Native Ohio Landscaping Plants
- Audubon Ohio recommends that homeowners begin by familiarizing themselves with plants native to their area. Choose plants appropriate to the site, planting prairie plants such as boneset and goldenrod in areas with poor drainage or rocky soils and woodland plants like false Solomon's seal in moist, fertile locations.
- Arranging natives properly can help them choke out weeds and invasives. The Native Plant Society of Northeastern Ohio recommends planting natives in groups and layers to fill space and discourage "volunteer" plants. Avoid fertilizer, which can encourage weeds, and pesticides, which can kill beneficial and attractive insects, such as monarch butterfly larvae.
- While appropriate native landscaping plants can be found growing wild, removing these plants from their natural habitat can cause problems. Ohio State University recommends obtaining plants from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, or propagating plants from existing wild stands, rather than removing them from their original habitat.
