Locally Grown? Really?

For those of you who care about this question, the caring usually begins with food plants.  The basic ideas that make locally grown plants appealing are clear and simple.

1)  Locally grown plants need the least amount of fuel, energy and money to get to their destination.
2)  Locally grown plants help keep local money in a local economy
3)  Locally grown plants are less likely to spread pathogens because they don't get moved as far
4)  Locally grown plants tend to be grown by smaller businesses which we hope are more accountable to local values and beliefs.

For food plants there are other benefits, some of which are secondary. 

As the common sense of locally grown sinks in, we tend to think about other things or industries we buy or support, and we start thinking about the prospects for other locally grown or locally made commodities--lumber, fabrics, etc.  It's unlikely you'll be able to support your life using all local products, but I see it is progress by degrees: we try to improve our local quotient as we go.

Have you ever thought about how the nursery industry works, for ornamental plants or nursery stock?  The industry hopes you don't...

Most nursery stock is grown very non-locally and distributed hundreds and thousands of miles to garden centers.  This is why you perceive that all garden centers have the same plants--they do.  It's a direct result of the business model that has supplanted the old-fashioned ways of true nurseries, where plants were grown and raised and sold on site--hence the term 'nursery'.

There is a very disturbing marketing trend rearing its head in the nursery industry, where plants are adorned with pink tags that proclaim "Locally Grown" and then something like "to thrive in your garden".  The "Locally Grown" part is alarming.  Nowhere on these tags does it say where the plants were grown.  It also says nowhere on the tags who prints them, or which company is responsible for this claim.  And that is not by accident.  They don't want you calling and asking questions...doesn't sound like the modus operandi of a local company...

Native plants are unique in horticulture in that we can know where they occur in the wild, in nature.  So we don't have to speculate.  With natives, then, it is helpful to think about where they like to grow--what kinds of spots--so we can make better decisions about where to plant them, and we can trust the basic principle of ecology that says organisms adapt to their environments in order to succeed (i.e., live).  For non-natives, such as Heptacodium (seven-son flower) which has become modestly popular in the past decade or two, most of us never know where they like to hang out in the wild in their home lands.  So we guess, or we read trial and error accounts of where other people have tried them with success or failure.

Native elderberry seedling 1 year old

But with native plant species, we know that stuff.  Which is why it's important to pay attention to where the native plants you buy are from and where they are grown.  The closer you can get to using local plants, the closer you are to tying those loops that many of us feel are more and more important regarding local-ness, locality.  And the closer you get to truly bringing nature home again.  REMEMBER--see the 4 points at the beginning to keep the comparisons with food plants on the forebrain.  It's a good tool and a good barometer.

When non-local brand managers and marketers dabble in horticulture, and they start throwing terms around such as 'locally grown', it immediately devalues the concepts that make localism meaningful.  It'sthe same as if you found out your New York maple syrup was being made in China and sold by a New York distributor.  Is that the same?  Would you feel duped, and would you care?

The only way to make sure these national marketing companies don't undo the ecological progress barely being made in horticulture is to ask any garden center you see selling these plants as "Locally Grown"--locally grown where and by whom?  Why call them locally grown if they are not?  Ask and see what they say.  Virtually every garden center in Ithaca sells them.

We don't grow all our plants locally but we grow the vast majority of them locally, including our native plant propagation program which I believe is the most extensive in New York State for any retail nursery.  If you have any questions about our stock or where it's from, ask.  We are always happy to discuss it.  See if you get the same response from the "Locally Grown" tag places...