Gardeners’ Perceptions of Northwestern U.S. Native Plants Are Influenced by Ecological Information and Garden Group Affiliation

Abstract

Plantings of native flowers are often installed to increase the pollinator habitat in urban and suburban gardens. However, in many regions, it is not known which native plants are best used for pollinator plantings in gardens. Candidate plants must be attractive to pollinators, but they also must have attributes that gardeners find appealing. To identify native plants that are attractive to gardeners, we disseminated two surveys. The first asked gardeners to use a 5-point Likert scale to rate how likely they would be to garden with 23 flowering plants native to the Pacific Northwest United States. The second survey asked gardeners to use a 5-point Likert scale to rate how likely they would be to garden with a subset of 11 of these 23 native plants before and after receiving information about each flower’s attractiveness to bees (Anthophila). Using the first survey, we found a high level of acceptance of native plants by home gardeners (6 of 23 flowers had a mean “likelihood of planting” score of ≥ 4). Additionally, gardeners stated their likelihood of planting these native species increased significantly after receiving information about the bees associated with each plant. Across both surveys, gardeners who identified as “native plant gardeners” stated they would be significantly more likely to garden with all native plant species. Both surveys included an opportunity to share open-ended comments, which revealed that gardeners were most concerned with flower aesthetics and the aggressiveness of growth. Gardeners felt most positively about flower aesthetics and beneficial ecological traits. Many gardeners also commented that they needed more information or were unfamiliar with the plants. This study shows that native plants can have high baseline appeal to home gardeners. Specifically, we identified five native plant species that northwestern U.S. nurseries might consider growing and marketing as pollinator plants because of their high level of attractiveness to bees and home gardeners: globe gilia (Gilia capitata), california poppy (Eschscholzia californica), douglas aster (Symphyotrichum subspicatum), oregon sunshine (Eriophyllum lanatum), and common yarrow (Achillea millefolium).

Seed propagation, adaptation to cultivation conditions, determination of ornamental plant properties, and ex situ conservation of the endemic species Centaurea hermannii F. Hermann

“…Governments agree on various regulations to encourage the utilization of natural plant species (Sağlam and Önder 2018). Natural plants are a target market for arboriculture producers and commercial dealers due to their environmental benefits (Anderson et al 2021). However, the use of natural plants in horticultural designs is only possible if the properties of the individual species and their production methods are well known (Mikkelsen 1986;Von Henting 1998).…”

The bee fauna associated with Pacific Northwest (USA) native plants for gardens

“…Plants are separated into four categories: most attractive, moderately attractive, least attractive to home gardeners, and non‐native species. These were determined from survey results of gardeners (from Anderson et al, 2021)…”

“…Because we are interested in plants that gardeners and other urban land managers will use, we organized the study plants into groups based on their aesthetic appeal (Anderson et al, 2021). These were: (1) Most attractive: western columbine ( Aquilegia formosa ), Oregon iris ( Iris tenax ), Idaho blue eyed grass ( Sisyrinchium idahoense ), great camas ( Camassia leichtlinii ), globe gilia ( Gilia capitata ).…”

Insect Visitors of Specialty Cut Flowers in High Tunnels

“…Future research should explicitly examine potential tradeoffs between harvesting and resource provision to bees. Specialty cut flower production can offer an additional crop to market and support a diversity of beneficial insects in a high tunnel setting, and the specific flower choices depend on manager goals (i.e., Anderson et al 2021 ).…”