Why Native Plants?

Why is it that we need to install more native plants in our gardens? The answer to that question of course includes the obvious, like climate change, water conservation, and carbon footprint - but what I'd like to underline is the alarming declines in biodiversity, habitat fragmentation and ecosystem degradation that we can see around the world, but also right here as well on a local level.

In 2019, the UN published a report that states that one in four species currently risk extinction around the world. That would translate into 1 million animals and plant species predicted to disappear, some within decade, which is unprecedented in human history. Why is this happening? Because of habitat loss. Habitat loss associated with urban development and large-scale agriculture.

When we think of Canada, we think of vast areas of untouched, unpopulated wilderness. So surely, HERE is where biodiversity thrives?

Unfortunately, that is not the case. The Canadian Department of Environment and Natural Resources states in its own report on the general status of species that the species presumed extirpated (which means that they no longer exist), possibly extirpated, critically imperilled and imperilled at the national level include:

33.1% of Arthropods (that would be ALL insects, spiders and crustaceans!!!)

26.5% of Vascular plants (that would be all trees, conifers, shrubs, grasses, flowering perennials and annuals, ferns and other plant species!)

20.2% of Mosses and lichens

Plants and insects are at the bottom of the food web, so when they disappear, it affects all animals as well, and that includes humans. The first to suffer are birds, who depend highly on caterpillars to rear their young. Birds Canada has published a report in 2024 that states that Canadian bird populations are in serious decline, which is directly associated with the declines witnessed in plants and insects across the country.

All this information about wildlife being in peril and declines in biodiversity can become depressing and a whole lot of doom and gloom.

But there IS something you can do to help! It is possible for us to create ecosystems where the land is currently barren of real life. We can make a huge difference in our environment by fostering living landscapes.

Biodiverse, living landscapes can help fight fragmentation. Many moth and butterfly caterpillars are specialists and can only eat specific plants. Many of our native bees are also pollen specialists. There are almost 900 native bee species in Canada - many of them can only reproduce on the pollen of a few particular plants. So if you only plant to serve generalist bees like honeybees and common bumblebees, you will not be supporting many of the native bees. If you plant for the specialist bees, you can support all of the bees.

Native plants are also more resilient than many cultivars - which is important in our era of climate change. Cultivated plants have very limited genetic diversity, due to a) selective breeding for uniform traits and adaptation to very specific environments, and b) asexual propagation and cloning through tissue cultures or cuttings. In contrast, native plants have evolved over thousands of years to weather extreme weather events like droughts, floods and intense temperature variations - their genetic biodiversity is what allows species to survive and recover from those events. Individual plants may have perished over the years in extreme conditions, but others had the traits required to adapt live on.

So that's why it's becoming more and more important to learn to love native plants and welcome them into our gardens.

Plant choice matters!

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