By Mark Yelanich reporting for Native Plant News
A grower and supplier of plants to retail outlets and an NCNPS member sees a buying trend for native plants. They plan to offer more.
Metrolina Greenhouses, which started operating in 1972 and became a business member of the North Carolina Native Plant Society in 2021, is now a major grower and supplier of more than 75 million plants to 1400 retail outlets in 19 states for Lowe’s Home Improvement, The Home Depot, and Walmart.
As director of Research and Development, I was asked to describe how plants come to market. The process is very interesting and also rather complicated. The main deciding factor is of course the consumer. When we send plants to our customers’ stores, we track the sell-through (how fast it sells) and markdowns. As you have probably seen, the retail environment can be very tough on plants. The stores do make tremendous efforts to maintain the plants but the best solution is for the plants to look good and sell quickly.
So that describes when the plant gets to market but does not describe how we chose it in the first place. Metrolina, working with our customers, uses a variety of methods.
- Every year, working with our suppliers, we evaluate over 10,000 plants.
- We have a 5-acre confidential trial garden where we evaluate the garden performance of over 2,000 new varieties that are 2 to 5 years out from being commercial.
- We have a 5-acre public garden where we compare the garden performance of all the existing varieties to new varieties on the market.
- To evaluate if we can grow the variety in the greenhouse, we have a 2-acre testing range where we look at our ability to sustainably grow the variety compared to other current varieties.
- The Metrolina team travels the world meeting with our suppliers and their breeders to look very early in the pipeline to help direct their breeding efforts.
- Metrolina also does consumer research using our Home Garden Panel of 2,000 consumers throughout the country. These consumers allow us to look at trends and behaviors and help us choose plants people want to buy.
Now the question I am sure you are asking yourself is why doesn’t Metrolina sell more native plants. What a native plant “is” I believe, is often dependent on where you are on the native plant spectrum. On one end of the spectrum are people who believe that it is only native if it was collected in the wild. On the other end are people who accept commercially bred plants of the same species.
On the NCNPS Native Plant Gallery Rudbeckia fulgida is listed as a North Carolina native plant. This year we sold Rudbeckia fulgida ‘American Gold Rush,’ a named cultivar that was developed by noted plant breeder Brent Horvath. The plant was selected by Mr. Horvath for a better presentation in the pot, great garden performance and excellent disease resistance. Obviously, you can’t find ‘American Gold Rush’ in the wild. The question to the “native” plant consumer is: is this plant “native” enough?
The other limitation of increasing native plants in the retail market is the supply chain of the inputs. To supply the number of units we need, it would be difficult to collect “wild” plants in the quantities we would need to supply our customers. More importantly it would be terrible for the environment if we did. Rudbeckia fulgida ‘American Gold Rush’ mother plants are produced under a controlled environment to generate the healthy, disease-free plants we need to supply plants for our customers. In addition the variety is patented so Mr. Horvath is able to collect money for his years of effort in producing this variety. Production of this plant isn’t robbing plants from the environment. Again the question: is this plant “native” enough?
The one selling point of native plants is that since it is “native” it is adapted to the ecosystem you are growing it in. I have heard discussions from native plant proponents that say this adaptation is down to the local level. Therefore the R. fulgida growing wild in your county is genetically different from the wild strain in the next county. If you took the strain from the next county over and planted in your garden it is no longer a native plant. There is no way commercially to meet this type of “native” plant consumer demand. In the case of Rudbeckia fulgida ‘American Gold Rush’ it has been trialed throughout the country and in 2023 was the Perennial Plant Association plant of the year. In 2020 it was an “All American Selection” winner. It could be argued that ‘American Gold Rush’ has been proven better than wild R. fulgida under wide ranges of environments. Again the question, is this plant “native” enough.
We need you to speak up
So, to conclude, Metrolina Greenhouses and our customers listen to you, the consumer. Customers need to speak up and request more native plants when they are in the store to buy them. It must be understood that there are limitations to how “native” of a plant we can grow. Regardless, I believe the plant market is big enough for growers to meet both ends of the “Native” plant spectrum.
Metrolina’s public garden of native plants
To support the native plant movement and discussion, in Metrolina’s public garden we planted a bed of 15 genus of native plants that will overwinter into 2025. We have hosted over 1,000 industry professionals and consumers in our garden this year so we are working to generate more interest in native plants within the industry and our customers.
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Genus |
Species |
Common Name |
Cultivar |
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Aruncus |
Aruncus dioicus |
Eastern Goat’s-beard |
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Asclepias |
Asclepias incarnata |
Swamp Milkweed |
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Eurybia |
Eurybia divaricata (formerly Aster divaricatus) |
White Wood-aster |
‘Eastern Star’ |
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Baptisia |
Baptisia lactea (formerly Baptisia alba var. macrophylla) |
White Wild Indigo |
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Carex |
Carex flaccosperma |
Meadow Sedge |
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Chelone |
Chelone glabra |
White Turtlehead |
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Coreopsis |
Coreopsis verticillata |
Threadleaf Coreopsis |
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Echinacea |
Echinacea purpurea |
Purple Coneflower |
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Heuchera |
Heuchera macrorhiza |
Giant Alumroot |
‘Autumn Bride’ |
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Hibiscus |
Hibiscus moscheutos |
Eastern Rose-mallow |
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Liatris |
Liatris spicata |
Florist’s Gayfeather |
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Monarda |
Monarda punctata |
Eastern Horsemint |
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Penstemon |
Penstemon digitalis |
Tall White Beardtongue |
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Phlox |
Phlox carolina ssp. carolina |
Carolina Phlox |
‘Kim’ |
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Sisyrinchium |
Sisyrinchium nashii |
Nash’s Blue-eyed-grass |
‘Suwannee’ |
Dr. Mark got his big start in horticulture sweeping floors in high school at Bordines Betters Blooms in Clarkson, Michigan. Dr. Mark received his undergraduate and graduate horticulture degrees at Michigan State University and has been the director of research at Metrolina Greenhouses for the past 18 years.