Happy Earth Day—and happy Native Plant Month! In 2019, a bill was signed into law designating April as Native Plant Month in Ohio. In 2024, with unanimous consent, Senate Resolution 603 passed, making this designation national. Of course, the decision to have April as Native Plant Month—the same month during which Earth Day occurs—was no accident.

On this particular Earth Day, we thought we’d take a look at some encouraging stats and information that show that it’s not just us dedicated native plant folk who are making changes.

Having a new plant species to fawn over at the nursery is always fun. We carry over a hundred species of native plants, and they each have their own unique spot in a native garden ecosystem. Last week, we highlighted a new prairie grass we’ll be growing (Prairie brome/Bromus kalma), and this week, we’ll talk about Indian Physic (Porteranthus stipulatus). We often get asked about deer and/or rabbit-resistant plants, and this is one! The foliage is toxic to mammalian herbivores, so they leave it alone. Read more about the many reasons to plant the lovely and beneficial Indian Physic on our blog.

One of the bright spots in what can seem like a long Ohio winter is deciding on new plants to grow here at DRL. We talk about what people are asking for and trends we’re seeing, and we ask Kara (the big boss!) if we can please grow the one plant we’ve been obsessing over (100% of requests approved so far; thanks, Kara!). We have some new plants this season that we are really excited about, so we’re going to tell you a bit more about them. Click through to the blog to read about the first plant we’re highlighting, Prairie Brome.

On the heels of invasive species week, we thought it might be a good time to define what an invasive species is – and what it isn’t! There are criteria that a plant has to meet in order to be considered an invasive species; the label isn’t something we can just attach to any weed we don’t like to see in our gardens.