Native Plants

Q. Who is Mr. Smarty Plants?

A: There are those who suspect Wildflower Center volunteers are the culpable and capable culprits. Yet, others think staff members play some, albeit small, role. You can torture us with your plant questions, but we will never reveal the Green Guru's secret identity.

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Ask Mr. Smarty Plants is a free service provided by the staff and volunteers at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

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Tuesday - May 25, 2010

From: Wantagh, NY
Region: Northeast
Topic: Shade Tolerant
Title: Need perennials for a long shady bed in Wantagh, NY.
Answered by: Jimmy Mills

QUESTION:

Looking for perennials to be planted in long narrow beds that receive mostly shade with late day sun. Reside in Long Island, New York. Thank you

ANSWER:

Let me tell you how you can generate a list of perennials from which you can select the plants to use in your flower beds.

Go to the Recommended Species page and click on New York on the map. This will give you a list of 112 commercially available native plant species suitable for planned landscapes in New York. Scroll down to the Narrow Your Search box on the right of the screen and make the following selections:select New York under STATE, Herb under GENERAL APPEARANCE, and Perennial under LIFESPAN. Check Part sun for LIGHT REQUIREMENT, and Moist for SOIL MOISTURE. You can ignore BLOOM TIME and COLOR for now. Click on the Narrow your Search button and your list is reduced to 27 plant species. Clicking on the name of each plant will pull up its NPIN page which contains descriptios, growing conditions and images of that plant. You can change the list by changing the selections.