Customer Reviews

Native Plants of the Northeast: A Guide for Gardening & Conservation

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Just giving attention to plants with showy flowers is one reason why we don't know enough about natives. Even some experts could use retraining on the subject. For example, one respected source lists as natives tatarian honeysuckle, purple loosestrife, and multiflora rose. In fact, these three non-natives are good at taking over a place and chasing out the real natives.

To know natives better, it's important to start with a good definition. Author Donald J Leopold gives a clear definition. Natives are the plants naturally occurring in the United States before European settlers showed up. It's a good definition, because a record goes with it. Early artists, settlers, scientists and visitors left us with drawings and writings on what they found and what they brought with them.

Then it's important to know the big picture of where we are and what tends to grow there. For natives are part of wider natural communities of green things, bugs, birds, and animals filling up the same space over the same time. NATIVE PLANTS OF THE NORTHEAST is about those natural communities east of the Mississippi River. That part of North America hosts eleven such communities. From south to north, those communities are southeast pine, riverbottom cypress-tupelo-sweet gum, oak-pine, oak-hickory, northeast hardwood, transition pine-aspen, mixed, acadian, boreal, and subarctic forests; and tall grasslands.

As a girl of the oak-hickory forests, I know my native trees. They are American beech; American chestnut; bitternut and shagbark hickory; black, northern red and white oak; eastern hophornbeam; eastern redbud; flowering dogwood; pawpaw; serviceberry; and spicebush.

In addition, wetlands take up about 5-10% of each state. Their plants are grouped into forested, scrub-shrub, and emergent marsh types. Each of these three types is a part of specific natural communities whose plants grow in any Northeast wetland having the same weather, soil, light and ground level conditions. For example, Professor Leopold successfully grows together buttonbush, cardinal flower, great blue lobelia, northern blue flag, ostrich fern, spotted joe-pye weed, and swamp milkweed. They're all wetland plants, but not naturally in the same wetland other than the author's garden!

Professor Leopold groups natives into ferns, grasses, shrubs, trees, vines, and wildflowers. He then separates out those that handle wet soil, shade, or dry soil. He also separates out those that bring in birds, butterflies, hummingbirds, and mammals. He also comes up with two lists of favorite ferns and fernlike plants, grasses and grasslike plants, shrubs, trees, vines, and wildflowers. One list is by beauty, challenge, and foolproof results. The other is by easy-to-grow care, with little follow-up.

For each plant in his comprehensive list of natives, Professor Leopold gives the zone they do best in, along with way of spreading, soil type, natural range, light conditions, and description. He also has helpful notes on best gardening and historic restoration uses. He identifies a shortcoming in his work as not enough attention to true grasses and grasslike plants such as rushes and sedges.

Nevertheless, the book is one-stop shopping on natives. What he doesn't cover in depth, he tells where to get more information. Also, the book has beautifully clear photographs, good index and maps, and well-written text. It's a must-have for all. But it will especially interest those sharing Virginia Tech's master gardening and advanced land care concerns over the beauty and value of our native greenery.

If you live in the Northeast and want to have an all or mostly native garden, or even just some native plants, this is the book to get. I've been planting herbaceous and woody plants to attract birds, and have only recently discovered the benefits, to myself, the birds, and the environment, of going native. While a lot of this information can be pieced together from other books or the Internet, this is an easy-to-use, all-in-one reference for all types of plants, not just flowers, that make up a well-rounded garden and animal habitat.

Way more than a "seed catalog", this book tells you what ecological niche the plant is native to, the conditions of sun, moisture, and soil it needs, how to propagate seeds, and a paragraph of "notes" with interesting personal observations by the author. There is also a lengthy and fascinating introductory chapter describing some of the many types of plant environments that exist in the NE, and the reasons to go native.

I own 10 books on trees, shrubs, perennials, grasses, gardening for birds, and general gardening, but am buying this one because it tells me exactly what I need to know about all of the above, using plants that grew in the Northeast before Euopeans arrived.

Very informative and chocked full of valuable material pertaining to specific types of plants you may desire for your garden. I have only one complaint - the pictures of shrubs and trees show only, in most instances, just the branch containing the leave or flower. I wanted to see pictures of the entire shrub or tree since I desired to observe the fullness or lack thereof of specific species for my garden. In other words, to get an idea how the plant would look when it is in place.

I know how to garden in Kansas, Maryland, Australia, South Texas and Florida, but now I'm learning what plants work for New England. This book is a life saver with descriptions of ferns, grasses, wildflowers, vines, shrubs and trees suited to the region.
The photos are good, full-color, but aren't always on the same page as the description. Each plant is listed with its scientific name, followed by its common names and family group. It gives the zones, soil requirements, and light needs plus a short description. There are propagation tips for each and notes for special information and an indication of the plant's natural range. It is really a pretty exhaustive book.
Some helpful lists at the end includes:
Plants that tolerate wet soil
Plants that tolerate dry soil
Plants that tolerate shade
Plants with flowers that attract butterflies and hummingbirds
Plants with fruits that attract birds
Plants with fruits that attract mammals
This can be used as a wildflower identification book or to select plants for special needs in your northeast garden.

I am in landscape design and wish to use native plants as much as possible. My yard has been certified by National Wildlife for years and everyone loves it. I needed to learn more about "natives" so I can incorporate them into designs. This book has been pretty helpful in this area. One problem with this is that plant width is NOT listed...only height. Also, it would be very helpful to have sections within the chapters. Trees and shrubs would be more useful if sectioned into size and evergreen or deciduous.

This is alot more than a seed catalog read. I enjoyed the Professor's introduction, in which he shares a great deal about many plants in the book, his favorites, why, and how they work in his own garden. Not particularly applicable to me personally was a good deal of information on ecosystem types in the Northeast and wetland information.

The appendices are very useful, but one of the best features are the multitude of pictures for nearly every species.

The info given on each species is more in-depth than a seed catalog reference, and tells you what you need to know if you're interested in using that plant.

Compared to the message of introduction of a more recent book that was just released, Prof. Leopold presents the subject in a much friendlier way, and is writing for a receptive audience, not attempting to defend his position as if under attack... .

I keep referring to this book again and again as I continue to add native plantings to my backyard.

This is a great guide of students studying Landscape Architecture. It works well with plant identification classes and gives the reader alternatives to work with aside from the typical non-natives seen in many planting beds.
The photos are stunning and allows the reader to apply the color form and texture of these plants to their design.
This book has helped me become more aware of my options so that I maybe a responsible designer when I enter the professional world.

There aren't enough books of this genre, and so I hate to be harsh. Still, there could have been at least some information about gardening and conservation when the author discusses the individual plants. Instead, the author provides the type of shallow discussion one finds in a seed catalog. I would think that people who want to use native plants to garden would would want some information about a plant's ecology--at least enough to know where to site a plant.

For anyone in the Northeastern part of the USA, this book will become a well thumbed reference. The developing of a web of life based upon the system of native flora and fauna is clearly and compellingly presented. In a world where native plants are often thought of as weeds, this book is a fresh look at what makes the Northeast its own special region.

This is an absolutely wonderful book on native plants of New England. It has just about every native plant I've ever heard of, with beautiful pictures, detailed descriptions, useful information. Every plant has the zones it will grow in, soil preferred (including moisture - very useful!) and the light the plant will tolerate. In addition, it describes the plant attributes, how to propagate, the natural range of the plant, and most plants have specific cultivars picked out as superior, and sometimes what roles the plant plays in the ecosystem. Almost every plant has a photograph. Incredibly useful.

I love how the book is organized - by type of plant (fern, grass, shrub, tree, vine, etc), then by latin name. There's a comprehensive index if you don't know the latin name. Also incredibly useful is the set of lists in the back - plants that tolerate wet soil, plants for dry soil, plants that tolerate shade, plants for butterflies and hummingbirds, plants with fruits for birds, plants with fruits for mammals - all organized by the light tolerance of the plant and plant type. Also useful was the introduction, which describes the different kinds of plant communities.

There are more detailed reference books out there, but as far as a good reference for the ordinary gardener, with COLOR pictures, this is the best!