Native versus non-native: To plant or not to plant?

Native versus non-native: To plant or not to plant?

Naturalized native orange butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa). Photo: Lila Mill We all like vibrant colors and new show-offs in our gardens, and with a mailbox full of gardening catalogs this time of year that advertise all sorts of gorgeous goodies, what’s a gardener to do? Ignore all the pretties? Though it is tempting to collect plant specimens from faraway lands — a part of human history that is many, many centuries old and not likely to fiz…