Also known as pasture rose, this native rose is an easy-to-grow shrub.  It prefers dry, rocky, sunny locations but tolerates most conditions and is good for neglected areas.  Its flowers attract bees and butterflies.  It also provides nesting structure for bumblebees and its rose hips are food for birds.  Rose petals and hips are also edible by humans!

Ironweed is a tall, deep-rooted, moisture-loving wildflower that can be found near streams and ponds.  It is great for the rear of your pollinator garden or rain garden.  Like many other natives, it can be pruned down before blooming for a shorter plant ('Chelsea chop').  Produces many purple flowers on its tall stalks.  In the Fall, Ironweed generates lots of seed which is a great food source for birds.  

Also known as Woodbine or Devil's Darning Needles, our native clematis is a fast-growing vine which produces many clusters of fragrant white flowers, even blooming in some shade!  Prefers moist soil but can grow in dry conditions as well.  Virgin's bower may spread aggressively but can be easily pruned.  While it is dioecious (male and female plants are separate) and both are needed for seeds, both sexes produce flowers.

Fast growing, generally pest and disease-free, and drought-tolerant. Colonies are often single-sexed, formed from a single, suckering parent. Only female plants produce flowers and berries. Leaves are extremely colorful in the fall.

This easy going shrub is semi-evergreen and its attractive leaves turn reddish during the fall. Its waxy yellow-green fruits are bird magnets and have been used traditionally to make candles.

Yes, Long Island has a native cactus! The Prickly Pear Cactus is a mounding, low-growing perennial found closer to the shoreline in sandy patches.  Easy to grow, hard to kill, and great for containers, too.  Be careful of the tiny hairlike spines when handling!  The paddles (nopales) and fruit (tuna) are edible and feature in Mexican cuisine. 

Swamp Rose Mallow, one of our native Hibiscus, can be found in marshes, wetlands, and near ponds and rivers.  Its large white or pink flowers open consistently between 9am-11am.  Its seeds are a source of food for many birds and its flowers attract hummingbirds and insects.  28 species of butterflies and moths utilize this plant as a host.

Also known as Eastern False Willow, Groundsel bush is found in saltmarshes and along the coastal areas of Long Island.  Grows showy white flowers and many seed heads that attract pollinators and birds alike. It is the only member of the Aster family to reach tree size.  Great for salt tolerant and coastal landscaping.

One of our few native host plants for the Monarch butterfly.  Grows naturally in swamps and wet meadows but also grows well in the garden and grows well in poorly drained clay soil.  Has a pleasing scent when in bloom.

Is found growing in rocky/sandy soil and dry, open woods, gravel stream banks, thickets, prairies, bluffs, glades, roadsides, railroads. Tolerates droughts and floods. It naturalizes easily through self seeding but also propagates through rooting of its prostrate stems. The showy blooms grow on new wood, so cut back to the ground in the winter and it will come back next with vigor in the spring.