Native Gardens, Part Two: How to Spot a Cultivar

Cultivars — make an informed choice when plant shopping

Find local sources for native, non-cultivar plants and seeds in our Plant Resource Guide.

There’s so much to learn about how our gardening choices have an immediate impact on our local food web and ecology. Do you know what a cultivar is and how to identify/avoid one in the plant nursery?

First, here’s how to identify a plant as a cultivar — after the Latin identifier, there will be another name in single quotations such as 'Bravado' or 'Fireworks.' 

Cultivars can be garden “superstars” in terms of bloom size, stem strength, etc, yet they may not be ecologically beneficial at all.

Here’s why you might want to avoid one: A cultivar is a plant that has been selectively bred for more saleable characteristics - darker leaves, different colored flowers etc. They are often unusable to local insects with diminished or absent nutritional value.

Most traditional and big-box nurseries sell mainly or exclusively cultivars of flowers and plants.

Some cultivars have characteristics that make them unpalatable or inedible to the insects that rely on them. Other cultivars have sterile seeds to promote more purchases of the plant.

Read more about the issues with cultivars on the Grow Native website here.