Why Native Plants Can Be BAD For Your Landscape (And What to Use Instead!)

Added: 2026-05-07

[00:00:00]Native plants are good, non-native plants are bad. This is something I've read in the comments frequently, and it's time to address it. After 60 plus years in landscaping, I have found the answer is a lot more nuanced than most would think. In this video, I will share exactly what the nuance is, when and how to use native plants in your landscape, and when not to.

[00:00:28]Before we dive in, I'd like to share an example of natives and non-natives working together in this area that we're currently working on. This is interesting because there two kind of herbaceous plants that bloom side by side. One's a native and one's not.

[00:00:45]These are dillies which are from Eastern Asia. Right next to them are natives.

[00:00:50]They're native to Oregon and California and more more coastal areas and they're called Douglas Iris or Iris Douglasiana.

[00:01:01]This is a small park in the city of Fresno. We are the prime contractor. So, the city of Fresno is paying us to redo what was mostly just a parking lot.

[00:01:11]They've changed it into what I would call an interactive park with opportunities to walk around and sit and use binoculars to look at the river below us. Very natural setting where native plants would certainly be appropriate. And the planting plan is interesting to me. We did not do the plan. Another landscape architect that the city hired did the plan, but it offers some nice examples of native plants that are really used appropriately. So, now let's go take a tour of the site. See what plants are here. It'll be an interesting tour. Jip, can you get out of the shade, please?

[00:01:47]So, here's a big deciduous shade tree that does well in our area. It's not native to this area, but for people who think I should be picking plants native to North America, bingo. Acer rub October Glory is the cultivar. And it's really a neat cultivar with a spectacular fall color. This is native to eastern North America. So the other side of the country and then it was hybridized to come up with this October glory cultivar which is one of my favorites. A tough easy to grow tree that has a nice big canopy considered a very low water user. When we go through these plants, many of them were selected for their ability to get by without a lot of water. I want to make sure that you walk away with three practical tips for choosing plants for your garden, with the last one being the most important of all. So think adapted, not necessarily native, but plants that are perfect for your microclimate that will create an ecosystem for a little amount of work and no pest and disease. Let's continue on our way where we'll look at a tree that is native to actually this very area, but it's big, it can be messy, it's inappropriate for small gardens, and it was existing, so we didn't plant this. And it's called platinus racea California sycamore. Big spectacular but pretty messy tree prone to anthrachnos. You know that's another even in the native situation it gets anthrachnos. You know I would shy away from a tree that people tend to spray for anthrachnos. We want something that's reliable and doesn't invite the application of chemicals of any kind. My point being, just because it's native, doesn't mean it's perfect for a small garden. Maybe we could find something a little better behaved, the right size, maybe another native or something that's native to around here. As we look through these trees, we'll see lots of different options. We have this uh Bubba chalopsis. It is native to fairly close by, but it's not native to us here on the valley of floor in California, but it's native to the southwestern US, especially Texas. That's where chalopsis is native to. And then they hybridized this um variety called Bubba, which has beautiful pinkish red flowers. Easy to grow for hot, dry climates. It's a very low water user. Gets about 15 to 20 feet tall. And to me, it's a real appropriate selection for um a public park where we're concerned about water use, where we're concerned about reliability. Is it native to our area? No. But it's native to North America and it's native to Texas, maybe even a little bit into Mexico. And then next to it is an interesting plant that I've actually never planted. And it was on this plan and I'm be curious to see how it does.

[00:05:02]Condropedum tectorum elcampo common name cape rush and it's a really quite adaptable plant to extremely dry soil or wet soil which is an unusual combination and also from another part of the world that has a climate that matches our central valley climate and that's South Africa. And so this plant uh should do well just because of my knowledge of where it's from. Gets about 2 or 3 feet tall. Very interesting look to it. So I'm a fan of native plants.

[00:05:39]We've shown you some here today, but I'm not a fan of saying all you can use is natives. If you're interested in this subject, please subscribe to our channel. Right near us also is another non-native tree that does fantastic in Fresno. We're going to prune it up a little, but this is the Muscogi crepe myrtle. Native to Asia, this specific variety called Muscogi that has kind of a purplish pink flower. And it's actually one of the bigger crepe myrtles and loves Fresno heat and actually is a very reliable, dependable tree in Fresno. The only trouble being sometimes they get aphid. Natives trees get pests, especially if they're slightly outside their best environment, which they're going to be in Fresno because there's only native grasses in the dry areas. We don't really have native plants in the valley floor other than along waterways.

[00:06:36]You know, all plants, native or non-native, can have problems with pest and disease. What we're trying to do is minimize that and then do soil and mulch to where we really minimize it and and we don't have a pest and disease problem. And then in here we have some interesting plants uh some natives, some almost natives. We start with the valley oak which is native not only to California but to an area really really close to us uh the foothills around us.

[00:07:09]So, Valley Oak is a spectacular tree.

[00:07:12]I'm a big fan of Valley Oak. It's a really big tree. Also, a very long live tree. If I was going to have a tree planted in my memory, I might pick a valley oak. Very, very water efficient, especially once established. Pick the plants that are appropriate in size for your setting and your size landscape.

[00:07:31]Many natives belong in places that are spacious uh not in small gardens under the valley oak. An interesting salvia.

[00:07:41]It's not native to California, but it's what you're looking for when you say you're going to use natives. I think it occurs in a native situation in high elev elevations in northeastern and central Mexico with climates very similar to what we have here. You probably don't consider that native. I kind of consider it native regionally, even though Mexico is not that close to us. If we can say we're good with using Mediterranean plants, which makes sense because we have a Mediterranean climate, then we should be good with using this salvia. One thing that landscape architects like to do that I agree with is you'll see the plantings repeat. So in this area, all these plants that are in this completely different area repeat from the other areas we looked at with one addition, rosemary. And this rosemary is a low growing one called Huntington carpet. Although it was developed at the Huntington Botanical Garden as a hybrid, but it's native to um the Mediterranean area. The reason they developed the Huntington carpet one is it minimizes kind of dead twigs that occur on rosemary a lot. So it's an improvement on straight rosemarinus afficionalis prostrus.

[00:09:01]We've got more of that salvia which is native to Mexico and Texas. In between is a spectacular dwarf nandina called firepower. And firepower is a great name because much of the year it looks like it's on fire with tremendous color.

[00:09:19]Doesn't get big, stays low, easy to grow. Nandina firepower is not native, but it is native to Asia and then the Nandina in general is native to Asia.

[00:09:33]And then this specific variety was developed in New Zealand. So we're combining all kinds of countries here to come up with plants that fit the needs of the site. And um in this case um we have a scarcity of natives that would fit the needs of the site. So we've added uh as per the landscape architect two oaks that are native to our area called interior live oaks and it is quirkus whizeni. really tough occurs in the foothills around Fresno and the Central Valley and does great here. Very appropriate native oak to use. Now, one of the best natives which isn't planted enough here but does great kind of like a background screening shrub.

[00:10:23]Heteromales are beautiful are beautiful a common name toyon. Some people call it Christmas berry. Some people call it Yeah. California holly. It looks a lot like fotinia and so it's a screening plant. So, what the landscape architect had in mind here is these plants are going to get big and screen this block wall. And so, that's a good use of it.

[00:10:45]And it's uh grows native in chaparel, parts of California, and does great in Fresno. And it's rumored to be the namesake of Hollywood. And it's how Hollywood was named was because of the presence of these plants there, California holly. And the last one, pick natives along with non-natives that are adapted. And in doing that, you'll have the biodiversity that works long term and you'll also have lots of beneficial insects and an ecosystem that's healthy and one I hope with healthy soil. Put all these things together and you've got the keys to a good sustainable landscape. So maybe the native versus non-native discussion will never end, but one important problem to take seriously is choosing the right trees for your landscape. Because the wrong choice will leave you with far more problems than you'd like. I help you solve that problem, and Chip helps, too, with the video on the screen right here.