What are native plants?
Species that grow naturally in a region are considered native plants. They have evolved to thrive in the soil and climate of the ecosystem. These plants have also co-evolved with native wildlife, so they are crucial for supporting biodiversity by providing food and habitat for pollinators, birds and other animals that non-native plants often cannot.
Some of the many benefits that native plants provide for the ecosystem include:
Protect biodiversity: Help maintain the balance of local ecosystems.
Save water: Require less irrigation than non-native plants once established.
Low maintenance: Adapted to local conditions, they need less upkeep including less need for chemical fertilizers, keeping waterways cleaner.
Resilient landscapes: Better withstand local pests, diseases, and weather extremes.
Climate benefits: Store carbon and help regulate local temperatures.
Cultural connection: Preserve the natural heritage and character of a region.
Additionally, native plants typically have longer and deeper roots than non-native plants, and these extensive root systems act like nature’s infrastructure. Benefits include:
Water management: Deep roots absorb and store more water, reducing runoff and flooding while helping recharge groundwater.
Soil health: Their root systems create channels in the soil, improving aeration and nutrient cycling, and even feeding beneficial microbes.
Stability: Long roots anchor the soil, preventing erosion.
Carbon storage: The extensive underground biomass stores significant amounts of carbon, helping mitigate climate change.
How can you tell if a plant is native to Hampton Roads?
Download your free guide to native plants:
Local Sources of Native Plants
Southern Branch Nursery
Eric Gunderson, (757) 373-7763
1412 Benefit Rd, Chesapeake, VA 23322
SBN@SouthernBranchNursery.com
www.SouthernBranchNursery.com
Lady Fern’s Native Nursery
Nicole Knudson, (757) 678-6041
4900 Colley Ave, Norfolk, VA 23508
ladyfernsnativeplants@cox.net
London Bridge Greenhouse’s and Nursery
(757) 463-0685
145 London Bridge Rd, Virginia Beach, VA 23454
info@londonbridgegreenhouse.com
https://www.londonbridgegreenhouse.com/
Native Roots and Fruits
*Contact them to schedule a time to visit*
(757) 377-2693
6120 Knotts Neck Rd, Suffolk, VA, 23435
nativerootsandfruits@gmail.com
Plant Sales: Fall 2025
Virginia Beach Master Gardeners:
Virginia Native Plant Society maintains a list of plant sale events all over the state: https://vnps.org/native-plant-sales/
Virginia Cooperative Extension also has a list of several plant sales: https://ext.vt.edu/lawn-garden/Timely_Topics/ext-2025-plant-sale.html
What are invasive plants?
Invasives are plants that don’t belong here and worse, they actually do harm to the landscape. They are plants, like English Ivy, Japanese Honeysuckle and Chinese privet, that do well in our climate and grow quickly. They bully their way across the land, climbing and spreading, killing our native plants shrubs and trees, as they go. Invasives have no natural enemies because our native insects and other critters won’t eat non-natives. Many invasives were originally brought into the area by the nursery trade precisely because they do grow so well here and no one understood the harm they could cause.
Discover alternatives –
Native Alternatives to Invasive Plants (wctrust.org)
Virginia Native Plant Society – Conserving Wild Flowers & Places (vnps.org)
Native plants help our pollinators but spraying for mosquitos harms them!
Stop Mosquito Spraying to Help Our Pollinators
What can you do instead?
Use mosquito dunks! These are available at your local hardware store and specifically target mosquitos, making them safe for pollinators.
Watch the video below to find out how to use them.
NEXT – Call the City of VB and ask them to “red tag” your property
When requested, the city will “red tag” a property by placing a piece of reflective red tape on it, similar to the material in a stop sign, that tells a driver to turn off the spray nozzles. The driver will keep the spray off until they’re a few houses away from the tagged property. To request a red tag, please call the Mosquito Control Bureau at (757) 385-1470.
Staff Native Plant Picks
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Terri Gorman – “Beautyberry, Callicarpa americana is a woody, deciduous, perennial shrub that produces clusters of small flowers blooms on the stems during the late spring and early summer and the most stunning purple fruits in the fall from August through October.” |
Why does everybody and everything love native plants and trees?
Let us count the ways!
🍂 1. We love native plants and trees because we depend on them to feed and house the many insects that pollinate fruits and vegetables we must have to survive.
🌻 2. We love them because native plants and trees are meant to live here. That means natives are easy to take care of. They make our gardens and grounds beautiful and ask little of us in the way of fertilizer or water or pesticides.
🦋 3. Insect pollinators love native plants and trees because their leaves are vital to feed many of their young. Insect caterpillars are picky eaters and will eat leaves from only one species of plant. Like the baby in the highchair who turns his head away whenever you offer spinach, monarch caterpillars, for example, are the same way if you offer them anything to eat other than milkweed.
🐝 4. Adult insects love native plants and trees because natives provide nectar and pollen for them to eat. Non-natives or cultivars of natives often have been bred for the nursery trade. In the process, their life-giving nectar has been bred out of them in favor of more beauty, color or fragrance.
🍁 5. Insects love native plants and trees because they provide their wintering grounds. Some insects lay their eggs in the leaf litter, or under tree bark. Others overwinter underground or in dried hollow stems. Manicured lawns and gardens don’t give insects many places to live. 
🐞 6. Birds, reptiles, and mammals love native plants too because they provide habitat and food. Trees and shrubs hold nests and animals find nesting holes in some trees. The insects they attract and the berries and nuts they produce provide essential food for most animals.
🌳 7. The Earth loves native plants and trees because they slow flooding by helping to take up excess water from the land. Their roots filter and clean run-off. Trees fight climate change by absorbing carbon dioxide from the air and returning oxygen to the Earth.
For more information, email office@lrnow.org or call us at 757-962-5398.
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