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Text: Native Plant Crossroads. Photo: Bunchberry, Cornus canadensis. Text logo: nature.ca / Canadian Museum of Nature.
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Leaflets

These leaflets offer practical advice and information to help you with a variety of activities ranging from the use of native plants in gardening to the conservation of biodiversity.

  • Surveying Your Garden
    Practical advice for identifying the conditions in your garden before you get started in native plant gardening, whether you're starting from scratch or converting an existing garden.
     
  • Getting Started in Native Plant Gardening
    Practical tips for the beginner native-plant gardener.
     
  • Natives at Our Nurseries
    Advice on what to ask at your garden centre or nursery when buying native plants, with a view to minimizing environmental harm and protecting your investment.
     
  • Creating a Safe Garden for Birds
    Easy-to-implement pointers about what birds need and how you can provide it in your garden through thoughtful plotting and appropriate plant selection.

Text: Top of page. Illustration of an arrowhead.

What you design in a garden will be shaped by weather, by the processes of life, death and decay -- things that you don't have control over. Gardens are expressions of nature and culture, and they also represent what we think nature is. We have conventional ways of thinking about gardens; we tend to assume that gardens are green and the sky is blue.

- Susan Herrington

A species of milkweed, Asclepias sp. S75-4522.
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Milkweed is known for its significance to monarchs as a food source and cocoon host. Ducks and other waterfowl also eat the seeds, in small amounts. Birds use the fluffy hairs to line their nests. Many insects are attracted by the nectar. The plant is poisonous to many other animals. Several insect species that feed on the plant retain the poison, thus acquiring protection from predators. The poison is toxic to people only in large quantities. Edible parts must be properly cooked beforehand. There are at least 100 species of milkweed, Asclepias sp.


 
 
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