In your flowerbeds, do you plant native or non-native plants? Or a combination? Why?
Here’s a variety of thoughts for organizations in selecting plants and flowers:
- Non-natives to provide the beauty for guests
- A combination of natives and non-native plants to maximize pollination throughout the season
- Memorial gardens
- Historical or symbolic meaning
- etc.
Is the decision based upon one person’s decision, or is it an organizational decision for the entire property? If the later, does it tie into the mission?
State flower of Alabama; Camellia. Photo from wikipedia
We use both native and non-native flowers. We do have honey bees on site. Honey bees are not native and some native flowers do not attract them so we include non-native for bee health, diversity of the gardens, and attractiveness to the guests eyes. There is also the consideration of staff time required to care for flowers. We use as many low maintenance plants as possible.