Natives In Harmony

08/28/2026

Check out the September edition of Nature Scoop! Written by our friend, Toni Stahl, Habitat Ambassador with NWF. In this month's article she discusses the invasive spotted lanternfly and helpful steps for planting a new tree, plus more yard and garden tips!

Spotted Lanternfly. Tree Purchase & More!

08/27/2026

It’s time for another Wildflower Wednesday! This week we’re highlighting a great native perennial for woodland edges and shadier areas of your landscape.

Meet Yellow Giant Hyssop (Agastache nepetoides), a robust grower reaching heights of 4-7’ tall in woodlands, wooded boarders, openings in forests, thickets, meadows in wooded areas, and powerline clearings with a wooded corridor. This plant dislikes dry, sunny areas and thrives in partial sun or light shade in moist, fertile loamy soils. In favorable conditions, it will slowly form colonies by spreading rhizomes. Unlike other members of the mint family, its foliage is not fragrant, but due to the bitterness of its leaves it is not a preferred browse by deer. The flowering spike contains many cream-yellow flowers that open a few at a time beginning in late summer and throughout autumn. This makes it an important long-lived nectar source for various bees, bee flies, butterflies, and moths during a crucial time of year. While the blooms are not very showy, yellow giant hyssop deserves a spot in any woodland garden, forest edge, or shaded pollinator garden for the late season resources it provides.
Height: 4-7’
Spread: 1-3’
Bloom Time: July-September
Bloom Color: cream-yellow
Sun: light shade-partial sun
Water: moist-medium

08/19/2026

It’s Wildflower Wednesday and this week we are highlighting a beautiful native plant that is sure to please the pollinators in your garden.

Obedient Plant (Physostegia virginiana) gets its common name from the interesting fact that you can manipulate an individual snapdragon-like flower, and it will “obediently” stay in that new position. It prefers full to partial sunlight in moist to medium, well-drained soils but will adapt to heavy clay and sandy soils. This showy member of the mint family features square stems and the tendency to form colonies by means of its rhizomes. It makes a great competitor for weeds on moist ground. The steeples of pinkish white flowers attract numerous pollinators from August into October. Visitors include long and short tongued bees, hummingbirds, and hummingbird moths. Sometimes large butterflies such as swallowtails and monarchs will visit the flowers as well. The color of the blooms also makes this a good moon garden candidate for attracting night-flying moths. Like other mints, obedient plant is not favored by herbivores. Uncommon in the wild, native habitats include moist to mesic black soil prairies, thickets, openings in woodland areas and along woodland borders, moist meadows along rivers, and borders of lakes. Due to its lovely flowers, obedient plant is commonly grown in flower gardens and makes a great cut flower.
Height: 2-4’
Spread: 1-2’
Bloom Time: August-October
Bloom Color: pink-white
Sun: full to partial
Water: moist to medium

08/16/2026

We've just restocked over 50 native Ohio grasses, sedges, forbs, shrubs, and vines! Check out the list below for all the new species you'll see in the sales area at the nursery!
Grasses and sedges:
Schizachyrium scoparium Little Bluestem
Carex blanda Common Wood Sedge
Hystrix patula Bottlebrush Grass
Bouteloua curtipendula Side oats Grama
Panicum virgatum Switchgrass
Carex pennsylvanica Pennsylvania Sedge
Spartina pectinata Prairie Cordgrass
Sorghastrum nutans Indian Grass
Sporobolus compositus Rough Dropseed
Koeleria macrantha June Grass
Bromus kalmii Prairie Brome grass
Sporobolus heterolepis Prairie Dropseed

Trees, Shrubs and Vines:
Adlumia fungosa Allegheny Vine
Asimina triloba Pawpaw
Lindera benzoin Spicebush
Ceanothus americanus New Jersey Tea
Staphylea trifolia Bladdernut
Rhus copallinum Winged Sumac
Celastrus scandens American Bittersweet
Gymnocladus dioicus Kentucky Coffee Tree

Forbs:
Agastache nepetoides Yellow Hyssop
Ageratina altissima White Snakeroot
Amsonia tabernaemontana Willow Amsonia
Amphicarpa bracteata Hog Peanut
Asclepias exaltata Poke Milkweed
Asclepias sullivantii Sullivants Milkweed
Asclepias tuberosa Butterflyweed
Asclepias verticillata Whorled Milkweed
Asclepias viridis Spider Milkweed
Blephilla hirsuta Hairy Wood Mint
Baptisia leucantha White False Indigo
Cynanchum laeve Honeyvine Milkweed
Echinacea purpurea Purple Coneflower
Euthamia graminifolia Grass-leaved Goldenrod
Filipendula rubra Queen of the Prairie
Gillenia stipulata Western Indian Physic
Lilium canadense Canada lily
Lobelia siphilitica Blue Lobelia
Lythrum alatum Wing-angled Loosestrife
Napea dioica Glade Mallow
Optunia humifusa Eastern Prickly Pear
Optunia cespitosa Common Prickly Pear
Salvia lyrata Lyre-leaved Sage
Senna hebecarpa Wild Senna
Solidago rugosa Wrinkle-leaf goldenrod
Tradescantia virginiana Virginia Spiderwort
Verbena hastata Blue Vervain
Vernonia altissima Tall Ironweed
Veronicastrum virginicum Culver's Root
Viola sagittata Arrow-leaved Violet
Viola sororia forma rubra Red Violet

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08/12/2026

We are back with another Wildflower Wednesday and this week we are highlighting a versatile native wildflower that will start blooming here in a couple of weeks!

Blue Wood Aster (Symphyotrichum cordifolium) is an essential landscape plant for late season pollinators. A host plant for Pearl Crescent and Silvery Checkerspot butterflies as well as the Wavy-Lined Emerald moth, it is easily grown from seed and often self-seeds in the landscape. Also known as Heart-Leaved Aster, distinctive heart shaped leaves form an evergreen rosette around the base of the stem and become smaller as they progress upwards. Typically growing around 3’ tall, it is a very versatile species preferring medium to medium-dry soils in partial shade, but tolerates full sun and full shade well. This species works well in open shade gardens, native plant gardens, cottage gardens, and butterfly gardens. A great choice for naturalizing in difficult dry shade sites. Blooming from the end of August through October, dainty light blue and pastel purple flowers with yellow and pink centers attract many insects, including long-tongued bees, short-tongued bees, wasps, flies, butterflies, skippers, moths, and beetles. While this and other asters are readily browsed by deer and other herbivores, they tolerate it very well and it usually only makes the plant shorter and bushier. If this effect is desired stems can be pinched back before mid-July. In addition to your fall mums, plant some native asters to complement them and feed your local pollinators!
Height: 2-4’
Spread: 1-2’
Bloom Time: August-October
Bloom Color: pale blue-purple with yellow centers
Sun: full-shade
Water: dry-medium

08/11/2026

Grow local! Shop the Native Plant Sale with Natives In Harmony - Native Plant Nursery, Patty Shipley, and Deep Roots Native Nursery at Columbus ArborFest on August 22 and bring home Ohio-native plants that support pollinators and strengthen local ecosystems.

Can’t wait to see you there from 12-5 at Whetstone Park!

08/04/2026

Check out the August edition of Nature Scoop! Written by our friend, Toni Stahl, Habitat Ambassador with NWF. In this month's article she discusses fledgling birds, powdery mildew, and much more!

Baby Birds, White coating on plants & More!

07/29/2026

It’s Wednesday folks and we are back with another edition of Wildflower Wednesday here at Natives In Harmony!

Cup Plant (Silphium perfoliatum) is a large, robust perennial closely related to Compass Plant, Rosinweed, and Prairie Dock. These members of the Silphium genus are known for tall, strong stems and bright yellow flowers rising up over the prairie. They are closely related to sunflowers and are mainly separated by what part of the flower head produces seeds. Cup plant grows anywhere from 4-10’ depending largely on soil moisture, growing shorter on drier sites. It gets its name from large, opposite leaves joining around the stem which hold water after a rainfall and act as nature’s drinking fountain. The leaves have a rough, sandpapery texture and are not browsed heavily by deer. When this plant is in bloom, its numerous flowers are covered in various species of bees, beetles, flies, wasps, butterflies, and skippers. After the flowers are pollinated and begin to grow into seeds, flocks of eastern goldfinches will forage ravenously upon them. A vigorous plant throughout its range, this species can easily overwhelm small landscapes and gardens. It is best planted in naturalized areas such as prairies and meadows where it has room to spread. It self-seeds readily and grows well in all but the driest of soils. This plant could make a unique and stately specimen along back boarders or filling up a sunny corner of the yard in larger landscapes. Cup plant’s impact on the landscape always looms large and we don’t think it would want it any other way!
Height: 4-10’
Spread: 1-3’
Bloom Time: July-September
Bloom Color: Yellow
Sun: Full
Water: Average-Wet