It is rare that I am excited to hear someone speak a second time at a conference, but this week I am looking forward to learning what Annie White, a Vermont professor and garden designer, has to say about selecting plants for the garden. She will be speaking at this weekend’s “Rooted in Place” Symposium given by the Berkshire Botanical Garden. at the Lenox Memorial Middle and High School
I first heard Annie speak when she was defending her dissertation that recommended seed-grown forms of native plants, not cultivated varieties of them, because they better supported wildlife in our gardens. Her thesis posited that the simple flower forms of the species provided more nectar and nutrition for their pollinators. Cultivated varieties, such as asters with extra petals, are pretty, but White contended that perhaps they were putting their energy into something other than nectar, reducing their nutritional value to their pollinators. They were the equivalent in human terms of a kale chip — satisfying to our desires but with this highly processed version providing less nutrition than a piece of fresh kale.
In White’s eyes, we were marketing these cultivars of native plants, not for their support of wildlife, but for a consistent bloom time, more petals, and more colorful blooms. Because these plants were genetic clones, they tended to bloom concurrently, narrowing the window of their bloom time and limiting the length of time their nectar and pollen was available as a food source for their pollinators. I found White’s argument convincing and over the years have comes to advocate for seed-grown native plants that have the genetic range and diversity of the genus, which not only means they are more closely connected to the wildlife with which they have co-evolved, but that they also contain the genetic diversity that ensures the long-term adaptability of their genus. Their simple forms put their nectar and pollen forward openly, making it easier for the birds, butterflies and other insects that pollinate them to find the food they are looking for.
In time, this philosophy impacted my aesthetic sense, and now I find nothing more beautiful than a native aster along the side of the road, a cranesbill with simple, single flowers, or an echinacea with simple, recurving petals offering its seed to local birds.
I am curious how White’s dissertation was received in academic circles, and how her work has evolved since I last heard her speak, but that said, I am not concerned for how the academic world has taken in her ideas, because they changed how I see beauty in the world around us and I have no doubt that her influence can make a difference where it matters most—in the ecosystems that comprise our gardens.
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A gardener grows through observation, experimentation, and learning from the failures, triumphs, and hard work of oneself and others. In this sense, all gardeners are self-taught, while at the same time intrinsically connected to a tradition and a community that finds satisfaction through working the soil and sharing their experiences with one another. This column explores those relationships and how we learn about the world around us from plants and our fellow gardeners.
