Going 'native' not the only way
23 Jun, 2008 By: Ron Hall LM Direct!The "native only" crowd resides on the fringe of the sustainable landscaping movement. It says that native plants are better for landscapes because they require fewer chemical inputs and less water and, consequently, less maintenance than non-native plants to remain healthy.
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Using natives within landscapes is one small one piece of the much bigger issue of environmentally responsible landscaping, and is, to the degree that meets customer expectations, laudable given the growing emphasis on conservation and sustainability.
But from a practical side, how far can "native" be taken? And what about adapted non-native landscape plant materials?
This was one of the issues that several gatherings of Green Industry business owners and managers discussed during this past winter's American Nursery & Landscape Association (ANLA) Management Clinic. Almost all of the attendees expressing an opinion at these discussions seemed to be comfortable with growing, selling and using adapted non-native landscape plants.
After all, mankind has been moving plants from one location to another for millennia. Many of our most valuable food crops originated in other parts of the world.
Indeed, the genie of native vs. adapted non-native, even in our modern landscape era, left the bottle long ago, a fact that was reinforced at the mid-June Turf Merchants, Inc.,(TMI) Field Day at the Summit Seed facility near Chicago. TMI is an Oregon-based turfseed producer and marketer. Summit Seed is a major distributor whose customers include sod farms, golf courses, sports complexes and other large seed users.
One of the presenters at the event was Dr. William "Bill" Meyer, director of turfgrass breeding at Rutgers University-Cook College. He's been involved with improving turfgrasses for more than 30 years.
As the Summit Seed customers examined the long, narrow (4-ft. X 250-ft.) demonstration rows of Kentucky bluegrass, tall fescue and fine leaf fescues, most were aware that they examining cool-season turfgrasses whose parents, much as themselves, had arrived from Europe generations ago.
As Dr. Meyer pointed out, the parent material for these different cool-season grasses was brought to the United States by immigrants.
And the process continues, although in a much more selective fashion.
Carrying on the work of legendary plant breeder Dr. C. Reed Funk, Meyer regularly visits Europe where he scouts for and collects new germplasm that might be useful in improving existing commercially available turfgrass species and varieties. He finds this material in a variety of locations such as cemeteries, parks and sports fields.
Since joining the faculty at Rutgers 13 years ago Meyer said he has collected the genetic material of more than 18,000 new turfgrasses from Europe.
To the person that insists that a landscape can contain only "native" plants to be considered truly sustainable, Meyer might respond: "Where did your ancestors come from?"
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