According to recent statistics, 77% of American households have a garden that they tend to regularly. This means that if you're like most people, you probably enjoy gardening, too!
Whether you're a seasoned grower of plants and food or a gardening fledgling, there are tons of amazing ways that you can make your garden flourish. If you live on Long Island, this means growing some beautiful and amazing plants native to your New York home.
Read on to learn some gorgeous Long Island native plants that you absolutely will want to grow and care for at home!
Pretty Plants
Flowers and native plants can be incredibly beautiful if you know what to look for. Below are some of the most stunning plants that you can grow in your garden and nurture lovingly.
1. Black-Eyed Susan
Black-eyed Susans are a classic lovely flower that goes great in any garden. Their bright buttercream yellow color is highly reminiscent of the spring sunshine and is sure to put you in a bright, happy mood every time you see them. Plus, the black button in the center is incredibly adorable!
These perennials bloom all the way from July through September, so be sure to continue to nurture them throughout the summer as well as the spring.
2. Butterfly Milkweed
Butterfly milkweed is the perfect flower to plant alongside Black-eyed Susans. Their bright orange color will strongly remind you a flame, especially when paired with the yellow of your Black-eyed Susans. This is definitely a plant—and a combination—that will make you feel understood in the summer heat.
Milkweed is also cool because if you run a fingernail (or another sharp object) along the stem, a white fluid will run out. This is a cool way to get children interested in gardening and teach them about how different plants work!
3. Lady Fern
Lady fern doesn't flower but rather is a plant made up of grass-green foliage on a bright red stem. It's the perfect contrast for all the hot-colored flowers that you'll want in your garden because of the balance that it provides.
Make sure that you place this plant in at least partial shade. This is the condition that it best thrives under, especially when in wet soil.
Terrific Trees and Superb Shrubs
It's a universally acknowledged truth that planting trees is a great way to support the environment, and this fact isn't limited to the springtime. Read on to learn some of the best trees and shrubs to grow in your yard at any time of the year!
4. Red Oak
Planting a tree in your yard is awesome for a lot of reasons. You'll be watching it grow for the rest of your life, which can (correctly) make you feel as though you've made a difference in the world. Red oak trees are native to the American east coast and grow taller and stronger than most other trees in the US.
You can also cut the smaller spare branches off the tree and take up yet another fun hobby: woodworking! Since red oak is gorgeous, durable, and versatile, it's the perfect choice for learning to carve and craft.
5. Common Buttonbush
Buttonbush is a plant in the same family as coffee, believe it or not. It doesn't look much like coffee with its small and spherical white blooms that appear on plump green stems. These blooms have long strands attached to them, making them look like tiny radiant suns. No matter what your garden's theme is, you'll love buttonbush.
6. Winterberry
Want to grow a plant that you'll still be able to enjoy throughout the winter months? If you answered 'yes' (and why wouldn't you?), the winterberry is definitely the plant for you!
These green holly shrubs grow tiny red berries year-round that birds love to come and eat. Don't eat them yourself, though, or let children or pets eat them, as they aren't good for people or household animals! Still, it's a pretty great way to keep a colorful wintertime yard and draw in wildlife.
Vivacious Vines
Vines are the perfect way to draw your yard together. Wrapped around a trellis or grown on spikes within your garden, a vine is an important aspect of making your lawn come to life. Read on to learn some of the best Long Island native vines that you won't want to miss out on growing!
7. Woodbine
Woodbine is a short vine that only grows to be about 10-12 feet long. However, what it lacks in length is made up for by how bushy the vine is and how much space it can take up.
This amazing plant can grow all along a wall, fence, or trellis and cover pretty much every inch. This is an incredibly visually stunning phenomenon since it looks like greenery is simply spilling out over the area where you're growing woodbine!
8. Virginia Creeper
Virginia creeper is a type of ivy that grows many leaves on each vine. These leaves are gathered into clusters of five, and they flower as the season goes by. These flowers are green, so they're inconspicuous and blend in well with the vine. However, it's a lot of fun to look for them when they begin to bloom!
9. Virgin's Bower
Virgin's bower is unlike the previous two vines we've talked about because its flowers are much more conspicuous. They're tiny, white, and beautiful, spanning the entirety of the vine and making it stand out in your garden.
Since white flowers will match any color scheme you have going in your garden, you're bound to have space for this stunning vine!
Get Long Island Native Plants
There are so many plants native to Long Island that it can be a challenge to choose what to grow. Luckily, designing and executing a garden plan is so much fun that it takes all the stress of this challenge away!
Now that you know some of the best Long Island Native plants to grow in your home garden, it's time to start gardening! Learn more about the plants that are native to the hometown that you love so much. Decker's Nursery has all the amazing plants listed above and much more!
Have an awesome spring!