Why Native Plants?

What I'd like to talk about goes beyond the obvious reasons we hear most often - climate change, water conservation, carbon footprint. Those matter, of course. But what I find truly alarming, and what I think deserves more attention, is the accelerating decline in biodiversity, the fragmentation of habitat, and the degradation of ecosystems happening not just somewhere far away, but right here.

In 2019, the UN published a report  stating that one in four species currently risk extinction worldwide. That's roughly one million animals and plant species predicted to disappear, some within decades. This is unprecedented in human history, and it is happening primarily because of habitat loss: habitat lost to urban development and large-scale agriculture.

When we think of Canada, we tend to picture vast, untouched wilderness - surely a place where biodiversity still thrives? Unfortunately, that picture doesn't hold. The Canadian Department of Environment and Natural Resources reports that species presumed extirpated, possibly extirpated, critically imperilled, imperilled, or at risk at the national level represent 20% of all species for which there is enough data to measure. That is a staggering number.

Plants and insects sit at the bottom of the food web, which means that when they disappear, everything above them is affected - including us. Birds are among the first to feel it, since they depend heavily on caterpillars to feed their young. Birds Canada's 2024 report confirms that Canadian bird populations are in serious decline, a trend directly tied to the losses we're seeing in plants and insects across the country.

I know this can start to feel like a lot of doom and gloom. But here's the thing: there is something real and meaningful you can do.

We have the ability to create ecosystems where the land is currently bare of life. Biodiverse, living landscapes can help fight fragmentation and restore what's been lost - one garden at a time. Many moth and butterfly caterpillars are specialists, able to survive only on specific plants. The same is true for many of our native bees: there are nearly 900 native bee species in Canada, and many of them can only reproduce using the pollen of a small number of particular plants. If you plant only for generalists like honeybees and common bumblebees, you'll miss most of them. But if you plant for the specialists, you support all of the bees.

Native plants are also more resilient than many cultivars - something that matters more every year as our climate becomes less predictable. Cultivated varieties often have limited genetic diversity, the result of selective breeding for uniform traits and propagation through cuttings or tissue culture rather than seed. Native plants, by contrast, have evolved over thousands of years alongside the weather extremes, droughts, and temperature swings of this continent. That deep genetic diversity is what allows populations to survive and recover when conditions get difficult. Individual plants may not always make it, but the species does; because somewhere in the population, there are individuals with exactly the traits needed to carry on.

That's why learning to love native plants - and welcoming them into our gardens - feels less like a trend and more like something genuinely worth doing.

Plant choice matters. And yours can make a real difference.

Explore out our section on native plants here - there are so many amazingly beautiful plants that will bring true life to your gardens.