I was their woodland gardener there, and probably spent more time pulling out invasives than planting natives. But it was the beginning of my formal interest in them. Wave Hill, of course, exposed me to a dizzying variety of other kinds of plants for which I have fond and great appreciation for.
But it feels very satisfying to be at this moment where the momentum that we’ve slowly been building over the last 10, 15 years has really gathered speed. And I think that the past couple of years particularly have really opened folks’ eyes to how important it is to include natives in their gardens.
Margaret: And do you think there are headline kind of reasons or current event reasons, or what’s the awareness that you think is mostly spurring that?
Uli: Well, not to say that good things came out of a global pandemic, but I do think that the circumstances forced a lot of people to stay home. And if you were fortunate enough to have a garden, to really take a hard look at it and say, “Hey, look, this is something really special.”
And then that coupled with this ever-growing drumbeat of bad news about climate change, the anxiety that people feel around what the future holds, along with the bad news about the loss of biodiversity. And whether you’re talking about birds or insects or pollinators, there’s lots of different ways that we’ve measured this. And then seemingly every week, there’s a new article talking about declines in some way.
