Why does nobody talk about native plants vs. ornamental gardens

Last week I was at a local nursery in Portland and heard two old guys arguing about whether native plants are better than classic ornamentals. One guy said natives support way more bugs and birds, the other said ornamentals look better and need less upkeep. I have been gardening for about 5 years and I still can't pick a side. My yard is half native wildflowers and half fancy roses, and last month the roses got aphids but the wildflowers were fine. Has anyone else dealt with this choice in their own garden?

3 comments

3 Comments

wren23019d ago

Oh man, this is exactly my garden struggle every single day! Got the same setup over here in Eugene, half native meadow half english cottage garden chaos. The natives seriously just laugh off pests while my delphiniums get demolished by slugs every spring without fail. But then again those native flowers only bloom for like two weeks and the rest of the year it's just brown stalks, whereas my hydrangeas put on a show from June through October. Last summer I watched a bumblebee completely ignore my prize roses and fly straight to a weedy looking Oregon grape instead, felt like a betrayal honestly.

thomasgonzalez19d ago

Natives just don't care about our feelings @wren230.

abby_cooper19d ago

Gonna admit I feel this in my soul, I'm the person who planted a whole native sedum patch and then got mad when it refused to die like my fancy coleus from the garden center. My neighbors probably think I'm losing it, I literally apologized to a butterfly last week for watering my non-native lavender instead of the scraggly goldenrod that was right next to it. The slugs eating my hostas while ignoring the native ferns is just a personal insult at this point, like come on guys have some standards.