Nativars: what are they and should you buy them?

I am a big fan of using native plants in the garden because they are the golden standard for our local pollinators and wildlife, but through the years I’ve learned that it’s not always possible to be exclusively native.

There are financial considerations because native plants are usually a little more expensive than non-native plants, since they are not widely available. There are also logistical considerations, because again, many native plants are not widely available so you might have to make a long trip to a specific nursery or attend a plant sale on a specific date and time, which may be inconvenient. You can purchase native plants online, but sometimes that can be a let down too, like when your plants arrive and they’re tiny bare root twigs, or worse yet, they’re diseased! I don’t say this to discourage anyone from purchasing native plants- we should all strive to add more native plants to our gardens- but I am realistic and I know that people are more likely to use plants that are easily available to them; for this reason I encourage people to consider nativars.

Nativars are plants that have been bred from native plants to have certain characteristics, like a change in size, color, bloom size, etc. When you purchase a plant, you will see the scientific name and then the variety, which tells you it’s a nativar. So for example, Monarda Didyma ‘Jacob Cline’ is a nativar of monarda Didyma or beebalm. This variety has been bred to have larger flowers and be more disease resistant. Monarda ‘Jacob Cline’ is widely available, which is important. Not everyone will take the time to track down the native version, but this nativar is conveniently available and performs the same in nature as the straight version. I’m actually picking up two Monarda ‘Jacob Cline’ next week from a native plant sale and can’t wait.

The concern about nativars is that they may not provide enough (if any) food or habitat for insects and wildlife, which makes these plants useless from an ecological standpoint, but some research has been done by Doug Tallamy and others about nativars and the effect they have on insects (whether insects avoid them, etc) and the conclusion is that the main factor that seems to make insects less likely to use a nativar is a change in leaf color. So a nativar bred to have red leaves instead of green leaves would be a problem due to variation in a certain compound found in the leaves that turns bugs off (this is fascinating stuff!). In that case, the change is too great and the insects avoid the plant. But for other nativars, such as Arrowwood Viburnum ‘Blue Muffin’ for example, the only thing that seems to have been altered is the plant’s size; it is more compact at a height of 3′-5′ versus up to 10′ for the straight version, so this would be a good choice if you came upon it in a nursery. I recently saw Blue Muffin available on homedepot.com at a reasonable price, so I ordered two of them for the side of my house (and the birds of course!). If I were a plant purist, I would have passed up a great deal unnecessarily.

The main thing to keep in mind is that the nativar should not be radically different front the straight version. Look it up on google and see how it is different from the native version. If it has the following differences, don’t buy it:

• Different color leaves than the native species.
• Double blooms.
• Drastically different flower color and size.

While you should aim to have more native plants in your garden for the sake of local wildlife and the environment, nativars definitely have their place and can allow you to incorporate plants that you wouldn’t normally have the space for or the ability to find. Best of all, they are widely available and reasonably priced online.

More info about nativars: https://landscapearchitecturemagazine.org/2019/07/02/whats-in-a-nativar

https://content.yardmap.org/learn/nativars-native-cultivars/