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Lovely designed template for presentation. Great shrubs I’m mostly familiar with. Thx!

Never heard that elderberry will make you sick eaten raw. I’m 67 and have eaten them raw since childhood.

I think this is the best overview of the entire process I've seen. Thanks for an awesome video.

It is so endearing to hear someone love native plants as much as I do. 🌹🫶 Didn’t know about coreopsis range central US- maybe that’s why I cannot grow it in North East - tried several times. Or need to find the variety that will grow - any suggestions?

Lovely presentation and pictures to go with amazing shrub choices. I have most of these and are as lovely and functional as you said. I’ll consider adding a witch hazel and the Dwarf Bush Honeysuckle or get them for my neighbor who’s also going native. Very nice presentation to watch during this very cold winter evening. Thx!

Ya'll based af what knowledge!

I love how involved you are in helping us understand and choose the right plants for our conditions! I just realized that I have not seen much (if anything) on personal conditions such as: *Pets and other animals (urine and running) *Children (running and physical interactions with nature like grass plucking) *Gardener age/ ADA and terrain of garden (my one neighbor in his late 60s has moss on his sloped walkway and has slipped on it; aging parent with walker, soon wheelchair-- ease of movement through garden, especially if no room in budget for walkways.) *Renter-friendly (what can be grown in pots and how to over-winter-- like with leaves, as well as what is worth leaving in the soil like wild ginger, for example.) Big fan of natives. Anemic wallet here inspiring to be incredibly creative. Just want to add that I already have approval from the landlord, so I am really excited. Just thought I would put this out there and see if anyone else has similar concerns. Thank you

"Cottle-Eden" is how we pronounce cotyledon in my area. 😂😂 I laugh because English is such a varied language. One word can be pronounced and spelled in like 5 different ways. Tomato, tomahto. Love your videos. LOVE your open love of the cutness of bugs and baby plants. Ain't nothing wrong with that (says the third pea from the same pod 😄).

This was the most comprehensive presentation I have ever seen on this topic. I noticed that you did not use any heat mats. Also, how could I incorporate soil blocking in this process if you even suggest this for natives. I especially loved the seed starting chart. I am a visible learner. So I printed it out and wrote all the seeds I am interested in starting by their Germ Code/Days above the start date. So much easier to figure out if you want to plan. I am in Zone 8 so I have started my C60 seeds. Thank you for sharing. I will be visiting this website often.

Have you tried winter sowing with any native seeds? I have a ton of gallon jugs I’d like to put to use. And thank you so much for your videos, so informative.

Do you start your seeds inside because you’re in a colder area? I live in Franklin Tn. And I did the milk jug method successfully.

Fabulous set up Lexi. I am a "retired" organic farmer from KY and when I moved to WI a couple years ago I did notice that I had to really watch my seedlings for lack of humidity. So I do use a hygrometer and keep distilled water in a spray bottle when humidity is low. Thanks for your stratification schedule for up here.

I think the one in the front is definitely a carpenter bee because like you said you can see the shiny black thorax. Also the carpenter bee's wings are a bit darker - a bumble bee's wings are more translucent.

🥳🥳🥳 right on time, I bought seeds for next year and needed to know what to do next.

Great video! A couple thoughts I had: -The point made of the cost savings of starting many plants from seed is so true, but it's still worthwhile if you don't want a large quantity of plants at the end. Growing many from seed will allow for any failed seedlings dying along the way, and will let you select the best and most vigorous growers for your garden. As for the rest, either they can be gifted away or given to the rabbits and chipmunks. -Bottom watering replaces top watering, absolutely, but one circumstance you may want to do both is if you've accidentally let your plugs dry out some. Many of these mixes turn hydrophobic when fully dry and won't suck water upwards like they do when moist. If you end up with dry plugs or pots, do a little top watering first to let gravity force water into the substrate, then that moistened channel through the plug will let water percolate up from the bottom watering and to the side, taking care of the rest of it.

Wow, that is an amazing instructional video; truly wonderful. Thank you so much for taking the time and energy to put it together. It does seem a bit overwhelming to do all that, but wow, so helpful to actually see how it's all done and the supplies needed.

Great video as always! Can't wait to get started.

That was incredibly helpful! I'm a Michigan gardener heading into the fourth summer of cultivating my native-forward yard. I definitely "fell" for a few nativars in my first enthusiastic plant-buying rush, but I've been able to counterbalance with lots of natives from my local conservation district and small growers in my area (shoutout to Washtenaw County and the Huron River Watershed Council!).

I have many of the moths in my meadow listed the lead plant supports, however I’m in northeast Ohio and have seen it dominating disturbed business lots and slopes. Should I support a small population of them even though I’m right outside the green on bonap

Thank you for this wonderful presentation. And thank you for including Canada, eh? 😊

Love natives! Have a lot of these you have listed here.

Cathy, Thank you for pronouncing the ‘i’ in the word ‘foliage.’ Do you know how rare that is in the plant world? I am so tired of hearing ‘folage.’ Check it out! 😅

One good thing about lobelia is it very good at creating "sports" natural variations i have had white red and blue lobelia naturally occuring. and they are not considered to be a seperate species and they come true to seed.There are a lot of nativars of lobelia also but you are right when i planted me dians i always used the straight species my managers did not like that they wanted color pop all the time .

Mt Cuba Center is excellent for anyone researching cultivars of plants they'd like to use in their yard. They've done a ton of trials to determine if a cultivar performs better than the straight species in attracting pollinators. My two favorites are: "Jeana" Garden Phlox: naturally occurring cultivar found in the wild in Tennessee. Vastly out performs the straight species in attracting butterflies. "Fragrant Angel" Echinacea Purperea (Purple Coneflower but in white): trials showed it performs nearly as well as the straight species for bees, BUT it attracts many more butterflies than the straight species does and has a pleasant fragrance that humans can smell which the straight species does not. Highly recommend.

Is this a Variegated Fritillary?

I do think one of the hard things when considering "winter hardy" and "disease resistant" is the effects of climate change. Lexy talked about invasive species in regards to the emerald ash borer but we also have insects moving and spreading due to climate changes. So I do think its important to maybe protect if needed. But I agree, I think its all about balance. Thank you ladies for a great video.

The tip about the snow sowing was incredible! Something else about timing for seeding…I’m in a rural area and we get A TON of leaves each fall. If I seeded then, everything would be totally smothered by leaves, and they keep coming for a long while. If I wait til winter, I can clear away accumulated leaves to ensure that the seeds get soil contact and sunlight.

Native to where? Bizarre to me the amount of TH-cam videos that just have “Native” in the title

Where can we access a copy of the PDF seed collection guide?

Thank You! This was excellent and so helpful! We are trying to do more native plantings in our garden (central IL) and this webinar helped me to pic out a new bush for this spring! So much great information in this webinar!

These videos are so helpful! I'm making some decisions now about shrubs to add for the coming spring and you've introduced me to some new (to me) shrubs that I'll be ordering for my yard. I already have several native selections and all my trees and shrubs going forward will be natives. I find they are healthier! Cultivars can be fussy and I've lost some but straight species seem to take off right away and be more flexible in where they will grow. In one year I've gone from looking at a grass desert back yard with NO life in it to watching the Juncos flip through my leaf litter. So many more birds this winter than last and I'm looking forward to even more life going forward. Thanks for helping me create a mini-ecosystem!

This is so timely for me, thank you. I have a 1-season old garden, have been adding native shrubs and understory trees and this will help me plan out how to fill some gaps with intention for creating a micro-ecosystem in my garden.

I grow Bradburys in my yard it is short and clump forming it is more tolerant of shade It has light orchid spotted blooms it blooms for me in late May or early June. I have all the monarda that are in your video plus a few more. There is an extensive native patch of red near the indiana border along with red lobelia in the Hedwich neighborhood.

Swamp milkweed is the best for the caterpillars I found, I have the white cultivar also and I have several Sullivan's milkweed also common one is really agreeassive and caterpillars love it also. I have butterfly,whorled,purple and honey vine milkweed also. and 8 different liatris for the adults.

You can order free catalogues now also Prairie moon prairie and Missouri natives have beautiful ones with color pictures and lots of cultural info. I get my plugs from Prairie Moon they are really good and have very high success rate. I recommend these 3 . Pints and quarts are best around 7 or 8 dollars gallons are around 20 I got my Purple Milkweed that way.

I am so glad I found your channel. I grew up in OakLawn and am now retired , I was the native plant technician for a major landscape company. I also,me and my partner maintained the Chicago city hall native plant roof top garden we had over 160 native forbs,sedges and grasses. we had 12 zones that were from wet to dry so we have all types from shade to full sun and wet to almost desert like. So there is hardly any Chicago native that I have not encountered or grown. In your videos which are fantastic for beginner native gardeners your plant selections and techniques are spot on. And what is my favorite native? I would say Packera Aurea GoldenRagwort it is a great shade evergreen ground cover with yellow daisies in April of course you know that. I will be volunteering my abilities this spring.

Are Buckeyes Native and beneficial?

Love this

I've had lots of caterpillars on mine - they are hard to see as they usually stay on the bottom of the leaves.

Deer. Don't like weigela

Note, incorrect botanical name on slide for Pagoda Dogwood.

Great information. Would you consider adding deer & rabbit resistant or not. Many are but need protection when young. Would be so helpful to provide.

Thank you so very much for your most excellent videos. I appreciate ❤ all you do to educate us.

How do you create those colored bubbles in your drop down lists for the different categories AND allow for selection of multiple ones? Those are fantastic but they don’t show up in the spreadsheet I downloaded.

Possibility Place Nursery is another great native-only nursery! They ship pints and gallons, but they sell larger sizes (5, 10, and 15-gal shrubs and trees) in person as well. They're located in Monee, IL, so a great option for the Chicagoland region.

Another name for the smooth hydrangea is lacecap hydrangea.

Is this wonderful spreadsheet available to us?

In your experience, is black chokeberry amenable to pruning? Thank you!

You ladies are the best! Almost time to get my winter sowing jugs ready!

I have converted my entire back yard into a native prairie. Last summer I noticed that my yard had hundreds of lightning bugs, while all my neighbors had few to none. It really works, if you build it, they will come. However, the USA is filled to the bream with selfish people who could care less about nature. The majority are only interested in one thing, money. I hate to be so cynical but there is little hope. Not to mention, every year there are less home owners as banks are buying up houses and renting them out. Soon, only the wealthy will own homes. Renters are not going to go native. I will spend the rest of my life gardening with natives but the reality is that we are just prolonging the inevitable.