This spring, as you dive into the dirt, consider adding native plants, trees, flowers and shrubs to your yard or garden space. Native species are beautiful, but they also attract important pollinators—birds, bees, butterflies—to our green spaces. Creating microhabitats in our urban spaces benefits the environment and everyone in it, because pollinators help propagate our plants, flowers and vegetables.
Amanda Hoyt-McBeth, local landscape designer, loves using natives in her designs because they attract pollinators, mimic the natural environment and offer advantages over non-native species. These advantages include drought resistance, pest and disease tolerance; low-level maintenance; invasive species inhibition; habitat protection and food (berries, seeds, flowers) generation for birds and other native wildlife.
Michele Eccelston, owner of The Purple Garden in Woodlawn, specializes in designing urban landscapes with an emphasis on natives. Aside from the benefits already noted, Eccelston says “the population of some of our pollinators is rapidly declining and our gardens can support them by providing water sources and the plants they feed on.”
Hoyt-McBeth and Eccelston recommend 10 low-maintence natives—trees, shrubs, flowers, ground cover—that will beautify, attract pollinators and add structure and diversity to your green space.
Cascara Buckthorn
Native Trees
Cascara Buckthorn (Rhamnus pershiana)
This tree has deciduous leaves and tiny pale yellow flowers which turn to small red berries. It can grow over 40 feet tall, and provides protected nesting opportunities for many varieties of birds. (Fun fact: its dried bark has been used for generations as a natural laxative.)
Top: Douglas Spiraea (left), Red Flowering Currant (right)
Bottom: Snowberry (left), Salmonberry (right)
Deciduous Shrubs
Douglas Spiraea (Spiraea douglasii)
This upright shrub has pretty, fluffy, pink spike-like blooms that attract butterflies, bees and other insects. It can grow three to four feet tall, and though it prefers moist environments, it can withstand dry conditions once established.
Red Flowering Currant (Ribes sanguineum)
This beautiful shrub grows well and tall (up to six+ feet), offering bright pink blooms that attract hummingbirds galore. This Pacific Northwest gardener’s favorite is also found in our local forests.
Snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus)
This unique, lush shrub offers delicate leaves on five foot stems. Light pink flowers emerge late spring create small, pudgy, white berries in the fall. The ethereal looking berries last until late winter/early spring, adding variety to the landscape.
Salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis)
This shrub grows up to ten feet tall and offers edible raspberry-like fruits to birds and other animals (like us!). Its pink flowers attract hummingbirds. The shrub prefers wet environments and thrives in both sun and shade.
Evergreen Huckleberry
Evergreen
Evergreen Huckleberry (Vaccinium ovatum)
Berries, berries, berries! This evergreen shrub can be hedged, and typically grows to six feet tall. Its beautiful foliage is great for any shady garden.
Oregon Grape
Evergreen Shrubs
Oregon Grape (Mahonia nervosa)
Yellow flowers and purple fruits attract many animals to this ubiquitous native. It comes in a few varieties, but the medium sized version (three feet high) makes a terrific ground cover especially if planted in clusters in a shady spot.
Western Red Columbine (left), Beach Aster (right)
Flowers
Beach Aster (Erigeron glaucus)
Also known as the Seaside Daisy, this terrific, colorful ground cover likes to grow along the coast—from California through Oregon. It’s perfect for a moist, sunny yard, too, attracting butterflies.
Western Red Columbine (Aquilegia formosa)
The Columbine’s dramatic burst of color will surely attract coveted bees and hummingbirds to your garden sanctuary. It grows up to two feet tall, and is perfect for borders and flower beds.
Bleeding Heart
Ground Cover
Bleeding Heart (Dicensia formosa)
This garden favorite is low growing, spreading a mat of green lace-like foliage and pale pink, delicate blooms. The Bleeding Heart prefers damp, shady gardens and likes to cohabitate with ferns and trillium under trees.
Ready to create a beautiful garden that not only thrives but also provides food and shelter to bees, birds and butterflies? Visit your neighborhood garden center and go native!
Some photos taken at Portland Nursery in Mt. Tabor. Others taken in neighbors' yards around town. Thanks, everyone!
Amanda Hoyt-McBeth's work is amazing. She is currently transforming our backyard with natives and know-how and inexpensively! Highly recommend her design company.
Amanda Hoyt-McBeth works with Gerald Kubiak at City Steward (www.citysteward.com), a landscape design firm specializing in creating improved habitats via naturescapes, stormwater solutions, and edible gardens.