We love to get listener questions, and recently we received one from Roseann:
I am moving to New Hampshire from Georgia, where I have an extensive native plant collection in my suburban yard. What key native New England/New Hampshire species do you suggest for my new mid-state startup garden?
Homegrown NH host Emma Erler always recommends taking your soil type and sun exposure into consideration when choosing plants.
Here are some of Erler's favorite native plants for different settings.
New England Aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae)
This native plant features purple flowers with yellow centers. It thrives in full sun to partial shade and prefer well-drained soil, and blooms in late summer through the fall until the first frost.
Mountain Mint (Pycnanthemum)
Erler says if you have a sunny garden that is fairly well drained, you should definitely try to grow some variety of mountain mint. There are a number of species that are native to the Northeast, and all of these are excellent pollinator plants.
Joe-Pye Weed (Eutrochium)
This large plant blooms mid-summer to early fall and thrives in wetter areas, in full sun to partial shade.
It can grow as tall as six feet, making it excellent for a large garden, but there are some smaller varieties too.
"One of my favorites is called 'Little Joe,'" says Erler, "which typically only gets 3-4 feet tall."
Foamflower (Tiarella)
For the gardener that has a shady area, consider one of Erler's favorite woodland plants, tiarella, known as foamflower.
You can see tiarella throughout New Hampshire in wooded areas, typically along streams.
Erler says tiarella does not like hot, dry sun but it will be happy under an oak or maple tree.
You can see tiarella throughout New Hampshire in woodland areas, typically along streams.
"I see a lot of it in the White Mountains," Erler says. " It's beautiful. It naturalizes so it creeps and spreads, and it's just kind of the gift that keeps on giving."
The bloom cycle is March to July and it thrives in moist, well-drained, humus-rich soil as well as partial to full shade.
Creeping Phlox (Phlox stolonifera)
Erler says creeping phlox often gets confused with the moss phlox that you see at the garden center. "Creeping phlox has a bluish-purple flower," she says, "and forms a nice mat of foliage used by a lot of different pollinators early in the season."
Creeping phlox needs full sun and moist, well-drained soil. It blooms March through June.
Woodland Phlox (Phlox divaricata)
Also known as wild blue phlox, woodland phlox produces fragrant, five-petaled flowers in shades of blue, lavender, violet, or white.
It blooms from April to June. It thrives in part to full shade and moist, well-drained, neutral-to-acidic soil.
Summersweet (Clethra alnifolia)
If you're considering native shrubs, Erler says Summersweet is a real favorite with bees and butterflies.
"It blooms mid to late summer," she says. "It sometimes gets a little bit of dieback in our climate in the winter, but it's never going to be killed entirely, and it blooms reliably because it forms its flower buds on new growth."
Native Viburnums
Viburnum, such as Nannyberry (Viburnum lentago), performs well in a lot of garden settings, particularly, moist well-drained soils. However, it is highly adaptable, tolerating clay, loam, and sandy textures.
This plant blooms May to June and prefers full to partial shade.
Winterberry Holly (Ilex verticillata)
This holly blooms early in the season, but Erler says winterberry holly is valued most for the beautiful red berries visible once the leaves have fallen off in the fall. And it's a good food source for birds.
It blooms May through July and thrives in moist, acidic soil with full sun to partial shade.
Serviceberry (Amelanchior)
"I think of serviceberry as either a large shrub or a small tree," says Erler. "They're sometimes called juneberry for the tart fruit that ripen really early to mid-summer. And birds like catbirds and cedar waxwings will likely visit your yard if you have a mature juneberry or serviceberry."
Serviceberry features white blossoms in early spring, berries by June, reddish bronze leaves in fall color, and silver-gray bark for winter interest.
They prefer full sun to partial shade with well-drained, acidic to neutral soil.
Milkweed (Asclepias)
Erler says if you are a dedicated native plant gardener, then you have to have milkweed of some sort in your garden.
"Common milkweed that we see most often in New Hampshire doesn't necessarily lend itself well to gardens," Erler says, "because it's not a very tidy plant."
Some other options are butterfly milkweed, asclepias tuberosa, which grows in a clump. Though not native to New Hampshire, it is native to the Eastern U.S.
Swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) grows in the wild in swampy, wet settings. But in a garden it will take any average garden soil.
See you in the garden!
If you have a gardening question for Homegrown NH, email or send a voice memo to HomegrownNH@NHPR.org.
Homegrown New Hampshire is a collaboration between Squam Lakes Natural Science Center and NHPR.
