Menne's Nursery in Amherst on Niagara Falls, Blvd. has quite a few natives in 3inch pots and very small starts (not much bigger than our wintersown seedlings). I can't recall now exactly what they had but the prices went from $11.99 to $21.99 which I found to be absolutely outrageous.

To be honest I don't think they have sold any either.

Penny

I just saw the Green-headed Coneflower(rudbeckia laciniata), last week at Wayside Nursery in Macedon. It's a very tall (10 feet)high yellow daisy like flower that blooms in late August or early September. We have some growing wild on our property on Conesus Lake.

I've seen Sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale), Lemon-Lily (Hemerocallis lilioasphodelus), Yellow Flag Iris (Iris pseudacorus), and butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) also.

Palmeter's Nursery in Avon, NY has several varities of Jeruselem Artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus)every year.

Then there's Violets, Meadowsweet, Joe Pye Weed, Dame's Rocket, Rose Mallow, Spurge, honeysuckle and turk's-cap lily also that are sold in nursery's all the time.

I should note here that Dame's Rocket is one of the one's that tricked me too when I was just starting out. Nurseries and seed companies sometimes list it as a wildflower, but it is an introduced species that is on the noxious weed list in some states.

As I mentioned, Most spurge sold in nurseries is Japanese. A native is P. procumbens, but I have never seen it in a nursery.

Most honeysuckle sold in stores and nurseries is also alien and highly invasive.

http://plants.usda.gov/cgi_bin/topics.cgi?earl=plant_profile.cgi&symbol=HEMA3

breaks honeysuckle found in the wild into species and lists foreign or native, noxious weed, endangered, etc. I myself still cannot really make heads or tails of it all as there are so very many. After my experiences with pachysandra and dame's rocket I would be very hesitant to buy honeysuckle intending it as a native without a great deal of research into both species and nurseries.

Yellow Flag Iris is another that I was surprised to find out is introduced. I have it growing alongside my native Iris versicolor - harlequin blueflag. I like mine and have no intention of pulling it out. It hasnt moved much in 40 years but it has alot of competition. It is a big problem in some states though, or so they say.

The USDA does not list anything with Yellow flag as a common name. I am guessing ours is Iris pseudacorus -
paleyellow iris, as it is the only yellow one shown in NY state. All of the native Irises are blue. The most common is I. versicolor -harlequin blueflag. I. verna -
dwarf violet iris is also native to NY. I. virginica looks much like the versicolor and is endangered in NY & Penn. I. prismatica - slender blue iris wraps up the list and is threatened in NYS.

see:
http://plants.usda.gov/cgi_bin/topics.cgi?earl=plant_profile.cgi&symbol=IRIS

(scroll down for the maps by species - click on each for info and pictures for that species)

Hemerocallis lilioasphodelus, or yellow Daylily is also introduced, as is the orange H. fulva.
(see: http://plants.usda.gov/cgi_bin/topics.cgi?earl=plant_profile.cgi&symbol=HEMER )

Besides sheer brattiness, I am trying to illustrate a couple points here. The most obvious is that one cannot trust nurseries for information. Their goal is to make money. Besides that, most people working in nurseries have very little knowledge. They are not hired for expertise, they are hired because they will work for low pay. (present company working in nurseries excluded, of course.) Expertise costs more. If your goal is to buy native plants then it is imperative to research beforehand. The USDA site quoted here is a great place to start.

One thing I would love to work toward is a system of lableing for commercial grown plants. Optimally I would like to see it mandatory, but until then I would love to havethe backing to put pressure on commercial sellers and growers for voluntary labling. There will always be people like I was in the beginning, planting in woodlands and wetlands without information. People do not research usually until they get really into gardening. It is the newbies that make the boo boo's and they can only be protected by responsible marketing practices.

The other point is the difference between a wildflower and a native. Wildflower is a more loosely defined and subjective word and many include naturalized foreign species. Native is a more specific and objective term and usually means that it was growing in an area before European settlement. A species may be native to the US but not native to a region. (such as Rudbeckia laciniata var. humilis - green headed coneflower, which is native to five states in the SE but not NY ). Some may have varieties native to a region but not other varieties of the same species (Rudbeckia laciniata var. bipinnata, Rudbeckia laciniata var. laciniata: both going by the common name "cut-leaf cone flower" are native to NYS). Others, such as most Monarda, tiarella, huechera, are cultivars of a native species. Again, you may or may not care, depending on purpose, but it is great to make informed decisions. In summary, beware of vague terminology. Look for reputable sellers that give precise information if you are intending to reintroduce species or are trying to create a nature friendly garden of environment.

Again, there is nothing inherently wrong with any of these plants. The questions are the where and why's. I have an ornamental garden and a woodland/wetland garden and what I plant in each goes by different rules.

Anyhow that got way off on a tangent, as this is supposed to help us know WHERE we can find natives, if that is what we are looking for. Sorry-its a virgo thing *blush*.

Anyhow, goodnight.

PAX
Laurette

Here is a link that might be useful: USDA profile for Dame's Rocket