It’s Native Plant Month in Ohio and Across the Nation!
In 2019, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed a bill into law designating April as Native Plant Month in Ohio… forever! Learn more about Ohio’s law and Ohio’s native plants by visiting www.OhioNativePlantMonth.org
In 2021, the U.S. Senate approved a resolution making April 2021 the first National Native Plant Month. On March 20th, 2024, the Senate approved a renewal of the resolution making this April National Native Plant Month for the 4th consecutive year! To learn more about this resolution and to see the list of supporting organizations this year, please visit www.NationalNativePlantMonth.org Thank you to all of you who supported this national effort in 2024!
Free Native Plant Posters!
Last year Nancy Linz created a series of 5 educational posters about native plants:
These 5 native plant posters are titled:
- Why are ALL green plants important?
- What is a native plant?
- Why are NATIVE plants important?
- What can you do to help?
- And my favorite: Selecting native plants for wildlife
Every posters includes images of Ohio Native Plants. These posters are FREE to download and are available in 4 sizes. Click on the link below to go to our website, select the poster you would like to download, then select the size you would like. Once you download the one you want, send it to your local printer to be printed on poster paper, card stock, foam board, or any other medium you like.
PLEASE print these posters to use in schools, nature centers, arboretums, retail outlets, or anywhere they can be used to educate the public about native plants!
Note: We now have a set for Texas where the photos have been replaced with Texas native plants, and over the next few years our plan is to develop a set for all 50 states!
Ohio Native Plants of Distinction
In 2022, we selected 4 great native plants to highlight and called them the Ohio Native Plants of Distinction. They included the Bur Oak (a very large canopy tree), Eastern Redbud (an understory tree), Northern Spicebush (a woody shrub), and Purple Coneflower (an herbaceous perennial).
In 2023 we added 4 more plants: Sugar Maple (a large tree), PawPaw (an understory tree and Ohio’s State Native Fruit), Virginia Bluebells (a spring ephemeral), and Swamp Milkweed (another herbaceous perennial and important host plant for Monarch butterflies).
This year we added: Wood Poppy (another spring ephemeral), Winterberry Holly (a woody shrub and important food source for birds), Tulip Popular (a large tree), and Honeysuckle Vine (a great native vine).
Note: This vine is native to North America and naturalized to Ohio. According to Richard Gardner, Chief Botanist with ODNR, this vine is considered a native plant in Ohio until genetic testing is completed to prove otherwise. It’s a fantastic vine for hummingbirds and well worth planting in a native plant garden.
Please learn about all these great native plants and encourage the planting of as many as possible across Ohio!
As we have just passed Earth Day and National Arbor Day is this Friday, please take this time to reflect on how far we have come on building awareness about the importance of native plants. In the most basic terms, native plants are critical because the provide food and shelter to native wildlife. We have made great progress, but we still have a long way to go. Please use every April to help spread the word that April is Native Plant Month both in Ohio and across the Nation, and plan events all year long to make a REAL difference by planting more native plants and removing non-native highly invasive plants from your yards and communities.
Thank you for your continued support,
Nancy
Nancy Linz
President and Co-founder, Ohio Native Plant Month
Founder, National Native Plant Month
